As Queues At Suvarnabhumi Grow, Airport Debate Rages

[bangkokrick]

Can someone please clarify something for me? Are these 3 hour q's to enter or depart Thailand? Or both?

Thanks

The 3 hour figure relates to departure q times from last week.

It took me 2+ hours and a lot of aggravation to get through arrivals 11 days ago. The queues were disorderly, the desks were not fully manned and nobody seemed to give a shit about trying to sort things out. This is a planning and organisation problem something that the Thais do not excel at.

[longballlarry]

I arrived at BKK airport last week. Long queues at Immigration check points. All families with young children being ushured through fast track lane. I asked the Immigration guy if I could use that route as my thai wife and 11 month old were waiting outside by the meeting point. " No I dont believe you " he said. So I showed him my marriage visa in my passport, and said to talk to my Thai wife who was on the phone with my screaming kid in the background. He pushed my passport away ' Dont believe you ' he said again, and walked off.

I queued for over an hour while holiday makers and young kids skipped through in seconds.

Cheers jobsworth. A Great welcoming start to my holiday.

[UbonOz]

At 1635 Sunday 18th it took less than 25 minutes from arrival at airport to sitting in Burger King! It was good to see that they have introduced the new queuing system that stops people standing three and four abreast and switching lines. Simple but effective!

Have not seen the new queue system.

It should be one queue only and the one at the front goes to the next available counter.

Nobody is caught in a slow queue, and stops queue jumping

[edwinchester]

Just add a 30kilometre high-speed rail link between the two. Shuttle busses are not going to work

Should be up and running by 2020 if Swampys link is anything to go by.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

[tinytot]

Well having Thai wife it should ! Should make it easier for us to get through passport control, I know it has been a year since i was back in Bangkok but it was quick then with the Thai wife so hope we can march trhough like all the other times..

[beach]

I've got my residency and of course do cue up in the Thai-Line, easy and fast and sometimes funny

[theanimaster]

I arrived at BKK airport last week. Long queues at Immigration check points. All families with young children being ushured through fast track lane. I asked the Immigration guy if I could use that route as my thai wife and 11 month old were waiting outside by the meeting point. " No I dont believe you " he said. So I showed him my marriage visa in my passport, and said to talk to my Thai wife who was on the phone with my screaming kid in the background. He pushed my passport away ' Dont believe you ' he said again, and walked off.

I queued for over an hour while holiday makers and young kids skipped through in seconds.

Cheers jobsworth. A Great welcoming start to my holiday.

Dude, the kid ~IS~ your ticket to the fast lane. You don't bring your ticket along, you don't get to ride.

[Lifer]

It's not just the airports, it's every Government office mirrored in red tape and bureaucratic confusion. Copies of this, copies of that, in an age of high speed computers. Is it any wonder?

What are they all going to do when the whole contry moves around somewhere during Songkran in a few weeks?

[jayboy]

I arrived at BKK airport last week. Long queues at Immigration check points. All families with young children being ushured through fast track lane. I asked the Immigration guy if I could use that route as my thai wife and 11 month old were waiting outside by the meeting point. " No I dont believe you " he said. So I showed him my marriage visa in my passport, and said to talk to my Thai wife who was on the phone with my screaming kid in the background. He pushed my passport away ' Dont believe you ' he said again, and walked off.

I queued for over an hour while holiday makers and young kids skipped through in seconds.

Cheers jobsworth. A Great welcoming start to my holiday.

,

Sounds to me you he was just doing his job professionally, indeed showing more patience than most would."Don't believe you' is just shorthand for "grow up, join the right queue for single travellers, and wait your turn".Try that scam (special treatment because someone's wife and children are waiting outside) at JFK, Heathrow or Singapore and see how far you get.

[Lifer]

Just add a 30kilometre high-speed rail link between the two. Shuttle busses are not going to work

Should be up and running by 2020 if Swampys link is anything to go by.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

The airport may deep under water by 2020.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I have a friend, ahem, who hasn't done a 90 day report in 3 years. Multiple entry non-B visa renewal every year no problems, no worries

Just to be clear for others here, B business visas typically don't require 90 day reports. The visa itself is valid for a year, but the holder is required to exit Thailand by land or air every 90 days...hence the reason for no 90 day reporting.

That's in contrast to retirement extensions, where the holder doesn't have to exit Thailand anytime during the year, but does have to do 90 day reports.

BTW, as for the airport, if you have a Thai spouse, typically departure Immigration will let the two of you go thru the (often shorter) Thai citizen lines instead of going separate and you standing in the longer foreigner lines.

[bigbamboo]

Couldn't they just employ some of those removed to inactive posts to work temporarily at Swampy Immigration?

[belg]

more people working at immigration and less fuzz about taking picture and stuff and/or asking people to have their papers filled in before to arrive

or maybe assisent and help people in need as someone said, an airbus full of chinese that neither speak english or thai ...

all this has to take 5 years and 62 billion ?

hub of blue cheese

[beach]

I have a friend, ahem, who hasn't done a 90 day report in 3 years. Multiple entry non-B visa renewal every year no problems, no worries

Just to be clear for others here, B business visas typically don't require 90 day reports. The visa itself is valid for a year, but the holder is required to exit Thailand by land or air every 90 days...hence the reason for no 90 day reporting.

That's in contrast to retirement extensions, where the holder doesn't have to exit Thailand anytime during the year, but does have to do 90 day reports.

That's correct TallGuy,, i was confused too reading about the 90 day reporting. BTW why do most of the "B" or "O" Visatype holder NOT apply for a 1year extension once here and working? That keeps you away from doing visa runs or exits (in case of a multiple entry)? Paperwork to do that is nearly just as much doing a work permit extension. And then after 3 continuous years you apply for your residency, all in all a simple procedure.

Edited March 19, 2012 by beach

[zappalot]

At 1635 Sunday 18th it took less than 25 minutes from arrival at airport to sitting in Burger King! It was good to see that they have introduced the new queuing system that stops people standing three and four abreast and switching lines. Simple but effective!

Have not seen the new queue system.

It should be one queue only and the one at the front goes to the next available counter.

Nobody is caught in a slow queue, and stops queue jumping

They had this "one queue only" system already for a while one year ago. In my experience the most fair "queue management system".

Why did they change again?

And one here has seen this system being used these days, the another one not, do they change daily? I mean in this country one has to expect everything, as TIT...

Edited March 19, 2012 by zappalot

[ALFREDO]

I arrived at BKK airport last week. Long queues at Immigration check points. All families with young children being ushured through fast track lane. I asked the Immigration guy if I could use that route as my thai wife and 11 month old were waiting outside by the meeting point. " No I dont believe you " he said. So I showed him my marriage visa in my passport, and said to talk to my Thai wife who was on the phone with my screaming kid in the background. He pushed my passport away ' Dont believe you ' he said again, and walked off.

I queued for over an hour while holiday makers and young kids skipped through in seconds.

Cheers jobsworth. A Great welcoming start to my holiday.

,

Sounds to me you he was just doing his job professionally, indeed showing more patience than most would."Don't believe you' is just shorthand for "grow up, join the right queue for single travellers, and wait your turn".Try that scam (special treatment because someone's wife and children are waiting outside) at JFK, Heathrow or Singapore and see how far you get.

Can work sometimes on any airport, when you ask a lady Immigration officer,

who knows how it is to wait with a screaming 1 year old on the arm, in a standing position, for hour(s)!

[ALFREDO]

I arrived at BKK airport last week. Long queues at Immigration check points. All families with young children being ushured through fast track lane. I asked the Immigration guy if I could use that route as my thai wife and 11 month old were waiting outside by the meeting point. " No I dont believe you " he said. So I showed him my marriage visa in my passport, and said to talk to my Thai wife who was on the phone with my screaming kid in the background. He pushed my passport away ' Dont believe you ' he said again, and walked off.

I queued for over an hour while holiday makers and young kids skipped through in seconds.

Cheers jobsworth. A Great welcoming start to my holiday.

Dude, the kid ~IS~ your ticket to the fast lane. You don't bring your ticket along, you don't get to ride.

Can work sometimes on any airport, when you ask a lady Immigration officer,

who knows how it is to wait with a screaming 1 year old on the arm, in a standing position, for hour(s)!

[nosatisfaction]

At 1635 Sunday 18th it took less than 25 minutes from arrival at airport to sitting in Burger King! It was good to see that they have introduced the new queuing system that stops people standing three and four abreast and switching lines. Simple but effective!

same experience saturday evening around 8pm

[thaibiker]

I left Thailand on the 16th and passed the customs at 20:30 h. Just 2-4 passengers waiting at each counter....never fast loke that before..

[johnsonspot]

Why do passengers have to go through immigration to get OUT of LoS? What a waste of time and for what? To see about overstays so they can collect more revenue? Shut down the outbound gates and make them inbound.

[smutcakes]

Why do passengers have to go through immigration to get OUT of LoS? What a waste of time and for what? To see about overstays so they can collect more revenue? Shut down the outbound gates and make them inbound.

You are joking right?????!!!!

[PomPui]

Why do passengers have to go through immigration to get OUT of LoS? What a waste of time and for what? To see about overstays so they can collect more revenue? Shut down the outbound gates and make them inbound.

I cant think of any other country that does that, why should Thailand?

[Thai at Heart]

Why do passengers have to go through immigration to get OUT of LoS? What a waste of time and for what? To see about overstays so they can collect more revenue? Shut down the outbound gates and make them inbound.

I cant think of any other country that does that, why should Thailand?

It is an odd one indeed, but it isn't the "only" country in the world that has to have outgoing passengers including home residents stamped "out" of the country

[johnsonspot]

Why do passengers have to go through immigration to get OUT of LoS? What a waste of time and for what? To see about overstays so they can collect more revenue? Shut down the outbound gates and make them inbound.

You are joking right?????!!!!

You ought to get out more. While it's a bear to get in, the US doesn't have immigration check your passport on the way out. The airlines check it at check-in and that's it.

[dominique355]

I heard of the following solution from the PT-Government to stop the long queues at immigration desks:

1. Pay the Immigration police more

2. Move low budget domestic flights to Don Muang (no immigration procedures needed)

May I suggest a few more along the same line of thinking:

3. install mobile toilets under the seats of the immigration police desks to avoid sanitary breaks

4. provide fresh water to the long queues or rent free books for reading whilst standing in the queue...

5. Let the passengers stay closer to each other to reduce the length of the queue

6. allow the richest passengers to bribe the persons standing in front of them to take their place so that the poorest will have to wait the longest but get also the most of the money

These are some thoughts that are much better than the Government's ideas...

Proposition No 6 is already implemented. When flying Business or First, you get the preferential treatment at immigration.

But all these suggestions are only tackling the symptoms instead of the root of the evil.

As long as there is this complicated procedure at the entry AND at the exit of the country, these queues will only get longer and longer. Two things can and will happen:

1. Tourist will avoid Thailand

2. And after the Thai government will make immigration easier.

The single most important solution is to make immigration easier, with measures such as:

- Get rid of Departure/Arrival Cards for Thai citizens and Holders of long term Visas. Use free capacity for tourists.

- Get rid of Immigration checking when leaving the country. We (almost) all have machine readable passports!

- Get rid of 90-days report (suggested before by another poster). Use free capacity for immigration.

- Extend visa on arrival to 60 or 90 days

- Put an immigration officer in the long distance flights planes to make the checks in the plane already

- Increase the number of booth, especially during peak hours

I guess there are many more ways to solve or at lease alleviate the problem, it just need some will to do something.

[unanimosity]

Just add a 30kilometre high-speed rail link between the two. Shuttle busses are not going to work

And luggage? (Golf clubs, bicycles, surfboards....oh wait, sex tourists don't travel with such encumberances.)

[ippyevie]

Excuse me, am I missing something here? Three hours is a norm at Heathrow for non-EU passport holders. I don't get what the fuss is about. Never occurred to me to complain because we're either immigrants and students. Although paying tax without any recourses to public funds, we are still treated as if we're coming to UK to take. So complaining is the last thing on our mind.

[TackyToo]

sorry but all major capitals there are more than one airport .... they can keep some flight to phuket or chiang mai at Suvarnabhumi as those are popular destination and send the rest in DM. included low coat airline. Create some buses shuttles between the 2 airports and it will be ok. Schedule departures according to arrivals in suvarnabhumi ... it works in other cities why not in BKK ?

...there are many things that work in other countries but not here! TIT

[animatic]

Why do passengers have to go through immigration to get OUT of LoS? What a waste of time and for what? To see about overstays so they can collect more revenue? Shut down the outbound gates and make them inbound.

I cant think of any other country that does that, why should Thailand?

USA does it incoming and outgoing, every passenger without fail.

They want to know who might be skipping the country or using it as terrorist or crime transit sites.

Edited March 19, 2012 by animatic

[dude007]

Excuse me, am I missing something here? Three hours is a norm at Heathrow for non-EU passport holders. I don't get what the fuss is about. Never occurred to me to complain because we're either immigrants and students. Although paying tax without any recourses to public funds, we are still treated as if we're coming to UK to take. So complaining is the last thing on our mind.

I understand your frustration-point but I guess that:

1. you're wearing a turban or a headscarf, maybe the one with only your eyes (???) visible or worse the one which do not distinct you any longer from a garbage bin outside your door;

2. you do not have a white skin (and I do not feel disturbed by this in anyway, but maybe the immigration officers in Heathrow do). Regret to say that in my country I carefully avoid rows where africans are queuing up... These are definitely the "slow" rows...;

3. You are dressed like an Arab NOT with the white-only turban, but the "white and red" kitchen towel, the one that Yasser Arafat was wearing all the time;

4. You are NOT holder of a diplomatic passport;

5. You are NOT an UN-employee;

6. You did NOT shave before presenting to the immigration officer and wear a long beard (like the Talibans) perhaps spreading a strange odour around;

7. You are a travestite;

If you're not one of the above, then you have been very unfortunate to have to wait so long... It's very unfortunate! But remember, carefully avoid to be one of the cases above: it may help!

I apologize if I have offended you but my only aim was to be helpful! You're welcome!