Suvarnabhumi August 16Th ==Outrageous==

[candid]

Arrived at BKK on 16th August. Big queues at immigration, but a nice and harrassed looking man ws trying to get everyone into the new lines. Getting nearer to the end, after 55 minues, could see that 3 out of the first 12 immigration booths were actually manned. Queues were getting bigger all the time but I do realise this is a peak period. Sow why doesn't the airport management recognise this fact too? When I got as far as "harassed young man" I asked what the problem ws. He just said the obvious, not enough officers

Before you all start, I have no need to be reminded of delays in the US, in Heathrow or anywhere else. This is, after all, the Suvarbabhumi Airport Forum

[wigantojapan]

yip i arrived at 7pm on the 15th. the biggest line i,ve ever seen in 25 years of travelling in Asia.Took around 1 hour or more to passimmigration.No need to wait on the bags though

[Thanyaburi Mac]

wigantojapan, and just lucky that your bags were still there! That's a real worry for me since there's no baggage tag check as people walk out. Used to have that at PDX, just a slight delay, but I liked it, dropped a few years back.

Mac

[cooked]

I came through at about the same time of day three weeks ago, no problems with long queues.

[Payboy]

When I got as far as "harassed young man" I asked what the problem ws. He just said the obvious, not enough officers

They must've all been on the red carpet at the clean toilet awards.

[lomatopo]

Do you happen to remember what time, approximately, you landed? Do you recall which hall you used? East? West? Or which gate did you arrive at, and did you enter the first hall you saw, on either the left or right side?

This may be indicative of renewed staffing issues? Or just an aberration owing to shift changes/overlaps not being coordinated with multiple wide-body arrivals?

[Seismic]

Myself and the wife arrived back from UK on the 10th at around 18:00, While there were queues, none were too long and we went right to the front of the 'Thai citizens" queue. Prior to that I arrived back around 13:50 three weeks earlier from Brazil, again I noted moderate queueing at the general area, but as I had arrived on business I had a priority pass and bypassed this for the smaller checkpoint about 20 metres further down, no queue at all there, so I do believe they are making some improvements.

[londoedan]

again I noted moderate queueing at the general area, but as I had arrived on business I had a priority pass and bypassed this for the smaller checkpoint about 20 metres further down, no queue at all there, so I do believe they are making some improvements.

I agree, I also believe things are getting better at BKK. In fact on my last couple of trips I've not bothered using the priority pass that comes with a business class ticket as the queues in the general area were so light.

Edited August 19, 2012 by Maestro
Canged airport code from SVP (Kuito Airport, Angola) to BKK (Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand)

[Dibbler]

I arrived at Swampy last night 18 Aug at 10pm and the line to get to an immigration desk stretched back out towards the concourse, at least 150 people in front of me. But the line moved relatively quickly and most desks were actually open with officers on duty, and I was out at the baggage carousel in just 40 minutes.

[woody087]

I arrived back at 8.30pm on the 17 and the immigration line was huge.but to their credit they were getting people through pretty fast.only would have taken about 30 mins.then got down to the taxi line which was even bigger.

Sent from my HTC Legend

[londoedan]

I arrived back at 8.30pm on the 17 and the immigration line was huge.but to their credit they were getting people through pretty fast.only would have taken about 30 mins.then got down to the taxi line which was even bigger.

Sent from my HTC Legend

I'm going to give the taxi line and taxi's a skip on my next in-bound trip in a couple of weeks and try the train. The journey by road to the city just seems to get worse and worse to me.

[DoctorG]

I arrived back at 8.30pm on the 17 and the immigration line was huge.but to their credit they were getting people through pretty fast.only would have taken about 30 mins.then got down to the taxi line which was even bigger.

Sent from my HTC Legend

I'm going to give the taxi line and taxi's a skip on my next in-bound trip in a couple of weeks and try the train. The journey by road to the city just seems to get worse and worse to me.

I did the train for the first time on my last trip in. No problems at all. A nice run into town if your destination is anywhere near a station.

[masuk]

No-one seems to have mentioned that this week is THE BIG HOLIDAY week for Muslims travelling home for Id el Fitr. KUL airport was like an ant's at 4am last Thursday. AirAsia fares jumped by about 20% for this period. This is not a good time to travel. Mark your 2013 calendars now. I certainly will!

[candid]

Do you happen to remember what time, approximately, you landed? Do you recall which hall you used? East? West? Or which gate did you arrive at, and did you enter the first hall you saw, on either the left or right side?

This may be indicative of renewed staffing issues? Or just an aberration owing to shift changes/overlaps not being coordinated with multiple wide-body arrivals?

Yes, I landed at 1230, just after noon. Dunno which hall it is, but it is the one where baggage carousels are 17 up to 23. Aberation or not, an International Airport should not be working with the staff numbers evdent that day and time.

[wigantojapan]

No-one seems to have mentioned that this week is THE BIG HOLIDAY week for Muslims travelling home for Id el Fitr. KUL airport was like an ant's at 4am last Thursday. AirAsia fares jumped by about 20% for this period. This is not a good time to travel. Mark your 2013 calendars now. I certainly will!

The Thai passport line was just about empty and was fully staffed so if there was Thai muslims flying back they didnt have a wait at all.

Maybe there was a problem of staff being muslim and on holiday,but again an International airport should be ready for everything and clearly on the 16th nightime they were not

[Roadman]

Came in two nights ago at approx. 8pm. All but one booth was open and the queues were right down the ramp into the concourse. Took close on 75 minutes to get through. Realise that the passport stampers are flat stick but LOS this place is not. Thai governance (incompetence) at its best right at the fore front of visitors first impressions. That this incompetence continues on and on is no surprise.

[moe666]

Came in two nights ago at approx. 8pm. All but one booth was open and the queues were right down the ramp into the concourse. Took close on 75 minutes to get through. Realise that the passport stampers are flat stick but LOS this place is not. Thai governance (incompetence) at its best right at the fore front of visitors first impressions. That this incompetence continues on and on is no surprise.

How is it incompetence when all but one booth is open. Immigration has no control over arrival of aircraft.

[londoedan]

Came in two nights ago at approx. 8pm. All but one booth was open and the queues were right down the ramp into the concourse. Took close on 75 minutes to get through. Realise that the passport stampers are flat stick but LOS this place is not. Thai governance (incompetence) at its best right at the fore front of visitors first impressions. That this incompetence continues on and on is no surprise.

How is it incompetence when all but one booth is open. Immigration has no control over arrival of aircraft.

I reckon incompetence is part of the problem at times - the immigration officers seem to be pretty slow and inefficient at times.

I imagine SIN has similar traffic numbers and if anything less desks and fewer officers on duty, but have you ever seen much of a queue at arrival or departure there ? I know I haven't.

[emilyb]

I flew in on the 26th and had a similar issue. I've been flying in and out regularly for months on business and after the last big controversy things had gotten infinitely better for the prior 2-3 months, but it seems to be back to the normal process of having just a few officers to clear hundreds of passengers. The new ropeline queues and the helpful staff were there to streamlnie flow, but there were simply not enough officers to clear everyone. The lines were backed up past the rope lines and into the hall entrance. I spent roughly 40-45 minutes in line (watching the flight of Russians around me constantly cut back and forth and generally be obnoxious, but that's not an AOT or Immigration/Customs problem).

Anyway, hope it clears up again

[Chicog]

Going out of what they laughingly call "Fast track" on the 26th, there were only two desks manned and a couple of ignorant pillocks walking around shuffling piles of cards and generally chit chatting - until what was obviously a senior officer appeared and told them to man the desks, at which point they did.

I doubt the issue is always undermanning - it's overskiving.

[uptheos]

I don't know what takes them so long. It's not as if the spend time talking to you like many other places around the world. I don't think they're really immigration officers but merely people trained to process passengers and when they have a problem they just call someone to bail them out.

[Chicog]

Have you noticed how one person seems to be able to clear a passenger in under a minute, while others take four or five times as long?

At least the man in charge of the one I was in was telling people who hadn't filled their exit cards to get lost and complete the card before rejoining the queue, which sped things up considerably, especially when one of them was a couple of parents travelling with a horde of kids and more than half a dozen forms to fill in. Yet they expected everyone to hang around while they blocked the queue while they were doing it.

[ragandboneman]

Sorry to be bringing good news.

I arrived earlier tonight at 19.00 hrs 09/09/12 from Doha, although I have a few fast track tickets saved up I entered the first immigration hall I came to, maybe half the booths manned by immigration staff, very little queueing, I ended up being shown to a counter with one person in front of me and was through in less than five minutes.

Then waited maybe another ten minutes tops for my suitcase, breezed through customs and out into the night and on my way. I fail to see how this could be improved upon, maybe I just got lucky, the other four times I have arrived this year have all been of a similar nature.

Well done Swampy !!

Regards

[emilyb]

Good, hopefully that's the norm again and not an aberration. I was enjoying several months of Suvarnabhumi running like a top there.

[Chicog]

Sorry to be bringing good news.

I arrived earlier tonight at 19.00 hrs 09/09/12 from Doha, although I have a few fast track tickets saved up I entered the first immigration hall I came to, maybe half the booths manned by immigration staff, very little queueing, I ended up being shown to a counter with one person in front of me and was through in less than five minutes.

Then waited maybe another ten minutes tops for my suitcase, breezed through customs and out into the night and on my way. I fail to see how this could be improved upon, maybe I just got lucky, the other four times I have arrived this year have all been of a similar nature.

Well done Swampy !!

Regards

I don't think there are a lot of full flights arriving at that time. I've got off that flight a few times and sailed through.

[pattayapip]

Arrived 4pm Monday (Yesterday) Immigration backed right out into Duty Free area, took a little under 1 Hour, its not getting better, far from it !!!