Long Immigration Wait Times At Suvarnabhumi Airport

[livinthailandos]

Just wanted to let everyone when I came into the airport immigration lines are very very long, although this was from my experience I flew into the airport this last week in the evening around 7pm, as soon as I made it to immigration there were very long lines, wait time was almost 2 hours just to get through immigration. I just let you guys know as I guess its like this due to high season.

[MYKTHEMIN]

This is LOW season not High season!! so inefficient as usual

[BoonToong]

so inefficient as usual

With respect, I think that is unfair; they have done some good work over the past few months and waiting times have been far less than that I have experienced at other airports.

[candid]

so inefficient as usual

With respect, I think that is unfair; they have done some good work over the past few months and waiting times have been far less than that I have experienced at other airports.

Not unfair at all. If you look at my thread on the Airport Forum about 3-4 weks ago, there were 3 booths manned out of 9. This topic comes up almost every month which woould indicate to me that it is in the "inefficient as usual" ballpark

[MYKTHEMIN]

so inefficient as usual

With respect, I think that is unfair; they have done some good work over the past few months and waiting times have been far less than that I have experienced at other airports.

Totally fair, most immigration posts are totally inefficient and most officers are total jobsworths and the uk border tossers are nearly the worst and beaten only by the usa.

[BoonToong]

Okay, fair point Reg(s); we can all only comment on our own experiences.

I have been through swampy about 8 times in the past few months and every time I had a good experience; the wait has always been under 10 minutes, the staff have been chatty and polite and the 'feeder staff' appeared to be relatively sharp, moving the waiting people efficiently to smaller queues.

I have also been through Jordan and the UK in that time and they have been okay too.

So, 'as usual' for me is that they are pretty good but maybe I am just lucky.

[kiwiinasia]

Time of day!

7pm must be near peak time, and most of the staff are off eating din dins, so of course its slow around 7 pm.

[breadbin]

took over 2 hours in Orlando in June, nightmare!

Never had to wait more than 30 mins in BKK. Maybe lucky but usually arrive on the LHR - BKK direct about 1500hrs.

fingers crossed for next time!

Would that immigration/concierge service be any good for £20 to get you through quicker or is ot just for collection from plane and then queue with everyone else?

I dont fly business as I cant afford it!

[davejones]

I have come through this airport around 6 times and the longest I have ever queued for at immigration has been 15 mins. Sometimes it's only been 5 mins. I usually land early in the day, not the evening, so maybe that's what makes the difference. But they seem quite efficient when I'm there.

[kkerry]

Okay, fair point Reg(s); we can all only comment on our own experiences.

I have been through swampy about 8 times in the past few months and every time I had a good experience; the wait has always been under 10 minutes, the staff have been chatty and polite and the 'feeder staff' appeared to be relatively sharp, moving the waiting people efficiently to smaller queues.

I have also been through Jordan and the UK in that time and they have been okay too.

So, 'as usual' for me is that they are pretty good but maybe I am just lucky.

I haven't had any long waits recently either and agree the staff are getting better at moving people along, but chatty and polite... only response I usually get is a gesture to look at the camera while they listen to some tunes on their mobile or mp3 player

[rics21]

Tip: always choose the counter with the female immigration officer. They work faster than the men .

Sent from my XT910 using Thaivisa Connect App

[boonchu]

I came in on the 6th sept about 5pm last off the plane but when arriving at immigration all the lines had only 2-3 people in. Through immicration, picked up baggage and out of customs in lees than 20 minutes.

[dddave]

I've been through Suvarnabhumi Immigration 4 times in the last 3 weeks and never waited more than 10 minutes. The lines were very well managed by the new single line attendants.

Immigration has no control when several large planes full to capacity land off schedule and dump their passenger loads at the same time. They have no choice but to plan their staffing according to schedules, they can't keep a lot of extra staff on hand "just in case".

I went through Immigration in Frankfurt, Germany last month. Total, uncontrolled chaos at the windows for Non-EU passports; no line barriers, no crowd control, just unsupervised pushing and line cutting. The security guards could not have cared less.

[SeaVisionBurma]

Tip: always choose the counter with the female immigration officer. They work faster than the men .

...and this tip also works if you substitute "immigration officer" for "checkout attendant"

On another note - although this exact same thread seems to be started every other week - if it is going to stay open should this not be moved to the Suvarnabhumi Airport forum?

[stevenl]

Tip: always choose the counter with the female immigration officer. They work faster than the men .

...and this tip also works if you substitute "immigration officer" for "checkout attendant"

On another note - although this exact same thread seems to be started every other week - if it is going to stay open should this not be moved to the Suvarnabhumi Airport forum?

For me not, this is more about travel to Thailand information than airport information. So I like it here.

[candid]

Tip: always choose the counter with the female immigration officer. They work faster than the men .

...and this tip also works if you substitute "immigration officer" for "checkout attendant"

On another note - although this exact same thread seems to be started every other week - if it is going to stay open should this not be moved to the Suvarnabhumi Airport forum?

The simple fact that "this exact same thread seems to be started every other week" kinda proves my point that there is a problem at the immigration. I have no idea why others chip in with waiting times at Orlando, Heathrow, Frankfurt etc. This is a THAILAND Travel Forum. If you have problems at other airports, write in their forums

[BoonToong]

The simple fact that "this exact same thread seems to be started every other week" kinda proves my point that there is a problem at the immigration. I have no idea why others chip in with waiting times at Orlando, Heathrow, Frankfurt etc. This is a THAILAND Travel Forum. If you have problems at other airports, write in their forums

No, it doesn't prove your point at all. Several people in this thread have said that they have not experienced any problems at all (me for one).

People are referring to waiting times at other airports to put their comments in relative context. What is an 'acceptable' waiting time? 20 minutes? 2 hours?

I accept (having read all the posts) that sometimes the waiting times are somewhat long but, as pointed out in an earlier posting, it may have been due to errant arrivals of late flights from some airlines. What would you suggest they do?

[ragandboneman]

Just posted this in one of the other threads about same subject over on the Swampy Forum,

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 !!

[SeaVisionBurma]

I would say that is close to a normal waiting time. (ragandboneman above)

From my own experiences at Swampy, and reading 90% of the comments in the many threads of this nature - currently most people have a relatively good experience coming through immigration at BKK.

Then there's the few that arrive at a time when there is a bottleneck or delay - have to wait 20-30 minutes or so (but in their mind it becomes much longer) - and then start a rant thread about how they were forced to wait an hour in line....

Most of these 'massive delays at Swampy Immigration' threads are started by the few that MAY have had some delay. (note the OP here didn't rant, I just feel it is exaggerated)

Honestly - just reading the OP on this thread again - does anyone really think it was a TWO HOUR delay? I for one don't believe it for a minute. Not even at a peak time does it take 2 hours just to get through immigration.

Edited September 10, 2012 by SeaVisionBurma

[Chicog]

It's Thais managed by Thais. You don't really expect them to be organised and efficient, do you?

It's luck of the draw, land when there are relatively few flights and you'll sail through. Land in the rush hour and the chances are you will be slow getting out.

[davejones]

It seems that 90% of the time people have a very short wait, but sometimes it may take longer. There are a few individuals that feel the need to start a thread just because they had to queue up for something. Sometimes it seems like they are glad they had a long wait because it gives them something negative to post on here.