Immigration/customs In Bangkok Or Phuket

[badger2006]

Hi,

I will be taking a vacation in Phuket; unfortunately, I was unable to get a direct flight, so I have to fly into Bangkok first. Now, I assume that I would have to clear Immigation and customs in Bangkok and not Phuket(since, presumably, Phuket would be a domestic flight). My main problem is that there is not much time between the two flights, so clearing Immi on time might be a bit difficult in order to catch the Phuket flight. Any thoughts?

[sonthaya]

Hi,

I will be taking a vacation in Phuket; unfortunately, I was unable to get a direct flight, so I have to fly into Bangkok first. Now, I assume that I would have to clear Immigation and customs in Bangkok and not Phuket(since, presumably, Phuket would be a domestic flight). My main problem is that there is not much time between the two flights, so clearing Immi on time might be a bit difficult in order to catch the Phuket flight. Any thoughts?

That depends who you fly with, and if it's a connecting flight, I arrive every year with Thai from Copenhagen and go to the domestic departure lounge, customs and passport check done in Phuket on arrival.

[skydancer]

In Jan 2006 we flew from US into Bangkok using United. By the time we collected our luggage it was after midnight. It took us over an hour from the time we got into the customs line till we cleared through customs. I didn't check to see how long it took to deplane, pick up our baggage and get into line. I started looking at my watch when we got into line. Maybe it was just a bad time/bad day. The lines were extremely long and it seemed like every line had some people in it who had problems that took forever to resolve. I remember that it was after 2 AM when we arrived at our motel in Bangkok. We took a domestic flight to Phuket another day.

In Feb 2006 we flew into BKK from Singapore and cleared customs in a matter of minutes. That time we arrived in the AM and only had carry-on luggage.

Last week we had a panic flying back to the states - when I booked our flight I had a choice between waiting several hours between flights or making them close. There wasn't another option that didn't cost several hundred more. I chose the tight schedule that left us 45 minutes to deplane, get our luggage, go through customs and make our connecting flight. It was a mad rush and we had to run through the airport. I got very emotional (after 25 hours of no sleep) and convinced myself that our connecting flight had left. We got on the wrong shuttle and that took up precious time. It was awful. Finally made it to the connecting flight gate less than 5 minutes before the plane was scheduled to leave. I was in tears. Luckily the flight was late and was not overbooked. I will never book my flights so close again.

We are in the US now but are returning to Thailand in May 2006. I would love to fly directly to Phuket but it is really expensive. It is cheaper and easier for us to fly into BKK, check our luggage into storage, spend the night in BKK and fly to HKT on a domestic flight after we are rested.

Best of luck to you.

Skydancer

Hi,

I will be taking a vacation in Phuket; unfortunately, I was unable to get a direct flight, so I have to fly into Bangkok first. Now, I assume that I would have to clear Immigation and customs in Bangkok and not Phuket(since, presumably, Phuket would be a domestic flight). My main problem is that there is not much time between the two flights, so clearing Immi on time might be a bit difficult in order to catch the Phuket flight. Any thoughts?

That depends who you fly with, and if it's a connecting flight, I arrive every year with Thai from Copenhagen and go to the domestic departure lounge, customs and passport check done in Phuket on arrival.