Immigration Bureau Prepared For Opening Of New Airport

[cclub75]

Training in the English language is not sufficient for the Immigration Authorities at the airport - old or new. (or at Suan Plu!) They need instructions in diplomacy, politeness, efficiency, communication, customer service etc.

Well, it's well known that immigration officers (and customs officers) are trained actually to be... rude in a way.

I mean, it's honestly difficult to speak about "customer service" regarding a police service.

Don't try to make fun with a US immigration officer for instance.

I doubt the efficiency will improve at the new airport. It is ridiculous to compare Lomdon Heathrow with Bangkok. Heathrow deals in thousands a day and processes them quickly and efficiently. Bangkok deals with a feew hundred and hour and takes up to five minutes per person.

Actually, that's the real problem. Their system (computer + photo processing, for entry and exit as well) doesn't look very efficient.

I go throught immigration at DM minimum 1 time per month : it takes minimum 2 minutes to process 1 passenger. Minimum. Because, trainees sometimes and very slow officers. So when you have in front of you 10 people or more...

So at that point 2 solutions : put more officers and booth when a few 747 are coming in. And/or speed up the process.

I was impressed at Singapore : they are scanning your passport and your entry card. Very fast. No need to type a novel on their computer like they do every time in Thailand.

And last point : the photo process. They do it even in Cambodia. You have to wonder : why third world countries do it, and not western countries ? Is it really efficient ?

And why do it on exit too ?

Or maybe they are in the first row regarding security, and all western countries are retarded.

In Paris for instance, 2 or maximum 3 officers can process a whole 747 ! And actually it's pretty fast (but maybe... too fast regarding security).

[stumonster]

came in through DM last night at around 6pm - as I had a choice of booths , I avoided the man with the trainee sign and while I was looking further down I was called over to another booth which had a trainee and an instructor. The trainee was unable to get things in a pile so after about 5 mins of prompting and helping the instructor took over and passed me through very quickly.

I have no problem waiting the extra minutes at the counter , but I thought the training situation could have been handled better - they should have had the normal number of trained offers working and just use the trainees on extra booths and just pick people out of the lines - if you were going to be waiting 5 mins in the line , you won't be complaining about 5 mins in front of a trainee and instructor.

but it seemed to indicate to me that the staffing situation concerning trained immigration officers is not as good as the news reports say.

[mitrapaap]

Training in the English language is not sufficient for the Immigration Authorities at the airport - old or new. (or at Suan Plu!) They need instructions in diplomacy, politeness, efficiency, communication, customer service etc.

My last visit thru the airport in mid July, the immigration officers (1 male - 1 female) in the re-entry pemit cubicle were unbelievedly rude. They must have had lessons from the Suan Plu office, where when I got my visa renewed in June I waited for 3 hours was then told there was an error with no further explanation given, and then ordered to sit down until after the lunch period. They may not close for lunch but they certainly don't work through the lunch hour. One applicant with a problem on an unstamped exit and entry was told to go away, it was his problem, up to him when he asked for advice, and was told he gave the officer a headache, and she stormed out of the office, not coming back for around two hours. All that from a senior officer.

I doubt the efficiency will improve at the new airport. It is ridiculous to compare Lomdon Heathrow with Bangkok. Heathrow deals in thousands a day and processes them quickly and efficiently. Bangkok deals with a feew hundred and hour and takes up to five minutes per person.

Why would it be ridiciculous to compare with London Heathrow or any other airport in the world? Is not every airport supposed to be able to manage its passenger volume? I have never waited very long in Don Muang (but always walked a bit pass the first few check-points with the long queus). While every time I went to Hong Kong I stood my feet into the ground. Now the thing Hong Kong has common with Heathrow is not the passenger volume but it's origin. If the new airport is even faster than Don Muang then plenty of airports will have to start think about what they could do to improve their immigration process.

[Netfan]

Just arrived DM tonight, 8 pm, terminal 1. TWO immigration lines open for us "regulars" - both staffed by "trainees". Three lines were open for VIPs (of which there were none). Anyway, 4 - 5 minutes per person. They've got 17 days, no problem.