Phucket is well known to be the worst of the airports. You would probably be fine if you flew to Bangkok, and then took a domestic flight down to Phucket.

On a slightly different tangent when I arrived the conditions in the passport control area were third world. Hundreds odlf people snaking around ped barriers . I waited over an hour from join the queue to being processed. The reason ? Only 40 % of the passport control booths were staffed. It was worse than Riyadh or India 20 years ago. What a dreadful first impression to new visitors. And for an old hand like me a reminder of how much better Thailand was before then c**p. Who was the duty officer in charge of passport control on Thursday? He or she should be sacked for arranging sufficient staff. In 49 years of travelling around the third world this was the worst? Incompetent, unprofessional processing of passengers ihave veer witnessed. It took so long our bags were removed from the carousel. 1 hour 15 minutes in all.

On a slightly different tangent when I arrived the conditions in the passport control area were third world. Hundreds odlf people snaking around ped barriers . I waited over an hour from join the queue to being processed. The reason ? Only 40 % of the passport control booths were staffed. It was worse than Riyadh or India 20 years ago. What a dreadful first impression to new visitors. And for an old hand like me a reminder of how much better Thailand was before then c**p. Who was the duty officer in charge of passport control on Thursday? He or she should be sacked for arranging sufficient staff. In 49 years of travelling around the third world this was the worst? Incompetent, unprofessional processing of passengers ihave veer witnessed. It took so long our bags were removed from the carousel. 1 hour 15 minutes in all.

You mean you were not offered the 500b VIP lane ??

Theres a reason its understaffed.. If its not painful, why pay to upgrade ??

On a slightly different tangent when I arrived the conditions in the passport control area were third world. Hundreds odlf people snaking around ped barriers . I waited over an hour from join the queue to being processed. The reason ? Only 40 % of the passport control booths were staffed. It was worse than Riyadh or India 20 years ago. What a dreadful first impression to new visitors. And for an old hand like me a reminder of how much better Thailand was before then c**p. Who was the duty officer in charge of passport control on Thursday? He or she should be sacked for arranging sufficient staff. In 49 years of travelling around the third world this was the worst? Incompetent, unprofessional processing of passengers ihave veer witnessed. It took so long our bags were removed from the carousel. 1 hour 15 minutes in all.

You mean you were not offered the 500b VIP lane ??

Theres a reason its understaffed.. If its not painful, why pay to upgrade ??

A cretinous response: there is no relationship between the the IO/passport control line manager on duty and the various airlines that land at the airport. As for a 500 baht VIP line I was not offered it and never have been in 40 visits to Thailand. If the the thousand passengers waiting in line on Thursday and had been offered it and accepted there would not have been sufficient staff. The only times I have used the VIP lane is when flying business or first class. This is not the first time the immigration area have been flooded with passengers waiting to have their passports stamped. It is a combination of incompetence and inhumanity - in other words service reflecting a third world country. I find your response specious and shallow. You tried to be clever but it did not work.

It was worse than LHR or Tripoli or Riyadh PCDG or Tunis. That is my point. There must have been an accountable duty officer monitoring the chaos on Thursday. He or she has a name, a job description and defined duties. One of which is to implement the timely processing off arriving passengers. This did not happen because only 40%of the PP control booths were staffed. The rest were empty. Lazy incompetent management caused the problem and in doing so made their country look bad.

It was worse than LHR or Tripoli or Riyadh PCDG or Tunis. That is my point. There must have been an accountable duty officer monitoring the chaos on Thursday. He or she has a name, a job description and defined duties. One of which is to implement the timely processing off arriving passengers. This did not happen because only 40%of the PP control booths were staffed. The rest were empty. Lazy incompetent management caused the problem and in doing so made their country look bad.

LOL..... I am glad you didn´t get a heart attack, you seem that agitated by your (one-off?) experience at BKK.

Like your personal experience my experience with airports around the world are not representative. I had to wait more than 1 hour at numerous airports because of high passenger numbers combined with insufficient numbers of IOs at the border. So your rant about a single bad experience at BKK makes me laugh, really. As a frequent flier, as you claim to be, you should, imho, be more relaxed about it. But please feel free to keep your blood pressure high if it makes you happy. ;-))

PS: To all others: Sorry for being off topic.

Edited April 24, 201610 yr by DUS

Removed an off-topic post and the replies to it.

On a slightly different tangent when I arrived the conditions in the passport control area were third world. Hundreds odlf people snaking around ped barriers . I waited over an hour from join the queue to being processed. The reason ? Only 40 % of the passport control booths were staffed. It was worse than Riyadh or India 20 years ago. What a dreadful first impression to new visitors. And for an old hand like me a reminder of how much better Thailand was before then c**p. Who was the duty officer in charge of passport control on Thursday? He or she should be sacked for arranging sufficient staff. In 49 years of travelling around the third world this was the worst? Incompetent, unprofessional processing of passengers ihave veer witnessed. It took so long our bags were removed from the carousel. 1 hour 15 minutes in all.

You mean you were not offered the 500b VIP lane ??

Theres a reason its understaffed.. If its not painful, why pay to upgrade ??

A cretinous response: there is no relationship between the the IO/passport control line manager on duty and the various airlines that land at the airport. As for a 500 baht VIP line I was not offered it and never have been in 40 visits to Thailand. If the the thousand passengers waiting in line on Thursday and had been offered it and accepted there would not have been sufficient staff. The only times I have used the VIP lane is when flying business or first class. This is not the first time the immigration area have been flooded with passengers waiting to have their passports stamped. It is a combination of incompetence and inhumanity - in other words service reflecting a third world country. I find your response specious and shallow. You tried to be clever but it did not work.

I think you missed his point. He was suggesting (probably incorrectly by the way) that the long queues were deliberate hoping to induce some travelers to pay money to avoid the long wait. While I do not think that was the intention in your case, I have seen cases at land borders where I think that was exactly what was going on.

It is not just third-world countries where such horrendous delays can occur. I have personally taken 90 minutes as a UK passport holder entering the US, and non EU travelers entering the UK on occasion have it much worse than that.