Im curious...Looking at the entry/exit stamps in my passport over the last three years, I observe the following pattern:

 

- Flight numbers have been noted by IOs on ALL the low cost carrier flights (and that goes for my trips to New Zealand on Air Asia, the KL-BKK leg flight being noted);

- Flight numbers have NOT been written by IOs for ANY flight on a national carrier (including my a flight to Hong Kong on Emirates.)

 

From the evidence of my own passport, at 8-9 international flights a year, it seems clear that IOs are keeping count on the use of cheap flight options. Have other members noticed the same? And what would the practical significance of this be?

Edited November 19, 20169 yr by scavenger

It is probably a Don Muang versus Suvanabhumi thing. It is pretty pointless because the information is recorded in the computer anyway.

1 hour ago, BritTim said:

It is probably a Don Muang versus Suvanabhumi thing. It is pretty pointless because the information is recorded in the computer anyway.

 

It is primarily in the airlines systems. The officer may not be accurate in entering previous flight details, or that portion of the database could be unreliable, or slow to access. I agree that noting is strange however. 

Edited November 19, 20169 yr by paz

Yes, this being a DMK vs. BKK thing seems to make sense (I'm still jet lagged, so a bit slow now.) However, the IO at Suvarnabhumi did note the flight number when I came back from New Zealand via Australia with Jetstar last year. And I notice I had overlooked a noted TG flight from Nepal two years ago. Yet, no such notations were made the three times I flew back from North America in the last two years, and I flew in from the UK with Vietnam Airlines yesterday and no flight # was noted either. The only other countries I have seen doing this are Cambodia and the Philippines...and that does seem rather pointless indeed, the last leg of a flight itinerary telling nothing about the point of origin. 

OK, I have another theory. The major airlines are connected to immigration with "Advance Passenger Information" systems. However, some (including the budget airlines) probably are not. It may be that the flight numbers are noted against the entry stamps for those cases where the passenger data is not available in the immigration system in advance of the passenger's arrival.

I believe in those cases where the immigration officer did not write the flight number next to the arrival or departure stamp, he simply forgot it.

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Just skimmed through my passport. Looks completely random to me - on both departure and arrival stamps.

 

Some have the flight number recorded some don't. No obvious pattern to it.

I found it handy when the IOs wrote the TM # for the Arrival/Departure Card next to your arrival stamp.  Seems like they stopped this long ago, but I do it after-the-fact.  Handy in case you lose the card.

 

Mac

5 hours ago, Thanyaburi Mac said:

I found it handy when the IOs wrote the TM # for the Arrival/Departure Card next to your arrival stamp.  Seems like they stopped this long ago, but I do it after-the-fact.  Handy in case you lose the card.

 

Mac

 

Loosing the departure portion of your arrival no longer is the ordeal it used to be when you were brought to a big storage room or warehouse full of arrival cards and told to find your own.

2 minutes ago, Maestro said:

 

Loosing the departure portion of your arrival no longer is the ordeal it used to be when you were brought to a big storage room or warehouse full of arrival cards and told to find your own.

 

LOL ... did that really used to happen?

Oh yes, it did. Not to me personally, but to colleagues at the company where I worked and to other foreigners I knew. Of course, the search did not necessarily have to be carried out by the foreigner himself and it usually was done by a Thai employee of the company who handled immigration matters.

45 minutes ago, Maestro said:

Oh yes, it did. Not to me personally, but to colleagues at the company where I worked and to other foreigners I knew. Of course, the search did not necessarily have to be carried out by the foreigner himself and it usually was done by a Thai employee of the company who handled immigration matters.

 

A good few years ago a friend described the same thing. They located a large box, dated by week, he had to go through to find it.

I wonder if they are all still there.