Must Read Crazy queue at Suvarnabhumi Airport’s immigration causes travelers to miss flights

[Happyman58]

Australia was like that once A real pain in the bum to go through immigration Then they put in these automatic passport machine checkers and wow you are through in 10 minutes No need to wait for somebody to stamp your passport Maybe they should install them

[phkauf]

The situation at Swampy is ridiculous on both the entry and exit sides. This past Sunday coming back in the lovely Imm Officer was busy with her smart phone between each person (one reason her line was moving at half the pace of the guy next to her). When I got to the counter I put my passport down, she was still looking at her phone. 

Compare this to HK, where I just got e-Channel approved, and I'm in and out in less than 1 minute. Thailand needs to come up with an easy-pass system for those on long term approved visas. There is no need to check for overstay and other nonsense for these people. If it took 20% of the people out of the other lines, it would make a big difference.

[Ratcher]

If you can afford it travel Business Class. I fly on Thai airways and have a Platinum card. Usually, I have no problems and can use the first class lounge on the way out. Coming back in you sometimes have to wait a bit at the priority lane but not usually more than 10 or 15 minutes. Basically, Suvarnabhumi is getting too busy now for the volume of traffic. In addition the airport is badly organised and you have a majority of typical very lazy Thai staff. It is only going to get worse. Having said that Tokyo Narita can be bad sometimes for delays getting both in and out which is surprising. Again Narita cannot handle the volume of traffic at certain times of the day. 

[12DrinkMore]

15 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

If they've automated the Thai citizen departure checks at Swamp Immigration, as posted above, you'd kind of have to wonder what become of all the regular Thai Immigration officers who used to be manning the outbound booths for Thai citizens?

 

It certainly doesn't sound like they got transferred over to the foreigners desks...

 

They are off harassing Farangs, no extra money stamping passports in and out.

 

How does the automatic thing work for Thais?

 

Do they not have to fill in the cards and get stamped anymore?

[jamie2009]

Must be one of the few countries in the world where you have to go through Immigration to leave the country.

 

[realenglish1]

This is the fault of Thai immigration Not the size of the crowd

There Is absolutely no reason why holders of Non immigrant visas such as retirement , student , work and marriage visas must go through the regular lines They should be allowed to go through the Thai lines And on top of that 

If there is a huge line up like this then they should immediately put on more staff and allow people to go through the Thai lines as well to accommodate the people 

I have traveled to more than 100 countries in my life (not a brag) and have never found lines like I find in Thai Immigration

 

In a nutshell it is just poor management Plain and simple 

Edited February 28, 2017 by realenglish1

[Stargeezr]

Thailand better get its sh*t together, as these frustrationsnwill affect tourism, even if

TAA says everything is rosy.

Geezer

[Jonmarleesco]

The issue was doubtless exacerbated - if it's possible to exacerbate it - by the inability of far too many immigration officers' to organise the metaphorical brewery p___s up.

 

I've been there before, late at night, when they had to be prodded awake to deal with an influx of passengers from several flights. They had at least one wandering up and down the lines, yet managed to let travellers reach a desk, only for them to be sent to the back of another queue because the lines of segregation weren't clearly distinguishable.

[overherebc]

19 minutes ago, jamie2009 said:

Must be one of the few countries in the world where you have to go through Immigration to leave the country.

 

It's a bit early in the day for me. Can you expand on that

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, cheapskatesam said:

 

Still not cost effective in my books.. I'd rather queue up for 30minutes and save 1000baht..

 

1000baht is 10 pints of beer  (happy hour) at my fav sukhumvit bar... 

 

And you've well-earned your chosen TVF username!

[Jonmarleesco]

18 minutes ago, jamie2009 said:

Must be one of the few countries in the world where you have to go through Immigration to leave the country.

 

Even in some instances, to get into the country.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

15 minutes ago, realenglish1 said:

I have traveled to more than 100 countries in my life (not a brag) and have never found lines like I find in Thai Immigration

 

In a nutshell it is just poor management Plain and simple 

yes, but the generals in charge get paid REALLY well for doing it that way (or frankly any way, since how they work really doesn't matter to anyone in authority).

[jamie2009]

3 minutes ago, overherebc said:

It's a bit early in the day for me. Can you expand on that

no one goes through Immigration when they leave the UK or any other EU country Ieven in Kazakhstan when I worked there. 

I don't remember having to go through Immigration when leaving the States either.

[Jonmarleesco]

19 hours ago, luis888 said:

I don't think you can go through the Thai side anymore, I left in Jan and the Thai side is automated, has one assistant to assist the Thai people only

Amazing Thailand. They do the same thing every time an organisation automates some aspect of its operation: put an assistant - or more - on permanent duty to assist every customer in negotiating it, no matter how obvious the process is.

[cheapskatesam]

14 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

And you've well-earned your chosen TVF username!

 

Maybe so.. i hope one day i can be so wealthy i don't care about throwing  £20 just to save a 20minute wait 

I'm not so tight though.. i do sometimes pay £4 to go though fast track security at Manchester airport 

[overherebc]

15 minutes ago, jamie2009 said:

no one goes through Immigration when they leave the UK or any other EU country Ieven in Kazakhstan when I worked there. 

I don't remember having to go through Immigration when leaving the States either.

You need to expand even more on that one.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

20 minutes ago, cheapskatesam said:

 

Maybe so.. i hope one day i can be so wealthy i don't care about throwing  £20 just to save a 20minute wait 

I'm not so tight though.. i do sometimes pay £4 to go though fast track security at Manchester airport 

I wasn't criticizing you or your approach. Just noting, you're staying true to form!

[thai006]

i  just book a fast track for my departure next sunday to hong khong  now i can fly relax 5555+

[Chicog]

19 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

That's why I only fly business class.

 

No hassle, no worry.

 

I've got a stack of Fast track passes from where I've landed before 8am, and noticed that the queues for the great unwashed are next to nothing.

However, this 8am thing going out thing seems to be the problem. I often fly out at that time of morning, and there are never enough desks open, even in FastTrack.

Yet there are people milling around doing sod all, so I dread to think how many are sat in the office reading the paper and playing candy crush.

It's not difficult to arrange a shift pattern that has more staff on at peak than other times.

It's a combination of laziness and imbecility.

 

 

 

[jamie2009]

31 minutes ago, overherebc said:

You need to expand even more on that one.

You go through Security but not Immigration on leaving before boarding what ever mode of transport you are using, got it now ?

[NoshowJones]

20 hours ago, darksidedog said:

My son has a Thai and European passport, but whenever we go through Suvarnabhumi, he uses his Thai one and we can go through the often almost empty Thai Queue.

Saved me a good 2 hours last time we came back in as the queues were out of the hall, down into the corridor.

I don't understand hwhy sometimes it is okay and many counters open and sometimes not.

They know how many planes are landing, with X amount of people.

It shouldn't be that hard to work out how many staff are needed.

 

This is Thailand, land of very little common sense.

[Bluespunk]

2 minutes ago, Chicog said:

 

I've got a stack of Fast track passes from where I've landed before 8am, and noticed that the queues for the great unwashed are next to nothing.

However, this 8am thing going out thing seems to be the problem. I often fly out at that time of morning, and there are never enough desks open, even in FastTrack.

Yet there are people milling around doing sod all, so I dread to think how many are sat in the office reading the paper and playing candy crush.

It's not difficult to arrange a shift pattern that has more staff on at peak than other times.

It's a combination of laziness and imbecility.

 

 

 

The advantage of business class is that you get off first [well after first class] and most of those in there tend to be slowish walkers.

 

I'm quite nippy and get to fast track way ahead of my fellow travellers.

 

Never had to wait behind more than 2 people and only that number once.

[Chicog]

2 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

The advantage of business class is that you get off first [well after first class] and most of those in there tend to be slowish walkers.

 

I'm quite nippy and get to fast track way ahead of my fellow travellers.

 

Never had to wait behind more than 2 people and only that number once.

 

I do realise that, but there are other flights arriving as well.

My point is that they seem to have plenty of people processing arrivals.

It is departures that is the problem here.

Even FastTrack is affected by it.

The last few morning flights my bag has been sat on the Security scanner because people at the other end have nowhere to go.

 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2017 by Chicog

[Bluespunk]

1 minute ago, Chicog said:

 

I do realise that, but there are other flights arriving as well.

My point is that they seem to have plenty of people processing arrivals.

It is departures that is the problem here.

Even FastTrack is affected by it.

The last few morning flights my bag has been sat on the Security scanner because people at the other end have nowhere to go.

 

 

 

Guess we've had different experiences.

 

I've never had a problem departing either.

 

Always been smooth and easy.

[NoshowJones]

16 hours ago, dcnx said:

 

You're right, it's not hard to work out.

 

So that leaves the reason for such a thing being either absolute incompetence at every level, or they simply don't care. My guess is a mix of the two.

No, just another case of TiT.

[jaiyen]

20 hours ago, luis888 said:

I don't think you can go through the Thai side anymore, I left in Jan and the Thai side is automated, has one assistant to assist the Thai people only

That is correct. Tried to go through last Friday night with wife bit like you say it is only machines, so had to queue for 45 minutes.  From arrival at check in to getting through immigration took about 1 1/2 hours. Thai check in was half closed too.  Had to get in a long queue at the bottom of the escalators.   Pathetic !!

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, jamie2009 said:

You go through Security but not Immigration on leaving before boarding what ever mode of transport you are using, got it now ?

So those guys in the Brown uniforms with 'Immigration Police' badges in the booths that take my passport and stamp me out are who exactly, security? 

I did do a fair bit of world travel between late 60's and late 70's and never had a passport but that's a different story.

How do 'you' manage to leave Thailand without going to the Immigration Services counters/booths?

I'm sure a lot of guys on overstay would love to know.

[Mattd]

4 minutes ago, overherebc said:

So those guys in the Brown uniforms with 'Immigration Police' badges in the booths that take my passport and stamp me out are who exactly, security? 

I did do a fair bit of world travel between late 60's and late 70's and never had a passport but that's a different story.

How do 'you' manage to leave Thailand without going to the Immigration Services counters/booths?

I'm sure a lot of guys on overstay would love to know.

I'm confused! Jamie2009 was talking about when leaving UK etc. not Thailand?

[free123]

21 hours ago, darksidedog said:

My son has a Thai and European passport, but whenever we go through Suvarnabhumi, he uses his Thai one and we can go through the often almost empty Thai Queue.

Saved me a good 2 hours last time we came back in as the queues were out of the hall, down into the corridor.

I don't understand hwhy sometimes it is okay and many counters open and sometimes not.

They know how many planes are landing, with X amount of people.

It shouldn't be that hard to work out how many staff are needed.

 

this is system new...piss off the falangs as much as u can...and the best on their point of exit...maybe they need to run to catch the plane equals a last lasting memory of thailand so next time these falangs choose to go oversee they dont come here anymore = mission success

[overherebc]

3 minutes ago, Mattd said:

I'm confused! Jamie2009 was talking about when leaving UK etc. not Thailand?

The thread is about Bangkok airport. I don't think it's in UK.