Suvarnabhumi Immigration queues: "We're doing our best to help" says airport chief Sirot

[chilli42]

On 3/1/2017 at 0:20 PM, steve187 said:

yes that's the reason the UK doesn't know how many people have overstayed their visa.

That is true but countries like the UK, US, Canada etc do their due diligence up front to make sure those they let in are less likely to stay on. Thailand lets almost anyone in and then tries to control who goes out but we know, based just on some forum members, how well that works.  Putting in controls often ends up just being an illusion of control.

[Bantex]

I returned to Thailand yesterday and I've never queues at immigration this long. The roped off areas leading to the immigration desks weren't long enough with hundreds of people waiting just to get into the queue. Only half of the immigration booths were manned. Only two people at customs and they were talking to each other.

[jacko45k]

10 hours ago, lungnorm said:

Less bottlenecks huh? How about No bottlenecks??? If you miss your flight and it is the fault of the airline, they pay your hotel and expenses until they arrange an alternative flight. How about Thai immigration doing the same ? that will surely get them off their  backsides.

Or reverse that and they may expect a 'tip' for processing you in time to get your flight!

[ajarnmarc]

6 hours ago, cnx355 said:

First they should get rid of the TM6 card. like Vietnam and Malaysia.

 

This would save a lot of time to process arrival and departure.

No need to fill a form

 

.All information needed is scanned from the passport.

 

The Government  want to start Thailand 4.0 ,,,This would be a good start

 

Hotel and guest house and landlords are by law required to report where you stay ,not the tourist  or  tenants.

 

Have and online web site to do the reporting for Hotels, guest house and landlords.  Another Thailand 4,0 improvement.
.

Sorry,,,just dreaming....

 

Yeah, unfortunately it's always the fault of the foreigners when things go south.

It should be the responsibility of the hotel/guests house/ landlords to do the reporting, 

and I think by law it might be, but from my experience, the landlord informed me, "up to you", 

"you want to report, not report".

So I've just decided to go with the 90 days non O visa, and then get an extension @ the local office for another sixty days, therefore I'm reporting, and if they still need more reporting than this, well...

I've never understood what's with all the paperwork, 

and damed if you lose that little TM6 form, the I/O get all bent out of shape.

Acting like it's more important than the visa itself.

So I would be very grateful if they could do away with that card, 

and stop putting staples in my passports. 

I had a Thai I/O rip the TM6 card out of the PP page once, 

and tore the page in the process.

Of course the officer couldn't be bothered to tape it up, 

he was too busy looking through each page for some missing treasure, 

so after the magic three pass through, it was just handed back to me, 

wrong stamp date posted, so I had to spend more time going to another I/O to show that there was a date stamped incorrectly. Then she says, " why you not tell the officer who stamped you?"

I'm like yeah, in Thailand...save face always, remember?

 

Now I remove the precious card myself, 

and stick it in my cover case, 

which I/O also don't like for us to have.

Have to take that PP out of the case.

Malaysia don't have any issue with it, 

Singapore smile when they see the case.

Guess they like to see people looking after things.

Thailand seems to be all about power...

Anything we do, has to be wrong way, 

need to change that / it.

Many times I don't think the locals know what they want us to change to, 

but we must change from what we are or about to do, 

for it has to be the wrong way, 

as they know the best way to do everything; 

even if it doesn't make any sense at all...

[The Deerhunter]

On 3/1/2017 at 10:51 AM, colinneil said:

The simple answer is obvious, get more immigration officers on the desks.

Surely there must be some available, from the inactive post room  

My wife & I went through a few weeks ago. We noticed that a 1/2 European, 1/2 Thai Immigration officer was seated in a booth absolutely adjacent to a booth staffed by a full Thai person.    It was significant that we timed the Thai person took well over twice as long as the 1/2 Falang for each and every person he vetted.  People adjacent to us in a much longer queue passed us and were through and gone long before we got served.  If we had noticed we would have changed earlier but by the time we worked it out it seemed no point in changing.  We were wrong actually, it was that different!!!  We watched several other officers working and they all had a similar throughput time except this one guy who seemed far from in a hurry and dawdled his way along.  It honestly looked like he was listening to music on his ear piece.  If he was, it was not the Bavarian marching music his neighbour must have been listening to.  Coming back into Thailand 3-4 weeks later, all the officers were going like the clappers.  They even had runners going through all the rows making sure everyone had a form and helping some of them to fill it in, and swapping people into different queues if necessary.

Edited March 2, 2017 by The Deerhunter

[ajarnmarc]

46 minutes ago, The Deerhunter said:

My wife & I went through a few weeks ago. We noticed that a 1/2 European, 1/2 Thai Immigration officer was seated in a booth absolutely adjacent to a booth staffed by a full Thai person.    It was significant that we timed the Thai person took well over twice as long as the 1/2 Falang for each and every person he vetted.  People adjacent to us in a much longer queue passed us and were through and gone long before we got served.  If we had noticed we would have changed earlier but by the time we worked it out it seemed no point in changing.  We were wrong actually, it was that different!!!  We watched several other officers working and they all had a similar throughput time except this one guy who seemed far from in a hurry and dawdled his way along.  It honestly looked like he was listening to music on his ear piece.  If he was, it was not the Bavarian marching music his neighbour must have been listening to.  Coming back into Thailand 3-4 weeks later, all the officers were going like the clappers.  They even had runners going through all the rows making sure everyone had a form and helping some of them to fill it in, and swapping people into different queues if necessary.

Thanks for sharing this story. 

I have actually never given it any thought, 

with concerns to which I/O I get.

I have just worked hard to get off the plane as fast as possible, 

carry my bags with me, and try to find the shortest line.

I've been doing this for 18 years straight, 

concerning Thailand.

So what your wrote, for me, is a great observation.

 

[anon4546543]

I find BKK  to be very efficient compared to any Australian airport and indeed wherever I have travelled. Most Aussie airports are owned by US companies and they are very thrifty to the point of misery in the amounts of staff provided. In Canada they have whistle blowing morons who constantly harass all passengers, no matter the nationality. Canada is a wonderful place to visit but the airport is awful. Try the US. everyone is treated with superior contempt. BKK is a breeze.

[DMC1]

Just gone through departures 30 mins ago. I don't remember clearing security/immigration so quickly (5 mins total) when catching this particular flight over the past 3 years.

Every desk was manned and there were barely 3-4 people in each queue. Normally when catching this flight at this particular time the queues are at least 15-20 people long with joining snake going to the back of the hall.

[hawker9000]

49 minutes ago, DMC1 said:

Just gone through departures 30 mins ago. I don't remember clearing security/immigration so quickly (5 mins total) when catching this particular flight over the past 3 years.

Every desk was manned and there were barely 3-4 people in each queue. Normally when catching this flight at this particular time the queues are at least 15-20 people long with joining snake going to the back of the hall.
 

This has often been my experience, but not always...   There are certainly peek periods when this is NOT going to be what everyone experiences, and obviously NOT what drove the complaints leading up to all this.   The crunches DO happen, somebody's one-off experience "30 mins ago" notwithstanding.

[DMC1]

This has often been my experience, but not always...   There are certainly peek periods when this is NOT going to be what everyone experiences, and obviously NOT what drove the complaints leading up to all this.   The crunches DO happen, somebody's one-off experience "30 mins ago" notwithstanding.

Yes, this was a fairly abnormal experience as I have took this flight nearly every month for the past 3 years. Saying that, even 15-20 people in front of you at the immigration queue in departures goes down fairly quickly within 10-20 mins. There may well have been a 'push' due to social media but I'm sure it will return to normal fairly soon.

[samtam]

On 02/03/2017 at 11:15 AM, DMC1 said:

 

See my post 113 above concerning this morning

 

Thanks. Missed that. Sounds more promising. I'm travelling on Business anyway, but I think I read that Fast Track also had delays.

 

Certainly using Fast Track  (on arrival) last year was no help at all, as there were no checks as to who was eligible, and there was a large group of Chinese tourists (with their flag waver) using the facility and certainly without the FT card; unsurprisingly there was no intervention or management by IMM staff.

Edited March 3, 2017 by samtam
(on arrival)

[elgenon]

I was waiting in line and Chinese cut ahead of me. Why weren't they told to go to the back of the line? No one cares.

[malt25]

Why not cut back in front of him / them ?

[mrdjt]

Having read the earlier post I went to Suvarnabhumi an hour earlier - 8 pm -  just in case for my flight back to Australia. It was my best experience ever. No long queues - and the immigration officer in my line was processing people in 30 seconds each. Judging from that experience I'd have to say Airport chief Sirot Duangrat is doing a very good job.

[ChomDo]

I landed at Suvarnabhumi yesterday around 6.30pm and the line to enter the actual immigration area was already 100m down to the corridor where the tax free shops are. Unbelievable chaos all right. It took 45 minutes to get trough passport control. 

[MarkyM3]

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned walking to another arrivals  immigration area and getting through way quicker.

 

Are there 2 entrances to the same arrivals hall or 2 separate arrivals hall both exiting to the luggage reclaim area? How far are the 2 exits apart - whenever I arrived at BKK I seem to always come across the same one first.. 

[mtls2005]

I thought there weren't any problems? It was all the foreigner's fault for getting lost, stopping to eat or doing too much shopping?

 

There is both an East (~ opposite gate D6) and a West (~ opposite gate D4) ARRIVING Immigration hall; in between is the VIP/FastLane.

 

All empty into the int'l baggage claim area; carousels # 6 - # 20.

 

 

Edited March 3, 2017 by mtls2005

[Prbkk]

2 hours ago, MarkyM3 said:

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned walking to another arrivals  immigration area and getting through way quicker.

 

Are there 2 entrances to the same arrivals hall or 2 separate arrivals hall both exiting to the luggage reclaim area? How far are the 2 exits apart - whenever I arrived at BKK I seem to always come across the same one first.. 

The entrance to the other area ( slightly smaller one if my memory is not faulty) is just 20 metres to the right of the main one ( right when facing it). The entrance to it is sometimes obscured by crowds trying to get into the main section. It has a few normal lanes and a couple for priority clearance , as well as automated gates for Thai nationals( although the priority lane is usually clogged with Chinese or Korean tourists who are confused about where they should be.

No doubt someone will correct me if I'm giving unclear directions.

There is a third area for the "special", ie paid priority clearance.

 

[Prbkk]

6 hours ago, mrdjt said:

Having read the earlier post I went to Suvarnabhumi an hour earlier - 8 pm -  just in case for my flight back to Australia. It was my best experience ever. No long queues - and the immigration officer in my line was processing people in 30 seconds each. Judging from that experience I'd have to say Airport chief Sirot Duangrat is doing a very good job.

If it's TG 465, dep 0015, then that is just about the peak time for departures because    Most of the flights to India, china, Australia, Europe leave 2200-0200, so you were getting in just before the rush.

[samtam]

I left BKK this morning and after check in at around 8.30 am went straight to Priority section as I was on business. Queue was out in the main departure concourse and security check took about 20 mins. Imm was swift, but it appears the bottleneck is at security check in the Priority section; it is clearly not able to deal with the larger numbers using it, and the qualification to do so is quite wide as well as there being priorty within Priority, who cut the line.


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[overherebc]

On 03/03/2017 at 1:27 PM, malt25 said:

Why not cut back in front of him / them ?

Exactly.

[tominbkk]

555, Thats because the 7-11 people are more educated !

I would tend to agree. Plus if they are your local 7-11 crew who know you they are a heck of a lot friendlier too!!!


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[samtam]

On 06/03/2017 at 6:34 PM, samtam said:

I left BKK this morning and after check in at around 8.30 am went straight to Priority section as I was on business. Queue was out in the main departure concourse and security check took about 20 mins. Imm was swift, but it appears the bottleneck is at security check in the Priority section; it is clearly not able to deal with the larger numbers using it, and the qualification to do so is quite wide as well as there being priorty within Priority, who cut the line.


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Seemed a lot better organised on my return last night at around 11.45 pm. There were about 10-15 people in each of the 2 queues at Priority Lane, and there was a "sort of attempt" to check that people had the Priority card; But only sort of. The two gents in front of me didn't and were sent packing, but not before I moved to a new queue, just opened, in addition to another opened as I was waiting. The latter suggests they are making attempts at managing booth requirements in line with demand, (whoa!), but at the risk of sounding cynical, it's a the consistency of how this proactive management is implemented.

 

But a plus point is that Priority luggage was off the flight within about 20 minutes of arrival, and getting home to Sathorn within an hour of touch down all-in, is very impressive.