Customs screening at Suvarnabhumi Airport

[brucegoniners]

I heard they were super screening everyone at the airport now, with new X-ray scanners and would be charging duty on just about everything.

 

I bring vitamins and other items home.

 

Can anyone relate their experiences the last few weeks there?

[Sheryl]

I cam through about 6 weeks ago. Nothing new or unusual at that time.

[true word]

There is a big chance they would have your luggage bags through x-ray scanner only if you carry more than One like they did to me.

[david555]

was told that those extra scanners would be placed by 2019....

Edited April 1, 2017 by theoldgit
Link and quote breaching forum rules removed.

[mogandave]

I go through several time a month and the only time I got scanned was a couple years ago when I had a box.




Live, love, laugh

[siam2007]

my personal ratio at Suvarnabhumi in the past few years is that my luggage (mostly just one piece if I had more than one) has been screened in one out of three cases.

At DMK, I never had my luggage screened ever the few times I used it for international flights

[CanNot]

Arrived this week nothing unusual. Same amount of personal and no checks going on. 

[mogandave]

Like I said before those extra scanners are planned during 2019 , a very instructive info and link to a newspaper page with full details was removed for forum rules breach by and old git seems by reading the the nickname  ......or  for what it is worth .... just trying to be informative / helping ...and showing it is not just my own blablabla.......

I think better scanners is great. I'm for anything that helps stop or cut down on the number of people sneaking stuff in.

[fruitman]

2 hours ago, mogandave said:

 

 

I think better scanners is great. I'm for anything that helps stop or cut down on the number of people sneaking stuff in.

 

 

So you think it's cool if i get arrested with 3kg cheese?

[pj123]

The past four or five times I have gone through after arriving from London at about 3-4pm they have been scanning everyone's luggage. So maybe it depends on the time you arrive. 

[amjamj]

Nothing has changed and nothing will change.

[SiamBeast]

When I landed 2 days ago, they were scanning most baggage, but they waved a few people through, me included. Seemed totally random though.

[outlaw11wa]

On 01/04/2017 at 10:07 PM, fruitman said:

So you think it's cool if i get arrested with 3kg cheese?

You would have it confiscated an destroyed if you tried to bring it into Australia. Not arrested but fined for not declaring it on your entry declaration. Then possibly interviewed to see what else you were hiding from authorities. Thaailand is generally very liberal with what they allow you to bring into the country compared to other nations.

[Dan5]

8 minutes ago, outlaw11wa said:

You would have it confiscated an destroyed if you tried to bring it into Australia. Not arrested but fined for not declaring it on your entry declaration. Then possibly interviewed to see what else you were hiding from authorities. Thaailand is generally very liberal with what they allow you to bring into the country compared to other nations.

Except that the value of what you can bring in without paying a duty is very low. I can't remember the exact value, but the last I checked, it was something like 10k Baht, compared to about $3000 entering the USA. If they applied that, you couldn't even bring in your laptop or iPhone, etc. without paying duties.

 

[bubba]

I have been through each week of the past three weeks at different times of day and nothing appeared to be different. I just had carry on, and was not scanned. From what I observed walking past, it seemed to be the usual selective screening of mainland Chinese and the occasional African. In one case, they appeared to be scanning an entire mainland Chinese tour group of maybe 50 people which sort of backed t things up, but I was waved through.

Edited April 3, 2017 by bubba

[ross163103]

I came in the morning of Apr 2nd, they seemed to be screening more people than usual but certainly not everyone, maybe 10 percent, mainly people with large or unusual bags.

 

[fruitman]

44 minutes ago, outlaw11wa said:

You would have it confiscated an destroyed if you tried to bring it into Australia. Not arrested but fined for not declaring it on your entry declaration. Then possibly interviewed to see what else you were hiding from authorities. Thaailand is generally very liberal with what they allow you to bring into the country compared to other nations.

Mate the customs of Sydney had their own tv show which i watched several times.

 

There you see the Asians bringing fruit/meat into Oz and getting caught. Suddenly the asians don't understand anything and don't speak english. Then they confiscate their fruit and only sometimes they get a fine of 1-200 au$...that's all.

I have never seen them getting the 100.000k au$ fine like they warn you for when bringing in fruit/nuts or so.....

 

If you bring in some packs of cigarettes into Thailand you 'll see how liberal they are...heavy fines for that.

 

 

But what will happen if i bring in a new vacuumcleaner in my suitcase and they catch me? Is it still the same law that under 10.000 baht we are allowed to bring it in taxfree? One day they caught me with an icecreammaker, i showed the receipt of 200 euro and could pass. A machine like that costs much more in thailand though.

 

Or if they see you bringing in a new laptop/smartphone from abroad to give to your wife? Is that Okay if it's under 10.000 baht? Or maybe we should throw the box away, make some scratches on it and it's not new anymore?

 

Look i don't bring underwear in my suitcase, only things i can use/eat and which are not available in Thailand. So i'm not happy with that scanner. I don't bring anything illegal though, only food/ quality tools and all is for myself, not for sale.

[KIWIBATCH]

At Don Mueang the screening/x-ray procedure is considerable hi-tech. It goes like this.

1. Young Thai lad number 1 quickly loads bags/suitcases onto the x-ray feed in table.

2. On the other side of the machine a young lass (bag contents x-ray manager) for 90% of the time sits playing on her phone or eating food or both..and has the very ocassional look at the monitor screen. (she obviously doesn't want to  miss getting a hi score on Candy Crush or has an urgent need to post on FB what she is eating)

3. Young Thai lad number 2 with a roll of "inspected" stickers is flat out applying these stickers to bags/suitcases as they come off the opposite side of the machine.

 

Very hi-tech......don't worry all bags have been thoroughly screened and inspected for "dangerous" items and none of your fellow passengers are carrying anything that could put you in danger mid-air...yea right 

 

[MyFriend You]

10 hours ago, SiamBeast said:

When I landed 2 days ago, they were scanning most baggage, but they waved a few people through, me included. Seemed totally random though.

Came thru couple weeks ago, me & wife had six suitcases, walked right thru, but there were about a dozen Africans being scanned, inspected.  I don't advocate profiling, but it's their country .

[MobileContent]

No problem. My associate just came from Singapore and he had 5 music streaming devices originally packed in his bag. He even scanned it and didn't said anything.

[ujayujay]

On 1.4.2017 at 10:07 PM, fruitman said:

So you think it's cool if i get arrested with 3kg cheese?

Yes of course. You know, its not allowed. What a Question

[sawadeeken]

35 minutes ago, MobileContent said:

No problem. My associate just came from Singapore and he had 5 music streaming devices originally packed in his bag. He even scanned it and didn't said anything.

All they are mostly interested in is cigarettes and alcohol that they can confiscate and take home.......

[hawker9000]

Abt 10d ago ... nothing too unusual.  There was some scanning going on. Some Chinese I think.  The vast majority were flooding past unimpeded.  I've never been stopped (and they'd truly be wasting their time if they did), but don't really go out of my way to make eye contact.

[david555]

Some say it helps f you write on the package "not for sale " in those marker pen thick ink ...or remove packing,  don't want to loose my supply of Belgium chocolate...

[david555]

43 minutes ago, sawadeeken said:

All they are mostly interested in is cigarettes and alcohol that they can confiscate and take home.......

This reminds  me some 5 years before...., I was already past customs and waiting my Pattaya bus to jomtien ..., as a young Thai man in decent blue with a cigarette at hand asked me for a light / lighter .... I say : sorry I do not smoke .., then he asked if I have no cigarettes with me ....at that moment I saw a small name plate  on his suit and realized it was a customs trick after  passing counter already .... I told if you wish checking we can go to the counter upstairs ....but he said no it is ok..., so those tricks can catch a smoker ... which I am not ..so beware ..!

[malibukid]

California wine

[Straight8]

5 hours ago, Dan5 said:

Except that the value of what you can bring in without paying a duty is very low. I can't remember the exact value, but the last I checked, it was something like 10k Baht, compared to about $3000 entering the USA. If they applied that, you couldn't even bring in your laptop or iPhone, etc. without paying duties.

 

Not 100% sure, but I think it is 20,000 baht now

[captnhoy]

On 4/1/2017 at 11:07 PM, fruitman said:

So you think it's cool if i get arrested with 3kg cheese?

Of course. Saaay, aren't you a member of that "bridge club" gang?

[Monkeyrobot]

On 01/04/2017 at 7:29 PM, mogandave said:

 

 

I think better scanners is great. I'm for anything that helps stop or cut down on the number of people sneaking stuff in.

 

 

So how do I get my steaks in ? 

[Skeptic7]

Came thru mid March at 1030 pm and the usual bored looks and all arrivals strolling by with nobody being screened. That said however, know a Thai gal with a German husband and she got randomly screened last year and had excessive bottles of wine. They confiscated all of it. She took great pride in the fact that she insisted on seeing the bottles emptied, as she assumed that otherwise those 2 cases would be going home with with those doing the confiscating.