Chaos at Don Mueang as unstaffed immigration desks leave thousands of passengers stranded

[mike324]

1 hour ago, Thian said:

Why do the Thai passport checkmachines need an assistant anyway?

 

The automatic ones in Europe don't have any assistant, they work slow though.

some passports don't scan properly or some machines don't scan the passports for unknown reasons. My Thai passport works most of the time at auto gates, there are times a machine won't read it and I had to to have it done manually. I heard new passports are not readable unless you go through manual gate first (this is unconfirmed though).

 

I flew into DMK airport last week, only automatic gates were available for Thai citizens, young children / babies are not allows to use it. So many Thais have to lined up at foreign lines. They did not have a manned counter opened for Thais with baby/children, which is pretty stupid.

 

All and all, its just poor planning by airport officials. Just like everything else in Thailand, its not like they don't have the money or knowledge, just incompetent authorities in power dragging Thailand backwards.

[ChrisY1]

TaT have been deafeningly quiet!

[elgenon]

Thailand is schizophrenic ? We want tourists, we don't want tourists.

[grantbkk]

The Nation didn't mention the urine people had to endure while in the 4 hour plus line.  No accountability but dangle 4 new counters in front of us and we beg for more.  The problem is as I see it manning the counters you have.  If they can't do an entry in one to two minutes shut the whole thing down.  No flights in or out until they get the mess cleaned up.  The staggering losses will get everyone's attention.  I hope the quality tourists start wearing diapers  so they don't have to urinate in a corner.  It would be wise to sell them on every arriving flight at all the airports.

[phkauf]

One thing that could make things better is if the large customers of DMK,  not the passengers rather the airlines, such as Air Asia, Nok and Thai Lion raise the issue with the AOT - their landlord in effect. If more travelers were to avoid flying these airlines because of the nightmare conditions, their revenue would take a hit. 

These guys have far more influence over what AOT does and how much pressure AOT can put on Immigration. 

[yellowboat]

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

Amazing Thailand  !!   ........  you never know what you'll come across ..  

Yes, and a lot of it is truly wonderful. 

[Happyman58]

Funny you know i went to Don Mueang airport and we waited for 2 hours 30 minutes. Half the immigration stations were not even manned. Most of the staff  were sitting in staff room doing nothing Then you had the ones walking around the immigration booths doing nothing but looking important Maybe because they had more medals on there chest All i would say the immigration is a disgrace and it only pisses me off coming through there

 

 

[Thian]

2 hours ago, lensta said:

Have you ever stood behind a Thai using an ATM machine? Sometimes they take so long,  I think they are sending emails on the the thing.

 

It's the same with parking the car, even with assistance it takes them ages to park it properly...and many just park outside of the mall because they know they can never manage to park it inside.

[eastvanman2]

this has been building up for a while..i was in there about 2 weeks back and took more than 3 hours to get through...was with mostly  chinese and the existence of queues was nonexistent...one was forced to protect your space if you had any hope in getting to the immigration officer...immigration officers were yelling at the chinese tourists..it felt on the verge of chaos and out of control...a system of barricades filing people through would go along ways

[Proboscis]

5 hours ago, realfunster said:

The reply from the responsible persons in the Nation article is full of holes.

An extra 4 planes on top of the expected 21 caused all this ? Don't believe it.

5,000 passengers arrived at the same time ? Equivalent to 10 fully loaded A380s. Don't believe it.

The 5,000 is then used to explain the 5 hour wait based on 1,000 processed per hour. So not to worry, with the improved target of 1,800 per hour, the wait in a future similar scenario will be a rapid 2.75 hours. 

 

Glad they have honestly & throughly analysed the situation and prepared a comprehensive solution.

Yes, the situation was already bad long before this. There are facebook posts to show that two weeks ago the wait at immigration was between two and three hours. The weather might have added an extra hour to the average wait.

 

Besides, as every manager knows, you hope for the best but plan for the worst. Otherwise, why employ managers if all plans just work out perfectly and nothing additional ever needs to be done?

[newnative]

Under fire?  I certainly hope so after this very poor asleep-at-the switch performance.  And, even worse totally lame explanation.  Key word here is fire--which is what should be done to everyone running the Immigration process at DM. 

[Ulic]

So the excuse is 4 delayed flights and 1 extra flight caused the lineups to increase to 5 hours.

A laugher of an excuse. The lines should take no longer than 20 minutes. Hire extra staff and

keep all posts open. If there are no lineups the staff can relax in a staff lounge. As planes arrive

they can be recalled to the front lines before the passengers get from the plane to the

immigration area. Fire those in charge to get the message across that this is not acceptable.

[manhood]

VERY SIMPLE; just missmanagement as always!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and thousands of excuses and others were reliable for that:

Flights are planned!!!!!!!!! even delays are well known to the responsible ones at the airport !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Just shit place to fly into BKK and out of BKK

 

My niece was in the queing line as well.

No officials or even not the immigration was aware of any help!!!!!!!!!!

A scandal again for Thailand as a tourist destination!

 

 

[impulse]

26 minutes ago, Thian said:

2 hours ago, lensta said:

Have you ever stood behind a Thai using an ATM machine? Sometimes they take so long,  I think they are sending emails on the the thing.

It's the same with parking the car, even with assistance it takes them ages to park it properly...and many just park outside of the mall because they know they can never manage to park it inside.

 

Gotta cry foul on this one.  I've seen Thais pay their phone bill and their rent, transfer some baht to Mom and Dad, and make payments for 3 or 4 online orders at the ATM in less time than it would have taken me to find the envelopes and lick a few stamps back home.

 

As irritating as it is when all I want is to get some cash, there's so much they can do at the ATM's here that it's not their fault they take some time.

 

[speckio]

On 8/6/2017 at 9:21 AM, Briggsy said:

I wonder if this is some sort of protest. AoT is a big money-spinner. Immigration (a branch of the police) always looking for ways to "self-fund" and bigger income streams. AoT may be being held to ransom here.

 

i.e. "If you don't want your airports smelling of Chinese pee, you need to pay us more to open more booths."

 

Note how immigration immediately blamed AoT for the problem.

i would place my money or bet on corruption... some official making the decision to take short cuts in order to put extra money in his pockets.

[masuk]

4 hours ago, mikiea said:

oooooh chinese... pee... hoooo ohhhhhhhh 

One of the problems with Chiang Mai airport and possibly Don Muang, is that passengers go direct from the plane into Immigration.      There are no toilets available.

 

KLIA is vastly different, and numerous toilets are available along the way.  After sitting in a plane for 8 hours or so, and then standing up, it's too late to use the plane's loos.

 

Don Muang is not alone in having 3 or 4 international flights arriving together.  Chiang Mai is chaos with around 400 Chinese passengers all crowded into the arrivals area.

[Thian]

48 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Gotta cry foul on this one.  I've seen Thais pay their phone bill and their rent, transfer some baht to Mom and Dad, and make payments for 3 or 4 online orders at the ATM in less time than it would have taken me to find the envelopes and lick a few stamps back home.

 

As irritating as it is when all I want is to get some cash, there's so much they can do at the ATM's here that it's not their fault they take some time.

 

I never knew they can do all that at an atm, but i do know they can and will do it at the 711 and it's best to go in another qeueu.

[trainman34014]

31 minutes ago, masuk said:

One of the problems with Chiang Mai airport and possibly Don Muang, is that passengers go direct from the plane into Immigration.      There are no toilets available.

 

KLIA is vastly different, and numerous toilets are available along the way.  After sitting in a plane for 8 hours or so, and then standing up, it's too late to use the plane's loos.

 

Don Muang is not alone in having 3 or 4 international flights arriving together.  Chiang Mai is chaos with around 400 Chinese passengers all crowded into the arrivals area.

Sorry; that requires forward and thoughtful planning for your passengers and guests.   The only 'thought' given to anything here is about how they can extract the maximum amount of revenue from everyone !

[puck2]

4 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Most likely because the queues at European airports are worse at the moment!

Sorry, I cannot confirm this.

April of this year we have flown from BKK to Germany changing in Vienna. There incredibly fast service in the early morning. In Germany no control when leaving the airport  ... because of Schengen-Visa, checked in Vienna!

[midas]

5 hours ago, steven100 said:

correct ...  but some just have to whinge about everything ... lol

I'm not whingeing. I'm actually amused at the inconsistency of expecting to be the HUB of everything on the planet and then not being able to deal with arrivals in a timely manner

[jesimps]

5 hours ago, yellowboat said:

Yes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  Thank whingers when these problems get solved.  Solving problems is where society benefits and entrepreneurs make serious money.  The immigration debacle is not a whinge, but, rather bringing attention to a serious flaw.  You and the rest of Thailand should be grateful. 

Steven100 is junta fanboy in chief, so any criticism of Thailand makes his idols look bad. Even if the complaint is justified he'll support his heroes.

 

Scandalous situation and the buck stops with the junta.

 

 

[sanemax]

2 hours ago, speckio said:

i would place my money or bet on corruption... some official making the decision to take short cuts in order to put extra money in his pockets.

It could possible be that all the daytime immigration staff went home at the end of their shift and it was left to the few night staff I.O.'s to deal with ?

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, Ulic said:

So the excuse is 4 delayed flights and 1 extra flight caused the lineups to increase to 5 hours.

A laugher of an excuse. The lines should take no longer than 20 minutes. Hire extra staff and

keep all posts open. If there are no lineups the staff can relax in a staff lounge. As planes arrive

they can be recalled to the front lines before the passengers get from the plane to the

immigration area. Fire those in charge to get the message across that this is not acceptable.

 

"Hire extra staff and keep all posts open. If there are no lineups the staff can relax in a staff lounge. "

 

Well that's one possibility.

 

A better approach, have the total staff needed for the passport work and all other immigration / admin. work, assign staff to passport desks as needed, when not on a passport desk they do other admin. work, all on the basis that moving quickly backwards and forwards across both roles is part of the overall responsibilities of their employment. Plus some serious alweays ready organizing and planning

[scorecard]

16 minutes ago, jesimps said:

Steven100 is junta fanboy in chief, so any criticism of Thailand makes his idols look bad. Even if the complaint is justified he'll support his heroes.

 

Scandalous situation and the buck stops with the junta.

 

 

 

And no doubt your looking for any opportunity to criticize.

 

If the general was spending a lot of time on all such matters you'd say he shouldn't be looking at these low level matters which should be handled professionally and with efficiency within the responsibilities and capabilities of the seniors in the agency concerned.  

[kkerry]

5 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

TaT have been deafeningly quiet!

 

Don't worry, expect an upcoming announcement, revealing DMK has won an international award for 'Most Efficient Capital City Airport Immigration Processing Times' *

 

* category: eight or less immigration desks

  sub-category: staffed by no more than four officers at any one time

  sub-sub-category: mandatory Thai language proficiency 

[owl sees all]

20 minutes ago, kkerry said:

Don't worry, expect an upcoming announcement, revealing DMK has won an international award for 'Most Efficient Capital City Airport Immigration Processing Times' 

Agreed!!

 

This problem came to a head in August 2017. So give it three months and the headline will read; "Since implementing the speedy transit programme; Don Mueang International airport has shown a 50% improvement. As always our first consideration is ensuring that Thailand's visitors are made welcome and not in any way inconvenienced."

[yellowboat]

1 hour ago, jesimps said:

Steven100 is junta fanboy in chief, so any criticism of Thailand makes his idols look bad. Even if the complaint is justified he'll support his heroes.

 

Scandalous situation and the buck stops with the junta.

Believe we all are seeing where Thailand is going and it just does not look very promising. 

[anon789561]

2 hours ago, jesimps said:

Steven100 is junta fanboy in chief, so any criticism of Thailand makes his idols look bad. Even if the complaint is justified he'll support his heroes.

 

Scandalous situation and the buck stops with the junta.

 

 

is it scandalous. its not really is it

[anon789561]

let's start from square one as I understand I may well be dealing with children here

 

[kkerry]

Don Mueang is, justifiably, taking a hammering over on Skytrax and not only this week. I hope someone at DMK gets to read what is being posted.

 

Immigration complaints have been posted there for over a year and instead of fixing the problem things have only gone from bad to worse.

I see there I am not the only one who will not be flying Air Asia again until something is done.

I had at least a ninety minute wait in line last year on a Friday afternoon and that was bad enough.

More than four hours... 

 

The recent airport upgrade was nice but it's all wasted when arriving passengers are treated so poorly.