Don Mueang Immigration spokesman on Friday delay debacle: We did all we could

[newnative]

No, you didn't do your best.  Far from it.  And, still no apology.  And, I didn't hear anything about any plans to prevent this from happening again.  Obviously, there are not nearly enough staff and stations for the number of flights.  Staff/stations need to be increased or flights decreased.

[yellowboat]

6 hours ago, BasalBanality said:

Airborne qualified immigration officer? Impressive.

That means he has a pension.  Was told that the air force was the only military branch that had a pension and to be a member you had to make one jump. 

Should anyone know differently, please explain. 

 

Given the issuing of visas is a cash cow, it is doubtful immigration will ever have fast lanes like Hong Kong or other countries. 

[jobwolf]

9000 Passengers on 25 Flights?  These are quite big Planes I must admit.

Too big for domestic i am sure!  Something about these numbers does not sound right.

The people on duty are maybe enough, if they all work!!

 

[robsamui]

CLASSIC PHOTO!
If any of my western friends ask me about what 'losing face' means . . . I'm gonna show em this photo.

(The last time  saw a sulk like that was when I was teaching 8 year-olds.)

Edited August 8, 2017 by robsamui

[Classic Ray]

6 hours ago, ezzra said:

"We did all we could" is simply and clearly NOT GOOD ENOUGH, for a country 

that yearn and beg for tourists to come in, a lot more should be done to 

accommodate and prepare for any and all eventualities of passengers

arrivals, a contingency plans should have been in place to avoid a debacle

such as the one in DM few days ago.... 

Of course they could foresee it, air traffic control could tell them the ETAs of all flights. The problem was that because it was 10pm on a Friday, most of the staff would have sloped off for post-work drinkies and couldn't be called back in plus not enough desks constructed to deal with admittedly a heavier workload than normal, but not impossibly large.

 

Do the RTP or AOT have what British police call Operational Planning Depts who make the plans to cover all eventualities? What am I saying TIT, land of unplanned incidents!

[Jonnapat]

""All we could"" obviously translates into very little. 

No forward thinking as usual.

[Bangkok Barry]

7 hours ago, Ricardo said:

Part of the solution might be to introduce automated-desks, for arriving-travellers from certain countries who are seeking 30-day visa-exempt entry, if the authorities can only find some way to stamp the passports to show date/place-of-entry ?  If all else failed, a simple clerk, stamping the passports after people passed through automated-arrival ?

 

That would free-up the available trained Immigration-staff for those travellers who require more-complex consideration.

 

And surely it would be possible to automate exit-scanning & entry, for the vast majority of departing-travellers, those who are leaving within their permitted limit-of-stay ?

 

Whenever I leave Heathrow, I simply show my boarding-pass to a scanner, the rest is fully-automated, perhaps Thailand should copy this system ?

 

You're thinking 21st Century. Thailand is not.

Edited August 8, 2017 by Bangkok Barry

[Get Real]

I am sure they did!

[Moti24]

8 hours ago, colinneil said:

 

Person responsible for immigration officers shifts should be sacked, and replaced with a person with a brain.

And where do you suggest they find somebody who satisfies that criteria?

[zzaa09]

Regardless of the politics, rhetorical thainess, and punditry that relates to this mess, such still stands that the AOT needs to get their s*hit together when attached to things of international standards - lots of face loss, hidden angst, and Thai deflection of blame doesn't fix things for the better.

 

Any business foresight is not recognized.

[JAG]

"We did our best," said Kritsana, "We blamed the airport administration, we blamed the weather, we blamed the delayed planes and their size, we blamed and blamed. What else do you want from us?"

Well, you could at least point at the queue!

[canuckamuck]

Your best is not even as good as other's worst

[StayinThailand2much]

5 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Perhaps the former officers there have all been transferred to the police's Facebook monitoring unit to keep on the prowl for bar maids offering beer promotions or people saying nasty things about the big cheese... 

IMHO, the officers need way more time to scrutinize your passport than officers in most other Asian countries. Plus, many of those quality tourists from China cannot read/complete the arrival card. I had to fill out such a tourist's embarkation card last year at Suvarnabhumi, as that tourist could neither read nor write English, but was right in front of me in the queue. The things you do, not to miss your flight... (It was at departure immigration. Heaven knows what that guy did with the stamped departure card.) Time to print those cards in Mandarin for the ever rising stream of tourists from China?

[wakeupplease]

With wages so low in this neck of the woods you would think they would have as many staff as the shopping malls do but I guess its money going elsewhere. Could be visitors these day do not spend much.

[surangw]

12 hours ago, BasalBanality said:

Airborne qualified immigration officer? Impressive.

300 bht for the   pin

[surangw]

learn to use the  Flight Status – Arrivals | Departures  web site 

[hawker9000]

14 hours ago, surangw said:

learn to use the  Flight Status – Arrivals | Departures  web site 

'Didn't exist in 1969...

 

 

[spidermike007]

Not even close to good enough. A lame reply, by a lame man, who works for a lame department, that really messed up. A more appropriate reaction would have been to say we really, really screwed up. The chairman of the department has tendered his resignation, and will hold a press conference, where he issues a sincere apology, and takes full responsibility, to those thousands and thousands of tourists, who arrived in Thailand, then had to spend the whole night in the airport. In addition to that, we are offering all tourists who were stranded, vouchers for five years worth of free, and completely unlimited visas, plus a 5,000 baht credit voucher, that can be spent in any hotel in the country.

 

That would be a reasonable reply, and might make those stranded tourists feel as if they were not completely abused, and treated like dogs, by the country that so adamantly claims how much it welcomes them.