Has immigration at BKK got faster?

[nekkid]

Maybe this is a newb question ... a corollary to thread "Do you dread the flight?"

I had heard many times that there are really long queues at immigration on arrival at BKK

1st trip last month my flight arrived a 6:30 am. A little queue at each desk, but no long zig zag queue before that.

2nd trip I landed just after midday on Thursday (better for me avoiding jet lag). This time there was quite a long zig zag queue. I recognised the guy behind me in the queue as sat a few rows in front of me on the plane. We got chatting, and I asked him about the queue. 

He said it's normally 2 and a half hours to get through immigration at that time of day / time of year, but the queue looked quite short to him, and he thought we'd be through in less than an hour  - 45 minutes.

The organisation of the zigzag queue seemed excellent with a staff member dispatching us to the smaller queues in front of each desk. I timed the process and it was my turn to be interviewed 15 minutes after I entered the zigzag queue. The guy I was chatting to was amazed.

I'm wondering if immigration has sped up / is better organised, or was this a fluke?

[footix]

Arrived last Sunday at 5pm. No queue at all - arrived at the carousel before my luggage.

 

Had a pre arranged taxi and was in my hotel in Pattaya before 8.

[SteveX08]

4 hours ago, footix said:

 

Arrived last Sunday at 5pm. No queue at all - arrived at the carousel before my luggage.

 

Same for arriving Wed 10th Oct at 8.30am.

[Bonkabit]

https://www.bfsasia.com/Premiumservice/customer/booking_select_service.php

http://www.limousine.in.th/fast-track-immigration.html

are book-in-advance fast track services. Greeter meets you off the plane and takes you through quick Immigration, collects baggage and escorts you to taxi or to basement train etc.

If you book it, the queues will be short. If you do not, they are long. Murphy's Law!

[Ru4Real]

^ First link no longer relevant; think their brown envelopes where too skinny  

[Pinoydave]

I always think this is another example of perverse Thai logic 

if we make them wait a long time.... we must be important!!!

[LeoTex]

First to answer your question, NO!!!

Up until my last trip, I would always arrive anywhere from 11:15 PM to a little after midnight. There were no long lines, I could just walk up and pick a booth that maybe had 2 people in line.

This last trip last month I arrive about 2:30 pm in the afternoon and both of the immigration had lines out to the walkway. Lucky I had gotten one of the blue Premium Passes on the plane and went to the Premium Lane where about 5 or 6 people ahead of me and got to the luggage thing before the bag arrived.

LeoTex

[blue1878]

My flights usually land between 7am and 8am in the morning.  When I get to immigration the queue is usually fairly long and zig zaging.  And it always seems to take awhile to get through immigration BUT I think this is partly due to the fact I'm feeling a little tired after a long journey. And after my flight has landed all I want to do is get through immigration, collect my suitcase and get to my hotel in Pattaya asap

[Scuba+]

Luck of the draw, its usually ok, I'm always through immigration before my bags arrive. Premium fast track line last time was nice just a few people in front of me

[Hound]

This week at 1pm. the wait was about 30 minutes,

[Ron Rat]

I was seated next to the daughter of brazillian embassy officials on a flight from Melbourne once and she was able to use the VIP gate and the Thai official ushered me through with her as we were walking together. 5 minutes and walked out and my luggage came out first, taxi waiting with 4 beers and ice and was in Pattaya 2 hours after the plane arrived.

[blue1878]

I'll be flying to Thailand in December 

And I arrive at the time of day when there are normally queues

So in the next few days I am going to book a Fast Track to get me through immigration very quickly

The firm I used last year no longer provide a Fast Track service so this year I'm going to use

https://www.limousine.in.th/fasttrack.php

 

 

[Rambuttri village]

Came through 17th October about 18.15 pm and was through in 4 minutes. No snake or zig zag, the two Thai lady officials looked at my boarding card said it was ok and gave me a choice of half a dozen immigration officials where only one or two people were queue-ing.

Well ahead of the suitcases. I get the impression October is still low season and we are not getting the volume of Russian, Chinese and people from colder climes like we will from December to February. That was proven by the 389 bus not being full and me able to get the next bus 10 minutes after buying the ticket.

[ricktoronto]

I came in the 21st and was the only person in Fast Track and my suitcase was #10 out of the chute. 

[whitespider - RIP]

I think ALL the points made are vaild BUT - the question itself is impossible to answer becasue its so erratic. It varies from hour to hour, day to day, season to season. This is born out by seeing some people fly through and others dont. Overall I would say it is greatly improved from the horror stories of a few months back but still best to bank on a couple of hours being possible if booking a taxi.

[mixedberrys]

Apparently the fast track option is now only for passengers in first and business class and not available to us plebs in economy. 

[thinkingallowed]

38 minutes ago, mixedberrys said:

Apparently the fast track option is now only for passengers in first and business class and not available to us plebs in economy. 

If only post #4 and one other in this thread had within them the url of a company still providing the service you believe is no longer available to economy passengers.

Limousine.in.th 

[Roadrunner]

I am so happy to be back in Thailand that I couldn't give a shite how long it takes ...lol

[Shaksey]

Of course it's got quicker, Big Joke is in charge now so he's sorted everything 

[blue1878]

On 01/11/2018 at 06:03, whitespider said:

I think ALL the points made are vaild BUT - the question itself is impossible to answer becasue its so erratic. It varies from hour to hour, day to day, season to season. This is born out by seeing some people fly through and others dont. Overall I would say it is greatly improved from the horror stories of a few months back but still best to bank on a couple of hours being possible if booking a taxi.

Hi whitespider It took me by surprise you saying people should bank on a couple of hours if booking a taxi. I'll be flying into Suvarnabhumi airport in early December.  And I am expecting to take between 60 minutes and 75 minutes from getting of the plane to meeting my taxi driver

On 01/11/2018 at 06:57, thinkingallowed said:

If only post #4 and one other in this thread had within them the url of a company still providing the service you believe is no longer available to economy passengers.

Limousine.in.th 

I arrive at Suvarnabhumi airport on the 6th December so in the next few days I will try and book a fast track with https://www.limousine.in.th/fasttrack.php 

I'll post here in Pattaya Addicts to let you know if I was successful or not

Edited November 6, 2018 by blue1878

[whitespider - RIP]

19 minutes ago, blue1878 said:

Hi whitespider It took me by surprise you saying people should bank on a couple of hours if booking a taxi. I'll be flying into Suvarnabhumi airport in early December.  And I am expecting to take between 60 minutes and 75 minutes from getting of the plane to meeting my taxi driver

I arrive at Suvarnabhumi airport on the 6th December so in the next few days I will try and book a fast track with https://www.limousine.in.th/fasttrack.php 

I'll post here in Pattaya Addicts to let you know if I was successful or not

I would say 60-75 minutes would "probably" be more than enough. Its a bugger if you end in one of these (few) 4 hour queues tho. My advice was simply to err on the side of caution.

If you book a taxi who knows what they are actually doing they will KNOW flight arrival time and the state of Immigration queues tho. On the other hand you can just get one from the rank - no issue there at all.

[davidge]

I always use Fasttrack and pre-book a taxi.

I generally allow 3 hours from scheduled landing time to arriving in condo in Jomtien when I’m telling agent/owner when to expect me.

It was under 2 hours from landing to condo last trip - though the flight was an hour late so I guess I was on time really 

[blue1878]

1 hour ago, whitespider said:

I would say 60-75 minutes would "probably" be more than enough. Its a bugger if you end in one of these (few) 4 hour queues tho. My advice was simply to err on the side of caution.

If you book a taxi who knows what they are actually doing they will KNOW flight arrival time and the state of Immigration queues tho. On the other hand you can just get one from the rank - no issue there at all.

When I book my taxi I always give them my flight number and the time it's supposed to land.  I sometimes wonder if I'm doing the right thing by doing that.  If I'm meeting someone at the airport I will always check online to see if it's going to be on time or not.  So that I can get to the airport for when they are likely to get through to the arrivals area.  I'm not sure if Pattaya taxi firms check to see if a flight is going to be on time or not before the driver sets of for Suvarnabhumi airport.  Up to now the taxi driver as always been at the meeting point by door 3 waiting for me

1 hour ago, davidge said:

I always use Fasttrack and pre-book a taxi.

I generally allow 3 hours from scheduled landing time to arriving in condo in Jomtien when I’m telling agent/owner when to expect me.

It was under 2 hours from landing to condo last trip - though the flight was an hour late so I guess I was on time really 

My flight into Suvarnabhumi is always a morning arrival.  And I always allow myself about 3 hours from landing time to arriving at my hotel in Pattaya.  I can then take my time checking into my hotel and unpacking etc etc before heading off to Soi 6 for a ST or a massage parlour for a massage with a happy ending

[nekkid]

11 minutes ago, blue1878 said:

When I book my taxi I always give them my flight number and the time it's supposed to land.  I sometimes wonder if I'm doing the right thing by doing that.  If I'm meeting someone at the airport I will always check online to see if it's going to be on time or not.  So that I can get to the airport for when they are likely to get through to the arrivals area.  I'm not sure if Pattaya taxi firms check to see if a flight is going to be on time or not before the driver sets of for Suvarnabhumi airport.  Up to now the taxi driver as always been at the meeting point by door 3 waiting for me

On the two trips I've made I've used Nam's Taxi service both times, and each time they have asked me for the flight number and scheduled time of arrival (or departure) when I have made the booking.

I think they have also asked me to know let them know if my flight will be delayed - which can be difficult when on the airplane - though Qatar provide 1 hour's free Wifi and I did pick up a confirmation email from Nam's whilst at 40,000 ft on my last flight in to BKK. (I requested the pick up from Suvarnabhumi whilst waiting in the departure lounge before boarding my flight from the UK).

Edited November 6, 2018 by nekkid

[andy666]

6 minutes ago, blue1878 said:

When I book my taxi I always give them my flight number and the time it's supposed to land.  I sometimes wonder if I'm doing the right thing by doing that.  If I'm meeting someone at the airport I will always check online to see if it's going to be on time or not.  So that I can get to the airport for when they are likely to get through to the arrivals area.  I'm not sure if Pattaya taxi firms check to see if a flight is going to be on time or not before the driver sets of for Suvarnabhumi airport.  Up to now the taxi driver as always been at the meeting point by door 3 waiting for me

 

Give your flight number is the right thing to do. The driver can check it if your flight is delayed and he knows he has to wait or maybe switch with another driver ( most work with a ‘central office/ dispatching.

Read on PA how one was bragging how clever he was to always book 2 taxis to have a back up which mean that one driver is like waiting forever. Some people are scum!