Sorry to say that it's now confirmed. Long ques

[Brianrich1]

Just came across this unpleasant article. Many of you have already confirmed this anyway. They suggest getting to the airport at least 3 hours ahead. No relief in site. Here is the article.

 

http://t.co/LrrIqpoC

[ricktoronto]

Just fly a premium class or pay online before arriving or departing for fast track and it's 10 minutes.

[Brianrich1]

Yeah I have seen replies from guys that say fast track doesn't really work now. What a shame

[dudebrah]

is it immigration or security slowing it down ?

 

used to be you would go through security near the gates after you walked past all the shops/restaurants.

On my last trip they consolidated all security immedietly after immigration causing a bottleneck

 

beyond my why they changed the setup

[marko456]

After many trips through "Swampy" only once have I had to do the long lines.

I was high season, and I knew it would not be good when we were delayed landing,

meaning the terminal was way past capicty that day.

Usually arive at noonish, and depart 5 pm-ish, not prime time

Worst was getting wrong que, and almost missing a flight, but that was sort of my fault.

I was dricted to wrong que, finally to the right one.

[BostonSteve]

It would be prudent to say at what time you fly out of swampy. To get back to the states my flight will leave 0600 or the busy midnight flight. I have never had any delay, other than the normal.

 

Funny thing is, very little delay going out of Thailand and sometimes a huge delay coming in. Do they want us to leave?

[papa2044]

Its an awful shame as its a beautiful airport but the crowd at Immigration Control is horrendous & ongoing every year & is getting worst... Who is at fault?????

[Wicked Roger]

is it immigration or security slowing it down ?

 

used to be you would go through security near the gates after you walked past all the shops/restaurants.

On my last trip they consolidated all security immedietly after immigration causing a bottleneck

 

beyond my why they changed the setup

 

My guess is it was the extra process involved if you bought anything in the restricted goods category. Liquids, gels, creams etc, in the duty free. Even if you just wanted to buy a bottle of water it had to be security bagged and delivered to you airside. I suppose it just became too unworkable! It was much quicker though, having the gate security points, I have to agree!

[dc_publius]

Don't arrive or depart during peak rush hours and you will find Swampi damn near empty.

 

This whole issue is silly. It's like getting on M1 during rush hour and panicking that there are other cars on the road. Well, duh!

[American Psycho]

Here's another problem not considered by the geniuses at immigration. You arrive 3-4 hours early to have time to clear the queue and your airline counter is not open for checkin until 2-3 hours prior to departure. I travel out of BKK regularly for business travel and almost missed my last 2 flights. I had read in other posts that the snake queue had been implemented, but as of last week it was still the supermarket queueing system of picking a line.

[Edge]

Don't arrive or depart during peak rush hours and you will find Swampi damn near empty.

 

This whole issue is silly. It's like getting on M1 during rush hour and panicking that there are other cars on the road. Well, duh!

 

So all we need to do is get the airlines to reschedule our flights into the quiet times?

 

 

.

[Alleycat]

Arrived into Suvarnavhumi with an hour and a half to get through immigration mid-march and on reaching the queue I was stunned. The line was about a 2/3 of a Kilometer finally snaking it's way to the other end of the airport and that was just to get to the entrance of passport control!!!. I assessed that it would actually have taken a good 3 to 4 hours to get through. Fortunately I was allowed through 'fast track' without a problem, but must say will turn up extra early to the airport next time.

[sadisfied]

Ugh. I hope they get this all fixed as soon as possible.

 

But are the long queues now on arrival too?

[roppa]

just left there in mid march and got there 3 hours beforehand...not too bad checking in but nearly missed my flight because of the length of the queues at passport control and nobody seems to care or want to do anything about this

[Deuces]

I fly at midnight so my view is the 9pm-12pm

 

SV: got to swamp at 9:20 was sitting at BK at 10pm at my gate by 10:20pm bored shitless

 

LV: it seems internet checkin lines dont have a snake but I have never had a drama going under the fence to wait in line behind the person at the counter (thai rows h/j). So check in was a breeze for me. Then once i hit immi there were perhaps 200 people all in the snake that was well control took me 10 mins to clear immi. I got stuck behind stuiped people at sercurity that decided it was fine to carry everything that would set the dectors off so that took another 10mins. Over the 6 flights i take to get to n from patts this trip has beenth smoothest.

[Brianrich1]

Does anyone know if the 6am flights leaving bkk have long line. Should i get there 4 hours ahead of time to leave from bkk

[Ron Rat]

Never had a problem getting in or out this month. Had time for 2 cans of beer and a feed and still 40 minutes on departure. As the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy says. Don't panic.

[Wicked Roger]

Just 15 minutes yesterday at mid day, from check-in, immigration and through security! Normal line was faster than fast-track!

[Balla055]

Never had a problem leaving Thailand and checking in to my departing flight and then through security. But in early March when I landed and got to Passport control I encountered a hell of a long crowd. There were no lines, no respect, everyone was trying to shove their way to the front. I said fuck this and remembered the 2nd Passport control a little ways down. Went there and the line was slightly shorter but at least there was order and lines formed. Took an hour and a half to get through. Don't know what it is all the flights coming in at the same time?

[softlad]

no probs in or out

[Lukas7]

I missed my flight back home once. I was young, with nowhere to stay, and around 50€ left on my bank account at this time, and the company (Finnair) refused to put me on the next flight... I was in Tokyo.

 

Needless to say I'm 4 to 5 hours before take off for any flight I take now.

 

About Thailand, in January it was really long to enter it, but getting out was pretty fast.

[SeaEmDee]

Just came back from a three Day ( on the ground ) Business Trip arriving Sunday early morning and leaving at midnight on Tuesday of this week.

 

My experience

 

- Arrival 6 20 Sunday

 

First immigration check point was FULL to the brim. Remembered a post about trying to walk further on to the second, did so and encountered much shorter lines. from exiting the aeroplane ( a full 747 sitting in economy ) to getting my bag and being outside behind customs, who incidentally also random screened my bags, it took approx 35 - 40 mins. The wait for the bag took the larger portion of the time.

 

- Departure 23 45 Tuesday

 

Arrived at the Airport at about 9 30 pm earlier that I expected but I had made traffic jam allowances to get out of Bangkok. Check-in took less that 10 mins despite a large queue, Thai Airways had many counters manned in the particular section I was checking in, which I thought was good.

 

Immigration departure check - took about 10 mins, full but lines moving well, picked one at the far end of the hall next to the crew only line that seemed to have been overlooked by most.

 

Security check - a mad house with a roped off single file snake line system. Atttendants would usher you to the appropriate line once at the head of the queue.

 

At the beginning of the scan machine queue another attendant would ask you to remember to remove laptops from your bag, remove all things from your pockets etc. They also had attendants helping sort the trays in which to put all your junk and double checking that you remembered to do all the things they had asked and also assisted in sorting the tray contents so that there would be no delay for others.

 

The lines although long seemed to move effieciently. I didn't expect it to go as fast as it did.

 

Result - After all that was said and done I had a little less than an hour before boarding, which was at 23 00. This means I got through everything within about 30 to 35 mins after arriving to the airport.

 

Didn't expect to have the boarding that early, I was wrong, but I suppose to board a full 747 you do need some time.

 

I agree that it's full on both arrival and departure, but when I was going through the processes it all seemed ok to me in relation to the congestion.

 

Just my two cents