Queues in Immigration BKK

[extracta]

Has anybody got any information on how the queues are going at swampy?

 

I am arriving in three weeks and want to know if I should get Bangkok Flight Services to bring me through.

 

http://www.theage.co...0320-1vgwa.html

[jerry]

Coming in is not the big problem going out is .

Depends a little on the time but last week i came in at 9.30pm and there where even officers waiting for customers .

[Wicked Roger]

I am at Swampy right now, and no delays at all leaving! Less than 15 minutes from arriving at airport to clearing immigration AND security.

It really depends on the time of day you are arriving or leaving. I arrived off the Jomtiem bus at 1145 and was through check-in, immigration and security by 12 mid day! One of the best times yet! It seems much busier during the evening when I have experienced long queues both arriving and departing.

[Betheone]

three weeks ago I needed over 2 hours at 9pm....really sucked

[extracta]

three weeks ago I needed over 2 hours at 9pm....really sucked

 

I bet it did. Thats what I am trying to avoid. I am arriving at 7PM and want to get straight through and down to the bars.

Edited March 28, 2012 by extracta

[Bakwan]

I arrived just over a week ago and the new system seemed to take about twice the amount of time that it used to take. It could be that I just happened to arrive at a busy time, but I always arrive at the same time (11:00 am) since I always take the same flight. In January of this year, it took me about 10 minutes to get through immigration (from the time that I arrived at the immigration area), and that was about the same as in previous years. But this time (in March) it took at least 20 minutes, if not a bit more.

 

It's not a big problem (although I was in a hurry to catch the noon Bell Bus), but this time my luggage had already arrived by the time I got through immigration whereas I used to have to wait for my luggage. However, the total time (to get through immigration and to wait for luggage to arrive) seems to be about the same as it used to be (around 30 minutes). Total time from stepping off the plane until I got to the Bell Bus was about 45 or 50 minutes. If the plane had been 15 minutes behind schedule, I would have probably missed the noon Bell Bus.

 

I prefer the old queue system.

 

There seem to be a lot of big tour groups arriving together, unlike in the past.

 

Bakwan

[Edge]

I wish someone would merge the several threads on this, but also separate Arrivals information from Departues.

 

Whilst the former can be annoying and inconvenient, the latter is potentially disastrous.

 

.

[theanomaly]

I arrived at 12:15pm on 10/03 and the immigration queue took nearly 2 hrs due to the masses queue hopping.

 

On departing I arrived at the airport at 10:30pm for my 01:05am flight on 25/03. I had checked in online and had 1 person in front of me. Immigration took about 15 minutes to get thru, really smooth.

 

UK immigration coming back on the other hand took the piss. They had to turn the escalators off because of the backlog of people, took about 45 minutes.

[Evil Penevil]

An update: I'm writing this in the CIP biz lounge at Swampy at 4.30 a.m. It took me 15 minutes to get through Immigration Control. It would have taken longer, but I got lucky. The single feeder queue was in place, but only two officers on duty. About 25 people were ahead of me, so I figured I'd have to wait at least 30 minutes to get through. It took me 15 minutes to get to the point the lady was assigning people to the short queues in front of each of the two officers. A Russian family - parents, three children and grandma - were ahead of me, but none of them had their departure cards filled out. The officer brushed them aside in an annoyed tone of voice and I nimbly moved up to present my passport to him. He cleared me in about 30 seconds. The Russian family hadn't even figured out what was happening by the time I was through.

 

During that 15 minutes I waited, the size of the queue increased dramatically, possibly because the 6.00 a.m. United flight to Narita is fully booked. So if I'd entered the queue 15 minutes later than I did, I would have waited much longer in the snake unless new control booths had been opened.

 

Ironically, United passed out fast track coupons to biz class passengers, but the fast track lane wasn't open. "Not working," the young man at the entrance said. But he grabbed my voucher anyway and directed me to the ordinary control area.

 

I'm back to LOS in a week, so I'll see then what the arrival queues are like. The single feeder queue is a definite improvement as the Russians don't have any opportunity now to jump the line. One tried, but he was ordered back by a "queue minder."

 

Evil

[Gone with the wind]

A few weeks ago....

Arrived at 10:00am - 10 minutes.

Departed at 2:30pm - 1 minute.

[Highlander]

I think the ques at swampy is just a matter of timing as I have gone through quickly and slowly depending on how many flights have landed at the same time.

 

Also fuckwitts who have not filled out the immigration card on the flight slows things down (pet hate of mine)

 

All in all it is quicker at swampy than Perth, Australia (which is a nightmare I have to say)

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

I was one of the fuckwits who didn't fill in the card on the flight ;-)

 

In my defence, it was my first time and I was never given a card, never asked, and didn't know anything about it.

Wasn't until I'd queued thru immigration and got knocked back, that I knew anything about it. Woman at desk wasn't helpful at all, and just waved me away. Fuck me that was a stressful start to my trip but luckily a honey of a girl at the immigration card desk was on hand to talk me thru the whole procedure.

 

Lesson learned tho.

[geezerrb]

Last trip arrived BKK 16:05 local, luggage was 45 mins arriving on carousel . Immigration was over 1 hour with airport staff selecting certain people to be fast tracked mainly "non european",

I know that sounds xenophobic but I'm telling it how it happened.

On noticing I was getting "pissed off" and catching some of my conversation I was "ushered" through "Thai passport only" by a member of staff, when I looked back the guys I had been talking to were only marginally further forward and unlike last time this was not created by passengers not filling out their immigration cards correctly.

 

I know the UK has bad press recently re immigration but last few times long delays at "swampy" have been bird flu, grenade attacks etc and none of these are from Europe and next time I hope to make it the last with " Thai Airways" although I do fly on price, I pick flights that work for "my" timetable" if the airline just "dump" me on arrival so all the delays make the extra I sometimes pay for redundant, I may go back to non direct flights and just go on price.

[gazman]

Any updates on queue's from BM's who have just arrived or departed?

[sadisfied]

I flew in on Saturday at around 12.30pm. Both immigration halls were packed and I waited around 40 minutes.

 

There was a third hall in between but that one seemed to be for airline crew and delegates from some kind of conference.

[Seedy]

I also flew in Saturday arriving about 1930. Took an hour to get through and both immigration halls were rammed.

[blueelf]

I turned up on sunday at 0900 for 1230 flight and was through immigration and security in about 10 mins.

When i arrived at Bangkok around 0600 a week earlier was through in about 10 mins as well, but had to wait 40 mins for bags

[The Storm]

I have just walked through security and passport control in less than two minutes but this was using the fast track lane for business class.

 

Regular channel looks like at nightmare due to the construction work at swampy.

[Perthie]

Just an update on the Immigration issue.

 

Arrived 24th May at 3:15pm. Out of the plane, through Immigration (via what looked like quite a long snake queue), bags collected and looking for my driver within 30 minutes.

 

Departed BKK and checked in/headed for Immigration at 10pm. Through the Immigration queue within 10 minutes and through the Customs scanners within another 2 minutes. No problem at all.

 

I noticed when leaving that there were several Immigration Officers working the desks with "TRAINING" prominently displayed, so perhaps they're finally putting more Officers to work and opening more desks to combat the delays.

 

Cheers

 

Perthie

[sadisfied]

Left LOS today, sadly. Time just flies by in Thailand.

 

I breezed through Immigration in about 5 minutes, even got a tiny smile from the Immigration Officer.

[pogo]

I arrived at Immigration at 3.30pm on saturday 26th may, and got through within 15 minutes.

 

got there yesterday at 10.22am and was through and clear of security checks at 10.37am

 

as stated by others there were at least 3 trainees and lots of smiles