Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Recent experiences in BKK

Greetings all. Looking forward to my first trip in F on Cathay (courtesy of my wife's American miles).

We are flying LAX-HKG-BKK in a week or two, and have a 3 hour layover in BKK before switching to Thai Airways to head to Chiang Mai. Today, a woman at the Thai embassy told my wife that we would have to go through an extensive medical exam in Bangkok and could be delayed 6-24 hours. This made no sense to me and no one else has been able to confirm it, but on the other hand, we have no desire to spend 24 hours in the airport. Can anyone on the board share their experiences with me as they have disembarked in BKK and negotiated their way out? Many thanks.

Mike

what used to happen 2 weeks back was you fill in a form and have your temperature taken, then they stamp the form and then they listen to your chest and stamped another form Took my family an extra 40 minutes.
Here is CX's advisory :
Bangkok - BKK
Crew and passengers to remain onboard whilst Quarantine officers perform 1st screening on passengers (transit flights excluded). Arrival passengers will be required to complete the Health Declaration Form distributed onboard and proceed to pier 3 or 4 for the 2nd medical screening (from interview to temperature inspection). Once passengers are cleared from the 2nd screening, a clearance will be stamped on their arrival document.
Clear Immigration and get your bags
Note that you must then either take the free shuttle bus or the overhead walkway to the domestic terminal Flights go frequently to CNX

It was pretty irresponsible for that woman in the Thai embassy to make preposterous statements of 6-24 hr. delays at BKK. If that were the case, Thai tourism would plummet to unimaginable depths. Best to consult the main CX website.

If you're going to walk from the international to domestic terminal, be forewarned that it's a pretty long hike through the un-airconditioned connecting bridge.

I have walked that corridor between the Domestic and International gates many times and never found it uncomfortable. Always airconditioned.

the walkway is airconditioned I did it two weeks ago
the cooler units are mounted at knee level both sides of the walkway
I takes 10 minutes to walk and trolleys are allowed

and if you're feeling lazy once hitting that connecting bridge between Intl & Domestic in BKK, there are porters with electric golf carts shuttling pax from one side to the other.

Of course, after flying and sitting all those hours, it would be wise to get the exercise by walking it several time, if time allows! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Since recent users say that the connecting bridge IS airconditioned, I stand corrected. It looks like the air-con may have been under repair when I used it two months ago.

bp888, I think the air con was somewhat down when you were there. I've had a few times passing it through, thinking the air con must have been broken!

Alternatively, you can also take an inter-terminal bus landside.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bp888:
It was pretty irresponsible for that woman in the Thai embassy to make preposterous statements of 6-24 hr. delays at BKK. If that were the case, Thai tourism would plummet to unimaginable depths. Best to consult the main CX website.

If you're going to walk from the international to domestic terminal, be forewarned that it's a pretty long hike through the un-airconditioned connecting bridge.</font>

Thanks for the note. That was my thought (regarding tourism, that is, not air conditioning) as well. I'm curious if anyone has some times that they can report in terms of clearing medical checks. Is it safe to assume that we will go faster since we are flying up front?

Mike

The Thai embassy is an embarrassment to Thailand -- don't believe anything they say.

The policy changed a few days ago, and it is quite plausible that it will take over 3 hours to clear processing. Search for news reports which describe the new process now in effect, but based on those reports you will be very lucky to make a 3 hour connection at BKK after arriving from HKG. Much better to fly from NRT instead, but then you can't be on CX. The old process took a few minutes, but the new process for HKG arrivals is much stricter and does take a long time. Tell CX that you have a 3 hour connection and what do they now show as the MCT for BKK? Also if this is a Thai discount ticket you may have some trouble using it if you miss your original flight.

I flew in from SGN 2 nights ago, and the total delay was around 5 minutes. A very quick temperature check, a doctor reviews your medical form and that's it. We had arrived not long after a flight from Hanot so there seems to be little difficultly dealing with volumes of people.