DFW-SEN

From December until March it was bad, but since April I travelled to BKK 4 times and never had to wait in or out more than 5 Minutes. Ironically the Sheraton Grande started to offer Fast Track immigration vouchers as Spg Platinum gift. Now I have a pile of those vouchers and don't need them anymore.
S

Electrostar

I don't want to seem to pessimistic, but you may well need them next December to March. I don't think anything has been solved. And the immigration "enhancements" reported by dsquared37 may well cause even more delays. So, don't throw the vouchers away just yet .

dsquared37

Was at BKK last night around 6:30PM and everything was ridiculously crowded. I don't know if this is the time for flights to middle eastern locales or if the initial travel for hajj has begun.

I was staying but my better half reported very long foreigner lines at exit immigration. Half of the eastern immigration section is now under construction and lines were considerably backed up due to this.

SASDC8

Perhaps the AOT approved B163bn Suvarnabhumi expansion will solve some of the problems??

BKK should be able to handle 103 million passengers by 2024...

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/...port-expansion

But as most projects in Thailand, I´ll belive it when I see it

demue

Arrived on Sat, Aug 6 around 10:45am from SIN on SQ and immigration in the centre hall was packed with all lines 20-30 people deep. Even the F& C Fastrack lanes that I used took about 15-20min to clear, but then the guy I had was really in no hurry at all calmly flipping through each of my 47 out of 48 filled passport pages and pausing here and there before moving to stamping and processing.

On the return last night (Aug 11) I flew TG C and the dedicated fastrack security and immigration is just plain brilliant. This was the day before the public holiday today (Aug 12 - Queens birthday) and loads of people were traveling. Couldn't see regular immigration but a colleague who flew out said it took him about 45-50mins to clear. Autsch.

brunos

My son flew from Europe last week with his young kids for summer vacation in Ko Samui. Said that immigration lines upon arrival in BKK were horrific. The officers seemed to be working as slow as possible. Bad first impression of Thailand. Bad way to start a vacation

tide

A data point:

Wheels down last night on UA837 at 10:25pm. At E gates at 10:30pm.
Walked fast (seated in Y on a full 744 so had to make up time). Got to immigration at 10:39pm - no lines.

Managed to catch the 10:51pm (with 30s to spare) City Line train despite pitstops at dutyfree and ATM.

Same experience last trip in June - must be low period or BKK is just not that busy at 10:30pm

jiejie

Even during winter high season at BKK, the crush at immigration is not constant, and there are definitely lull periods during the day where the queues are short. (One of the nicest things about my most commonly-used TG flights BKK-PEK and PEK-BKK are that the timings hit those slow Immy periods.)

bpe

Another data point:

I flew in on NH 915, getting in around 10 pm on Tuesday. Immigration took 45 minutes after I got there from the gate. Immigration officers didn't seem to care, and there were some standing around to one side, and after probably 30 minutes two of them went and opened new lines.

Although there are busy and less busy times, it seems pretty random overall, but expecting a long wait isn't unreasonable. Maybe going to the other immigration point would have helped, but again, no way to know, unlike the video monitors for the exit immigration lines.

tide

Ouch. Seems a painful experience.

I fly ex US-BKK 2-3x a year. Always on either UA or NH. What I usually do (and I do not know if it really works but so far so good) is this.

At NRT I check the arrival info for BKK for hours 2200 to 2300 (that's when UA837 and NH915 get in):
http://www.suvarnabhumiairport.com/f...arrival_en.php

I don't bother looking at equipment, I just see if flights are long-haul or short.

I take exit gate B to mean arrival at the ABC pier and exit gate C, the EFG pier. Depending on the skew, I decide which immigration point to use, all this while at NRT.

Again, gates do get changed around, flights get delayed/or early, loads unpredictable etc and I don't know if the system I use even makes sense but at least it's a plan.

SKL

Has anyone heard whether the e-passport readers that are supposed to come into operation is still on target for end of 2011? I hear that it is only for Thai passports first, the extending to other categories later.

SASDC8

Have not heard or read anything like that, but if true it sure would be great news. Automated machines has to be faster than the Thai no smile squad!

SKL

http://pattaya-times.com/a7294-bangk...-e-pass-system

This is what I found- not sure if any new development (or lack of) has come along.

yycworldtraveler

Arrival at 14:30 from HKG on Aug 14...no more than 2 people in any line. Kept my fast track pass for another time.

bkkml01

Arrived on Air Berlin on Monday the 15th of August at 9.30 am. We were in J so got fast track and staff member to guide us from plane to limousine, but immigration (inbound Y) was horrific. Both halls packed to the rafters with lots of unused counters.... Not sure how long it took people to get through but by the time we had our luggage there were not many other passengers from the flight at the luggage belt.