Originally Posted by
transpac
How long was your wait?
There are two halls, and I think TV displays which show the queues in the 'other' hall.
A friend arrived (at SBIA/BKK) Thursday at 2:00 AM (so late Wednesday night) and he reported long lines, he waited 45 minutes, He said there were very few Immigration Officers, so the lines were long. He had no issue with the taxi queue, driver or metered fare.
We are heading into higher season - there has been a noticeable increase in tourists observed around town this week, no doubt enjoying the awesome weather, and it always seems to take Imm. time to "react".
BTW, I think I saw mention of adding kiosks specifically for Chinese visitors, but not sure if that was just someone's idea.
I was lucky. Initially I joined the shorter queue and then saw that it was leading to a row of Chinese Passport kiosks and I was the only white traveller in the queue. I then went back and joined the horrendous queue where I got frustrated and irritated with everyone else. After a few minutes the queue dragons then directed those of us at the back to the Chinese queue and we rushed there and got through in about ten minutes. The main queue barely moved in that time so I have no idea how long it took.
Of course, there were many Chinese in the main queue too so it makes you wonder why they bother with this segregation if the point is to process Chinese passports separately because they take longer and the queue dragons do not enforce this. On the other hand when in the Chinese queue the Chinese passports didn't seem to be taking much longer to process than anyone else's so maybe they're reacting to a non-issue now. Who knows.
Ultimately, it reminded me that you can pay for a fast-track at this airport (right?) and I really loath immigration queues especially late at night so I will investigate the fast-track in the future.
Like your friend, once through, there was no queue for the taxi and the driver used the meter without question. But then, I behave like I know what I'm doing and where I'm going at BKK (which I do) so they probably work out that I'm not exactly on my first trip to Asia and Bangkok. And, yes, awesome weather this weekend.