Originally Posted by
Transpacificflyer
I do not recommend delaying your passage through immigration by an hour as your bag may be gone from the carousel. BKK has excellent bag delivery time. I flew in this week on AC and my bag was delivered 20 minutes after I disembarked at the Satellite terminal. That's an excellent delivery time. BKK usually collects bags from the last bag notice to ensure that the carousel is empty for the next flight using it. If you wait an hour and are delayed at immigration (non priority pax can take 30-60 minutes to clear, I cleared in 10 minutes using the priority line.) it is probable your bag will be gone and sent to holding.
I recommend that you clear immigration, and collect your bag and then go meet your friend at their flight's baggage carousel. The arrivals hall is large with seats next to each carousel. It is less hectic than waiting outside the baggage delivery zone. There are electronic displays giving every flight's baggage carousel.
Not exactly right as many times the immigration takes a lot longer to clear than just 20 minutes. Sometimes it is over 2 hours and the bags are kept on the side of the carousel. There is no sending to the holding for a long time. In fact it takes hours for them to send the bags in case the passenger/s get held up in immigration.
The OP can easily meet his friend before going thru immigration. The Visa on Arrival Counter has many seats for passengers to wait and is fairly close the immigration corridor.