DPS Immigration
 

I looked through previous threads and could not find anything. Does CX give J passengers Fast Track in DPS (Arriving/Departing)?

Although I cannot confirm, as I havent flown J to DPS only in Y, I do not think a fast track system is in place in DPS from CX. This is because immigration requires passengers to buy visa on arrival I think.

So the advantage you have is by being in J, you are first off the aircraft. Perhaps it would be good to sit downstairs as opposed to upstairs if you are on the 747, so you really can be off the plane first.

China Airlines lands just before CX into DPS in the afternoon, and their flight is often also a 747, and so lines can be very long for immigration, so if no fast track is available, it is very wise to walk quickly to reach the immigration lines.

There is a way you can fast track by paying a fee, you can be greeted by someone at the arrival gate who will escort you through immigration and assist you with your baggage. This will ensure a quick arrival process, but it is expensive. This set up needs to be pre-arranged.

No fast track.
If you are a couple, I suggest that one of you line up at immigration while the other go to buy the visa and joins you in the immigraiton lane with the visa.
The escort guys usually take you to the immigration booths on the right of the usual booths. They are designated for other visas and crew (or something like that) and tend to have shorter lines. But the escort poeple have no priority, so it is rather useless to hire them. Baggage for J pax is usually arriving very quickly and are collected by staff near a post designated CX Business class.
if you are in biz and among the first to get off the plane, the process can be fast. But if another big plane has just landed, then can be a long wait.

I have taken the escort service before, and despite using crew lines, it is a lot faster, especially if you are travelling in Y. But of course the thread starter will be travelling J, and so best advice is to make your way to immigration as quick as possible, and splitting up lines will make process faster! Make sure you do not stop until you get to the line, toilets etc... are available on the otherside of immigration.

When ever I take the flight most passengers come off it basicly running as they know the lines take a long time. I will be flying to DPS in August so will have to deal with the lines then...

Last Nov it took 5 min to clear immigration at DPS, there were over a dozen counters open (instead of the usual 2 or 3). So the authorities appear to be trying to help. Customs was very interested in number of bottles of duty free (luckily I had exactly the legal limit). The only priority line at DPS is for APEC, if you have that it comes in very handy (you skip VOA and can use the diplomatic line, which is usually empty). As stated the numerous escort services are somewhat scams, however they do bribe the staff and are usually able to use the crew line, which is sometimes faster. But I was quite impressed with my last trip to DPS how much faster and better it was than in the past. I guess the problem is there are many flights that land at certain times of day, and CX happens to have one of the worst arrival times from that standpoint.

Agreed re getting better (from my own limited experience).

Immigration lines at DPS have been close to nil my last three trips there - Dec 09, Dec 10, and Feb 11. Have been dinged with heavy waits (45 mins+) in Nov 08 and Oct 09 though. All my flights in were on CX785, so it seems pretty hard to predict, but cross your fingers.

Well it seems my information is a bit out of date then. I havent been to DPS for 2 years, and so it must be that they have improved the situation. It will be interesting to see the improvement when I go in August.

If one person in a family group holds an APEC card, is it possible for the entire family to go through the APEC channel? I ask this as only 1 person in my family has it, and it would be good to use it for when we travel together to DPS

What travel document will you be using to enter Indonesia ?

No airlines flying into DPS offer complimentary fast-track to passengers. There is a reputable pay-service though, The Bali Concierge.

http://www.thebaliconcierge.com/VIP-...t-Service.html

The staff escort you into a lounge while they sort out immigration - relatively hassle-free. CX's DPS flight lands around half an hour after the TG flight (which is being upgraded to 744 equipment, from the original A330 later this month) but depending on whether or not the TG flight is early/on-time or late, you could be in for a long wait.

We will be using a US Passport.

In my last trip in February, I also experienced that immigration at DPS had vastly improved. Many booths and quick and friendly officers (at least mine). Seems negatively correlated with what is happening at Thai immigration (long lines and very very slow officers).

I'm still debating whether to do VOA or get visa in advance. I will be entering DPS twice in the same trip

Getting visa in advance is always better, and there are dedicated immigration counters if you hold a visa instead of using VOA, so you save time there as well as in avoiding the VOA queue (which can take time at peak hours). But getting a visa can be a hassle and isn't automatically granted, while VOA is easy but of limited validity.

The queue in the visa in advance / visa free line tends to be more predictable, whereas the queue in VOA line can be short on a good day and very long on a bad day. So visa in advance / visa free line is quicker on average, though not always the case.