Expected time to clear ICN customs
 

Hello FT! My wife and I are flying on Thai airlines landing in icn at 6:50am on a Wednesday early Nov. Is it feasible that we can get through customs and down to the Weston chosun hotel at 87 Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul by 9am? It looks like from other reviews the Kal bus is the quickest way to get from icn to the hotel. We are in business class so at least first off the plane which we hope will help us get through customs quicker. We both have United States Passports. Thank you so much a s we are trying to organize a tour.

In my experience, customs for non-Korean citizen at ICN is always relatively quick (and not bad for Koreans either...my husband is usually out not too long after me). Once you get on the KAL limo bus, it will take you a little over an hour (maybe 80-90 minutes if you run into really bad traffic). There is a bus at 7:35 (also one at 7:10, but I dont think you'll make that one). So assuming you make the 7:35 bus, if there is a lot of traffic, you'd get to your hotel right at 9, or a few minutes before. If there is no traffic, the earliest you'd be there is 8:40-8:45.

Thank you so much! if we miss the 7:35 bus do you know the next one? Is it always every 25 min? I may try to switch my flight to land at 6:30 to give us twenty extra minutes. I think if we can make the 7:35am bus that would be ideal!

It seems like we have a very good chance of making the 7:35am bus if I change my flight and land at 6:30am? Wow 1 hour and 5 min to land, customs get our bags and get the bus. Impressive!

The next bus is at 8:00. It's not always every 25 min; they run more buses during peak times and fewer at off-peak. You can find the schedule at http://www.kallimousine.com/eng/schedule_en.asp.

You will also want to pay attention to which terminal you are coming in. If you are landing in the main terminal (typically when using KE or OZ metal) you will save about 15 min than if you land in the satellite terminal (most other carriers including KE/OZ code-shares). Since this is in the OZ forum, I will assume you are flying on OZ metal.

I fly into ICN 20 times a year or so, and I would say a typical wait for Korean immigration on a non-Korean passport is 10-15 min or so. Maybe 3 times a year I'll get unlucky and it will be 30-45 min.

Luggage comes quickly at ICN and OZ does a good job of prioritizing. If you're flying on OZ metal in J, your checked bags will be out typically around 20-25 minutes after you get off the plane. (again if you're coming into the satellite terminal, it may take a while longer)

Customs is VERY quick at ICN. Shouldn't take longer than 30 seconds. 1 time in 100, I've had my bag x-rayed and even then the entire process was 2 min.

If your flight is not delayed, I would agree with Rhubarb that you have a good chance of making the 7:35 bus on the 6:50 flight. (6:50 from the satellite terminal would be pushing it, but possible.) If you want to be safe, take the 6:30.

Actually, you can go here and put in your departure and destination and get all the times for the whole day: http://www.kallimousine.com/eng/schedule_en.asp

Looks like there is another bus at 8am. Then more frequently after that. I think if you switch your flight so you're landing at 630am it might make it less stressful for you. Even if you were a few minutes late landing, you prob would still make the 735 bus. And who knows - maybe you'd even get out fast enough to make the 710, thus not having to feel as rushed at your hotel. In theory, your luggage should come out first. If you land on time, your luggage actually does come out first, and you switch flights, I don't see why you couldn't be on the 710 bus.

Oh hey - expat covered it :) For some reason I thought you were flying KAL (prob because we were talking about KAL limo. It's too late for my brain to be functioning at normal human levels lol...). What airline are you flying?

Business class won't help you much, because TG uses the concourse terminal, and you need to wait for the next train, then get in along with everyone else who's arrived at the platform by that time. It'll only help you if you arrive at the platform just before a train is departing. But even then, your main concern isn't your fellow passengers on the TG flight, because a lot of them are Koreans, but whatever flights may have arrived just before your flight.

That time of the morning can be very bad for immigration. It's never bad for Koreans, but for foreigners you may wait up to 45 minutes. It all depends on what flights arrive just before you. If a flight arrives from Vietnam just prior to the TG flight, which happens a lot, expect a very long delay as they seem to take forever to carefully check each person flying under a Vietnamese passport. If the lines are fairly long, but with passengers just off the LH flight, the line goes much faster as they don't check out Germans/Europeans as much. It's real hit-and-miss. Sometimes I'm on that flight and I get to passport control and it's completely empty. Other times the queues are back to the wall. One huge tip though, look at the monitor sign boards above each booth. Pink is for foreigners, and I think blue for Koreans. Stand in the line of the last foriegner queue, with Korean queues on your right. If they finish processing all the Koreans, and nobody is waiting, they'll siphon off some people from the right-most foreigner line to the Korean booths. There's an immigration guy who does this and selects the people from that line to go over, so you cannot just go there on your own. But that right-most line will go significantly faster than any other line if this happens. It doesn't always happen though. If the flights just keep coming in, the Korean queues never empty and you don't get a chance to have that queue go quickly.

Having taken that TG flight lots and lots of times, your chances of getting the 7:10 bus are zero and very slim for the 7:35 if the queues are long. 8:00 should be fine unless you happen to get very unlucky or your flight is delayed.

I'm not sure how reasonable the 80-90 minute estimate for the bus ride is at that time of day, being it'll be the very peak of rush hour. I know the expressway is very busy during that time, but I've not timed it recently as I don't go that way anymore on arriving at ICN.

One word of warning if you take the earlier TG flight. It's almost always delayed. It's normal for it to leave about the same time as the later TG flight. In fact I've had on a number of occasions found it arrives in ICN after the later flight. The reason is that there's lots of Koreans on vacation to HKT, and other domestic locations in Thailand, and they catch the last possible flight to BKK, in order to maximize their vacation time. If the incoming flight is late, they end up trying to do some last minute duty free shopping, or just get lost, TG will hold the plane for them until they get there. Quite a few get mixed up and go to the wrong gate, thinking the later TG flight is their flight, not matching up the flight numbers, and have to go back to the proper gate after the realize their mistake. Anyways, it's very rare for that flight TG658 to leave on time, at least whenever I've taken it. TG656 (the later flight) leaves on-time more frequently.

Using the AREX train to Seoul station then a cab might make your journey shorter. The limo buses can get stuck in rush hour traffic on the Olympic Expressway.

As A_Lee suggests, it's very hard. If you need to make Westin chosun by 9am, consider arriving Seoul one day before. ICN is a massive, inefficient airport, especially for concourse A arrivals. Slow escalators, infrequent trains (only every 5 mins from concourse to main terminal; twice more on the other way, though), walking and walking. Taking train to Seoul will add another 10-minute just for walking + escalators, so bus is better most of the time.

Moved to Korea Forum, as this is not an airline-specific issue, but rather a destination related issue.

JDiver
senior moderator