South London Bon Viveur

It's my first time on the BA17 in a few weeks, and I was wondering from more experienced FTer's what the immigration/baggage wait times are likely to be on arrival. My previous experience of ICN was that it was pretty efficient on all fronts, but that was may years ago. Assuming on time arrival at 07:35 how quickly can I reasonably expect to be out in baggage hall?

Englishlee0710

I flew this route (in CW) last in April. The queues were quite long and from memory it took about an hour from deplaning, clear immigration, collect bags to meeting driver.

TedToToe

Likewise, my experience arriving on BA17 in December 2019 was the same. Adjacent aircraft were Thai 744 and SQ 781, so quite a few passengers in arrivals ahead of us.

rjhcambs

Not good a few years ago.. Arrived in F with about three others so first off plane. Reached immigration to be met by long queues for foreigners. No fast track. One of us had a connecting domestic flight to Busan and in the end went to the desks for Koreans and they eventually let him through. Coming back at check in after asking about fast track I was walked through the crew immigration channel so worth asking. I also remember that the lounge signage was not great.

ThatT1Feeling

I used to do this route quite regularly, often in F, and after a couple of 45-minute waits at the carousel, I then started to take HBO for my client engagements in Seoul. Generally I was finding that I couldn't be sure to get to my client meetings which started in Gangnam at 9.30am if I waited for my baggage.

As others have said, if travelling in F you can get escorted through the crew and VIP line for security which is helpful.

South London Bon Viveur

Thanks everyone- not F unfortunately, but the helpful advice will allow me to plan accordingly. I'll anticipate a long wait and if out quicker it will be a bonus.

Kgmm77

Have only flown this route once, but 75+ mins at immigration deterred me from ever connecting ICN-GMP again. The line wasn’t particularly long (by HKG/BKK/HND standards) but moved incredibly slowly. The BA flight appeared to land behind a few Chinese flights with large tour groups which didn’t help.

328

I'm not an ICN regular, but happen to have arrived on 3 different flights so far this year, twice into T1 (one of those on BA17) and once into T2.

Generally I'd agree with the above that immigation is a pretty horrific experience. On Sunday evening I arrived into T2 fairly late from TPE and queued for 20 minutes - there were only 16 people ahead of me but a single desk for 'foreigners' and no sign of any interest in opening any more. By the time I was through the line was 40+ people. Arriving on a CX flight into T1 earlier in the month I queued for more than 40 minutes having joined a queue of several hundred being served by 6 desks.

So, I'd certainly go expecting the worst. However, for my BA17 arrival I was first to immigration from the flight and was straight through with no queue at all.

Sadly, although S Koreans can use automated gates at LHR there's no hint of reciprocity...

ThatT1Feeling

Just goes to show YMMV. Immigration for the early BA flight was always a breeze for me at ICN. That’s the one bit which has always been quick, with a max of 2 or 3 people ahead of me in the immigration line.