pansted00

A friendly warning to all those flying in Y and having to go through normal inbound or outbound immigration at BKK now, it is a complete zoo.
Some friends have had to wait for 1.5 to 2 hours to clear immigration on several recent flights , either inbound or outbound, with queues snaking into the main terminal.
I have personnnaly witnessed such ridiculous queues yesterday, but luckily I was flying QR in C so I had a Fast Track immigration pass.
Apparently many people are missing their flights and yet a lot of the immigration counters remain closed at peak times.
Have they not heard that it's high tourist seaason ???

newshound

I am not questioning that this was your firends experience but my recent experience is completely the opposite. I arrived around 6pm ish on a Cathay flight from HKG last Thursday and literally had 1 person in front of me.

Leaving on Sunday at 1pm the wait was approx 10 mins.

I think it depends on when you arrive. If you get into BKK around 3.30pm as all of the Euro flights arrive you are bound to hit a lot of traffic. Similar story if you are leaving mid to late afternoon.

On arrival I always move to a different immigration hall if the first one is busy this has never failed in reducing the time I have to wait.

dsquared37

On Jan 7 at 12:30PM we were online to get our exit stamps for 45 minutes. During this time several agents decided it was their break time and nobody took their place. Meanwhile the Thai national area had 4 lines, 5 agents and no more than 7 pax at any time during the duration of out wait.

Both CX and QR had agents walking around ensuring that their pax didn't miss flights.

mcgahat

Arrived last night at 11.30pm. Longest line had about 10 people and I was through quick enough that the baggage had not started coming out at all. Not doubting the report but my experience was also the same for my wife the week before. Perhaps it was a bad day or two for BKK.

pansted00

Apparently the problem is worse for outbound immigration than inbound .

A_Lee

Thanks for the heads-up, being I'll be going through BKK six times in the next two weeks I'll be sure to leave plenty of time.

A friendly warning about posting these friendly warnings though. Don't be surprised if some raving lunatic comes on and yells at you for posting such warnings. It happened to me a year ago in this forum, and I came extremely close to losing my cool and flaming him to no end as a result, but bit my tongue and choose not to post in this forum for several months as a result. Some people on this forum evidently have almost no experience in flying and cannot comprehend the concept that queues can be horrendous at times and almost non-existent at other times, depending on the time-of-day, day-of-week, and other factors.

Electrostar

This certainly agrees with my recent experience. Arriving on 30 December (admittedly just before New Year) at 15.40 the queues at both Y passenger immigration points were solid, right back down to the arrival duty free kiosks, the sloping lead up area to the desks was completely full. I worked my way around to the extreme left of the queue where it was not quite so bad. It still took 1 hour 20 mins to get through. I should think that those who did not know and stood in the main mass of people would have waited for 2 to 3 hours certainly, maybe longer. I know this may have been a very busy time of year, but others have told me it is still bad around this time of day. Not much one can do about it, but it is well worth checking out both areas. (This applies to departures as well)

Aussie_flyer

looked bad outbound last year early december, luckily I was with a Thai and used the Thai queue, 0 people waiting there.

dsquared37

That would be my recent experience.

Yesterday's TG expedited immigration was wonderful. Only the 4 of us.

brunos

Unfortunately, I must agree with you. Some posters here seem to be armchair flyers. Furthermore, they do not comprehend that many people fly for work, not just for the excitment of posting on FT.

behuman

Can you please enlighten me how you can claim to use the Thai national queue on the grounds that you are with a Thai. I would not dare. Please give me the courage to do so in the future.

Vulcan

I departed BKK on 1/10 and got to the terminal about 1:45 PM. The regular line to go thru and get an stamp had to be well over an hour. I was flying Thai Business and used their special area at the end of the terminal. I was the only one in line and there were three agents there looking for business.

Land-of-Miles

It is fairly standard practice to accompany your partner who is a Thai national in the Thai National line. I have done this a few times (both before and after we got married) with no issues although I generally pay for the airside meet and greet limo with priority immigration as total insurance against immigration queues, although a TG F ticket works equally well.

The same arrangement works in reverse if you have a partner who is not an EU National and are in an immigration queue say at LHR it is perfectly permissible to queue together in the EU line, although again this can be avoided by registering for IRIS. We have cleared immigration using the EU line in many different EU airports prior to Mrs LoM becoming a UK citizen.

dsquared37

My Thai national always accompanies me in the *G line etc, I've never thought of accompanying her in the Thai national immigration line. Not sure how standard practice this really is.

If our next departure has immigration lines as long as I've experienced I'll give it a try.

Aussie_flyer

It is quite standard. I have never been refused. And as others have mentioned it works in reverse when we fly into Australia. I have checked with staff at entrance to passport control at BKK and been told its.no issue.