transpac

Suvarnabhumi immigration officials told to sit tight

Immigration officials on duty at Suvarnabhumi airport during morning peak hours have been ordered not to leave their stations to keep the lines of departing passengers flowing.

The stringent directive was issued by Immigration Bureau chief Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn Prousoontorn on Monday after complaints about a long wait from air travellers to have their passports stamped in the morning.

The big boss at the bureau said up to 14 officers, or about 80% of the workforce at the airport, had already been deployed in the morning but passengers claimed they saw an empty counter as some officials might have gone to the toilet during the long working hours. To solve the problem, Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn said he had ordered all duty officers to never leave their desks from 6am to 9am.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/gene...d-to-sit-tight

Dalo

A tip for travel to and from Don Muang airport (DMK) . Take the Skytrain to it's most Northern stop : Mo Chit . Exit on the West side down to street level and walk a little way North to the bus stop for the A1 / A2 bus . This bus will take you to Terminal one DMK .
You can walk indoors to 'departures' Terminal two .
Returning catch the A1 or A2 bus and tell the conductor 'Mo Chit' and they will tell you when time to hop out . Then you can enter the Mo Chit MRT ( subway ) station or walk a little further to the Mo Chit BTS ( Skytrain ) station . Hopefully you will need to go somewhere near one of the MRT or BTS stations .

transpac

Pretty sure this information has been posted multiple times in this thread?

In addition to the Mor Chit BTS station, the Chatuchuk Park MRT subway stop is co-located at the same place.

patrick999

I heard about some immigration delays at BKK. I'm leaving at 7:10 am on NH with no status, economy, this Saturday. I'm staying at the airport hotel Novotel. What time do I need to get there? I can't check in on-line and am not checking baggage.

seanthepilot

There are no issues with check-in. You're staying at the airport so transportation issues are not a concern either.

You have to decide how comfortable are you missing your flight if you cut it too close.

Nobody is going to suggest a short time frame for the unknown like immigration games. Normally, an hour would be fine. With immigration problems, I'd stick with the airline propoganda of 2 to 3 hours before your flight/boarding time.

patrick999

Thanks for the feedback... it turned out the wait at the ticket counter was the longest, about 30 mins. Everything else was quick.

CJKatl

Data Point: Arrived DMK around 16:00 Saturday. The immigration lines were backed up to the far wall and down the hall. Every counter was open but one, and no agents took breaks while we were there. I was standing in line with a Turk who now lives in Australia who was on his first trip to Bangkok. We noted the time when we got on line. We got to the front 48 minutes later.

When leaving through customs, they were X-raying bags. It seemed they were checking bigger bags. Two agents had an active discussion whether one of my bags needed to be scanned. There was a back-up for the scanner. Fortunately, a third agent was the tie-breaker who allowed me to avoid waiting in that line.

transpac

Perhaps due to a shortfall in collections, and maybe buying too many submarines, there appears to be an increased focus on tax/duty collections across all channels led by the Excise Dept. There have been some rumblings of increasing the VAT from 7 % to 8 %, and alcohol and tobacco taxes are set for a very steep increase (up to 150%) soon as well. There have been announcements on mail/parcel deliveries recently but easy to understand that this may impacting airport arrivals as well. The Excise Dept. is usually waiting outside the Customs exit(s) as these two organizations are separate. I might be a bit more careful re: self-importing goods vs. declaring them? Thai cabin staff have lucrative businesses pre-ordering luxury items, but they are, mostly, immune for now.

seanthepilot

For those that fly Air Asia from DMK

On my last flight, I used online check-in, but was refused entry by the boarding pass checkers with my e-boarding pass. They insisted I go get a paper one. Note, I've flown through almost every weekend for the past 18 months, and never heard of this.

I went to Air Asia check-in and the line was huge. The line at the check-in kiosks was just as bad.

I just walked up to the government check-in line and got it printed there...

FYI

1786771

This ja a Problem ever since they started flying from DMK. Easiest still is to check in online and then print the boarding pass at the check in machines. Bar code on the phone is sufficient. Done.

tide

I think PP said he had been doing this many times and only ran into resistance on last flight (recent). Also he noted check-in kiosks had long lines.

I'd be interested if this is applies to all airlines out of DMK or just FD. I've used mobile BPs for Nok, Thai Lion and FD with no issues in the past but my last flight 2 weeks ago on Nok, I had paper BPs because I had check-in luggage.

CJKatl

I flew FD this morning out of DMK. For some reason, I cannot check-in online or through the kiosks, which may be because of a lost/replaced passport. (Postman lost it on delivery - scanned to the wrong house and just vaporized.) Anyway, I wound up talking to a guy from Malaysia who was on my flight. We walked through immigration, security and onto the flight together. He had a mobile boarding pass on his phone and did not have any issue. Maybe it's not an official thing. Maybe it's just some agents who don't know better?

ChocolateFactory

I will be flying business class from Jakarta to BKK on GA, then go to the St. Regis.
GA told me I would "be treated as value customer."
Does anyone know what that means in practice?

I've only been at BKK once before and immigration was a mess. But back then I was in coach (business class was fully booked), and only my girl-friend was flying business class, so maybe we just didn't see the immigration fast track for business class passengers?

The alternative would be to pay 1,500 THB per person and have somebody from the St. Regis escort us through immigration.

Also, car transfer to the St. Regis is 3,200 THB per car (Mercedes S300).
Is that a good deal or would be better off just ordering an Uber Black or Blackline?
I don't really feel like taking an UberX to the hotel as those cars are often small and we'll have large bags.

Thanks!

steviewire

I landed at BKK about 3 weeks ago and took about 15 minutes to get through immigration. Maybe travelling on business class your airline will give you a fast pass through immigration.

As far as transfers it depends how you value door to door service and value for money of course. IMO 3200 THB is expensive although you will be travelling in style. A cab would be much cheaper. Or for an even cheaper option I took the train to my hotel in the Silom area for two of us costing 170 THB. The train isn't for everyone as it gets busy and with baggage rather inconvenient in having to change trains but eh ho, maybe a cab for us next time

ChocolateFactory

Yes, maybe travelling in business class will give me a fast pass through immigration. Or maybe not. That was my question.

Of course 3200 THB is a lot of money in Thailand, I am well aware of that. I could also stay at a hostel instead of the St. Regis.
My question was whether it would be a good deal for that type of comfort, or if we would be better off taking an Uber Black or a local limousine company.
Edit: Ok, so Uber Black is about 1,000 THB, so we'll go for that instead. The only question is what GA offer at BKK...