long delay at immigration

Just wanted to find out from fellow travellers if the 90 min wait i had to endure while trying to clear immigrations is normal. Landed at the international airport at 135, deplane at about 145 and did not clear customs which thankfully was a breeze till 315pm. Was i simply unlucky or is this quite normal for a Thursday afternoon?

Thanks for your advice.

long delay at immigration

Hello Rafflesia,

I don%26#39;t know how busy it was when you arrived at immigrations and how many desks were open. I think they have three different entrances/sections for the immigrations at Bangkok International Airport. In June I also took the wrong one and had to wait for a while too. It takes about 3/4 minute per pax. They check and recheck your passport and you have to look into the minicamera.

long delay at immigration

Rafflesia

BKK airport has 800 planes in and out each day so it%26#39;s a busy airport. peak times though are usually 0600-0900, 1600-1900 and 2200-0100 so it%26#39;s surprising in one way that you had to endure a 90 minute wait. however this is not the first time i have heard of singaporeans having to endure close scrutiny at the airport and some awful behaviuour at some resorts in thailand. and here is the reason, i think.

i don%26#39;t know if you recall but the previous prime minister sold his company to Temasek which is the singapore government investment company for nearly 2 billion US dollars. now many thais believe that Thaksin should have payed capital gains tax when he sold this company but he didn%26#39;t. also they didn%26#39;t want to see thai assets in singaporean hands. in a way thais see Temasek as complicit in this and as a result there is still a lot of negative feeling towards singapore about letting thaksin get away with it.

so it%26#39;s payback time. then again there may have been a rush of planes when you arrived.

bkk3

Forgive me for being dumb.... but where is the connection between payback time for Singaporeans and waiting time at the BKK airport?.. Do they line up people who arrive from Singapore and force them to wait in a separate line?..

As already suggested.. BKK is a very busy airport.. and as people know.. busy airports equal wait.. I waited an hour and a half at BKK before and the same at other airports.. Just recently longer than that when clearing immigration at Charles De Gaulle (with an EU passport)... Moral is.. if you have connecting flights.. allow for at least 3 hours.. or risk missing your connection.

mosiegreen

actually i%26#39;ll tell you another story i heard from a friend here who has a singaporean girlfriend who lives with him and works here.

they went on holiday about 2 months ago to a resort in krabi, so it was low season. some of the girls family members came from singapore as well. the resort was only about at 1/3 capacity. according to my friend their treatment at the hotel was terrible compared to other people who were holidaying there. service was slow and sometimes non-existant compared to othe rholidaymakers. tours were not available even though others were booking them via the hotel. they were not allowed to upgrade their rooms - no explanation. no transport was available for them to the airport even though people had left for the airport earlier that day.

now i don%26#39;t expect you to understand the psyche of a thai when he%26#39;she has felt that they have been wronged, but at the time there was a huge amount of negative sentiment directed against the singapore government for buying Shin corp as they felt it was a national asset that should not be sold. the army felt it was a national security issue as the sale involved the sale of communication satellites. the papers were full of it, english and thai national dailies. that sentiment still lingers and it is no surprise that they had to wait for so long. however i did point out that there may be other explanations. but don%26#39;t for one moment think that thais are all smiles and nice and helpful 24/7, particularly at immigration and customs. thai society is quite divide here and racism is very evident, more so than in other asian countries i have lived and worked in.

bkk3

Dear Bkk3 and mosgrisen,

thanks for your reply. Appreciate your views. Bkk3, have been following your threads and i guess, u are truly deserving of being awarded the title local expert. Thank you for your views regarding the pysche of the Thai%26#39;s and the business transaction regarding Temasek holdings and Shin corp. Very interesting. However, I tend to agree with mosgrisen on this one as singaporeans were not the only ones that had to endure long waits. There were at least 5 other international flights with travellers from 2 asian,european and at least 1 middle eastern country waiting for their turn. I was bored and so was looking at the various passports and behavior and reaction of travellers. Will take it that this must have been one of the peak hours at the airport. It will be interesting if air travel magazines like business traveller would to write an article on the waiting time at the various international airports. I was prepared to wait 30-45 mins but must admit was not prepared for the 90 min wait. Thanks again.

Rafflesia

It%26#39;s pot luck! It has taken me over the tears probably an average of 40 minutes - but two weeks ago for the first time ever I walked straight up uo pasport control with no queue or wait at all.

Hello :

I was at the new airport in May, 2007. Arrived 01:30AM. at

the wee hour , the immigration counter was not that busy

. However, it took me 40minutes to get thru. the gate due to

some south Asians in front of me. I can say with a USA

passport , the officer did not hesitate to check me in Thailand

at all , just make sure fill out the immigration form in both sides.

I shall be better prepare when I come back this airport later

this year. I like the architecture design of this one a lot better

than the old structure LAX. with more open space %26amp; high ceiling.

Enjoy your trip,

Bangkok has always been slow on immigration though fortunately they do not have the small customs room that they had in Ye Olde days where the Bangkok Gestapo gave us all a hard time before we were let into the country.

Last December I arrived at about 11 AM and walked straight through without problems. As I am on the same flight this year, I hope for the same result.