Chaos at Don Mueang as unstaffed immigration desks leave thousands of passengers stranded

[mogo51]

The same thing happen ed 3 weeks ago at Suvanabhumi  Airport.  I saw people approaching Immigration Officers only to watch them brushed off and told to get back in the queue.  Such arrogance.  No announcement or apologies and it started at check in and went all the way through the system.  Took me more than 3 hours to get thru and had to run to departure gate.

[metisdead]

Off topic posts and replies have been removed. 

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, shady86 said:

This problem has been ongoing for the past few years also at Suvarnabhumi. Most of the time only half of the counters are manned. My worst experience so far was 1 hr queue at DMK. I hope I never need to use that airport again.

 

I had to queue for over an hour at DM to check in for a flight to Singapore. On my return I didn't have to queue at all. Some countries can organise properly, some couldn't organise a pissup in a brewery.

[newnative]

 Tourism iTourism is about the only bright spot in the economy.  You would think they would be doing everything under the sun not to have bone-headed things like this happen.  And, of course, no apology from Immigration in what was posted, just a lame passing of the blame.

[Ling Kae]

This is disgraceful, I have never ever had to wait at any airport in the world for 5 hours to get processed. Saying they didn't get the schedule is rediculous. A 5 year old child could look up a flight arrival schedule for any airport in the world in a minute or so. Shame on you Thailand.

[steven100]

1 hour ago, binjalin said:

Don't hijack (pun intended) this thread and turn it into your normal, cringing love for Prayut please.  The poster was right a fish stinks from it's head.

As I inferred, it has nothing to do with Khun Prayuth Cha O Cha so stop throwing mud.

I agree it is not acceptable and it should be fixed so it doesn't happen again, however the answer should be constructive rather than the usual farang whinge & whining and Thailand bashing,  not dissimilar to yours.     don't know why some people stay here... there are plenty of other countries that seem quite nice ....  lol

[Thechook]

Those damn plane arriving unanounced.

[Beats56]

Why isn't the airport near pattaya used more if you are going to that area? If it's domestic then i would rather use that airport than driving all the way to Bangkok to go to DM.

[Deez]

2 hours ago, trogers said:

Perhaps this immigration task can be contracted out to King Power?

Good idea. Much easier to plant "stolen" items as well.  

[trainman34014]

1 hour ago, bikerbri said:

Could it be an"Act of God"?

 

No; those evil spirits again !

[anon789561]

2 hours ago, Dobredin Ghusputin said:

 

I've always wanted to do that on my way out of Bangkok.

And why would you want to do that? Strange 

[kensisaket]

Newsflash for the people working at Don Muang, those big electronic boards everywhere flashing "Delayed" under flight status does not mean those planes aren't going to land eventually.  

[overherebc]

16 minutes ago, Beats56 said:

Why isn't the airport near pattaya used more if you are going to that area? If it's domestic then i would rather use that airport than driving all the way to Bangkok to go to DM.

2 hour queue last time I used it, flying back from HCMC, I think.

Edit it was from KL.

[Blackheart1916]

2 hours ago, trogers said:

Perhaps this immigration task can be contracted out to King Power?

And have a sliding scale of service, depending on how much you spend in KP on arrival. I would gladly force a bottle or two of Scotch on myself to expedite the process!!

[prakhonchai nick]

2 hours ago, JeezeLooeze said:

And to add to injury many immigration staff are not familiar with the Permanent Residence Book or the 1 year Business Visas and how to process them.

That is very true....not just at Don Muang, but at Suvarnabhumi and land border crossings too. I refer to PR.

 

My last departure through Suvarnabhumi caused the immigration officer to close the desk, move those behind me to other lines and call for help.   Three immigration women of increasing seniority arrived within the next 10 minutes, and none knew what to do. In the end they accepted my word that both passport and residence book required stamping.

 

Recently at Chong Chom land border after returning from Cambodia, the officer insisted I fill in a new TM6 card. He would not accept that I was similar to a Thai and exited on a new TM6. I refused and stood my ground for well over 10 minutes, whilst the line was gettting longer and longer. Eventually he sought advice, accepted the 2nd part of the TM6 and stamped me back in.

 

[jayguzz]

It's ok, they look like Chinese


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[Pilotman]

2 hours ago, quadperfect said:

This is unacceptable. 

Have you read about Europe in the last few days?  This is not a Thai only  issue.  The US  Immigration process has always been a nightmare and they don't give a shxt about passengers discomfort. 

[grantbkk]

As you said ... employ managers who can manage properly and organize properly.
But it's not Khun Prayuth Chan O Cha's fault so his remarks as always are completely only directed at the leader and as such rubbish ...
 
by the way ...    what does instructive mean  ?  ...  lol

Total BS. The General has taken on all problem and issues more directives than any junta leader in history. He includes orders covering girls twerking, flooding, suppression of free speech, only ugly woman should wear bikinis, using the cash on hand for expenses instead of borrowing, thought Thai should be the world's universal language, no perp walks, ordered planes, trains, submarines and armored personnel carriers and says the operation of Thailand is his alone. The General is where the buck stops. Remember the Coup a few ago. He is large and in charge. Deal with it. The situation at DM is outrageous And not one person believes the lies but what can you do? Coverup, malfeasance, incompetence, bad attitude, etc. it is on him.


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[RichardColeman]

Nothing as good as making your economy rely on tourists by Pi**ing them off before they step outside the airport !

[eddysmit]

2 hours ago, overherebc said:

I couldn't afford the price of the passport stamp if that was the case.

Is there a priority or over 70's lane in DM as there is in Swampy?

Overherebc, I didn't realize there was a priority lane for such, is this a new one or have I been walking with head down for too long, to be honest it would not have included me before anyway, and may be the reason not to have noticed.

[sanemax]

1 hour ago, wvavin said:

Close the airport if Thailand is so incompetent to handle the number of passengers. 

I dont think that closing the airport down would be the best solution

I would suggest that getting more immigration officers would be the better option 

 

[Misterwhisper]

3 hours ago, owl sees all said:

I think there is a call for portable toilets. Just push them up and down the queues and let the waiting passengers use them. 

"Peanuts, chocolate bars, sodas, cigarettes, newspapers, toilet facilities! Anyone? Anyone?"

[geriatrickid]

Unfortunate, but it  doesn't really matter to the government. Yes, that's what I wrote.

The tourists keep on coming. Instead of peeing on the floor, they could be peed on, and they would still come. Nothing stops them.

[csabo]

Even if they had no idea so many flights were coming in together which in itself is inexcusable, they could have even called in staff when they first saw the crisis. Start making phone calls and paying overtime and staff could have been there in an hour to help. Who ever is in charge should be fired immediately. I hope one day the thousands of people on line realize a half dozen I/O's would be powerless if everyone just walked through the gates. I have been stuck for almost 2 hours coming into Phuket and I thought that was a disaster. Fist fights breaking out and people passing out waiting for medical attention but 4 hours is absolutely insane and totally unforgivable. Fire the boss now. 

 

[jobwolf]

I find it amazing that they know which planes are late and how many people are on them but they

are unable to fix the duty roster and have officers ready for the arrivals. Maybe officers also need to be told to take breaks when there is time for it, not every time at the same hour and also not to come back late.

A busy bar anywhere in Thailand is better organized then these guys.

[Belzybob]

3 hours ago, owl sees all said:

I think there is a call for portable toilets. Just push them up and down the queues and let the waiting passengers use them. 

Nah, the cleverly thought out solution (special commission convened) will be 'no pissing' pictographs in all queuing areas.

[harada]

This seems to happen every couple of years methinks there is either baht or politics behind it. 

[Sydebolle]

Well, Facebook was full of pictures taken.

Some general comments; to land, taxi park and disembark 25 airplanes at 200 pax each will take how long? How many ground handling staff are needed to manage this? 

Obviously there they cannot goof around with hours of delay in handling aircraft as the operator would make it crystal clear that ground handling delays are costly and latter is borne, in this case, by the Airports Authority of Thailand. 

Immigration is a domestic affair and, given that maze of visa types, the Somchais - not familiar with computers and inability to use 10 fingers when typing, do not speed up matters either. It takes skills to read all these different hand writings and it is idiotic to repeat all elements on the departure part which are already written on the arrival card.
Simplify forms, i.e. the passport number and country of issuance is sufficient; forget about the issuing date and place etc. Put only one page cards, to be completed on arrival and simply taken out on departure.

Most passports these days are machine-readable. Swipe 'em through which defaults most information; stamp in the arrival/departure date - and scan the arrival card; automatically attached to the record created by the machine-readable information. This would bring down the time to 10 seconds per passenger.

But yeah, nobody in this country listens - yet fly to i.e. Singapore and see how they (can) handle their immigration. 

[Dave67]

The Hub of quality immigration queues 

[Xonax]

This is worse than entering Russia during the cold war.