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

[terryofcrete]

In May, when it was NOT busy, my family arrived in Don Mueng from Hong Kong and waited 2 hours in the queue. It was their first visit and , therefore , their first impression of Thailand . So it must be understaffed at all times possibly ?  

[observer90210]

another reason to never to invest money in this country....disgraceful!

[overherebc]

8 minutes ago, hhinhh said:

I traveled more than 100 countries and found that there are two location where you can quickly see what a country is like. One is the airport (hard and soft ware) and public toiletts. You may check this on your next trips and I guess you will agree.

You can judge how advanced or not a country is by the number of stamps they put in your passport. Everytime I flew to Egypt the stamps filled two pages on the old blue British passport that was twice the size of the one you get now.

[Get Real]

A little extended travelling time. Not much of a fuzz. 

[Laughing Gravy]

My apologies ,as I have not read all of the comments but I came in "swampi" on Friday morning and that was a shambles too. The queue was so long they opened the other side of immigration and still it took over two hours for me to get through. It has never taken that long in over 16 years and I come in and out regularly. Obviously the same no planning, forward thinking, incompetence, ignorance stupidity etc etc can be used. Either way a disgrace for a supposedly modern airport. Shame on those in charge.

[chippendale]

Thailand: Hub of mediocrity

[elliss]

5 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. 

             Good  thinking ,  50 bht per minute , krap .

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

31 minutes ago, observer90210 said:

another reason to never to invest money in this country....disgraceful!

In the 80's and early 90's Thailand was a very different place and you could make good money here as an investor. Today I would not invest one dollar here. A country with a great climate and mostly nice people in a central location in SE. Asia, hijacked by an ultra-national-royalist elite so far from reality that they will not even understand what hit them the day when they are finally kicked out. 

[cmrichsw]

The blame game played again

 

[gk10002000]

5 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. 

Mel Brooks movie "History of the World" .  Oh Piss boy, piss boy.

[Mad mick]

6 hours ago, Thian said:

Oh boy, standing in puddles of urine for many hours in row...Welcome to Thailand you quality tourists! 

amazing thailand

[chuang]

1 hour ago, moe666 said:

I never fly to DM not even the domestic, the prices are not that cheap to put up with the long lines. People do have options but o well trying to save a few bucks by flying Air Asia

Flying domestic into DM you don't need to go thr immigration. 

[DieterWiehe]

7 hours ago, Thian said:

Oh boy, standing in puddles of urine for many hours in row...Welcome to Thailand you quality tourists! 

it is also a remedy for athletes foot 555 

[GoNavy]

Air travel throughout the world in one way or the other has become almost intolerable.  Much of it is the luck of the draw on leaving or arriving during a rush.  You'd think with the electronic technology there would be a quicker reaction.  I don't think I've had it this bad but close.  In the Twin Cities of Minnesota about 3 large planes arrived and when entering immigration NO ONE was at the desks.  OMG, I coming from an international flight no less.  Waiting another  15" or thereabouts finally officials were dragging their asses and not moving all that fast started setting up their stations.  There were a few thousands of us also.  So this debacle can happen anywhere.  The United States, though they say they are improving, remains a mess and I dread returning or leaving due to the snake lines.  Then to save on labor the States have gone into kiosks for check-in with minimal assistance. Then haul your luggage to another location for the X-ray check before lining to the security line.  We all know of folks, myself including having missed a flight by minutes due to this bureaucracy.  I know.........better to be safe then sorry.  But are we?  Really?  Then you haven't even entered the plane yet with seats for teenagers.  

[marke985]

My experience at Don Meuang on Thursday July 27 around 3pm.  I slept for about an hour on a near by bench hoping the lines would shorten.

 

When I finally stood in line it was 2 hours 20mins, but I did not forcefully keep Chinese from cutting the line until two Koreans where constantly pushing me in the back as they were tired of the Chinese forming their own line and then merging into the regular lines once we got close to the roped off area.

[lvr181]

And Minister Kobkharn said.............................................. ?? 

 

And the National Police Chief (head of immigration dept.) said.............. ?? 

 

And the PM said...................?? 

 

I thought so, nobody has any idea of whats going on or have planned for "unexpected" events 

 

Despite all the rhetoric, still stuck on Thailand 1.0.

 

I just hope they don't have to engage in war.

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, overherebc said:

Immigration zone according to google.

My post made no sense, sorry, zone 2.

[samsensam]

 

so the immigration boss didnt get the memo, didnt he think to ask for it? or a quick look at the arrivals board when he arrived for work would give him the information he needed. nah, better just to sit around in blind ignorance and when it all goes predictably wrong simply blame someone else.

[Bangkok Barry]

6 hours ago, Mark T said:

The boss should have handedin the resignation. An unmanned immigration? There should be at least a few operational at any time!

 

I did actually arrive early one morning at Swampy and was one of the first to the immigration desks (fast walker, me ). Not one, not one, was manned. Quite incredible.

[Ling Kae]

5 hours 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.

Good question, the tens of thousands of tourists coming to Pattaya would be better off landing right there at Utapo. It would solve a lot of problems.

[Bangkok Barry]

4 hours ago, Pilotman said:

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. 

 

No-one has said it is a Thai only issue. But this is a forum about Thailand. And there are problems.

[sambum]

7 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?

Please explain! I've never heard of that one!

 

[Peterphuket]

This is a true contempt for the visitors of your country, and also proves the resposible,  have little brain.

[bannork]

6 minutes ago, Ling Kae said:

Good question, the tens of thousands of tourists coming to Pattaya would be better off landing right there at Utapo. It would solve a lot of problems.

It's the terminals at U-Tapao that are the problems- they're not designed to handle more than a few flights a day.

However, according to Wikipedia-  A new second terminal, which will increase airport capacity from 800,000 to three million persons per year, will open in late-2017. Airport director, Rear Adm Worapol Tongpricha, said the 620 million baht terminal is the start of a three-year, first-phase development. In the second phase, the government will boost the capacity further to 15 million people.

[Bangkok Barry]

4 hours ago, Sydebolle said:

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.

 

The UAE doesn't use forms at all.  The information they want is on the passport. <deleted> does immigration need to know where you are staying, with absolutely no idea that what you write is true anyway. If they can manage, why not Thailand or anywhere else.

[Jonnapat]

Clueless as usual. Nobody is ever to blame for fear of loss of face.

Airports are way behind their SE Asia rivals and always will be

[dcnx]

8 hours ago, Thian said:

Oh boy, standing in puddles of urine for many hours in row...Welcome to Thailand you quality tourists! 

More quality tourists to be lured. 

 

A person wouldn't return to put up with such nonsense unless they had to or had an addiction to feed. 

 

Then, once those quality tourists finally do get in, they are scammed at every corner all the way up to their departure when they are finally on their plane.

 

 

[dcnx]

49 minutes ago, samsensam said:

 

so the immigration boss didnt get the memo, didnt he think to ask for it? or a quick look at the arrivals board when he arrived for work would give him the information he needed. nah, better just to sit around in blind ignorance and when it all goes predictably wrong simply blame someone else.

It's not like they do this every day, all day, 365 days per year. 

 

Give them a break, it's hard work doing the same thing over and over for decades on end. 

[Dogmatix]

Perhaps Pol. Lt. Gen. Nathathorn should be transferred to the Immigration post at the Three Pagodas Pass for this performance at Don Muang. 

[captspectre]

time and time again this has happened at swampy and don maung! these incompetents are let lose to try to run a system they know nothing about! and the tot constantly says they are improving the system. it is inconsevable that immigration did not know about the latest incoming flights, what did they think happened to them? aliens kidnapping them? the tourist HAVE to have an avenue to officially complain about this! when they do, the offender is transferred to an inactive post which means to a different airport. I can't believe that someone did not call the head man and tell him what was happening. the bottomline is they don't give a dam! making a tourist wait for five hours just to come into this third world country and spend his money is just a bit much. if I were a tourist i would avoid this place like the plague!