Thread: Immigration deflects criticism: Suvarnabhumi arrivals 'overwhelming' bureau

I think it is agreed that the Thai way of doing things SUCKS. Do I have an amen?

^ agreed 100%. But when its alright to lie what do you expect?

Yes a relly in Thailand paid for her son to have a nice job in the RTP.

^^

I am not sure what the going rate is to be a Royal Thai Police or Immigration Officer?
I have heard different figure bandied about concerning being a Police/ Immigration Officer.

No doubt someone on here will have an idea and enlighten us?

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Suvarnabhumi 7th in global survey | Bangkok Post: breakingnews

Suvarnabhumi 7th in global survey

• Published: 29/03/2012 at 07:08 PM
• Online news:

Suvarnabhumi Airport was placed seventh in the Best Airport Worldwide category at the 2011 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards, Narongchai Tanadchangsaeng, the deputy general manager of operation lines, said on Thursday.

The ranking, given by Airports Council International (ACI), was for the category of best airport handling more than 40 million passengers a year, FO Narongchai said.

Suvarnabhumi Airport was fifth in 2010 for Best Airport by Size in handling more than 40 million passengers a year.

The top five for the Best Airport handling more than 40 million passengers a year are Changi, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai Pudong and Guangzhou Airport in China.

The ACI announced the recipients of its annual ASQ awards for 2011 last month. However, it declined to give the position of Suvarnabhumi, citing that it depended on the Airports of Thailand (AoT) to reveal the information. The AoT also declined to comment at the time.

The survey is based on the responses of 350,000 passengers in 200 airports worldwide who were asked to rate their satisfaction with the airports they use before boarding their flights.

FO Narongchai said Suvarnabhumi Airport received a higher score on a 5-point scale, from 3.90 in 2007, which was the first year it entered the ACI’s global survey, to 4.32 in 2011.

He said the airport will continue to improve its services which received a low level of passenger satisfaction, for example, offering free wi-fi service and the planned instalment of an automatic passport screening system, known as auto-gates, to help ease the increasing workload at immigration desks.

The AoT will install 16 auto-gates at the airport on April 11. They will be split equally between the departure area and arrival halls.


Overcrowding at Suvarnabhumi Airport. PHOTO: WISIT THAMNGERN


The Immigration Bureau will deploy auto-gates for Thai passport screening starting on April 11. PHOTO COURTESY OF POL MAJ GEN NATHATHORN PROUSOONTORN.

An Immigration spokesperson today said "We already have all the stainless steel boxes for the Auto-gates, the problem we are having is finding enough small people to sit inside."

Originally Posted by aging one

^ agreed 100%. But when its alright to lie what do you expect?

Don't forget about lying and taking tea money AO. On second thought, I guess that could be considered a way of lying.

Originally Posted by thehighlander959

Fast track card

they have been handing fast track passes for business class out since the beginning of the year.

but no pass coming in so you need to use the normal immigration , unless you hold a APEC business traveller card

^
I still have a couple of Fast track cards for inbound which I keep in my travel wallet.
As I do this trip on a month on and month off basis and have got to know some of the Pursers and crews and Emirates ground staff its not really an issue.

I will be coming back in on the 26th April on the EK 375 in the morning if there is a problem.
I will get one the Emirates groundstaff to escort me through immigration, I have seen them do it for First Class and Diplomatic Passengers

^^I have paid the 700 baht for fast track service this time mainly because i am not flying with my usual airline so no fast track cards.
Not going to chance a big queue when a few baht will get you through in few minutes.

Originally Posted by klong toey

I have paid the 700 baht for fast track service

how do you do that ? - I would be interested on using that service on arrival

Auto Gates are being installed to keep the lines short at SVB

BANGKOK, 29 March 2012 -Following the recent complaints over the endless lines of passengers waiting to be processed at the immigration, Suvarnabhumi Airport has now adopted new approaches to keep the problem at bay.

Media reports of complaints showed there were not enough officials at the immigration to keep the lines moving quickly. The lines of outbound passengers were so long that they sometimes stretched all the way to the check-in areas.

According to the Airports of Thailand (AoT), a single S-shaped queue has been applied to allow the process to go faster as passengers are able to walk to any available counters. The AoT has also brought in a new technology called an auto gate -- a do-it-by-yourself machine -- which will be in full operation on April 11th.

Instructions will be provided to passengers upon their arrival to the immigration area. The machine is said to take 20 seconds to process each passenger before they move on to the security check. They will be used with only Thai nationals during the first phase of their introduction.

A number of staff has also been added to facilitate and assist Thai and foreign passengers in every step along the way to ensure minimum hassles during the process.

pattayamail.com

Originally Posted by baldrick

Originally Posted by klong toey

I have paid the 700 baht for fast track service

how do you do that ? - I would be interested on using that service on arrival

BFS : Bangkok Flight Services.
A few people i know use this company a friend used them last week this is his report.
Only comments of note,booking is a little weird with printing, scanning and return as attachment but the service is OK. I have used this now twice and no complains at all.

arrived yesterday at about 1615

had booked this 700 baht fast track service company,
worked just fine.
nice girl were waiting for me at the gate with a sizable sign with my name,

she whisked me through immi. reo mak mak

to my surprise she actually managed to keep pace with my rather fast walk without running.

good service, will use 'em again

Originally Posted by taxexile

Deputy Prime Minister and Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silapa-archa yesterday in response to a growing outcry from departing Suvarnabhumi passengers, many of whom have missed flights or suffered close calls.

Chumpol said news of the passenger bottleneck only reached him on Wednesday

people have been shouting about this for months, travellers forums have been complaining about this endlessly.

chump, as tourism minister should have been on this from the start.

in any normally functioning society, he would be called to account by the public, his peers and the press.


the country is a joke.

You seem to forget. TIT and it is NOT a normally functioning society.

Originally Posted by Bung

Originally Posted by BKKBanger

The airport is unfortunately the victim of incompetence and corruption which you are now seeing as passenger numbers creep up to capacity.

When first tendered the terminal was designed for 65m per year. When the wrong group put in the lowest bid the tender was withdrawn and redesigned for 35m per year, on the pretext they could not afford it. On retender a different group won and then it was expanded back to a larger capacity with variations, increasing the cost back to near the original tender price.

Unfortunately the design process was hampered by the usual half wits interfering and the place spatially does not work. Anyone recall how few toilets there were on opening? Someone decided that toilets should be cut to save cleaning costs and space. 200 toilets were added after opening and space was taken from immigration, customs, airlines etc. at a claimed cost of only Bt40m.

Payoffs since 1974 must have run into the billions of Baht. So many people had their nose in the trough at some time that it is hard to say exactly how much disappeared.

Every time I pass through I curse the entire lot of them. A substandard public building built at great expense to feed the troughs of the corrupt.

Of course those who had their noses in the trough would never be hindered passing through the airport, indeed, anyone silly enough to impede their progress will most likely get a swift clip around the ear.

Those automatic passport gates? If you have ever had to stand behind someone at an atm while they figure out how to use it will know how that will work out...For Thais only. Typically, their solution is to help locals out and will make no difference to tourists at all. It will most likely slow them down as staff are assinged to help Thais get through the auto gates.

Seems to me Bung that Thai's need a lot of help when it comes to the very complicated funcitions like using an ATM machine.Using the automatic gates will be a nightmare compaired to an ATM.

The queues for arriving Thai citizens were rather short to begin with, they throwing the automated machines at a wrong problem. Somebody is getting their cut from the machine acquisitions, while putting more agents to work would not bring the same financial benefits.

^
Thats always been the problem in LOS. Someone has got to be getting a piece of the action....
The problem has never been the Thai queues? I have travelled with my girlfriend and our twins outside Thailand on numerous occasions. We always use the Thai queue as my g/f and our twins have Thai passports, we have never had an issue departing or arriving.Even get a smile with my UK passport going through these gates sometimes.
Its the foreign gates that have all the problems due to not enough immigration staff on duty at any given time. And a poorly planned entry and exit system to the area.

Originally Posted by klong toey

BFS : Bangkok Flight Services.

thanks will use this for arrivals

Type of services Service Charge


● Arrival Service with electric cart

THB 1,300 for 1st passenger
and THB 850 for accompanying passenger in the same group
(maximum 3 passengers per cart)

● Arrival Service without electric cart THB 700 per person

● Departure Service without electric cart THB 850 per person

● Premium Lounge Service for 4 hours
(available for departure or while in transit) THB 800 per person

● Additional porter service
(available for arrival and departure) THB 200 per person

The gray area is nice as well having taught in university for over 20 years now I have students everywhere. Going in or out I contact old students who are now high in Customs and Immigration. They have some guy, meet me, us, them, and in we go and out we go. The worst part is waiting on luggage as well. Up to an hour for that.

Even if nobody is there highlander is right. A nice looking wife and twins and you are basically waived into the Thai "stalls'

Border guard shortage risks 'gridlock' at airports this Easter, airlines warn
Britain’s airports will be reduced to 'gridlock' this Easter because there are not enough staff to carry out checks on passports, airlines have warned the Home Secretary.

Airlines are warning of gridlock at Heathrow this weekend because of a shortage of border guards
Theresa May has been told by 11 airlines, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, that the UK Border Agency does not have the resources to check the passports of everyone coming into Britain.
A separate memo sent by Virgin Atlantic to the home affairs select committee warns that long queues at passport control could leave passengers stranded on planes and put the operation of “entire airports at risk”.
Easter weekend is one of the busiest times of the year for the airports with more than 1.5 million holidaymakers expected to travel overseas. More than 370,000 passengers will leave Heathrow between Good Friday and Easter Monday while Gatwick will handle 200,000.
The Virgin Atlantic memo says: “If arriving passengers are unable to proceed efficiently through the UK border then the entire airport operation will be at risk. Passengers arriving late from passport control to collect their luggage will cause congestion in the baggage hall, delaying delivery of luggage from later flights.
“If there is no space in the immigration hall for any more arrivals then airlines will be forced to keep passengers aboard the aircraft, thus jeopardising the operation of subsequent flights.

“This in turn will delay departing passengers and cause overcrowding in departure areas as a result.”
The airlines are urging the Government to employ more border control staff or relax tough restrictions on immigration checks introduced after a scandal at the UK Border Agency last November. Brodie Clark, the head of the agency, resigned after Mrs May said he had relaxed checks without her permission. He was later given £100,000 compensation by the Home Office, with neither side admitting fault.
Simon Buck, chief executive of the British Air Transport Association, has now written to Mrs May on behalf of 11 airlines urging her to ensure passport controls are “properly resourced”. He said: “We don’t want to see queues at airports. It’s bad for passengers and for UK plc to see long queues at passport control.
“We are looking for reassurance from the Home Office that the Border Force will be properly resourced. We don’t want to see queues at airports.
“There was a risk approach until November last year, and the Border Force was streamlined to focus on this approach.”
The leaked Virgin Atlantic memo, sent by a senior executive and seen by The Daily Telegraph, is even more stark. It warns that there is a “very real chance of gridlock at UK airports” over the Easter holidays. It says ministers have either to provide more staff, or to reinstate targeted checks on people coming from high risk areas instead of taking a blanket approach.
It says the number of border officials has fallen by a quarter in recent years, leading to fears that “this level of resource is incompatible with a return to 100 per cent checks and if left unaddressed will cause congestion at UK airports”.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, warned that the queues could turn into a “national embarrassment”. He said the Government should either provide increased resources or allow a much more risk-based approach. He said: “We don’t want this turning into a shambles in the run-up to and during the Olympics.”Border guard shortage risks 'gridlock' at airports this Easter, airlines warn - Telegraph

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

‘Airport of Smiles’.

Now that's rich!