Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok’s International Airport, purports to be the “Airport of Smiles”, but lately it is being called the “Airport of Miles” referring to the miles of lines at Thai Immigration.
Indonesian Fraud Suvarnabhumi
The Bangkok Post published an article on Valentine’s Day entitled “First impressions suffer as airport immigration queues grow longer” and it stirred up a hornet’s nest of complaints and letters to the editor with additional complaints about the lack of speed and service at Suvarnabhumi Thai Immigration both upon arrival and departure.
The letters to the Bangkok Post’s editors kept on coming with more and more complaints about long lines, unruly Immigration Officers, missed connections, and other problems with Suvarnabhumi.
Two weeks later, a follow-up article in the Bangkok Post, “Queue complaints spur airport to action” reports that action has been taken to resolve the issue of waiting in long lines at the Airport of Smiles.
HAH!
This article claims that more staff will be added to alleviate the problem (won’t happen or maybe for a few days) and this is the best part – they will utilize an E-Passport system to really speed things up.
The E-Passport system was introduced 6 years ago, but hasn’t been used. The Finance Ministry has set aside 76 Million baht to pay someone to install the system. I seriously doubt, that once installed, that it will work. I am talking about the hardware and software. Most likely the hardware is old and slow and the software is probably out of date. So, money will be wasted installing a system that won’t work and will only make things worse.
And, this E-Passport system is only for Thai people. So, if it does work (and I doubt it will), the lines at Immigration will be empty in the “Thais Only” line and still hours long for foreign tourists. Smart thinking – piss off the Farangs guaranteeing that they don’t return.
Now, supposedly, when all this flack hit the Bangkok Post two weeks ago, the Immigration Commissioner needed two weeks to conduct a study and find the best solution. Would only take about 2 minutes to figure out that they needed additional Immigration Officers, and maybe a couple of cute girls to check the documents ahead of time and make sure that they are filled out properly and completely before getting to the front of the line.
Better yet, The Nation posted an article today on their online site, “Tweeple share their problems on Suvarnabhumi Airport” displaying twitter tweets from Twitter People (Tweeple) at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport still with the same complaints, and more. Long lines, unfriendly Immigration Officers, dirty toilets, taxi mafia, taxis that don’t want to use meters, 55 baht for a 10 baht bottle of water, and on and on and on.
Suvarnabhumi – Bangkok’s International Airport – has a lot more problems than just the long lines at Immigration. The rip-off taxis near the luggage carousel charging about 4 times the amount. The taxi mafia touts in the hall after you leave the luggage area that charge 2-3 times the going rate. The AOT official taxis that don’t want to use their meters. The high prices in the restaurants and the mini-marts gouging tourists. The King of Duty Free scams that went on for quite a while with the cashiers slipping extra items in your shopping bag and then the fake police arresting you outside the store.
There were also lots of complaints about damaged luggage.
Despite all of this, the Tourism Authority of Thailand will once again report that tourist numbers are up and will predict that they will go ever higher in 2012. These lies and bogus numbers will be splashed all over the media and businesses in tourist area will all scratch their heads as they lose money once again. More and more businesses will shut down. But, tourist numbers will be up – according to TAT.
I am not sure which agency is doing more damage to Thailand – The Airport Authority of Thailand or the Tourism Authority of Thailand. I do know that I see more and more complaints and more and more people swearing that they will never return to Thailand again.
And, Suvarnabhumi will be known as the Airport of Frowns.
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