Flying to Sydney from Bangkok - freaking out

Plankton1

Hiya
I'm flying from Phuket to Bangkok in October and arrive at 13.40

My flight to Sydney (via Taipei) is at 17.05.

Has anyone flown from Bangkok to Sydney before and be able to tell me, do you have to go through a visa/immigration process in Bangkok before departing? Or is it just a regular check in for your flight and they take a quick look at your visa?

I'm freaking out that we don't have enough time between flights if we have to go through a Dublin airport/USA style visa process

Thanks!

Chazz Michael Michaels

Plankton1 wrote: »

Hiya
I'm flying from Phuket to Bangkok in October and arrive at 13.40

My flight to Sydney (via Taipei) is at 17.05.

Has anyone flown from Bangkok to Sydney before and be able to tell me, do you have to go through a visa/immigration process in Bangkok before departing? Or is it just a regular check in for your flight and they take a quick look at your visa?

I'm freaking out that we don't have enough time between flights if we have to go through a Dublin airport/USA style visa process

Thanks!

I think they have a 'leaving town tax', I can't remember how much it is, something like 400b.

Stinicker

I flew back to Ireland this year from Bangkok and yes you will have to clear immigration as you are leaving Thailand. However it only took me like 5mins to go through immigration and security and that was at like 11.30pm at night in Bangkok as my flight to Dubai with Emirates was at 3 in the morning.

However in 2011 on my first trip to Thailand I was flying out at at 8am with Etihad and the immigration queues were mental and it took me 1hr to clear immigration and I almost missed my flight and the Etihad staff had to give those of us on the Abu Dhabi flight coupons to go through the VIP immigration and security fast-track.

This year my hotel told me that they were doing works on adding more immigration desks so I gave myself 4hours before my flight there but in reality the place was not as busy as I had experienced in 2011 due to the night flight but I wasn't taking any chances. These new desks should probably be open by now so the queues shouldn't be that long.

From your timings I reckon you'll have time to spare, However beware if you are booked or planning to book Air Asia (between Phuket and Bangkok) , they are moving all their flights from Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi airport over to the old Bangkok airport Don Mueang from the end of September.

Flying Phuket to Bangkok to Taipei to Sydney is an awful convoluted routing going over 2,00miles out of your way. You can fly Jetstar from Phuket direct to Sydney which would be well worth considering but if you have the flights already booked then best of luck!!

I never had to pay a separate departure tax in Thailand, I think it is built into your airfare already.

solerina

I took about 45 mins to get through the queues in Bangkok about a month ago, very long line and they were slow dealing with people...and yes there is an exit tax of about 20 euro (must be paid in cash, they wont take credit cards)

Stinicker

solerina wrote: »

I took about 45 mins to get through the queues in Bangkok about a month ago, very long line and they were slow dealing with people...and yes there is an exit tax of about 20 euro (must be paid in cash, they wont take credit cards)

Sounds like you were scammed by the police or airport authorities, The departure tax of 700bt has been included in all airline tickets since 2007.

http://www.airportsuvarnabhumi.com/about-suvarnabhumi-airport/bangkok-international-airport-departure-tax/

http://www.tripadvisor.ie/ShowTopic-g293916-i3687-k5459958-Departure_Tax_with_Air_Asia-Bangkok.html

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g293916-i3687-k4855081-Departure_tax-Bangkok.html

Thailand maybe known as the LOS (Land of Smiles) but in reality I think it stands for the Land of Scams.

Another scam in Suvarnabhumi is for the baggage handlers to place drugs in the baggage of departing passengers only for to "discover" them and make an arrest, however if the passenger is then to make a payment of say €1,000 the police "will look the other way" and you can board your flight home and "escape" drugs charges minus alot of money of course. Having heard about this I always get my case wrapped in that cellophane wrapping. The down side to this is that the customs in Ireland always pull me in thinking I am actually smuggling something as happened to me last time and I had my 800 duty free cigarettes seized, so by trying to protect myself from crooked cops in Thailand I got caught in Dublin by the Irish customs. :pac:

Disappointing to hear that the queues are still long there, I guess the time of day has a large factor, however with all the Air Asia flights moving over to Don Mueang Airport in September it might ease congestion at Suvarnabhumi. For such a new airport they really have made a disaster of it, there is no showers in the terminal and instead you have to pay 400bt to shower at the airport hotel, also the train service is cheap but extremely overcrowded and the taxis serving the train stops along the way are a total rip-off, paid like €2 for the train this year to get into the city but paid like €7.50 for to have a taxi drive me 5 mins a few blocks to the hotel, standing for most of trip by train. It would have nearly cost the same price to take a taxi direct from the airport.

You need your wits about you or you will be scammed in Thailand.

Chazz Michael Michaels

Stinicker wrote: »

solerina wrote: »

I took about 45 mins to get through the queues in Bangkok about a month ago, very long line and they were slow dealing with people...and yes there is an exit tax of about 20 euro (must be paid in cash, they wont take credit cards)

Sounds like you were scammed by the police or airport authorities, The departure tax of 700bt has been included in all airline tickets since 2007.

http://www.airportsuvarnabhumi.com/about-suvarnabhumi-airport/bangkok-international-airport-departure-tax/

http://www.tripadvisor.ie/ShowTopic-g293916-i3687-k5459958-Departure_Tax_with_Air_Asia-Bangkok.html

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g293916-i3687-k4855081-Departure_tax-Bangkok.html

Thailand maybe known as the LOS (Land of Smiles) but in reality I think it stands for the Land of Scams.

Another scam in Suvarnabhumi is for the baggage handlers to place drugs in the baggage of departing passengers only for to "discover" them and make an arrest, however if the passenger is then to make a payment of say €1,000 the police "will look the other way" and you can board your flight home and "escape" drugs charges minus alot of money of course. Having heard about this I always get my case wrapped in that cellophane wrapping. The down side to this is that the customs in Ireland always pull me in thinking I am actually smuggling something as happened to me last time and I had my 800 duty free cigarettes seized, so by trying to protect myself from crooked cops in Thailand I got caught in Dublin by the Irish customs. :pac:

Disappointing to hear that the queues are still long there, I guess the time of day has a large factor, however with all the Air Asia flights moving over to Don Mueang Airport in September it might ease congestion at Suvarnabhumi. For such a new airport they really have made a disaster of it, there is no showers in the terminal and instead you have to pay 400bt to shower at the airport hotel, also the train service is cheap but extremely overcrowded and the taxis serving the train stops along the way are a total rip-off, paid like €2 for the train this year to get into the city but paid like €7.50 for to have a taxi drive me 5 mins a few blocks to the hotel, standing for most of trip by train. It would have nearly cost the same price to take a taxi direct from the airport.

You need your wits about you or you will be scammed in Thailand.

Yeah, there are some complete crooks in that country.

mickoneill30

Plankton1 wrote: »

Hiya
I'm flying from Phuket to Bangkok in October and arrive at 13.40

My flight to Sydney (via Taipei) is at 17.05.

Has anyone flown from Bangkok to Sydney before and be able to tell me, do you have to go through a visa/immigration process in Bangkok before departing? Or is it just a regular check in for your flight and they take a quick look at your visa?

I'm freaking out that we don't have enough time between flights if we have to go through a Dublin airport/USA style visa process

Thanks!

I have flown through Bangkok airport loads of times. If you arrive at 13:40 it'll take about 20 minutes to get your bags after that the walk to departures is about 10 minutes. You will have loads of time.

Fill in your departure slip before you get to immigration. You get this when you arrive in Thailand. The amount of people that wait until they're at immigration to leave to fill it out is amazing. If yours is filled out you just stroll past them. You'll have loads of time to fill it out on your Phuket flight. If you shag it up don't worry. You can then grab one before going through immigration.
They won't check your Sydney visa. They just care about you leaving Thailand.
The airline will probably check that your passport is allowed in Sydney (if it's not they have to pay to get you out of Australia) but that's two second glance at your passport.

Whenever I go from Bangkok I always arrive with 3 hours to spare and I ALWAYS have an hour and a half or more of twiddling thumbs time at the departure gate. I know I'm going to have the boring time at the departure gate but I prefer to be bored at the gate rather than getting stuck in traffic. I've only flown out of Bangkok using Thai Airways or Air France. At their check in desks the queues are never very large (maybe it's because I'm 3 hours early) and 10 or 15 minutes is the max I've ever spent there.

I've used the domestic & international areas so I'm not making this up. The only issue you would have is if you flew into the wrong airport. The old airport is called Don Mueng and some domestic flights still go there. But you can check that now. The code for Don Mueng is DMK and the code for Suvura....whatever is BKK. If you're landing in BKK and taking off from BKK you're grand. If you're landking in DMK and taking off in BKK you're probably screwed. I don't think the airports are near each other.

There is no hint of a departure fee in Bangkok airport. I don't know how anybody gets tricked into paying that. It's a hugely busy airport. If one guy comes up to me out of the hundreds of other passengers milling about asking for money I'd kind of be wondering why the other passengers don't have to pay. You need your wits about you in Thailand but you need your wits about you everywhere.

For the guy complaining about the taxis. I went not so long ago. The taxi from the airport -> the city for me and my missus with loads of bags is less than 500B (<€13). I know this because I didn't have change of 500B so I let him keep the rest as a tip. There are two tolls I think on the way. They're about 50B each. The trains are probably cheaper but my missus never packs light so I can't be assed dragging cases around streets. I always have gotten a taxi from the airport. You get them at the exit. Don't entertain any of the hundreds of guys who will try to grab you before you get to the exit doors.
If you get a taxi in Bangkok tell them to turn on the meter. If they won't then get another one. No chance of being ripped off then.

The most importants words in Thailand are mai krap (pronounced "my cap") or mai ka ("my kaaa" if you're a woman, I can't tell, Plankton1 is gender neutral). It's No Thanks. You'll say this to most taxi drivers on the street, tuk tuk drivers or random guys.

When you arrive in Sydney can you post your experience here. I'd be interested (nosy) to see if you have any hassle.

Plankton1

Thanks so much guys.

RE; flying from Phuket to Bangkok, that's with Bangkok Airways so they're staying in BKK airport.

We're going via Taipei as that was the cheapest flight and we're backpackers

Thanks for all the advice and I'll make sure to post letting others know how the queue situation is!

Cheers