Leaving Thailand for the holidays? Experienced travelers know a few airport hacks can get you from check-in to your gate as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Travel guides write ad nauseum about the issues faced by tourists arriving in Thailand, from the online TDAC form to long immigration lines to taxi queues. But departing Suvarnabhumi International Airport arguably is more annoying and time-consuming. Unless you know the Bangkok airport hacks to smooth the way.
Airlines long has advised international passengers to arrive at Suvarnabhumi (or any airport, really) three hours before their flight. In very few cases is three hours ever needed. But – if you’re not flying Business or First class – that changes during the year-end holidays, when Bangkok airports are swarmed by both incoming and outgoing passengers. If you’re not careful, you could arrive hours early and still end up running to catch your plane.
Such could have been the case at Dec. 31 when, from first appearances, it looked like hours would be needed to go from curb to gate. But a few Bangkok airport hacks cut that time by more than half.
Bangkok Airport Hacks Begin at Check-In
From LAX to Manila to Bangkok, it seems like there’s always a long queue at check-in. Few few airlines and airport combine to offer “express” lines for online check-in, mostly because, even if you check in online, you still need to flash a passport or get a boarding card.
But if fly the right airline, you can employ the first of the Bangkok airport hacks: Skip the check-in entirely.
Taiwanese carriers Starlux and Eva Air are two great choices. Eva is the first airline we’ve seen at Suvarnabhumi to go totally electronic for check-in. In fact, there wasn’t a human obstacle anywhere between the street and gate. It’s all automated and surreal.
Starlux, a newer airline with exemplary customer service, offered an easier solution: Skip the line entirely.
The first step is check-in online. Then, when arriving at the airport, use one of the automated kiosks in the Starlux check-in area, which are manned by airline staff. They’ll assist you in scanning your passport, checking all the boxes of your online check-in are ticked and then, if you’re sitting in an exit row, they’ll even fetch your boarding pass, print your baggage tag and attach it to the luggage.
You then have a choice: Take the suitcase to the Starlux bag drop, which entails a short line, or employ this hack: Go to Aisle Q and use the automated bag drop stations at Q1-Q5. These are available for Starlux and about a dozen other airlines and are free. Best yet? There’s no line at all.
Total check-in time? 15 minutes (versus 45 without the hack)
Bangkok Airport Hacks Don’t Work for Suckers
Checked-in and leaving the 75 people with 230 suitcases and boxes in line behind you, it’s off to security, which is an absolute madhouse at Suvarnabumi during holiday season. Here you can use the next of the Bangkok airport hacks, but not if you’re a sucker.
Security at Suvarnabhumi is reached by escalator and, once through, you go down another escalator to Immigration. And during the holidays, there is a ridiculously long line to just go up the first escalator. Suckers jump in the first queue they see and wait 45 minutes just to scan their boarding pass and go upstairs.
Don’t be a sucker.
Use the second of the Bangkok Airport Hacks and your feet. Leave all the suckers at Aisle Q behind and walk back toward Aisle A until you reach one of the two other Security/Immigration escalators. On Dec. 21, the first one was closed. The second one also appeared to have a ridiculously long lines, but, if you look past the suckers standing in the first of the two parallel queues, you’ll see there are two more queues that are a third of the length. Push your way past the suckers to the back queues.
Time to reach security? 10 minutes (vs. 45 for suckers)
Hacking Airport Security: Efficiency Wins
Once you reach the second level, you’re faced with another daunting queue. This is where, you think, you’re luck has run out and you’re in for a 30-minute wait.
There’s no real hack for security. There is one entrance in and multiple queues once inside the security zone, but it’s dumb luck which will move fastest, depending on the brain capacity of the people in front of you.
But kudos to Suvarnabhumi airport staff: They are efficient. They keep people moving, shuttle passengers into the shortest lines as gaps develop and move the bags and laptops and iPads quickly. Most people don’t need to take off their shoes anymore – although some are subject to random checks – and the 30-minute-looking security line as conquered in 15.
So, to this point the Bangkok Airport Hacks and some staff efficiency has cut 2 full hours of line-queueing to just 35. But there’s still Immigration to get through.
The Final Hack Takes the Right Passport
So the last of the Bangkok Airport Hacks is mostly out of your control. It depends on a) if you come from a country that can authorized to use the Thai automated passport scanners and b) you keep your eyes open.
An increasing number of countries, such as the United States and Singapore, now issues “e-Passports” that are approved by Thailand’s Immigration Bureau to be used at automated “eGate” exit gates. No more queues. No more surley immigration agents staring you down and scrutinizing your passport before finally stamping you out.
All nationalities are eligible, if their governments issue e-Passports.
Place the passport on the glass, wait for it to be scanned and the information pulled from the IB’s database. Step forward and wait while a robot camera snaps your photo. Gates open and you’re through.
You can, if you’re unalert or just have a poor sense of direction, screw it up. Entering Immigration, you have two choices. Go right for the last of the Bangkok Airport Hacks. Turn left to blow it and stand in line. It’s up to you.
Total time through Immigraton? 2 minutes vs. 15 or more by turning left.
Bangkok Airport Hacks Saved Time Big Time
So, Dec. 21 looked like a zoo at Swampy. Huge check-in and security lines, the dreaded Immigration queue. Even a massive line just to use an elevator. If you showed up for your flight three hours early, you probably missed your flight, or got there for Final Call.
If you used the Bangkok airport hacks, you made it through in less than 40.
Of course, there’s still that walk to the gate or, if you’re unfortunate enough to be flying from SAT-1, the Suvarnabhumi Satellite Terminal – a train ride and really long walk.
We made it from curb to SAT-1’s Gate 107 in an hour. Your mileage may vary.
