Bangkok Don Muang Airport

✅ Verified Review | Thailand's immigration processes have never been fantastic. When the budget carriers were still running our of Suvarnabhumi, it was nothing short of mayhem, but then they reopened Bangkok Don Muang and moved the budget carriers there. At that time, provided you were not checking luggage, DMK was actually a much much quicker routine. You'd use the self service machines to check in, then just waltz on through with usually nobody in the immigration line. It suited me nicely as I was flying about once a week through Bangkok regionally. Then the flood started. Air Asia and other operators started flying jam packed flights out of China and ramped the number up quickly. It slowed things down massively. Around that time, I pulled my finger out and got myself an APEC frequent business traveler card and thus could waft through Suvarnabhumi's lines with minimal wait, so I largely gave up on Air Asia and DMK. Just last week I needed to bring the whole family and a nanny to Bangkok at short notice and I just thought I'd save a few dollars by flying Air Asia. I thought to myself, what is an extra 30 minutes line time vs $350 or so all up? How wrong I was. As expected, upon landing there were three other flights inbound from Chinese cities, all jammed full and there had obviously been no coordination between Airport ops and Immigration. When I saw this, I thought to myself, "well, I have an APEC card, so I'll bend the rules a little and take the family through the Priority Lane". Uh uh, no way. The entry to that lane, now has three different, ambiguous banners that basically allow anyone who is not a single male, into the line. There is some vague banner about it being acceptable for single women travelers to use this lane. Thus there were about 8 single, young ladies furiously pumping out WeChat messages with selfies to show how bad their wait was. There were no staff to help organize the lines which is always a massive fail by the airport. It took us a little over an hour to clear this stage and we could see from the regular lines, that people were waiting much longer. I would estimate up to 3 hours, but it's hard to say for sure. I believe that Thailand still has an Open Skies Policy. They talked about trying to end it in 2015, but I guess the airlines put the moz on that. Seriously, if Bangkok expects to be taken seriously as a hub, it cannot continue to operate like this. I've recently been through those old favorites of Changi, Hong Kong and even KL and they are all much better this ridiculous attempt at airport management.

✅ Verified Review | Arriving in Don Muang from Changi Airport, Singapore, at around 13.45 on Friday afternoon it was a scene of utter chaos and took two hours to reach the immigration desk. Having read other stories for Saturday arrivals the authorities blamed it on many planes arriving at the same time. This seems to have happened on many occasions as the same happened to a colleague of mine arriving around midnight on Saturday, another two hour scenario and in reality it now seems the norm. So too many planes are arriving at the same time constantly! Absolutely crazy! Will never use Don Muang again, no organisation whatsoever and a terrible 'first impression' for those arriving for their dream holiday here.

✅ Verified Review | Unlike many of the other reviewers I arrived into the airport mid afternoon. My flight ironically arrived early but the chaos I observed in immigration was like nothing I had ever seen before at any airport around the world and I have travelled a lot. The hall was completely packed with passengers desperately trying to clear immigration. There was no clearly demarcated lines and no airport staff on the passenger side of the immigration desks to organize the passengers. On top of that the air con was not working and the conditions therefore hot and humid. With no organized queues many lines were not moving as too many people filtering into 1 desk. It took me nearly 3 hrs to clear immigration and that was after 1 desk opening near to me after 2 hours. Otherwise I really don't know how long it would have taken. This is clearly unacceptable. What about those families traveling with small children or elderly. Thai airport authorities need to do something about this quickly and airlines like Air Asia need to put pressure on them to do so. I won't be using this airport again in the near future and I would recommend all to avoid it until this is corrected.

❎ Unverified | On 7th July, I waited for more than 3 hours with my 8 year old daughter for immigration. The worst service I have ever had. There were two counters for priority and a pregnant lady was denied to use the counter and another passenger who had to catch a flight at Suvarnabumi was also denied access for priority Lane. Very, very poor service and inhuman approach.

✅ Verified Review | Immigration at this airport has become a disgrace. Last night we got to the terminal at 12.20am and it was after 3am before my passport was stamped after a thoroughly disorganised scrum of what felt like thousands of people but rationally I don't think it could be literally thousands. The arrivals hall was packed though and there's no queueing system for the immigration booths. I've arrived at this airport on a Friday night on Air Asia for many years originally from KL and now from HK. It was never like this late evening. Then last time in June it was quite bad with about an hour wait. Last night it was nearly three hours. Air Asia has taken to parking up at the end of the runway and using buses to get to the terminal which doesn't help but the immigration queue is worse. I took a picture of the arrival screen. Mostly AA flights. KL at 10pm and SG at 10.05pm and then nothing until 11.20pm with three flights before midnight and two between midnight and 1am. Even accounting for late arrivals nothing explains the bedlam and delays at immigration. Seems my experience is not isolated. Proper queueing system like at BKK and a full set of counter at peak times like Friday night. It's clear this problem has escalated out of control at this airport now. After expecting to be in Silom by midnight I eventually got to bed at 4am. Nothing is worth this experience Air Asia. Not schedule. Not price. You will lose your international business if you cannot do basic management of your airport partners and you will deserve it.

✅ Verified Review | Terrible long immigration queues, waiting for 3 hours, there are no proper lanes, very poor air-conditioning, there are hardly any places to sit and no shops to buy refreshments. Also many families with small kids have to wait all the time. Avoid coming late in the evening.

❎ Unverified | Disorganized, poor management and very long queue of 3 hours at immigration counter at arrival hall in Bangkok Don Muang airport. No clear parition of lanes, a lot of tourist especially those came later have to cut the queues. A lot of frustation of waiting for 3 hours. Airport staff doing nothing to solve the problem or lessen the queueing time. Definitely not going to visit again.

✅ Verified Review | This airport has one of the best locations, with a shuttle bus from the airport to Bangkok City which only takes around 20 mins and nothing more. Arrival: upon my arrival, there was a very long queue at the passport control and without queuing control, it was a mess and many people didn't know which line to queue up in. It took me around 1 hour to get past this passport area. Departure: it was absolute nightmare, it was all about testing my patience of queuing up. My flight was at 5.20pm to Hong Kong and I arrived at the airport at 1.30pm. Firstly, I queue up at the VAT refund office to get my refund forms stamped, that took me 20 mins. Then, there was baggage check with another long queue. This baggage check took 30 mins, and then queuing up for 1 hour for the check in counter. After getting into the restricted area, we needed to queue up for around 30mins for the passport control, again. Now the last bit of queuing up was at the VAT refund counter, that took me a good 30mins. An important recommendation to all travellers who are departing from this airport: they recommended we arrived at the airport 3hrs before flight time, but I'd say to be on the safe side, allow yourself 4hrs.

✅ Verified Review | My first time arriving into Bangkok Don Muang took me 1 hour to queue through immigration. Last night it took me 2 hours. It would have taken me longer if a staff member was not yelled at by a Chinese tourist after complaining about the wait time. She then opened up another counter. I'm not sure if it's because I landed late in the evening at 11.15 pm, but they really need to do something to fix the lack of organisation. You realise all two lines merge into one when you finally wait one hour and you see the counter a few yards away. This is a major part of the problem, no one foresees this when you pick a queue upon landing with hundreds of people already waiting. Tons of people arrive in the evening yet they are understaffed. The queue for visa on arrival literally processed hundreds of tourists at a much quicker rate than the rest of us 'foreign' tourists. There was also no clear Asean line either for regional visitors. This really makes Bangkok look bad upon arrival. They need to learn how to process people quickly and efficiently just like its other airport, Suvarnabhumi. Right now this is the worst immigration wait time I've experienced in the world, and I do a lot of travelling. The airport is dim too, which does not offer a warm welcome during a two hour wait.

✅ Verified Review | I flew out of DMK on 9 June and flew into DMK on 18 June. Both flights were in the evenings. The immigration queue leaving BKK had around 35-40 people. The queues arriving into BKK were much longer and had many tour groups. The tour leaders somewhat kept things under control but it was clear some tour members were confused at which queues are applicable to them. There are dedicated queues for nationals from ASEAN countries but do not seem like these were properly enforced. There was also a queue for Priority/Diplomatic but while there were people some 5-6 people in the queue, the rope railing behind them was up and sealed the lane which created confusion for those wishing to join this lane. Resources seem limited and the officials worked hard to clear the crowds. In the departure area, there are several food options including MacDonald's, Subway, Fuji and Starbucks.