Twenty years ago I visited Phuket on a business retreat while working with an Indian Multinational corporation. I took a Thai Airways flight from Hyderabad, India to Bangkok and then a connecting domestic flight to Phuket on a single ticket. Baggage was booked direct to Phuket and I completed the customs and immigration formalities in Phuket. See the stamp alongside And the process was followed in reverse on my return to India.

Malati and I visited Bangkok a few times in the last twenty years but never in transit. And so this year when we planned our visit to Chiang Mai (CNX) via Bangkok I was very confident that procedure of immigration and customs would be at CNX and not Bangkok. (remember Phuket !!). A single PNR from HYD-BKK-CNX and baggage booked directly to CNX .Great and simple plan ! Or so I thought !!!

While we waited for the travel date it dawned on me that in India CIQ(Customs Immigration and Quarantine) was required to be done at the arrival port and not the final domestic destination. And that Thailand had recently introduced the TDAC(Thailand digital arrival card). Worth crosschecking with other travellers – I Checked online with travel forums, the Suvarnabhumi Airport official site and some other sites . While it appeared that immigration needed to be done at BKK (the port of arrival) I was not able to get a clear picture of the process. Thai Airways support did not respond and I was none the wiser but more confused than ever .

It bothered me no end – more so since we consider ourselves seasoned international travelers. To compound matters further we had “rashly” booked a connecting flight with barely a 75 mins stopover in the confidence that there were many flights to CNX later in the day. Tried to change my connection at Hyderabad but the airline staff reassured me that even though the flight was late the Airline will ensure my connection .

Notwithstanding, we arrived at Bangkok airport 30 mins late leaving us with just 45 mins to our domestic connection at another terminal. As we disembarked we were met by a sign and escort directing connecting passengers to a transit desk a short distance away where we were awarded a sticker on my shirt. Alongside the transit desk was the transit immigration counter where we almost immediately completed the formalities – Passport Stamping/TDAC /photo and fingerprinting. This desk is not crowded unlike the immigration counters at Bangkok where the wait can be as long as 45 mins in peak times. Past immigration we were in the domestic terminal and onto the aircraft – Total time from disembarkation to boarding the aircraft was twenty minutes which including airline counter, immigration and security check!! A happy experience though through the four hour flight from Hyderabad I rued the fact that we took a short connection – something which I will never recommend .

A short flight and we arrived in Changmai domestic terminal. Passengers like us with the baggage sticker on their shirts were directed to the international terminal some distance away to the baggage carousel and to pass through customs thereafter. I write this post to share my experience of transit from International to domestic terminal at Suvarnabhumi Airport because I found that there were numerous queries on this subject on all travel forums. airline , social media etc and the responses were not very neither clear nor exhaustive.

Only remember – You need a Single PNR ticket which will enable you to book baggage to final domestic destination in Thailand – Immigration at port of arrival( in my case BKK) and customs at final domestic destination.(CNX). In case you are travelling on two tickets then you need to go through the regular immigration counters and collect your baggage at Bangkok. Thereafter proceed to the domestic check-in like any other domestic passenger.

Do read my next post Discovering Chiang Mai at Discovering Chiang Mai