I’m live-blogging my SAS EuroBonus SkyTeam Million Mile challenge this week. Click here for background and route information.
Vietnam is a fun country and one I hope to spend a lot more time in on future trips, but I certainly hope I do not spend as much time in the immigration line next time as we did this time…what a mess.
There was no chaos at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)…queues were orderly and organized, but long and slow-moving lines epitomized inefficiency: a supply/demand imbalance worse than even Jakarta, Indonesia.
We got in line at 4:30 pm…and did not get into our cab to our hotel until 6:20 pm!
No, we did not have to wait in line to buy visas or anything like that…we were just waiting in line to have our passports stamped.
Every counter was open, so it wasn’t poor staffing alone…it was simply far too many people and a process of passport control that took time for every single person.
This was not my first visit to Vietnam (third actually) and I did not remember lines like this on previous visits…I’m sure I would have.
Look, every country has a right to secure its borders so it’s not about that. Furthermore, please spare me the comparison about how bad the USA is…yes it is, but this is not about the USA, this is about Vietnam. And because we were traveling on a German passport, a country that very efficiently processes foreign visitors, how about we make that comparison instead?
Of course, we did get through, but instead of arriving at our hotel closer to 5:00 pm, it was 7:00 pm…a shame considering this was our one night to relax on a grueling trip.
I’d love to see Vietnam adopt a more efficient way to process visitors…lines are a sign of inefficiency and cry out for a solution.
Vietnam has some exotic diseases :
Example = bacterial or fungal skin diseases treated in the west by removing skin .
I’d rather wait in a long line to depart , than wait in a Vietnam clinic for an ambulance aircraft to Singapore .
Holy non-sequitur, Batman!
@Matthew … “Clancy put a telescope to his ear , ‘what a lovely smell we have here’ ” .
If we are talking about immigrations efficiency, Singapore tops it for me. No country is even close on the pace they process arrivals.
No other country is even ‘close’? Perhaps I’ve been lucky, but the last few countries I’ve entered (Korea, Malaysia, UK, Hong Kong) I’ve been able to walk straight up to the e-gates without having to wait behind a single person. It’s impossible to be quicker than that (currently).
I can’t remember waiting in a line at immigration anywhere for several years now, and even then perhaps just a person or two – there’s been longer waits at some business class check-in desks.
You’ve been fortunate – still plenty of places in the world where eGates aren’t common and waits can exceed 30+ minutes.
> the last few countries I’ve entered (Korea, Malaysia, UK, Hong Kong) I’ve been able to walk straight up to the e-gates without having to wait behind a single person
Which passport did you use in Hong Kong to use the e-gates on arrival? Did you apply for the “Frequent Visitor e-Channel” before?
I was able to use the e-gates in Korea, Malaysia, and UK on arrival, but not Hong Kong.
I added Hong Kong as an edit just before posting – it wasn’t an e-gate there, but a manned booth with no line as far as I recall.
From exiting the airplane to arriving at baggage claim, New Zealand delays me zero time and Australia has me paused for maybe 45 seconds at most.
For us the fastest “immigration” was at Tirana airport this August. Plenty e-gates for ALL passports with a chip. And unlike Canadian and EU e-gates, they were all open and they all worked! Reading of our passports took 3 seconds, gate opened, and we were through.
UAE…out in 20 seconds
It would really help drastically if they dedicated an ASEAN lane much like an EU lane where there are less restrictions. Right now it seems all passports are muddled into one chaos.
“And because we were traveling on a German passport”
Augustine’s?
Correct.
Passport in the singular. Does that mean you used your own US passport to enter Vietnam and needed a Vietnamese visa? If so how did you go about getting the visa?
Just realized we have no Taco bell reports yet!
Ha! None this trip…
You have been busy! But suddenly I was concerned
Looks like BRU. I hate arriving at that airport. Queues are orderly but so painfully slow.
BRU is horrible too when leaving Schengen Area. Absolutely deplorable.
Matthew, tell me about it. Six years ago I had a two hour layover there connecting from the EU to the US. Delta had to hold the plane an extra 30 minutes just for me to clear Schengen out processing…yes it literally took 2.5 hours to clear.
Door to the plane literally closed behind me the moment I stepped on…of course, that was also after I had to answer those stupid Delta security questions.
Never exiting EU from BRU again after that one…
@Steve … Better safe than sorry .
AMS was ridiculously slow last May.
People traveling around pointlessly other than to fly, I wonder where the lines are coming from….
@Leslie … “People traveling around pointlessly by only flying” … there is no “other” .
“Look, every country has a right to secure its borders…” Yes. Yes they do.
@Chris … Kyle will agree after “CPB didn’t allow us to enter our own country” .
Was there earlier this year same situation and couple years ago same. And i think there was no Ac at least did not feel one and just after exiting scam attempt to lure me to a different grab taxi. Next time i rather fly to Danangm
Rookie mistake not using a Fast Track service at SGN (or TPE or BKK). You spent two hours in line to save $39.
Matt, you travel a lot for work. Why you just get a APEC card? You would probably qualify. I think you could skip the lines with that.
I plan to! I’m looking into it.
Yep, it’s always hell getting through HCM immigration. Even when it appears there are minimal flights arriving.
Hi Matt. I live in Vietnam and I know exactly what you mean! I have gotten to the point where I pay $40 each time for an express service that allows me to bypass the lines. But it shouldn’t have to come to that.
One observation on every counter being open. If you look closely, each of the little cubicles can actually be staffed by two people, facing away from each other, but I’ve always only seen one officer/cubicle. So they technically have double the capacity. I have no idea why they don’t get these staffed ASAP.
A sad state of affairs for sure!
I fly into SGN or HAN 3-5 times a year. It’s never not like that
Until the new airport (Thanh Long) is completed, that would be a norm for the time being.
So a guy takes the ultimate S&M trip, dragging his poor kid along, and then complains that the most well known thing happened to him. Less than 30 seconds of googling plus a few bucks would have saved him a two hour passport line at SGN. But, that would not get as many comments or views as a story on “how I suffer and make my kid suffer for no apparent reason”.
We are quite enjoying ourselves. There is no suffering here. This has been an incredible trip.
But I don’t tend to google stuff like that…and maybe now I will.
Having lived in HCMC for quite a while, having an APEC card is crucial to arriving and departing from SGN.
That’s because if you do not attach cash I.e. $5-10 dollar bills inside your passport. I am an overseas Vietnamese and I’ve traveled back to việt Nam a few times, and it makes me very angry to have to give bribes in a form of “cash in passport”, to not be delayed in long lines.
“The bribes” are your own undoing. When I arrived in ’98, I noticed on airplane the viets were stuffing bills into their passports. It became apparent why after I landed. Living here for 26 years, i will tell you one thing for sure. The US citizens also brought their tipping habit to this country. The first decade, I never saw tipping but now, getting ridiculous. When your in line arriving, everyone gets served equally in the lines. Yes, lines entering and exiting are very long but I missed a flight in Frisco due to ridiculously long lines. And the officer I asked about connecting flight, she laughed and said, “take it up with the airline.”
I was in that line for 70 minutes today. I recognize the Dell PCs the immigration officers are working with as the same ones we had at my company 25 years ago. I wonder if the officers are having to wait a long time for information to appear on their screens.
Could be as simple as that.
My goodness, it’s much better than the third world standards at any US airport.
HAN is really efficient. They have a lot of flights too, clearly something is being done wrong in SGN. Though it really doesn’t matter. KUL and SIN have eGates, and BKK has them on departure, so surely it’s only a matter of time before they arrive in Vietnam.
Edinburgh Scotland was a mess 2 years ago.. They took our carry on bags on boarding and we watched them go around and round the baggage belt as we waited over 2 hours to get passport checked there was only one guy and he kept leaving his post>>>>
Tuesday of this week waited for 55 minutes at FRA for exit immigration, with multiple flights delayed because so many people were ensnared in the mess. Was complete mind-numbing chaos, and it is *always” bad there. Worst European Airport for immigration, consistently – it’s no bastion of efficiency!
In Z gates area?
It’s German arrogance…. Munich, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg all the bloody same, arrogant bunch of pricks
When we arrived in April (on QR from PNH on their 5th freedom flight), I was worried about this so I booked fast track through Klook. A guy met us and took us through the crew line, but as it turned out, it was a waste of money as it wasn’t busy at the time we arrived (around 6pm).
SGN entry and exit a fucking nightmare…. Stops me going now….. Hanoi slightly better…. Otherwise fly direct into Da Nang