Feeding the stray: Paid fast-track security and immigration at Thai airports

It has recently come to the attention by photos that the people are not supposed to be taking that the long lines at security and immigration queues in Thailand airports can be bypassed by paying a 200 Baht fee for "fast track" service.

For anyone that doesn't live here this probably seems like it is something that is illegal and you would be correct in assuming that. It is illegal here as well but what are you going to do about it when it is the actual police themselves that are doing the illegal activity? This is actually quite common in Thailand and there are some people that are happy that this sort of thing exists.

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I've always found it kind of dodgy that you are not supposed to take pictures in an airport and to me it always kind of makes me feel like the reason they don't want you taking pictures is not because of some sort of a security concern but because they don't want you to have evidence of officials breaking the law.

That is exactly the reason what they don't want you taking pictures and they will jump all over you if they catch you doing so. Some people have done it anyway recently though and in the photos it clearly shows a paid line where people can bypass the ridiculous lines that exist at security in Thai airports.

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Urgh! Just seeing this makes me want to not travel.

I have on a few occasions in my life, traveled business class. When you pay this premium you kind of expect to have better and faster treatment and I feel that this is fair enough because these business and first-class tickets are dramatically more expensive than regular tickets.

But I can't help but feel as though when the security and immigration officials start trying to make some extra money by offering an unofficial fast-track to whoever is willing to pay for it that this simply means that they are going to intentionally make the regular lines as slow as possible to encourage more and more people to pay. Apparently they have wanderers that will approach people in lines and ask them if they want fast track for 200B per person and then lead them to another line where they get to skip in front of everyone. This is not an official program and there are no signs indicating that it exists.

For me, I kind of like that this is an option but just like anything where there is some money under the table that is happening with Thai officials, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are going to abuse it. It seems as though they just can't help themselves and I would imagine that the people who wrote the article exposing this will be punished rather than rewarded for pointing this out. This is the opposite of how systems should work but it is well-known in Thailand that if you work in a government position that people who want anything done quickly are going to have to pay a premium for it despite the fact that it is already the job of the person in question to do this for you anyway.

This is all happening during a time when Thailand is already undergoing a dramatic downturn in tourism specifically because of the sort of abuse of tourists that has been exposed in the past.

It seems like there is a large group of people that would rather cash in as much as they can while they burn the house to the ground rather than try to preserve it.