My T3 Experience = Queues!

[taipeiflyer]

Queue? What queues?




Sorry! Can't resist the temptation here. Been using the First Class Check-In Lounge at T3.

you are so devilish SQ LPP! haha jk.

[SQ LPP]

you are so devilish SQ LPP! haha jk.

Devilish is sounding so soothing to my ears! I have been called the evils...
The thing is that I am a risk averse person. I know in T3 that most of the flights are leaving after 11pm. A380 to London is about 1130pm. Then the flights to FRA, CDG, MXP, AMS, MAN etc are before midnight. Thus, I personally (if I don't have access to fast track) will not go through immigration around 1030pm. I would make sure I arrive earlier. Okay, I am sure the regular check-in area are busy as well.. Thus I will arrive earlier at the airport taking my chances.
Even for the First Class Check-In Lounge, I heard in the morning after 8am would be very busy or after 930pm.

[SQFAN]

SQ LPP is so smart.. I recently took the A380 from SIN-LHR and when I got the to gate, I was aghast to find two long queues as there was a Madrid flight boarding as well.

Remembering what ManFlyer had posted about priority lanes stands signs deep inside just before the screening machines, I decided not to queue, approached one of the airport gate staff and acted like a PITA. He asked me to deal with SQ and I told him that he should have done better with the signs, (while remaining calm and not making him lose face). He then told me to go to an empty lane and they opened it up for the rest of the pax after me. Grrr...Why can't Changi aiport get their act together as this is no longer their first time?

[ycp81]

Thats wat happens when SQ schedules the whole bank of flights to depart around the same timing from the same terminal. T2 is now a ghost town, hardly can u see any queues.

[SQADL333]

Don't remind me.I have to go through Terminal 3 in just over a Month on the way to Vietnam as I arrive from Adelaide on SQ268 through there and stopping off in Singapore for the Night.Then using the T2 for the shorter sectors in Asia then again T3 on the way home to Adelaide on SQ269.What is the latest time I should allow to get through outbound Immigration and Customs assuming I have gone into Downtown Singapore for a few hours between connecting flights.I am arriving on the way home from Hanoi on SQ175 at 5:55pm and connecting onto Adelaide 1 January 2010 on SQ269 at 11:50pm by the way.

[MAN Flyer]

Don't remind me.I have to go through Terminal 3 in just over a Month on the way to Vietnam as I arrive from Adelaide on SQ268 through there and stopping off in Singapore for the Night.Then using the T2 for the shorter sectors in Asia then again T3 on the way home to Adelaide on SQ269.What is the latest time I should allow to get through outbound Immigration and Customs assuming I have gone into Downtown Singapore for a few hours between connecting flights.I am arriving on the way home from Hanoi on SQ175 at 5:55pm and connecting onto Adelaide 1 January 2010 on SQ269 at 11:50pm by the way.

I am a little confused by your post for a number of reasons.

First, the 'don't remind me' comment, when the post above yours is from April 2008. Second, how do you know you will arrive in T3 on your way from Adelaide, if that is what you are saying ?. And third, you have a six hour connection on the way back.

I see you are trying to leave no stone unturned for this trip to Hanoi, which is sensible planning I suppose, and I am sure it will go very smoothly.

[cscs1956]

I departed out of T3 for the first time yesterday, and I can sum up my experience in one word: QUEUES! I proceeded to immigration at 10:30PM to be met by a line stretching back to the money changers, this never happened in the 6 years I departed from T2! when I finally got into the immigration area i had to wait in a further queue to finally get out of the country... only to stand for half an hour in the queue for the GST Refund because only one auntie was working despite it being the terminal's busiest time. This meant I missed resm, all I could do was wave as I sprinted to the gate to catch my flight, understandably lacking chocolate, I don't know if he saw me or not

Correct. I notice the same. Not only that, collection of bags is also much slower in T3. Thumb down for T3.
Also the self checkin machines is basically a white elephant !!

[Kyo]

There was zero queue at 7:45PM yesterday at T3 immigration. It felt great! (especially since I got off a painful Valuair/Jetstar flight)...

[haf]

zero queues Sunday night coming back from Phuket. In fact, I was in a taxi 16 minutes after departing the plane and that includes picking up luggage and buying a bottle of gin!

Seriously though, I use T3 at least twice a month and rarely hit a queue. Same goes for T2. In the 80+ times of going through that airport, I can remember all six times I've had to wait in a *lengthy* immigration queue.

[feb01mel]

Usually, if you are at immigration in the evenings from 9 plus till 11pm, there will be queues as that is the peak time for both arrival & departure flights.

For me, being a Singaporean pays off, as we can use the automated immgration gate clearance just by scanning our passport and fingerprint, you will be through in less than a minute and usually no queues at all!

[SQflyergirl]

mega queue at immigration last night arriving into T3 at 8pm. Never seen one like that before, but it went 3/4 of the way to the escalators. Moved reasonably quickly though. Taxi rank snake was pretty long too, although it moved reasonably quickly as well. All said it was 40 minutes from plane door to getting into a taxi

[Pinkfloyd]

I was pretty lucky yesterday morning (around 6:30am)... From plane door (T3) to getting home (North East of Singapore) it only took me 1 hour! And this included a ciggy break after getting off the plane!

[First_Flyer]

When I arrived at T3 early evening I found it to be very very quiet and empty. Hence no queues anywhere

[wsssaero]

I arrived into T3 at about 5pm Tuesday. There were only 3 immigration lanes open but the queue moved relatively quickly as there was only my flight which had arrived at that time.

[cscs1956]

I was there in T3 yesterday around 10:15 PM as well, and I agree that the line was really really long at the immigration. So speechless.

By the way, am I the only one feeling that Changi Airport's temperature is a bit too warm? I mean from my experience, the temperature is just too hot compared to KLIA's temperature.

The problem is we have 3 (actually 4) sets of immigration counters. It is so ineffective way of managing abd does not allow the fexibility of expansion. Another bad thing is the auto passport clearance machine. Is so slow and many trouble.