No1Farang

22 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

What period of time was his 50k insurance coverage.

I'm sure this was all about Finnair not understanding the rules covering retirement visas.  The issue was resolved after a phone call to the embassy. At no time was insurance mentioned.

Trouble at airport - onward ticket

I am flying this week from London to Bangkok via Doha with Qatar on a one way ticket.  Earlier this week my friend went London to Bangkok via Helsinki with Finnair on a one way ticket and he had a problem.

We both have non imm O/A retirement visas which are annually extended. And the Thai embassy has always said you don't need an onward ticket out of Thailand.

The Finnair transfer staff at Helsinki did a full document check (so what was the point of the Thailand Pass, but that is another issue) and told by friend he could not board as he did not have an onward ticket out of Thailand.

Fortunately there was sufficient time for several phone calls and eventually it was agreed he could board.  Finnair has got this completely wrong.

My question is has anybody had a similar experience with Qatar?  I want to be prepared!

Thanks for useful info. Think I'll use Booking.com

Just about to come to Phuket for the first time in several years.  What is the going rate for an airport taxi to Patong?  I don't mind paying the correct price but need to know if i'm being rolled over!

2 hours ago, bolt said:

yes

but the actual submission and then waiting period was fast

I didn't pay for Flight ticket

free cancelation of room ( which i have now cancelled)

I already have COVID insurance from July for 12 months.

 

so my submission was only a test to see how long it would take, or how late i can book and pay, using AGODA is around 3 days anything less is not showing up on the Test & Go page Quarantine Deals Only 

How did you get a flight ticket without paying? I'm not aware of any airlines that will issue a ticket before payment.  I know some agents will hold your booking for a couple of days before payment but that is not a ticket.  Please explain

I have made several attempts. I'm using a Macbook pro and Google chrome browser.  I could not get past the first page using Google chrome so I tried Safari which is already in the system for a Mac.  With safari I got past the first page but I could not drag and drop or browse and upload my passport page.

Having read this forum somebody had success using Microsoft Edge browser. So I downloaded that and could not open the browser. So I thought I would try Firefox. I downloaded that and started my application. Including leaving a space after my passport number. At the end I got the "Success and grenn tick" quickly followed by the email confirming my registration and to wait for up to 7 days for the result and presumably a QR code.

So far I have tried about 10 times to fill the form using four different browsers and the space after the passport number and have got a success.  But until i get the result I have to sit and wait like the other 65,000 applications

Question.  I read that the document JPEGs must be a maximum size os 2,000k.  Is this for each document or collectively for all six documents

19 hours ago, limbos said:

There used to be a net at Ozone, not sure if it is still there. In Lamai there is a net at Lamai Kwanta.

I think you mean the Lamai Wanta which has now been renamed the Hive.  The net has been removed.  It was there 2 weeks ago but last time I walked the beach it had gone

In Samui the New Nordic Group started a development in two phases totalling about 270 units. I was reliably told by one of the managers that they had sold all but 3 units.  The first phase is structurally complete but not all windows aircons etc have been fitted. The second phase is only just above ground level.  All work stopped in Nov 2019 which was before covid had been invented. I understand the company is bankrupt and they have just abandoned the development thus leaving an ugly reminder to their incompetence.  I'm not sure which is worst. The nearly complete blocks painted orange or the concrete pillars just above ground level. For those who put life savings in for a retirement home I feel sorry for. But those that bought as an investment were fools. They should have read the small print first. Things that are too good to be true usually aren't true. 

Same experience as Tchooptip above. My online application never moved off PENDING so i gave up on that. The latest edict giving every body an exemption never explained what would happen when the exemption finished. Would everybody on the exemption have to turn up on the day after it finished? Nightmare. Never explained.

So this afternoon, guessing nobody would be there, I went to immigration to do my 90 day report. Nobody there except the staff. I walked pass all the unmanned desks giving numbers etc and went straight up to the 90 day report counter. Handed over my passport and TM47 form. 2 mins later got the passport back and a slip of paper saying next report 8 July.  Six mins from parking the car to getting back in to go home. Result

Just done mine online and am now PENDING. So far so good

I used https://extranet.immigration.go.th/fn90online/online/tm47/TM47Action.do and the form only took 5 mins to complete.

I'm living in Samui so really didn't want to go to that death trap immigration office.  Also I used Google Chrome on a Macbook pro

Maybe theres hope that some of us won't get the virus in the immigration office

2 hours ago, churchill said:

Just did 90 Day Report online hopefully correctly ..

 

Listed as " Pending "

 

Anyone know how long it takes for approval ?

What browser did you use.  Any other thoughts on why your application has got as far as pending?

This is serious.  Samui immigration has got a lot to answer for. Herding many people into confined spaces to do sometimes non sensical reporting (90 days etc).  If Samui ever gets this contagion I bet it will start in that office in Maenam.

Back to the Koh Phangan girlfriend. It's not her fault but very importantly what times was she in that immigration office. Is there any way of finding out?  If we knew that it would put some peoples minds at rest and others might want to self quarantine.

Samui airport has almost certainly got restrictions on the number of movements and the times you can fly.  These would be political restrictions for example not flying through the night to alleviate noise and the maximum movements, which could be 50, to fit with the so called environment off the islands.  These are not operational or Air Traffic Control restrictions.  They are political or planning restrictions. For example Mumbai is the busiest single runway airport in the world having once achieved 878 movements in a day.  So 50 movements a day is hardly worth mentioning operationally wise. Obviously to achieve that you got to have some nice taxiways and lots of terminals.

At the moment the biggest restriction on increasing the number of aircraft movements at Samui is the terminal size.

In my previous post about the possibility of a second airport I forgot to mention that the idea is just plane stupid.  A new airport would be hugely expensive, decimate the countryside and be a waste of time.  Far better would to be to use that money to pay off the Bangkok Airways family, remove the monopoly, build another terminal and allow Air Asia in at the same costs that they have when flying to any other airport in Thailand. 

33 minutes ago, Airbagwill said:

Apparently it's to do with air traffic control and NEW airports

Not so. There is no Air Traffic Control reasons why airports have to be a set distance apart. Obviously it is better if they are but airspace procedures overcome any proximity problems. The reasons why you cant have another airport on Samui are to do with finding a suitable amount of land and the immense influence that the Bangkok Airways owning family have over such matters

10 minutes ago, Airbagwill said:

I"m told that under international airline regulations you are not allowed to have airports within 50km of each other ...So building another airport on Samui is a non-starter.

 

No such international regulation.  Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang are 30 kms apart and that is just one local example. And another example, this time in the UK, you'll find London Heathrow only 9 km from Northolt airport.

Looking at the Samui airport arrivals board for Sat 1st I can see two flights from China. Tibet Airways from Xi'an and Bandit Airways from Chengdu. <deleted>. Have they not been watching the news? Maybe they have been cancelled and the arrivals board has not been updated. At least Bandit Airways can quarantine their crew and passengers at their very own Bandit Samui hospital and make a huge amount of money. Just don't hang around the arrivals meeting point when these flights arrive.

I need to apply for an Extension of Stay before the 30th November at Nathon Immigration. How soon before the said date can I apply?

Thank you