giruz

Hi every one

Well I am popping back to good old blighty this weekend.

Last time i flew with Jetairways for just under 14,000 baht and got stuck at Mumbia for 13 hours what a nightmare

I think this is the link

jet

This time I am going air asia for 12202.59 THB including an International meal (cant wait for that)

I am flying BBK to KL for 1,360 THB,

anybody else done this trip ?

How bad or good is the food ,seats, comfort,crew

If not i will post what i went through on here next week.

hey ho off we go

Colino

Hi,

I've just done the trip with my gf (about 2 weeks ago).

LON-KL Airasia

KL-BKK MH

and then back...

I'm just quickly typing few things we've noticed:

1- Landing in KL: best landing ever. The pilot was a STAR! I didn't even noticed we landed...really smooth landing.

2- The International meal is crap. Try the Asian. For the international meal they gave us a Shepherd's PIE for breakfast (bleah! I'm Italian and I need something sweet). Chicken for dinner.

3- The food is not enough. Buy heaps of food so you can eat something on the plane. Few passengers did it on the way to Thailand. Every passenger did it on the way back (I'm serious!). The prices are way to much if you buy on the aeroplane.

3.1- My gf points out that if you want to eat something more you can only buy Oreo (3 biscuits per packet), Instant noodles and small bags of crisps.

4- The DVD player has only few movies. We didn't buy entertainment on the way back because they had the same movies and we watched all of them on the way in

4.1 - My gf reminds me that most of the movies are OLD (e.g. Ice Age 2, Juno, etc)

5- They have a fancy exchange rate. Pay in MYR or Credit Card otherwise if you pay in GBP is a ripoff

6- You need to get a bus 1.5MYR from the lowcost terminal to the main terminal in KL. Make sure you have small notes (e.g. less than 20MYR)

7- We landed 1h in advance. If you have a flexible ticket you may be able to take an early flight to BKK. We paid our ticket 300MYR per person RT and unfortunately we couldn't...but you may be lucky and do it.

8- The way seats are arranged is not to bad..way better then our MH flight...

Hope it helps

Giruzz

"Used AEON twice today with two different ATM machines and no fee."

"There is an AEON atm on the second floor of Tesco/Lotus . . . It limits you too 7,000 baht"

Any chance that someone could post the exchange rate you got from AEON?

.

The rate I had was 54.30 but it was with nationwide.

STOP asking the rate that the ATM Machine gives you as this is decided by your BANK. You can go and do twenty withdrawals in 20 locations...but if the transactions are processed on the same day..then you will have the same exchange rate twenty times (as long you withdraw with the same card).

jfchandler: I said 'tried' because the machine was saying 'inter-regional transaction will have a fee' or something like that..then I pressed cancel and walked to the next AEON atm.

giruzz

Used AEON twice today with two different ATM machines and no fee.

GSB tried to charge.

giruzz

I am just arguing that Thai banks (as any other commercial venture) have a right to charge for the services that they are providing. If anybody on this forum can come up with a really convincing calculation, showing that the charge is excessive in relation to costs, then I'll be willing to join the complaining choir.

/ Priceless

I work in the credit card payment industry and I can assure you that Visa (and I believe MC) have in place a very complex fee structure in order to balance costs & revenues for both issuers (who gives you a card) and acquirers (who deploys ATM/POS machines).

Each time you do a transaction using an ATM....no matter the type (balance inquiry, withdrawal or something else)...then your bank will have to pay a small fee to the bank that deployed the ATM.

(If you do a transactions in a shop then is the other way around the bank that puts the POS machines and charge you pays a fee to your bank)

In other words, every time you take money out of an ATM your bank will have to pay a small fee to the bank that put the ATM...and you may not even be charged for that...

The cost difference between transactions on national or international circuits (e.g. Visa/MC) is really slim. The 150 THB in no more than a cash cow for institutions that deploys ATM machines...the actual cost difference is probably somewhere close to 1/10 of a Bath or less...

giruzz

Hi,

K-Bank in central world charged 150THB about 1hr ago.

Ayudhaya didn't charge, ATM located 5 miters from the K-Bank one.

I work in the credit card industry in UK and when an acquirer updates ATM machines it may take up to 3 weeks to have all of them updated (at least in EU with larger banks)...so this may explain why some ATMs from K-Bank do not charge yet.

Regards,

giruzz

Kasikorn withdrawal today (wed) and yesterday (tues). No fee charged.

Money out from ATM in central BKK (one in MBK and the other one around mbk)

GBP rate for yesterday 52.71

regards,

giruzz

don't worry, you aren't alone.

My mate (Australian ie non-EU national) is living in london married to his wife who is Polish. After years being on a highly skilled migrant permit he decided to save himself 700 pounds and extend his stay based on his marriage to an EU national.

Well, they have had his passport since July 2008. According to the website, apparently they are only upto processing applications made in April 2008. So they'll have his passport for a year! He hasn't been able to travel in the meantime.

And people complain about Thai immigration (inc. me ), which is a model of efficiency next to the home office.

So yes, home office, a bunch you know whats....

Your mate can request the passport back. He needs to send a fax to the 0151-213 1961 and start calling/harassing the home office after 10 working days (not before as they say that you need to wait 10 working days before your request will be processed).

The phone number is 01516725626 then 332 to speak with an operator. There is another 0845 number that does the job but I use the 0151 so I can call from mobile and voip with my inclusive minutes.

You will need heaps of patience as the lines are busy and you won't get into the queue easly...I dial no less than 120 times before getting the line (I use 3 phones to do this quickly)

Good luck! (btw I'm now on hold waiting someone to answer)

giruzz

My sympathies to the OP.

The irony is of course that your partner did not need to get her residence card endorsed in her new passport. The card in its present format, on a separate sheet I believe, is still a valid document and could have simply been attached to her new passport for all to examine as necessary.

The Home Office has now passed all responsibility for visas and immigration work to the UK Border Agency which has been operating for quite a while now but was officially established on , appropriately enough, the 1st April 2009 as an agency in its own right.

For general information the OP is an Italian resident in the UK with his Thai partner who is exercising her EEA treaty rights. Residence is generally without time limit but in order to facilitate travel, for visa nationals particularly, and as evidence of the right to work etc permission to remain for 5 years in the first instance is issued to the recipient and is known as a Residence Card.

As I understand it, all EEA applications are now dealt with in Liverpool but they are clearly under resourced because delays breaching the EEA regulations are being experienced routinely.

A rose by any other name.......yes, as the OP has discovered, although the name has changed the level of service and performance of staff is as variable as before.

For the benefit of those Americans expressing confusion at the OP and who are too stupid or incapable of reading previous posts by him:

Italy is a small country in Europe.

Liverpool is a city to the northwest of England

EEA means the European Economic Area

The UKBA is a bit like ICE/Homeland Security Department.

Wow!! I'm impressed :-)

The card is on a separate sheet, it is valid but we had to request another one because we had lots of troubles when travelling within Europe to countries where a visa was not required (e.g. Italy, Holland and Germany)...also, when we tried to book a visa appointment to Japan, USA, France and Spain and the answer we received has been always the same 'no, unless the EEA family member permit is endorsed we cannot issue a visa'

so, we had the luck to get a visa to the UK, but having that visa issued on a separate sheet of paper was kind of not having it as no consulate in London would issued Visas to travel to a third country..we were stuck here, without a chance to travel :-(

Tuesday I'll try to get the residency card back...

giruzz

what the <deleted> is the op rambling about

Nurse! He's strayed out of the biking forum again... Nurse!!

I forgot to take my medicines...

Still...I prefer monkeys...

giruzz

Hi,

I was planning to buy a day in a SPA or Beauty center to my girlfriend and to my sister...

I'm looking for a place in Bangkok..possibly not too expansive :-)

Any suggestions?

thank you

giruzz

Hi,

This is the story:

1) April 2008 - GF applies for a new residency card ENDORSED in her passport as current one is not

2) March 2009 - Home Office require further evidence of our relationship

3) 26/03/2009 - We required Passport & existing residency card to be returned as we will travel in May

4) 21/04/2009 - Home Office actioned our request

5) Daily calls to have docs returned

6) Due to travel this afternoon, 20 min ago I finally received the letter from home office...and surprise!! They did not send back the residency card so gf can leave the country but not come back in!!!

Considering that I sent about 1 letter, 3 faxes and I've made at least 2 phone calls a day...they really screwed-up big time!!!!

Home office people....I love you guys!!!

giruzz

Can anyone clarify how this thing is going?

My gf just spoke with her mum in BKK and her mum (who works for a bank) said that they are currently offering a 100% morgage, first 3 months interest free+ 2.00% afterwards (or something similar depending on what you want).

My gf did not elaborate too much about that....but we are thinking about buying a 2/3 bed condo for investment and the offer looked interesting (esp. because we have a few pennies in the UK that are not enough for buying an house given that now you need a +25% deposit).

giruzz

I was trying to get a spanish visa, that became a little complecated, although i eventually got one from the spanish embassy in bkk for my TGF, they were not very helpful to say the least. The french embassy in Chiang mai were brilliant though, nothing but praise for them, so i would start with the french embassy if i were you.

I had a bad experience with the Italian embassy but the problem wasn't about the visa it was with the two Thai ladies answering the phone/receptionist when you apply with for the visa.

The staff @ embassy was fine but we had to fight (I had to shout) in order to speak with someone that wasn't one of the two ladies.

(note: I'm Italian)

giruzz

But what about the seat size, pitch etc. A crap seat for a 2 hour flight to Singapore is ok but not for London.

Also what plane ? The 340 has a number of variants, some quite old now.

They also forgot to tell you that the pilot's name is Ponchos and they have outside toilets

I have booked LON-KUL on the first day. Paid 122GBP inclusive of seat, meal and 20kg luggage.

Booked the return ticket yesterday for 275GBP

Malaysia has an offer in place and you can book KUL/BKK for about 65GBP r/t.

I have booked those because it was slightly cheaper than Ethiad and Quatar. Also, I was asking my OH to go Malaysia to see the Petronas tower...so she finally accepted. However, I don't see that huge advantage (unless you book as I did for 122) compared to some other airlines.

Ethiad/Quatar were about 70GBP more and a direct flight with EVA was about 120 more...

Our flights are leaving London mid-may.

Giruzz

Yeah, just booked a one-way for £103, plus KUL-BKK for £8. Sweet. Just a pity it's stansted, which is a bit of a bitch to get to.

Just booked mine too!

£251 for STN-KUL, 2ppl, 2 luggages (15 and 20 kgs) and choosen the seat close to the exit with more leg room.

Now I need to book KUL-BKK but it looks like 60GBP (2ppl).

Tomorrow will be the hard part...convincing my boss to sign off 3 weeks holiday... (so I will be able to book the other way around!)

giruzz

When I applied we (she) had about 4000GBP. I had less than my girlfriend. (We were both in Aust on a temp visa and no job arranged yet in UK)

Response obtained in less than a week because under EU rules they must process the application on fast track...

giruzz

I doubt this rate cut will do much for FTB. I just checked with two banks and my mortgage rate is still 7.19% or 7.43% (ftb, 12% deposit). The cut seems to be only for those with variable/tracker mortgage...it appears that FTB are excluded.

My guess is that this is just another move reduce defaults (and therofore make a favor to banks). This is done by reducing the amount of interest for people that have a mortgage which is just out of the fixed period and cannot be renewed because property prices are falling and the owner is in negative equity...

giruzz

You're OK paying well over 7% ? I think you're getting ripped off. Check The Times online, money page, for a brief list of best buy mortgage rates. Unless you have bad credit history you should be a full 1% under your current, IMO.

No. We (Me and GF)are not willing to pay 7%

We are not buying because with for a mortgage of 160k and with a rate above 5.5% it is cheaper for us to rent.

We are currently paying 750pm and with a 7% interest on the mortgage it is just cheaper to rent (without considering that prices are going down and that if we want to move we can do it without too many problems).

giruzz

Forgive my ignorance but what do you mean by FTB ?....Full term mortgage or something ?

LaoPo

Mrs Naam claims it stands for "First Time Buyer" but could not give more details. perhaps somebody can enlighten us?

Mrs Naam is rigt. FTB = First Time Buyer

I almost fell off my chair, reading the -good- news. I couldn't believe my eyes and it's certainly very good news for UK homeowners if their mortgage is due to renew and also a boost for new home buyers.

I have to admit I was with Naam's opinion and also didn't believe the banks would -totally- follow the BoE's rate cut of 1.5% but it seems they're doing so (pressed/forced by the Government...)*

LaoPo

I doubt this rate cut will do much for FTB. I just checked with two banks and my mortgage rate is still 7.19% or 7.43% (ftb, 12% deposit). The cut seems to be only for those with variable/tracker mortgage...it appears that FTB are excluded.

My guess is that this is just another move reduce defaults (and therofore make a favor to banks). This is done by reducing the amount of interest for people that have a mortgage which is just out of the fixed period and cannot be renewed because property prices are falling and the owner is in negative equity...

giruzz

thanks for the help

If you search for my old posts you should fin heaps of info.

I'm Italian my OH is Thai and we lived in Australia for 3yrs before going to the UK.

At that time we did not have much money or much 'relevant working experience' but we are now (more or less) settled in UK.

The embassy in Sydney was just spectacular (7 days from sending the application to receiving the passport back with a 6months visa). The visa was converted to a 5 yrs residency card once in the UK (we had to wait a bit for that...it takes up to 6months to process).

Just fill the relevant form, add proof that you are in a relationship akin marriage and that's all...very straight forward.

If you need help just ask...

Giorgio

You have 7 months before you can apply for the card account that does not charge for ATM withdrawals and then you have to pray they accept you.

Bullshit. Done a week ago.

Opened a joint account with my girl. We were given a cash card because they said we don't have enough credit score.

You can take money out of ATMs but you can't use the card online or in a shop.

No charge for withdrawal abroad from the beginning (this was one of the two reasons why we opened an account with them, the other one was their interest rate on ISAs)

The only annoyance is that it takes 2 weeks to receive the card.

giruzz

I think Customs in the UK get quite interested if they know you're taking a big wodge out. I'm not quite sure how big big is but it's in the low thousands.

Not sure which one is the cheapest way.

Nationwide gives you an ATM card without withdrawal fees/exchange fees. I believe that would be better than exchanging cash.

HSBC will charge you £20 for the transfer. I would think about asking how much other banks will charge you.

A friend of mine used a service similar to the one XE offers and got a better change than using the bank. You could investigate this as well.

Have a look on the Jobs-Economy section..I remember of a thread being posted months ago.

giruzz

Ok,

this is to cut short a long story.

GF has residency card not endorsed in the passport and therefore lots of troubles to travel in EU.

We requested to have it endorsed in the passport but so far no luck.

We need to travel so we request back the Passport and Current Residency card (end of May), we were given different tracking code for secure mail and royal mail but never received anything.

Friday last week we receive my UK Permit (I'm EU resident) instead of my gf passport and residency card (!!!).

Request after request, we finally receive confirmation that the card & passport will be sent and delivered on Tuesday.

The problem is that the Home Office send the card with my name (Boyfriend) to girlfriend's workplace and because the reception cannot find my name on the directory..refuses the package (even tough they have been advised in advance).

Spend Wednesday begging Home Office & Secure Mail to re-deliver the card. This is because if a delivery has been refused by Secure Mail it needs a fax from the Home Office before it can be re-delivered.

Finally, got lucky. The card can be delivered at my gf' workplace on Thursday morning. However, for this service Secure Mail requires a payment of 20 pounds.

Our flight is on Thursday afternoon. Only choice is to pay.

This morning my girlfriend wakes up at 6.30am to bet at workplace by 8am.

At 8.30am a letter is delivered.

Only one little problem.

There only the passport (no residency card to re-enter the UK)...and is not her passport!

At the end we have:

Cost:

20 GBP for the re-delivery express by Secure Mail

105 GBP for the tickets

85 EUR for 1 night in Hotel.

Gain:

Someone's passport

Call the Home Office, I've been told that I should have everything by tomorrow (!!!).

The Morale of the Story:

EU or Developing world...immigration is always the same.

Is there a way to book a visa with the French?

The 09 number says all the available places have gone already.

Online is fully booked...I'm just trying to book a stupid visa...

(I have spent more then £15 in phone calls so far)...

Where is the trick to get an appointment?

giruz

I have emailed the Embassy but no reply yet. I see that visas are issued by appointment. Does the proposed visa holder have to be present or can the application and appointment be made by a relative. My GF is in the UK and I am planning to post her passport back for her sister to take with the application.

Any ideas

Richard

Hi,

Just a quick question. What visa does she hold now in the UK?

Rules recently changed and if she has a Family member permit she is not required to have a schengen visa for Italy.

My advice, is just to pop-in at the consulate and ask (NOT THE EMBASSY!). I've been there last week and they have been very helpful (first time ever that an Italian public official is helpful!).

If I remember correctly the tube stop is Victoria and you can walk from there.

The consulate doesn't have any obvious sign/logo/flag outside...so it looks like an house...

giruz