sandyf

Quite. A friend of mine came with Turkish earlier in the year. He is in his 70s and has mobility issues but thought it much better than the main terminal. Coming with Qatar this weekend, could be a bit disappointed.

Never going to happen, there is always the option of redenomination. Currency will always have a value. A few years back Turkey turned 1 million lira into 1 lira overnight.

I came back Monday evening and not very busy at foreign passports. I use Thai passports and nobody waiting. Getting the bag was a different matter, a bit chaotic in reclaim hall, I came off a 380 and seemed to take forever.

Here in Chonburi there was only the dry season and the wet season. When I first come here the dry season usually followed Loy Krathong and lasted till April/May time, sometimes even into June. In recent years however we have started to see rain in Jan/Feb. We don't have mains water, just use stored rainwater, so the change is quite beneficial.

A few more lessons and you may see the difference between "checked" and automatic gate control.

Apologies, appears English is not your first language.

Wrong, my boarding pass was not checked before going to the auto gate. Second comment also wrong, NOBODY gets an exit stamp from an auto gate.

Why get hot under the collar over something that has not been said. The OP does not say that there will no longer be a boarding pass. The OP implies that facial recognition will replace a function currently provided by the boarding pass. Many airports now require passengers to scan a barcode on the boarding pass to get to security area, a funcion that could be replaced by facial recognition. When I left Thailand a couple of weeks ago there was no boarding card check prior to security, although there has been in the past. Maybe they have already run down the staff. Some years ago I flew with Easyjet and they had no boarding passes. You were given a queue number at the gate and took the first available seat. No wrong seats to worry about.

Not when I left earlier this month, went through an auto gate using facial recognition. IO looked a bit puzzled when I came back, no exit stamp.

Doesn't pay to believe media headlines.

You should be more careful on what you say, how false information is spread. Your words "Most of the fees and surcharges are airline generated, and not government." The IATA code list shows over 90% of surcharges applied to fares are paid to governments. People are free to request a detailed breakdown from the airline if they get hot under the collar. Do you really believe that the Thai airlines do not follow the IATA guidelines even though committed to do so.

Quite, it is problematic for airline surcharges to be selective. The only one I am aware of is the UK's Air Passenger Duty which is based on ticket fare class, something the airline can recognise. Passengers nationality and visa status are non starters.

You need to explain how that works at land borders. The air tickets have been done to death, any online approach could only be done through the embassies/consulates such as ETA and tourist visa fees. The end result could well be manual collection by some other means, like you get in other countries.

People are free to imagine what they want, not going to change anything. Tourist tax is not unique to Thailand, you can't always get what you want and sooner or later they will follow the leaders.

You are wrong, the codes are applicable whether identified or not, and if you looked at the list there are very few paid to the airline, mainly those that were once referred to as fuel adjustments.

That is not true, my niece did her BA in clinical medicine at university in China. What they do have to do is part of the final year as an intern at a hospital in Thailand before they can apply for a licence to practice in Thailand. Covid started during her internship and as she could speak Chinese was seconded to do assessments on the Chinese tourists at the time.

You are wrong, the majority of airfare surcharges are paid to the governments of the airports concerned. All surcharges have a code that is listed in an IATA publication which unfortunately has to be paid for. However all the codes can be seen on this website. https://blog.thetravelinsider.info/air-travel-taxes Different alirlines present the charges differently which often leads to confusion. This is how Emirates do it, if I remember right "F6" &"UB" are the charges imposed by the UAE for passing through Dubai. "GB" is a variable tax imposed by the UK, dependent on distance and seating arrangement. "TS" is the passenger service charge for Thailand.

The ETA system only applies to those not arriving on a visa, those on a tourist visa would be exempt. There is no easy solution based on arrival, why many countries collect the tourist tax through accommodation charges.

It has never been cancelled, just delayed. The implemention of the proposals suggested are very problematic and when problems arise it has been a case of back to the drawing board. I expect that some time after a few more glitches they will fall back on the approach taken by many other countries and add it to accommodation bills for foreign passports.

Why the best option for the OP was to apply for an E-visa, nothing to do with immigration. I lived here for 6 years before I found out where immigration was.

You are mistaken, that is a left over from the days of the ME visa. Many, myself included, have obtained the single entry with a lot less. I seem to remember anything over £1000 would be accepted for SE based on marriage.

In 25 years I have never known it to be hot & humid in Pattaya in Dec.

The difference was that when Mor Phrom was introduced it couldn't be used without a 13 digit code. Something that caused a great deal of consternation in the expat community. At the end of the day the yellow book has benefits that many are not aware of, yet quite prepared to claim there is no benefit.

I have had mine since 2010 and the number just means you are on the Thai database. Interaction with any department doesn't happen unless it is initiated. I registered at the hospital with my yellow book and when covid came along the hospital put me on the app without me having to do anything. Had the vaccine about 9am the day rollout started while those that dismiss the benefits of the yellow book were pulling their hair out. I knew someone who was registered at the same hospital and his wife went and complained when she found out about my appointment. Turned out he had registered with his passport and had no 13 digit number.

In Dec I would suggest you look at HCMC rather than Hanoi, weather would be much better. Plenty to see in the city and worth taking the boat over to Vung Tau.