richard_smith237

And because ‘it can go either way’.... the intelligent choice is to air on the side of caution... Thus: The comments such as “I’ve been flying for years and never been checked” only serve to offer flawed influence... ... in any such situation following the regulations and safeguarding against potential issues is the only intelligent option, anything else is simply a gamble.

You would if you read the thread & realised its not about your situation

Photos get taken at the point of application.

Ah... the ‘seat belt’ argument.... I never had a crash so never needed a seatbelt !!... Op: As UbonJoe and DrJack54 wrote... - Visa exempt = you should have a a return ticket - With visa = no need an onward ticket The reason for this are the immigration requirements: - If entering with a Visa, Immigration requirement do not require you to have an onward flight. - If entering Visa, Immigration requirements state that you must have an onward flight (within 30 days). The reality is Immigration very rarely check this (if ever, but they can). The reality also is that Airlines can and do check this as they are the ones on the hook for the cost of your return should immigration reject your visa exempt entry. Mileage clearly varies - some posters will argue they have never been asked to show an Onward / return ticket when travelling into Thailand Visa exempt (as per Deserted), others, myself included have been checked.... Nearly every time I fly to Thailand the Check-In staff check for my Visa (I’m flying into Thailand about 8 times per year - so thats pretty regular checks when travelling from Middle East, UK, Japan). In the past (about 15 years ago before I held a long term visa and I was entering visa exempt I was regularly I asked to show an onward ticket, not every time - but perhaps about 4 out of 10 times.

Really, now ??.... Really, now ??..... the K1 visa, right ?

Why even bother with any of that when its so easy for her to renew her passport in a day or two in her home province (or Bangkok if she wishes) ???? There is very little ‘pleasing’ of the Thai Bureaucracy to do... A Thai Passport renewal is a quick and relatively painless process compared to time and hassle it takes for many of us from Western nations. The Op's wife is already doing the correct thing. The Op has enquired about travel into Thailand - a non-issue. The return to US with a new passport is a non-issue given the Wife’s existing paperwork. The Op can simply enjoy his holiday with is wife... nothing to worry about at all.

Not an issue for a national travelling to their home country (in the vast majority of cases).

My Wife (Thai) had her old passport returned to her. She travelled with both Passports to the UK and showed both Passports upon entry, the new Passport which was stamped, the old Passport which shows the Visa (that was about 7 or 8 years ago, she has since got a new visa in her latest passport so I don’t know if that rule has altered for British Visas). You’ll need to check IF the US accept the Visa in her old Passport - maybe other forum members with Thai Wive’s and US visa’s can offer information on this. I don't know about the employment authorisation card (if thats ok or not - I guess the airline are looking for the US Visa to permit boarding when travelling back to the states).

IF those in positions of responsibility and decision making power were held responsible for such issues they would be dealt with very quickly. There is slow improvement - but its starting decades too late.

With this kind of fear I’m surprised you made it onto a plane.... let alone crossing a road in Thailand !!!... Why would my insurance not cover me for injury ?

Loads of great Thai food all over Bangkok... From high end fine dining Thai to standard street food... There are gems all over the city... way too many to list primarily because your question is rather unspecific... So... Starting off... Sabai Jai Gai Yang (on Ekammai)... inexpensive, cheerful, good food, shorts and flip-flops type of place..... https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293916-d3355144-Reviews-Sa_Bai_Jai-Bangkok.html Or another Place.... Ton Krueng (deep on Sukhumvit 49)... moderately price, comfortable, good food, shorts n t-shirt or suit n tie straight from work type of place... https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293916-d1396816-Reviews-Thon_Krueng_Restaurant-Bangkok.html Or this place... Big Ha Mor (Sukhumvit 71)... shop front noodles... very popular, loads of GrabBikes waiting outside.

The Wife is Thai, flying to Thailand - theoretically the Wife would not be prevented entry on an expired passport - the only thing the airline are interested in is their responsibility should the passenger be refused entry. Thus: No, the potential for 6 month issue is a non-issue (additionally, the 6 month issue you mentioned is not an issue for all countries - my (Thai) Wife flew to Japan for 2 weeks with 3 months left on her passport, yet if she wanted to go to Singapore, she’d be rejected under the 6 month rule).

As your Wife is Thai, flying to Thailand the date of her return travel and passport validity is irrelvant. She cannot be denied boarding a flight for this reason. Additionally, if I’m not mistaken, if she wanted to, I believe she could fast-track a passport application - i.e. Submit it and collect it the next day (or possibly the same afternoon). Anyway, the expiry your Wife’s Thai Passport is not going to be an issue as far as travel to Thailand. Does the USA require transference of her US Visa into her new Passport or is carrying the Visa in her expired passport acceptable ? (I assume you looked into this already).

You are using yet further strawman fallacy to excuse inexcusable behaviour. Using your examples: It's discrimination if he is rejected an entry visa at Don Muang Airport when he is can get a Visa at Suvarnabumi.... the example is still highly flawed and ridiculous. That would be racism and sexism (discrimination based on race / gender).... The Op was refused mediation based on his nationality alone, that is very much a discriminatory practice which would be illegal in any of the (western) countries we come from.

Yes, 620 Baht for Paracetamol and Cough mixture is expensive.... but thats the markup everyone knows at any hospital - usually at hospitals (when under inpatient insurance only) I go refuse to take the medication buy the medication at the hospital pharmacy if I know I can’t get it elsewhere.... ....But, if feeling particularly unwell, no one wants to have to run around to additional places. The hospital would also have made a profit on the molnupiravir medication had they not prevented the Op from receiving such medication - its still just very strange that they had a policy which prevented this (maybe an old Policy from last year when anti-virals were more scarce). He did, the Dr. told him he could get it at a Pharmacy and wrote the name (molnupiravir) on a piece of paper for the Op - the Pharmacy didn’t stock it, so the Op had to go to another hospital.

He can’t get those meds from a Pharmacy.... I’m not sure how many times this needs to be repeated. The only thing ?? the whole policy not to prescribe necessary medication to someone who needs it based on him being ‘a farang’ (non-Thai) is wholly wrong !!!.... ..... it is that ‘degree of clumsiness and discrimination which the Op is suggesting is ’Thainess’... It's not the ‘minor little misunderstanding' you seem to have implied it is, particularly when someone is quite sick. I imagine anyone of us would feel aggrieved in the same situation - perhaps some of us have no learned not to ‘chance it’ at a government hospital if we feel particularly unwell - just incase we are refused treatment because we are a farang. Perhaps the same hospital would refuse prescribe one of those to him as well !!!!...

Thats good... And of course no one has the right to raise their voice or be impolite in such situations (and we know thats not the case here). But, the Op had every right to feel upset and voice that (not express it) to the person who is the representative of the establishment treating him with discrimination. In this case, it would be fair of the Op to calmly and politely tell the Doctor that the act of discrimination to deny him needed medication is atrocious and ask that she pass that on to her supervisors. Of course, we know that Thai culture and Kraeng-jai prevents such information from travelling up the chain which is why we witness such clumsy policies so frequently.... ultimately the decision makers operate in their own echo-chamber and never learn how wrong they often are until social media gets a hold of these things.

No.. the Op was not given a Prescription for molnupiravir. That was written on a piece of paper for him - the Op called a Fascino pharmacy which did not have the medication he was told he needed. No.. the Op wasn’t confused, you are (sorry for ‘getting ratty’ again).... The Op went to Memorial Hospital (a private / non-government hospital), saw another Doctor who prescribed molnupiravir (which cost approx 4000 baht). Not really, the Op needed medical advice and treatment and was refused medication at one hospital and forced to go to another..... Thats not as it ’needs to be’ at all. Indeed... particularly when people seem to have gone native and respond with a cognitive bias and attempt to defend the indefensible.

There is also another response to this question: The knowledge and medication surrounding the treatment of Covid-19 has evolved rapidly over the past 12 months - for someone of knowledge it would be perfectly reasonable to discuss any medication with a doctor, particularly someone who’s family member has received exactly the same treatment and medication a few days previously. Certainly, when I need treatment, here or in the UK, I discuss in depth any treatment I may need because I and others like me are capable of reading published information and assimilating the data to a sufficient base to engage with the doctor on that intellectual level. IF you are incapable of doing this I can understand why you may not be able to discuss such things with a Doctor and simply take their word for it on blind faith.

Yep... completely agree..... and its extremely sad to ‘expect’ that we could receive discriminatory treatment at a hospital of all things... ---------- I recall the outrage, defence and deep and heated discussion on this forum and others when at the height of the Pandemic a Thai lady in the UK had covid symptoms which were at the time mild, she went to hospital and was given paracetamol and sent home. I think she died a few days later, she’d video-logged her own decline.... terrible treatment by the NHS in the UK, but they were also treating British with the same degree of symptoms in exactly the same manner, so little was known about Covid at the time, they could only treat ’very severe symptoms’ in hospital, for anyone else it was simply ‘go home and take paracetamol - hospitals are full’.... At the time, there were accusations by Thai’s (on Thai forums) that this lady had been treated unequally, however, its obvious that while the treatment this lady received was extremely poor, primarily due to her ’non severe symptoms and her younger age' she was treated the same as anyone else.... Sadly, she did not go back to hospital when her symptoms worsened.

No... The question you should really be asking is Why didn’t you comprehend what the Op has posted. The Op has clearly stated the Doctor wanted to prescribe molnupiravir but couldn’t because she had been told she was not allowed to prescribe that antiviral medication to a ‘farang’. Again.... You are commenting without having read / understood the Ops post - the Doctor told the Op that this was the medication (molnupiravir) that he needed.

Maybe you wrote this already earlier. Couldn't she write you a prescription and with that you should be able to get it in a pharmacy? He did write it earlier.... (one of the earlier pages). She was unable to write the prescription as that would be for the Hospital Pharmacy, or enable him to get the required molnupiravir from the hospital pharmacy - so it was the prescription itself which was blocked - The Doctor would (could) only write a prescription for the Cough Mixture and Paracetamol which the Op purchased from the hospital Pharmacy for 620 Baht. The Doctor told the Op that he needed the molnupiravir and wrote it down on a piece of paper. The Op explained that he’d called Fascino (Pharmacy), they didn’t have it in stock, so it was unlikely any other Pharmacy would have it in stock seeing that Fascino is the ‘go to Pharmacy to get anything’. The Ops only solution was to go through the ‘whole process again’ see another Doctor at a different hospital (Memorial) who would prescribe the recommended molnupiravir.

Cognitive dissonance. It is essential to his psychology that Thais are the good guys and foreigners are the bad guys. Therefore, his subconscious mind bends the truth and distorts the facts to prevent a Thai from ever being in the wrong, even if it means the most illogical and trivial are dreamt up or blown out of proportion. It simply has to be that the foreigner did something wrong and all Thais involved are completely innocent. His mind will not allow any other outcome to present itself. It's sadly a very common occurrence amongst the Thai apologists here. Edit: This also answers the question @peterrabbit just asked. I wonder IF instead of discussing ’Thainess’ Neeranam has instead chosen to give us his examples of 'Thainess’ by presenting excuses for and attempting to defend this type of discrimination by a Thai against a non-Thai......

It's a good question - but how are we to know what discriminatory practices are in place an an establishment until we encounter them? We know national parks operated discriminatory dual pricing against non-Thai’s. We know hospitals can practice discriminatory dual pricing against non-Thai’s. We have now learned that some ‘hospitals’ can refuse needed medication to non-Thai’s during and after being treated.

You do know the full story - the Op provided a great deal of detail. You are now attempting to blame the discrimination directed towards the Op on something you imagine.... you are getting desperate to excuse the inexcusable almost as if you wish to level the same level of discrimination at the Op yourself.