zink

Is ringing the bell in a bar stupid after consuming 20 drinks? No way hosay!! that's what the bell is for right ? so who cares if it makes you feel good. Tipping is totally dependant on the individuals frame of mind at the time and naturally the tourist will tip big and why not considering there living the dream for 7 days. In Australia the staff are paid a fortune and still most people will leave a tip of around 300 bht after paying 6000 bht for a meal for 2 including good wine so why not leave a tip of 100 bht here when the same meal costs a fraction and the service is 10 fold?

So if you give 5% (300/6000) tip in Australia, why you should give more than 5% tip in Thailand? Especially since the tipping tradition in Thailand is very new and brought by tourists...

Sure, many things are cheaper in Thailand, but if you start to overpay, then this difference will be become smaller.

One thing has always puzzled me. Why on this forum there are many people who complain about double-pricing and there are also many people who voluntarily overpay (by giving a huge tips)?

Why people don't realize that the voluntary overpaying leads to double pricing? Companies like to maximize their profits, if they see that foreigners voluntarily overpay, then the most logical solution for them is to start charging foreigners more.... For example: if the bill is 400B and the farang pays happily 500B, then why don't charge next farang 450B for the same stuff?

above avarage service above avarage tip is justified.

I strongly disagree. I wonder why some people think that a big tip should be automatically included? You are already paying for the "average service" when you pay the "list price"! In Thailand I rougly apply the following:

- poor service: no tip, or very small tip

- average service: small tip (max 5%)

- above average service: average tip (5-10%)

- really, really, great service: above average tip (10-15%)

Above applies to situation where "service charge" isn't included in the bill. When there is a service charge, I don't tip anything (unless the service has been, really, really great).

BTW, I like China's tipping policy, it's plain and simple: NO tipping anywhere!

The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures its performance against six trading partners, has fallen 9.4 percent this year to a record low. The dollar rose 0.2 percent today to $1.4633 to the euro and fell 0.6 percent to 110.42 yen.

EURUSD is now 1.4790

From 1.4660 to 1.4790 in 4 hours.

And now three days later EURUSD is about 1.49...

However, it seems that dollar onshore rate hasn't decreased against the baht, which means that baht is now weaker against most other currencies.

Perhaps you should have read that page:

"In accordance with industry standards, an 'on-time' departure is one that departs from the designated bay no more than 15 minutes from the scheduled departure time."

Also note that: "departure time from the gate/stand" is not equal to "take-off time". That 80-85% figure is enterily believable.

I said nothing about doing it in person. I said you needed to be in the Consular district of administration (which may be more than one country in some cases). Your mailing address shows that.

How exactly is consulate supposed to check wherever the person is really located in "Consular district of administration" at that moment? You can ask your friend living in your home country to go to consulate and leave your application, or just mail it from his/her address. In addition, it's possible for you to have a valid address in your home country even thought you're basically living in Thailand.

2. Consulates will normally only issue a visa to those that show themselves to be within there consular districts when making application. Obviously not all are created equal and some have failed to check very closely. This seems to be watched closer these days.

That definitely isn't true. What about those geographically large countries with a single Thai consulate? Is it very feasible to require applicants to travel hundreds or thousands of kilometers to just make an application. Actually, working hours for visa applications are so inconvinient in many consulates, that's it sometimes difficult to make an application in person even if you live nearby.

About two passports: different countries seems to have different rules. I was able to get a second passport just by writing a short explanation (my passport was at embassy because of visa application and I had to make an urgent trip abroad). I got my second passport after 30 minutes of waiting.

The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures its performance against six trading partners, has fallen 9.4 percent this year to a record low. The dollar rose 0.2 percent today to $1.4633 to the euro and fell 0.6 percent to 110.42 yen.

EURUSD is now 1.4790

Nice movement today: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=EURUSD=X&a...&q=l&c=

From 1.4660 to 1.4790 in 4 hours.

In many European countries tourism to Thailand is growing by 20-30% or more per year. That's definitely not a marginal growth, and it does effect prices of flights.

Fuel/oil price increase in Euros has been quite moderate during past years, so it's definitely isn't the reason for greatly increase prices.

One advantage of budget airlines that hasn't been mentioned here is much greater flexibility. They don't have silly restrictions on return date and with budget carriers roundtrip fare usually equals 2 x one-way fare (taking airport taxes into account of course).

With traditional carriers a single one-way fare is sometimes much more expensive than a roundtrip fare, this makes much harder to travel to city A and return from city B for example.

I also noticed that flights, especially direct fligths, from Europe to Thailand are significantly more expensive than a year ago. The reason is probably increased tourism to Thailand.

According to Wikipedia, 6000 Americans and 45000 Europeans are living in Bangkok. If we assume that most of these are farangs, then farangs make about 1% of the total population in Bangkok.

All airlines do this, and they have taxes/extras in small print not included.

Not all airlines do that. For example in EU it's illegal to advertise prices without "taxes"/"extras".

And that is correct actually theymade some euro survey, & found out, that not every airline complied ... Anyway, what pisses me off is air asia's impudence & attitude.. if they recover, & showeveryone that their cheapest international fare is way over 2,000 baht one way, i wouldn't write anything bad about them !! Until now i do feel, they get most of their customers by deceit ..

And sorry about your experience with BA , I USED TO GET MY PAID TAXES BACK, on quite a few occasions... Hong Kong is quite good in that aspect, be it Thai/CX or some others ! Fare IS NONREFUNDABLE !>correct, but ONLY fare (which in airasia's case ..

pay peanuts get monkeys.. lose fare on another carrier,still could costyouless than airasia on a long run;)

The BA fare that was shown on their webpage was the total fare including all fees (I didn't make any booking with them, just looked at their terms), thus fare is nonrefundable => customer would get 0€ back.

Are you sure that your Thai/CX fare was really nonrefundable fare? I checked Thai Airways website and it seems that even "economy restricted" tickets are usually cancellable for 60USD fee.

However on their "super deals" page they say:

"- Ticket cannot be refunded.

- After the ticket is issued, flight / date change is not permitted. "

Has anyone ever got taxes and fees back from Thai Airways super deal fare?

Taxi from the border to Siem Reap is not very expensive as long as you find couple others to share it. Taxis shouldn't cost more than $45 which makes only $15 per person for three people.

All airlines do this, and they have taxes/extras in small print not included.

Not all airlines do that. For example in EU it's illegal to advertise prices without "taxes"/"extras".

Oups.. Not so fast zink ! i used to be a travel agent, and also i know for sure, that with any normal airline taxes are refundable incase u do not fly ! Just ask around now if you look at all this "amazing" air asia fares, you'll clearly notice something like .. fare 0 baht .. good one to atract gullibles .. than fuel/insurance >>what else NOT part of fare (coz no passenger, no expense) like 1,200 baht.. than airport tax 700 (only due to AOT , IF & when passenger uses airport !) .. So now think.. i may presume, that air asia have Invented the clause, that whatever money it can get it dirty hands on it will never refund .. But do try something normal like thaiair for a change, and if you'll dump the ticket, good chance you may still get some taxes back .

Please give an example of a normal airlines that return "taxes" for a "no refund" fare. This definitely doesn't happen with European airlines. For example if you book an award ticket, you have to pay "taxes" + FF points, if you cancel award ticket, you will be returned points but the airline will keep "taxes"...

For example, I tried to make a booking on a British Airways website and got the following:

"Changes: Time/date changes permitted at any time before each flight departure for a change fee of €50 or an upgrade fee of €50 plus any difference in fare.Changes subject to availability.If you cancel the fare is not refundable."

by booking a business class I got:

"Changes: Time/date changes permitted at any time for difference in fare. Changes subject to availability If you cancel a refund is permitted, subject to recalculation of fare for any journey flown. There are no cancellation fees."

Btw, Airport "tax" or fuel "surchage" are part of airlines expenses like the "aircraft leasing cost", "cabin crew fee" or "marketing costs".

Of course. AFAIK misleading advertisement (showing an incomplete fare) isn't even illegal in Thailand and many Asian countries.

Now as for the OP greviance, in my opinion (and my opinion based on me being a travel agent years ago ! ) Taxes are NOT the part of the fare, and are supposed to be paid to the airport authorities , so NO FLY>>NO TAX .. Now i wish op try to have a word with someone in Air Asia ( if at all possible ) and see if he can get the taxes back .. No refund on fare ! fair enough !, but keeping , what doesn't belong to them at the first place is pure thievery !! Nice if travellers will start pointing that out to them , don't worry they do make enough profit, to stop stealing

"Taxes" ARE PART OF THE FARE. Actually there aren't "taxes" at all, they are just way for airlines to conduct misleading advertisement and raise prices for their "free" frequent flier award tickets (which can be very expensive actually and are never free).

No refund policy means simply: NO REFUND. It doesn't matter if you book a "no refund" fare from a low cost carrier or not. You will not get anything back if you cancel your flight. This applies to all airlines in the world.

I booked a flight on Air Asia using a foreign credit card and suprisingly got an excellent exchange rate, 48.39 for euro which corresponds to 33.xx dollar rate. If only there would be a hotel booking agency with these kind of exchange rates.

I can't believe that people are complaining about these kind of things. In Europe, legacy carriers will often charge 5000B (100e) per PERSON for changing dates of the ticket. And on most promotion fares, no changes are permitted at all.

In addition: Air Asia just like most of low cost carriers is a POINT-TO-POINT carrier. Air Asia doesn't offer connecting flights, you can't have "two legs" on Air Asia, you just have a two completely separate tickets. If you miss your flight, then you are the only one to blame and the airline isn't responsible.

EU is China's largest trade partner, not US.

Part of the problem is how the billing is made. Since most Thai hotels charge in baht, the website has to pay in baht, so they bill in baht. If the processor is offshore, however, then they use an offshore rate.

I guess the logical thing to do is to use an onshore processor. But the point you've raised is valid - and combined with the likelihood that you are paying additional tax by using sites outside of Thailand (for example, rates from UK-based sites probably have another 17.5% VAT tacked on), I would highly recommend double-checking any time you make an online booking - and try to stick to sites which are based locally.

Actually, I meant local sites. However, some of them use Singapore banks for credit card processing. I guess this is the reason for offshore rates

Some booking systems e.g. sawadee.com utilise Dynamic Currency Conversion. In other words the price on the website is in Thai baht, but they will bill you in the currency of the card presented. The caveat here is that they will do so at an unfavourable exchange rate and then share the revenue with the local bank in the form of lower processing charges. The losers are you and Visa/Mastercard International.

When I made a booking on Sawadee.com couple years ago, I noticed that the rate was significantly below official exchange rate, and that was before the offshore/onshore gap.

If they want to charge my in £, US$ or Euro, they why not quote in those currencies. It's just an underhanded practice. No less.

Asiarooms mention that the credit card will be charged in US$, at a horrible 31.xx rate compared to prices that they are quoting in bahts.

Do there exist an online agency for booking hotels that allows payment by credit cards and uses onshore rates (USDTHB=33.9 according to Bangkokpost).

I checked Asiarooms that their USDTHB rate is something like 31.xx!

Australian male.

In June i arrived on a one-way ticket with no onward ticket at Suvar,

60 day 2 entry visa,

I haven't had a 30 day stamp now for maybe a year or more,

i entered without a problem.

now I am wondering if it will be the same when i arrive in december with no onward ticket again.

has anyone got stuck and not admitted, any on the spot solutions available?

Let's go over this again.

Thai immigration requires an outgoing (onward) ticket.

Those who arrive with a visa will probably not be asked to show that ticket.

However, the requirement is still there. It simply isn't usually enforced at entrance.

It is becoming more and more common for people asking for an extension of stay on a visa to be asked for an outgoing ticket, but this is not always certain.

In June (co-incidence) I arrived in BKK for a 30 day stamp on arrival (no visa). The line was quite long, and a female immigration officer was going thru the line taking passports to do the stamp. She established that I was an American, wanted a 30 day stamp, and took my passport. She also asked to see a copy of my onward or return ticket. When I showed her that she took my passport and returned about 5 minutes later with a 30 day stamp. So I didn't have to go thru the wait in line.

To sum it up, the return or onward ticket is still required. Usually you will not be asked. However, it is always possible that you will be asked.

Just a word to the wise, be prepared and you won't be sorry.

The onward ticket is required ONLY if you don't have a visa beforehand (in case of visa exemption stamp or visa on arrival).

http://www.mfa.go.th/web/2482.php?id=2649

"A: Nationals of the United States of America and 40 other countries are eligible

to travel to Thailand, for tourism purpose, with the exemption of visa and

are permitted to stay in the Kingdom for a period of not exceeding 30 days.

Therefore, you do not need a visa.

However, please make sure that you are in possession of a passport valid for

at least 6 months, a round-trip air ticket, and adequate finances equivalent to

at least 10,000 Baht per person or 20,000 Baht per family. Otherwise, you may be

inconvenienced upon entry into the country."

"(1) Lithuanian nationals are eligible to apply for visa on arrival (VOA) at any of

24 designated checkpoints in Thailand, including, of course, all international airports.

Currently nationals of 20 countries are eligible under this scheme. You can see the list of such countries in the website (www.mfa.go.th).

With the Visa on Arrival, you would be granted a stay of a period of not exceeding

15 days. But you must have a passport valid for at least 6 months, a round-trip

air ticket where date of departure from Thailand is within 15 days of the date

of entry, and adequate finances equivalent to at least 10,000 Baht per person."

How silly it would be require a onward ticket from e.g. a person who comes to Thailand to work for very long time....

I'll give you an example in Pattaya.

You can book the Marriott much cheaper with a local Pattaya based agent than you can with the Marriott itself. Why ? because the Marriott guarantee does not work as the products are different. With agents, you often get breakfast included which, for 2 people, is something really worthwhile in the Marriott (costs something like 650++ each). Very few of their online rates include breakfast.

I suppose that might work if you were going to a place you had been before and know a locally based agent who you could contact to get you a reservation. But if you are going to a new place it would be more difficult. I take Jing's point that for every trip, one just has to shop around (net and on foot) to see what the best prices are on the route/place you want to go at the time.

PS: The breakfasts at all hotels in Asia are a joke and all overpriced...usually US$10-20 for same crappy soggy Chinese noodles and congee and a smattering of soggy bacon and egg dishes. Besides, I am usually too full from the dinner the nite before or up too late to even want their breakfasts. Prefer places where I can get a room without the breakfast charges.

It's not really difficult, even if you haven't been before at the destination (booking through a local agent isn't any more difficult than booking through a foreign agent).

However, there are some cheap hotels that aren't usually available through agents, in those cases one should contact hotel directly.