somtumwrong

If you want to travel to Europe for 2-3 weeks only, you need to start the CoE process early, while already in Thailand. It's very easy, send them the passport picture, visa picture and the insurance certificate. They will respond within a few days, then you have a few weeks time to respond with the ASQ booking certificate and the flight tickets, then you get your CoE.

About the scaremongering how your tickets will be cancelled => just pick a good airline, not those who have a track record of cancellations. Current CoE rules also allow some flexibility, so if your flight is cancelled you may take another flight the same day (please verify this first.)

There are no more "repatriation flights", just normal commercial flights. My flight to BKK had in addition to me only 3 others in business , and three dozen in Economy. The whole process is a no-hassle, no-brainer, much easier than it was when I took one of the first ASQ flights last summer. Dmn what a panic flight that was.

Feels like people giving advice on this subject have submerged under some depression and think that the emergency of last year is still on. Pretty much normal.

It's my 3rd ASQ trip and I'm sitting tight the next 2 weeks in the hotel enjoying a few bottles of nice white wine, time flies. Arrived today. I should have picked another hotel this time, though. The Sathorn area has a very bad air, PM is high even on Saturday.

On 1/21/2021 at 2:46 PM, CanadaSam said:

Belaire Hotel, Sukhumvit, Bangkok.

 

Fantastic food, very big room, great service.

 

Rate is 55,000 baht, but I can get it discounted down to 39,000 if you want, I know the GM.

Belaire - horrible hotel. Food cold, no balcony, courtyard like a prison yard. Totally overpriced, it's a 3 start at best during normal times. Had to book there because I did my first round in August when every place was sold out.

Paid 59000.

I don't know the GM, so this review is real.

My second ASQ round at Amaranth Suvarnabhumi => great, cost 55000, review earlier by another user in this thread.

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

Check out airfares as well. They have tripled,quadrupled or more for economy class seating, because tourists can't be crammed into aircraft like sardines anymore. Tourists are now better off spending their tourist cash at home.

Qantas has floated the concept no-one can get on their aircraft unless they have been vaccinated, how long before other airlines have the same requirement? And how long before every potential tourist is vaccinated?

I disagree for the European routes, when I look for flights from the Nordic to Thailand, the prices are a little down with Qatar and Lufthansa, the same price level as before pre-covid for Finnair. I guess with Thai airways, the fares could be astronomical, but, hey, who uses Thai airways? Only Thai people I guess, and since Thais do not check for Covid before the flight, as we others do, I would not board the flight anyway, too much trouble if I get that virus and I'm in ASQ.

Great to wake up this morning in Bangkok and I cannot see far due to the thick smog. Luckily only burned wood smoke.

When this theater started, I figured this would last until October 2020 max, but now I think this will last until end of 2021, so no tourists, and no recovery. They really need to change the ASQ model if they still want tourists, wealthy tourists.

Unfortunately I have to travel back to Europe due to a family reasons, meaning I have to come back to Thailand in a few months for my THIRD ASQ round. I'm really fed up with it. My tip if you select an ASQ: Take one out of town and with a balcony, feels much better than a closed room I had e.g. at Sukhumvit Belaire, which was a cheap rip-off in a horrible room at a time there was no availability for ASQ rooms.

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Not rich tourists have loyalty to places they like. The rich tend, IMO, to go where it's fashionable. I prefer loyalty to money that is quickly spent and seen no more

Depends on what you mean with 'rich' => the super rich or the upper middle class / very wealthy. The very wealthy / upper middle class are to my experience also loyal and like to revisit, but they also go to other places. My "CEO friends" still think to come to Thailand some day, but currently they are rather drawn to Spain where they feel more safe. I think this is the target group Thailand is looking for, flying directly to Phuket, going to a 5 star resort for 2-3 weeks, then back home. "Big spenders" in terms of dinner, spa etc, but not buying much (who cares to buy anything in Thailand anymore as a tourist when you have Amazon.com/de/uk/se etc where you can buy the same "unique" stuff for much less money.)

Then there are the 'ordinary' people ( I guess farang middle class, lower middle class) who come here and marry, buy a condo, move their books to Thailand. In terms of money spent, they are a better target group but unfortunately Thailand does NOT want to live them here permanently. They just want to milk the cow and fail to see the benefit of permanent residents vs wealthy tourists.

For example, I spend 500K+ on my kids school per year, plus a lot of money on condo, car etc but they fail to count such money and only look at tourist income. However, these are two different things that we want to mentally combine as we reflect it to our visas and immigration criteria. Learning from my peer group, I never move my assets to Thailand as you only should move to Thailand what you are prepared to lose some day.

Anyway, a lot of babble on many topics from my part.

12 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Singapore became the perfect tourist destination, but tourists don't like sterile, fun devoid places so they stopped going.

Despite all its failings, Thailand is my winner.

I kind of agree. Loved to go to Singapore in the early 2000s. It had a .. how you descibe, a feeling, was a great place to go to and enjoy an exotic city. But nowadays Singapore is sterile, it's like a Chinese city. Sterile, boring, I still love Sentosa Island, but the feeling is gone. Since I was there in the early 2000's, the population has increased a lot. Thailand has much more 'feeling' even in Bangkok.

21 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Revolting peasants.

Feel superior? I always found the "peasants" to be friendly. I liked them more than the hi so self entitled, self important people.

 

Poor English skills.

How many people in your country speak Thai?

 

Strong baht which makes many things more expensive than Europe.

Blame European countries for having bad economies and money that is not worth much.

 

Guns.

I never had a problem with guns in all the years I was in Thailand. Perhaps some people live in the wrong places.

 

Archaic property owning laws.

Oh, someone that would like Thailand to be bought by foreigners and Thais to be unable to afford to rent. Far as I'm concerned they are doing the right thing by preventing overseas "investors" for buying land.

 

The above lists would not appeal to most rich tourists

IMO rich tourists can deleted go to Dubai or or some other place that cares about rich people. Thailand is just fine without them, IMO.

 

 

 

 

"How many people in your country speak Thai?" => Well um Thai is not a world language, like English is. English is THE tourist language, so I think your comparison is way off.

"Archaic property laws" => I agree, our own countries should enforce that as well, why sell off your land to foreigners..

"IMO rich tourists.. " => I would emphasize the IMO part, because the large debate and goal within Thailand is to move away from backpacker & tour buses to something more sustainable. They are actually enforcing the "IOO poor tourists can (deleted) go to their own countries or some place that they can afford. Thailand is just fine without then, IOO"

20 hours ago, Natai Beach said:

A funny thread.
 

A bunch of people who have been caught hook, line and sinker and not only visited Thailand, but completely uprooted their lives and moved here permanently by choice, complaining that Thailand isn’t good enough to attract people for a holiday. 

 

????
 

I am a high class elite and absolutely love Thailand. If there was somewhere better I would move.

"Me, too", and I swallowed the hook, line, sinker, the whole fishing rod but seriously, if I were single, the ONLY attraction would be the temp.. the women. They are the easiest thing on this planet and some of them are real gems, too. I don't know if there is any other place on this planet where having a gf, wife or mia noi is so easy as it's here. Especially once you "learn their culture", (forget logic, life based on their culture/thinking/logic only as they learn your culture fast but forget it the next morning.)

On 11/28/2020 at 7:07 PM, federicoP said:

I do not understand if, when arriving in Thailandia and going to be quarantined, it is absolutely prohibited to bring any kind of food and alcohol.

 

I would like to bring something to celebrate the end of my next house arrest.

 

Maybe I could also put my little treasure in a separate bag to be kept by the hotel, but I do not understand if this would be allowed.

 

Does anybody has experience or knowledge about the baggage checking procedure at airport and at the hotel  ?

This is my second trip to ASQ, my hotel even welcomed me to be "detained" at their hotel, so you are correctly talking about arrest / prison.

Neither times was my luggage checked. First time I brought one bottle of wine and a can of German beer, this time I bought a full bottle of gin. Plus some food. So based on my experience this is quite safe, haven't touched the gin yet, not sure I will during ASQ. It's a good "detox" moment.

You better buy something stronger than a bottle of champagne, and go celebrate the end of your prison sentence to e.g. Pattaya, with your wife or mia noi.

6 minutes ago, ItoroK said:

A positive side effect of those immigration policies it that somehow thailand is protected, but its not what they are made for.

 

The main aim of those policies is to humiliate foreigners, spend your money enjoy yourself but don't dare to feel home. The whole thai-economic model is to milk boomers that worked hard and made good money trough the property market in the western world. 

 

Please dont feel flattered that you somehow fit the target audience of some economic elite in SEA that make billions on your back.

You tink too mutt. They don't plan that much, really.

Hi,

Unfortunately I don't want my family to travel with me to my country to have a proper Xmas (second round of ASQ is too much for them), instead I have to do my second round of ASQ to Bkk in a few weeks. So I have to plan Xmas in Bkk :(

So I was wondering, does anyone know where to get real Xmas food in Bkk? Siam Paragon? To bring home for preparing/eating. What "proper" Xmas food is depends on your culture, but I'm open for anything now. Can't bring any food myself as I'm going to be having the 16 days jail time in ASQ.

Alternatively I have to book a trip to Pattaya to some hotel offering some sort of "Xmas" package.

On 11/11/2020 at 6:43 AM, soom said:

We are 2 Passengers, Italian and Thai, we travel from BKK to Milan with Qatar airways via Doha. I'm traveling with my girlfriend after 1 year and 2 month in Thailand, with family/friend/turist visa. 

Qatar? Sorry to hear that. Left through Swampy two weeks ago and noticed many cancellations of QR flights, hope yours does not get cancelled.

The airport was deserted. Only one IO at the desk. I was the only customer. Same at security, three ladies but I was the only one in sec check. In the lounge (Mirage) there was only one other customer besides me. No queues. The plane had 30 / 300 passengers. Wonderful flight.

Coming back again in two weeks, getting my second round of ASQ. This time a lot of free ASQ rooms it seems. No need to book the crappy hotel I did last time. But changed my flight from QR to Lufthansa because the former keeps cancelling flights, the latter not.

Dear Junta. Please keep the borders closed. Don't let anyone in please.

In the meanwhile, my Thai friends contact me if I'm interested to buy their car or house with staggering discounts ("only to you my friend"), ("I'm quite in trouble"), especially around the Don Mueang and Swampy area, where they have a lot of people working um. worked at Thai or the travel industry. I hear people leaving their houses and their loans to disappear back to the province. And no one moving in. I hear it's "REALLY" bad, although I see no such pain in the area I live (close to Sathorn.) So I was thinking, when this "high season" is gone, I will be on the buying side if I can really get that 50% discount on the car price (I wonder if that is really true or not), or the huge discount on the house.

So, for me this is great from a very selfish perspective. Dear Junta, you have my vote. ❤️

If you are coming from abroad with a CoE on Non-O marriage, then you might have the problem that you have the "real" travel etc insurance that you use, but like most insurance companies, they do not give out a certificate SPECIFICALLY mentioning that Covid is covered. As required by the funny people in charge. So I had to buy me a "Covid" insurance. After completing the ASQ sentence period I terminated this expensive Covid insurance and now "live on" the normal travel insurance which has full Covid-19 cover as well. The 2 week covid insurance with termination fee costed me around 55 USD.

I submitted my request to a Nordic embassy, and got a response the following day requesting some additional information. A week later I was confirmed to have an "approved CoE", but that I'm in the QUEUE for the next flight (which happened 2 weeks later.) So although there might not be seats available, at least my embassy, which coordinated everything together with the German TH embassy, sent a confirmation for the approved CoE (draft.)

Ask your wife to call them, alternatively ask your wife to send them a message to their FB page. Seems to work.

This thread seems to be mostly about the UK embassy, but "In My Country.." (be careful before calling someone giving you incorrect information as many do here, the truth depends on the country, the alignment of the planets and the time of month for the consulate lady):

In my country, which seems to be coordinating repatriation flights with Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, I sent the COE application to the embassy 4 weeks ago with the necessary documents. They then inform me that I'm on the waitlist, and two weeks ago they offer me a seat on the flight. The booking of the flight is done by them. Do not book an ASQ hotel or any flight without the approved COE and the embassy's instructions.

Our "friendly airlines", especially Qatar, seem to be trying to cheat us to get more cash, hence selling tickets to BKK to the hopeful. It's nothing but a scam since it's well known no commercial flights are allowed, and they will stall paying you back, or offer "generous vouchers." I requested repayment from Qatar but they failed to respond in one month so I sent the information to my credit card company, which then invalidated the payment.

My flight is with Thai Airways (oh <deleted>, I don't want to fly with a bankrupt airline run by the military)

Thanks for all the answers. Some say yes, mandatory the TEST is taken within 72 hours, some say the ISSUE time of the result / fit to fly is what counts. As says my embassy. They wrote specifically:

• COVID-free Health Certificate (with a laboratory test result) and a Fit-to-Fly certificate  (Both in English) from a doctor, issued no more than 72 hrs. before the departure time of repatriation flight

So the wording is ISSUED, not tested. Bah, you never know. So I had my test yesterday which is around 90+ hours before the flight, but knowing Thai logic I will go to a quick drive-in test before delivering all the papers to the embassy on Friday. Yay, I have 2 Covid tests.

Jump, farang, Jump!

7 hours ago, SnipTheCat said:

My ASQ hotel had a cancellation policy (with refund) if cancelled 7 days prior to flight date OR with proof of flight cancellation. 
However Thai Embassy proposed me the flight 10 days before flying, telling me the flight had not yet been 100% confirmed and asked me to get an ASQ booking ASAP. This was a truly horrible experience I spent over 10 hours over the phone and emailing, most were already fully booked for the 3 weeks ahead, some were handled by "agents" that were not in office pretended there was availability to later say it was full... I think I got the absolutely last place available beside one at 144k baht... The staff at the thai embassy seemed quite surprised I was able to get a booking... then they called me again to say "There is a problem with the repatriation flight... there is no seat available in economy anymore, but there is seat available in Business class for 1900€" or... there is another repatriation flight 2 days later (meaning I need to find a new ASQ booking which I knew was not possible + being past the 7 days refund limit + flight being on a sunday getting a negative covid test done less than 72 hours before flight + departure from an airport 500km from where I live seemed quite hard"

 

I would say you are asked to take leaps of faith and show you are willing to do what is necessary to go back... They seem not to like people who are not ready to take any (financial) risk

 

Just my feeling following my experience...

Thanks, I was able to book one room at a "reasonable" rate of 77 000 THB, and I opted for the business class myself, as I dont want to get stuck with untested people in the Economy class. 18xx €.

Now my biggest concern is if I can match the 72 hour limit, if the eligibility of the covid test is from the Testing time or the Issuance time.

This is a total inhumane ripoff. "Thanks for bringing my family back together" - yeah, right.

I'm trying to arrange the Covid-19 test to be within the mandated 72 hour limit as required for the COE process. The test results take up to two (!) days in my country, so my question is: do the embassies look at the issue date or the test date? Trying to contact my embassy on that, but let's see, there is hardly a definitive answer from them as usual.

Please, no guesses but only first hand information thank you.

Thanks

46 minutes ago, Wars said:

You'd have to ask each hotel individually each ASQ has their own refund policy. Some have 7 days before check in. Or some even let you amend the dates within 3 days of your original booking date. Some are non refundable, only able to amend the dates. 

Thanks, so there is hope for a refund.