treetops

5 hours ago, Phillip9 said:

Fyi, The flight that was the subject of this thread was never cancelled, and it flew as scheduled.  The OP's problem was with the booking agent he choose which could not actually issue the ticket they sold him.

According to the OP in post #41, it was the flight from Koh Samui to Bangkok that was cancelled resulting in his whole itinerary being screwed, not the Austrian Airlines one from Bangkok to Vienna.  Do pay attention. ????

58 minutes ago, impulse said:

Not the poster I was responding to...  He claimed it was 16 days and 15 nights.

 

That's where the confusion comes in.

I'll give you my theory - there may be others.

Arrive 1st of the month we would expect 14 days to completed on the 15th, exactly two weeks later.  If we say midday arriving and leaving, then you'll have been there 14 days and 14 nights, to our western way of thinking.  Hotels would call that 15 days and 14 nights even though the first and last are half days.

Now in immigration speak the first day is day zero, so immediately you're up to 15 days and 15 nights to reach "our" 14, or 16 days and 15 nights to reach it in hotel speak.

20 hours ago, thai006 said:

maybe in Dubai i can buy some stuff and put inside my baggage after immigration 

Read the last sentence of the post above yours again.

19 minutes ago, tracker said:

a tip, a lot of people don't know: on most android phone there are native apps which cannot be disabled or replaced by a personal choice.... at least, if you follow the normal protocol. But there's a way around it:

goto google play store. top-left has the usual 3 horizontal stripes, click or tap on them. choose "help&feedback". Then pick from the support page that opens "delete or disable apps on android". Then choose "tap to go to apllication settings".

 

this brings you to a menu what usually stays hidden for the user. Often you can disable apps here which came with the phone while in normal use it isn't possible.

Seems to take me to the same place as settings, apps and I can disable Google Drive,  for example, but not delete it.  Thanks anyway,  as disabling is probably better than nothing.

10 minutes ago, tso310 said:

Interestingly my wife was on last Sundays TG917 and she is in an SQ not on the official SQ  or ASQ list. The Divalux  Resort just around the corner from Swampy in Srisa Chorakhe Noi.

This one in Samut Prakan?  Number 25 on the SQ list.

Facebook before their own website - amazing!

Looks like it's saying Thais may also use these airlines but will then have to pay for quarantine (ASQ)?

42 minutes ago, tso310 said:

My attempts at translating are probably wrong but it looks like the official list of airlines that you can use now as officially increased. Emirates was due to finish on Oct 24. The London Embassy will issue CoE for the following airlines into Thailand, EVA, Emirates, Qatar, Etihad and Singapore.

My other half translated the airline bit with an "and so on" tagged on and says it means any airline and the ones mentioned were just examples.

Can you post a link to the original page - I can't find it on the Embassy site.

8 minutes ago, BritTim said:

Note that you must stay on the bus to Ekamai if you have stored luggage, as you can only alight at Udom Suk with hand luggage.

And tell the driver before you set off that you want to get off there as he won't stop if not told in advance.

1 minute ago, HashBrownHarry said:

I'd suspect tho if they're having success it may well continue...

I hope so, but the KLM flights that were recently doing the same all stopped taking bookings to Bangkok a week or two ago as if they'd reached the end of their permission, or maybe a numerical quota or something.

3 minutes ago, HashBrownHarry said:

I know 2 people, 1 flying October and 1 flying November already with CoE's in place - easy.

Emirates were only granted permission for these flights until 24th October.  It may be continued, but then again, it may not.

3 minutes ago, rabas said:

They are still wrong for not explaining it clearly. Even the hotel should be aware of this.

Every hotel has a brochure/flyer detailing the package and I think I've only seen one that didn't refer to 15 nights.  Here's one such example:

Maybe they'll read the requirements before committing to them?

4 minutes ago, JusticeGB said:

A new company set up by the Government with brand new untrained staff would be incapable of understanding the complicated rules that the TAT has put in place. It's bound to be a money making machine for those in charge of it.

They are a long established company who have facilitated retirement visas for many years, but yes, they'll hope to make money out it at 10,000 baht + per pop.

1 hour ago, Max69xl said:

The STV is supposed to be a 90 days minimum trip which is extendable twice.

Now touted as 30 days minimum (including 15 days ASQ).

1 minute ago, cjinchiangrai said:

What I want to know is where is Emirates getting their COEs and ASQ bookings.

Individuals get these from their local embassy and direct from the ASQ hotel respectively.  The airlines play no part in obtaining them, only verifying them at check-in I believe.

7 minutes ago, Oxx said:

Except pensions managed in the UK are going to be managed against GBP.  If GBP drops 30% against other currencies (as it has done many times), then the OP suffers a dramatic loss of value/income.  It only makes sense to maintained a defined benefit pension if one's expenditure in retirement is going to be in GBP.

Agree, but where to put it would be the next discussion after getting it out of the DB pension which would be the first stumbling block if it's the case.

10 hours ago, Sonnenjager said:

Thanks for the input everyone. I will check first that all my pensions are eligible for transfer without requiring an IFA. That could be a hurdle if required.

The important criteria (IMO) is whether they're defined benefit pensions, as opposed to defined contribution ones, and whose transfer value is over £30,000 GBP.

3 minutes ago, eppic said:

We had booked a couple of months in advance so a chargeback was not an option, if it was I would have done so immediately (I have frequently done this in the past, including with Phil Air when they tried to screw me previously).

You don't mention the bank/country of your credit card so I can't say for sure, but with my UK banks a chargeback should normally be lodged within 120 days of the purchase, so your couple of months wouldn't have been an obstacle.

For future dated purchases (such as airline tickets) the 120 day rule is extended until you were due to receive the goods or service, up to a maximum of 540 days.  In your circumstance you would have had 120 days from receiving the cancellation notice to lodge your claim.  I'm not sure how/if these rules change from country to country, but would think they're pretty standard as the protection comes from Visa/Mastercard/Amex and not the individual banks.

On 9/22/2020 at 1:01 AM, Oxx said:

Do check that your pensions are eligible to be transferred, and whether you'll need to use an IFA.  If you need an IFA you're probably going to find it virtually impossible to find one who will deal with you as non-resident in the UK.

He may also find it very difficult to find one who will do it all.  Increased liability insurance and fear of misselling claims means very few will do it nowadays.

10 minutes ago, cormanr7 said:

Lots of confusing and incorrect information here. You can book BKK-AMS (but NOT the other way, AMS-BKK is cargo only)

That is correct as of today, but prior to just over a week ago, flights from AMS-BKK-XXX were carrying Bangkok bound passengers, complete with COE, Covid Test, ASQ etc for entry to Thailand.

There is at least one detailed trip review here on this forum.

As of now, Emirates flight EK384 is the only one I'm aware of outside the Embassy organised flights providing this service, although there may be others coming from the East that I'm not familiar with.

2 hours ago, Phillip9 said:

This flight has not been cancelled.  It has been flying reliably

every sunday, and it is still scheduled for every sunday.  Stop making stuff up.

The flight did indeed disappear from the schedule for a while a week ago.  I mentioned it in this thread after checking the usual flight monitor sites and EVA's own  website.

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1182999-traveling-from-london-on-eva/?tab=comments#comment-15825025

It now appears to have been re-instated or a glitch ironed out or whatever, but I posted in good faith and you even quoted my post and replied - with no rebuttal of it's contents - did you check at that time and find the same as me?

I was obviously going with out of date information when I replied to edwardandtubs, for which I apologise to him, but why on earth would you think I was "making stuff up" when we had discussed it before?

6 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

This is just scaremongering. If you book an Eva Air ticket from Bangkok to London, for example, the risk of cancellation is no greater than normal. If you use your common sense you can minimise the risk.

Wrong example to choose.  They pulled these a week or so ago (it was only running on a Sunday IRC) but now not at all.  I agree in principle and minimising the risk, or doing due diligence is what's required.