FalangTingTong

Hi all!  Just to add my experience since I found others’ informative.

1. Booked flight ahead of time, I ended up needing this for the hotel.
2. Booked insurance - AXA Thailand “Sawasdee” cheaper package, basically travel insurance plus the COVID thing, about 18K Baht for 200-something days.  Starting date is my day of departure (not arrival) and ending is about ten days after my extension will expire, a month after my return flight.  Got certificate instantly.
3. Booked Elegant Bangkok Airport Hotel for Test and Go package, had real-time human assistance, paid 3900 baht with Wise app, got the letter within 15 minutes.
4. Applied for Thailand Pass about 7am EU time today: I’m American so I uploaded the CDC thing (a photo of it) and also my California digital vaccine certificate (as “dose two” document, since both documents mention both doses) and the QR code from that for both.  Plus flight confirmation, hotel confirmation, insurance certificate, passport.  All as JPEG.  Used my Apple email address. Answered all questions truthfully, not that there were many.
5. Received confirmation and case number immediately.
6. Received approval and Thailand Pass QR code just now, 11pm.

That was much faster than I expected, and gives me hope maybe they’ve worked through the backlog.  Or, maybe the requests are handled based on country of departure and leaving from a small country without many Thailand-bound tourists is an advantage.

I hope it goes this smoothly for everyone now!

2 hours ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

See you there--I booked it last week---Dibs on the penthouse..

I'll be there a week later, if anybody wants to leave any hidden lanterns I will accept them as long as they are also beer.

9 hours ago, jrmaanda said:

Thank you FalangTingTong. Can anyone who has received a booking confirmation from Elegant Hotel please tell me what they filled in for "Booking ID" on the Thailand Pass website? I can't see anything that corresponds to this and dare not simply hazard a guess.

I haven’t done it yet but my letter has a 10-digit Confirmation No. which to me sounds like the same thing.  Very first line of the data section.

5 hours ago, jrmaanda said:

Please could you tell me exactly you booked with them? Did you telephone or did you fill in their online form and wait for them to e-mail you? Could you have paid them by credit card?

I sent an email to the address listed on their website, more or less during Thai daytime, and got a fast response.

I didn’t fill out the online form, but there is one.  Don’t see how that would help, since I wasn’t going to commit before communicating with a human.

I offered to pay CC or Wise bank transfer and they wanted Wise, which was also my preference.  Back in 16-day Quarantine times I had to email my card info which was sort of shockingly unsafe, happy to not do it again.

Thanks everyone!

I followed KannikaP's advice and contacted The Elegant Airport Hotel Bangkok directly.  Staff handled the request in real time, was very responsive, and with a Wise transfer I got my confirmation letter in about 15 minutes total.

I told the other hotel the reason for the cancellation, hope they realize they have competition and might want to raise their bodies from their tushes.  Or who knows, maybe everyone's lined up for those famous burgers.  I'll still consider them if I ever have to do long quarantine again.

Moral of the story:

1. "at least 3 days" is not a normal waiting time, thankfully
2. Wise is hugely useful for newbie expats in Thailand
3. Elegant Airport Hotel staff rocks!
4. TV AN Forum also rocks!

Now for the Thailand Pass application...

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

Booked Elegance Airport for one night Test & Go. Emailed all necessary papers did bank transfer and got confirmation in 30 minutes. Bht 3900 all inclusive.

Test between 02.00 and 14.00 you will get the result at that night. Otherwise at noon next day.

Did you book that with Agoda or directly?

For money transfers to Thailand I use the Wise app (formerly Transferwise) because I don't yet have a Thai bank account.  Pro: reasonably fast, from seconds to a day depending on the recipient's bank.  Con: not in my name, have to send a receipt and trust the recipient can connect the dots.

Hello everyone.

My preferred hotel for my one-day quarantine says they need 3 working days to issue the confirmation letter.  I have already provided them all the documents: passport, flight confirmation, vaccine certificate, and insurance.  Just need to pay, and they want a bank transfer.

Does this seem normal?  How long is it taking other people to get it done?  Does Agoda issue the hotel confirmation letter immediately upon payment?

I theoretically have time to do it this way, but with all the problems getting the Thailand Pass I don't want to burn 3-5 days unnecessarily.  I like this hotel, but it's just one night so I don't care that much.

Thanks!

Quote

To proceed the confirmation, please send us deposit as attached either way, also due to the booking traffic, we need at least 3 working days to proceed the confirmation letter after getting all required documents.

When I went to an agent (whom I'd recommend actually, PM if you want, they advertise here) for help with a "retirement" visa there were others there working on "volunteer," this was in March.  I'm a newbie but it seems to me that you should talk to an agent before making any assumptions about what is/is-not possible, and if you don't like the answer try a more expensive agent before giving up.

My only concrete advice however is: get your questions answered and prices quoted before you go to Thailand.  You will probably surrender your passport for a month or so; keep that in mind since you will need the passport to secure accommodation (for AirBnB maybe, maybe-not).  I would be sure to have a very stable place to stay for at least two months before giving up the passport.  It all worked out great for me but it would have been a huge mess if I'd gone to the agent before renting my condo.

Also depending on your financials the Thailand Elite Visa might be for you.  I'm over 50 and might even do it.  Expensive but you can make longer-term plans around it.  Diamond hands! :-)

Oh and I'm learning Thai and have so far mostly learned vast respect for those who have learned it!  It's really hard.  If you do an education visa for a language school, the renewal might depend on showing progress with the language.

11 hours ago, VBF said:

the lack of bars etc won't be important

I don't think it's a total lack.  In addition to persistent and very public rumors that lots of places have been serving throughout, I got a message from a Bangkok bar two days ago saying they'll open on the 5th.

I pay my rent every month with Wise on iPhone and the drop-down is there -- and required -- every time, been doing it since March.

However -- take note that the whole business model of something like Wise is that you are *not* in fact making an international transfer.  Wise is making a local transfer in Thailand on your behalf.  Definitely not the same thing, though for most purposes it doesn't make any difference.

I'm pretty sure they just collect the "reason" data for their anti-money-laundering compliance.  Presumably make a big not-at-all-anonymized data dump available to the government on demand, and I guess if the government sees you spending ten million baht a month on "rent" maybe they look into it.

On 10/23/2021 at 7:08 AM, ThaiVisaCentre said:

Yes, it could be 1-2 nights (or less if the result comes early).

Sorry if this has been answered already, but I believe a two-night package is required if you arrive early *or* your PCR test result will not be back by normal check-out time.  Quoth the fine folks at Marriott today:

Quote

Standard check-in time is from 15:00 hrs. and check-out time is until 12:00 hrs. 2-night stay is required in case of early check-in or/and late check-out.

Sounds like progress!  When I came in February, pre-vaccine, only a few people had the PPE suits, nobody had an actual hazmat suit, and my luggage wasn't sprayed with anything at all.

11 hours ago, bill hill said:

want to make some more money off you by making you take another test on arrival & quarantine that we initially promised you would not have to do.

After all the fear-mongering I don't see how they could just go full-on no-quarantine no-test.

You get your PCR test done about two days before you fly, so you could get infected in that time.  Then you spend 10-20 hours sitting in airplanes with others in that situation, or maybe even (if Thai) neither vaccinated nor tested.  You may also spend time in airports in places with low vaccination rates and/or ineffective vaccines, and some of that time might be spent eating and drinking amongst them.

Against that backdrop I totally see the logic of the test on arrival, and the mini-quarantine to wait for the result.  However, I can't imagine many tourists going for it -- if nothing else, this plus the insurance should make you think about what happens if you test positive! Hospitel quarantine for 2-3 weeks of your vacation, in the very best case.

November will be for returning expats and those yearning for a certain kind of entertainment.  Other tourists will come in December, or not.

I used ThaiVisaCenter who is commenting here, and I was very happy with the service.  I could theoretically have done it myself but I probably would have run out of time before I got everything lined up.  TVC was professional and answered all my questions, and gave me receipts for everything.  It took an extra week to get my visa but that was due to immigration not the agent.  Whether to use an agent is of course up to you, but since you asked, I recommend them.  I found the fee perfectly reasonable for the service rendered and the time/trouble saved.

Not sure what your pre-Delta time frame is, but from Feb through Songkran it was totally manageable, enough of everything open that you could live a normal life just with  lot of mask wearing and hand sanitizer.

Same as Spain right now.  Stuff closed a little early, nothing officially open after midnight.  But plenty going on, no reason to be bored.

From May it was tough, I bugged out in June to get vaccinated and avoid lockdown, I’m also hoping for a November return.

20 hours ago, malathione said:

At Sheraton Grande right now and the pool is open as usual.

I love that pool so much!  Hope it’s not over-chemmed.

I left BKK just as they started reopening before then locking down, and in my fancy condo building (yes not a hotel I know) the pool was open for a few days with pre-booking of time slots…

…and chlorine increased to about 30% by volume.  I guess if you’re super paranoid about Covid and not very well informed, it makes sense.  They meant well anyway but it was miserable, I lasted about 10 minutes even after being pool-deprived for months.

So even if you find a hotel pool that’s open, keep in mind it may be too aggressively chlorinated for all but the most dedicated sport swimmers.

At the risk of providing useless anecdata…

In the EU I have been asked before at national borders whether I have any other passports,  probably because of my weird international accent.

I don’t have, but if I did and lied about it I would be committing a serious crime, and if caught I would expect national entry bans at the very least.

So keep in mind that if you’re betting your kids’ convenience/safety/education or whatever on avoiding obligations via passport tricks, at any time they might have to show their cards, and your troubles might suddenly be much greater than had you just parked them in Britain long enough for the issue to time out,  YMMV of course, just my opinion.

FWIW, I had a throwaway when i entered in Feb, I showed it to everyone (assuming it was required) and the immigration officer did seem to read it in detail.  I figured, given all the other expenses, an extra $150 to have an answer ready in case they asked, was worth it.

Ended up throwing away my real return ticket too, when I left early to get vaxxed… 

This may not help for LA, but in Germany in February I gave it two weeks and ended up only needing one.  Not counting research on ASQ which took a while.

Organizing the hotel took a couple days due to back and forth emails.  All embassy stuff was issued the next day, so total of 4 days for official papers, but I’m glad I had the wiggle room.  Had all papers in order and prepaid as requested.  Final PCR’s were a little tight but it worked out in the end.

So my advice is give it as much time as the local embassy says you may/will need, but plan around it possibly going faster.  But that was a while ago and for BKK.

On 5/31/2021 at 2:11 PM, USNret said:

Thanks Joe. JAL said "Whatever the US wants, they are fine".  So I'll go with the Antigen test, which is 1/2 the price of PCR (at least it is here in Hua Hin.) 

Hey, any chance you could update this thread with your experiences?

I'm also flying on JAL --  BKK NRT SFO -- in about ten days.  Wondering what test(s) I need to book.

I'm certainly hoping this "sandbox" lets me do 10 days of "beach quarantine" with swimming, instead of 16 days of Bangkok ASQ, when I come back from my vaxx trip in September.  As long as they let me go to Bangkok after, then count me in!

However I do find it funny that the vaccination must be "within 1 year" -- old folks in the USA were getting fully vaccinated in December, I would not be surprised if there are at least a few who might like to come to Thailand in January.  Same with UK obviously.

Also maybe worth noting that Thai is not (as of today anyway) selling any direct flights from Germany to Phuket.  All flights go through BKK, so I guess they're planning to allow airside transfers now?