dsf9

It's the same pattern continously in Thailand, pre-covid, and no doubt post covid, so many good ideas, many with good intentions, that ultimately get twarted after endless list of somchai's puts his mark on it and adds to the list of the requirements so he has contributed to one of the many meetings of understanding.. 

Same thing happened to the previous Smart Visa (the tech startup category whatever unrelated letter of the alphabet that was), in the end the requirements got so silly, 12 months health insurance from date of start, working capital in a fund that was locked down for X months (err.. thats not working), and so on that when asked about how many applications they had so far with all this non-sense they replied "several" - it should be noted it was going for several months at this point -  with the seperate office working and still "several, sir"... Nuts. - Although I will admit after explaining the sillyness of the requirements they eventually waive each and every one of them, except one,  so health insurance renewal date no longer has to align perfectly, okay you can working capital in a bank account now I clear with boss etc, so they could get their eigth applicant   ???? - it was a dead idea at this point though because the PDF of contact details of each self-classified vulture captialist was no longer interested in the scheme - either page-not-found site, bounced email, or "we no longer work with them" - and that was a requirement they couldn't waive (even though reality you didnt want their involvement or money since they couldnt even pay their $5 godaddy email / gsuite bill - all instagram sillys) 

He looks like <deleted>, is he struggling to even stand? he would more suited to a horror movie than a porno.. 

.. misread.. 

I cant see them extending it depsite the economic benefits

Whats the incentive here? Does the ticket lady and driver get a % of the fare - I've never had them not give me the little tiny coin size piece of paper in hundreds of bus rides so it all seems accounted

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I asked for candy to chew on and they refused

Refused or dont have? Possibly they don't have "free candy" available?  Did they have a ++$ desert room service menu? 

Could you of used Lineman or GrabGrocery to order some to reception?

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There were plenty of buzzwords flying about at the seminar and Thapanee threw out her own "Five Rs".

Ah, gone are the days of Amazing Trusted Thailand... ????

9 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

 

Odds on it'll be a plan for a committee to look into the feasibility of a new committee and 5 year plan

Not before a few meetings of understanding at some nice 5* resort near the river or Hua Hin, or maybe take an air force passenger jet down Hat Yai if they can't charter a 737.

But it sounds a thai-logical plan, cut costs by hiring redundant people... 

5 hours ago, kingofthemountain said:

Maybe Greece (Islands), south of Italy (Sicily), south of Spain (Islands can

be an option, Baleares, Canaries) there are all EU countries without a hard winter

the cost of living is relatively low, nice food and wine, good medical infrastructures

and afaik no quarantine if you are coming from Thailand

Don't forget transit points (if you get off and on another plane) are considered as part of quarantine waiver for most european countries - that means you can rule out Qatar Airways and some of the others. FinnAir is a viable option for most european destinations - it's somewhat a cross between a low cost carrier though and a normal carrier - one alcohol drink with meals, limited amenities etc.. but new planes

Bali isn't completely out the window, but they do require some country-wide leglisation or something or other to pass/lax to allow the Bali governor to proceed with the plan, which by the language is looking less likely - but like Thailand and knee jerk logic lacking reactions and changing directions on a whim - it's looking more improbably but certainly not impossible - maybe playing their cards close to their chest to rake in tourist $ whilst other SE asia countries drag their feet over the fear. 

Sri Lanka is another candidate but it looks like approved hotels (read: expensive due to corruption kickbacks) and multiple tests, this was meant to be 15th august but pushed back, I'd expect that before 26th September. 

There's a few places in Europe open but be careful with transit, Thailand may be on the green list but you transfer through some desert craphole you may be subject to quarantine if the transit place isn't on the greenlist. There's also Turkey, Ukraine, Albania etc..

https://www.traveloffpath.com/countries-reopening-their-borders-for-tourism-the-complete-list/

Happens on Sukhumvit, sometimes two of them around green bank near top of 33, they happy with photo ID but they ask for passport, and then "where you go" - just tell your off "same same everyday to go pub" -  sort of dropping a hint of you're a local in one of the establishments that "support" the local police..  Probably just raised supicision by having neither governmental photo ID or passport, at least carry one.  Don't overthink it... 

5 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

 

- pay into a fund to compensate customers who are ripped off or injured.

 

Hahahah. Uber used to give you a couple hundred baht when you were involved in a collision (as I know). Does Grab go further than refunding the fee? 

14 hours ago, Orient Express said:

 

This only applies to rates offered on the hotel's own website. It does not (and could not) apply to rates obtained by direct contact with the hotel (phone, email, walk-in).

 

 

Why couldn't the contract apply to walk-in and phone rates?

Most of the time the front desk staff aren't enabled to make a deal - discretely or otherwise, so they'll let you use the wifi in the lobby to make a booking on agoda or whatever your preference is, explaining the 15% comission loss is pointless.   I've sometimes got a better deal by a few % extending and paying in cash, but obviously they dont declare these extra nights to the travel company. 

44 minutes ago, pookondee said:

you volunteer to pay 25,000 baht.

and 2 passport photos..

52 minutes ago, EbhB said:

You might be right... Currently got a ME non-B with work permit myself, so I might just be able to pull something off, who knows...

 

So, extended amnesty? Or would they really throw out a ton of people?

Seriously considering calling it a day trying to comply with what all these people on the top want me to do & just go the agent route from now on...

If you are eligble you will be able to apply for a 30 day extension, almost thai-zero chance of further amnesty in my opinion.  Eligibility depends on no flights to your country, medical necessity, no option to enter your country etc.. or possibly arranging with an agent to ensure your eligiblity and sorting the 30 day extension - it's anyone guess at this time and will be for the next six weeks or so - I doubt agents are even pricing the rolling 30 day extension service at the moment, I'd wait a few weeks and see what's on the horizon, there's a still a lot of bitter people recovering from the last shock after saying there won't be an amnesty post 31stjuly - I've just seen them resurface last few days with "well it's not technically an amnesty", give them some space... 

short version: ask in a month or so.. 

Has the airline actually confirmed the refund to the agent? and that this has been paid out? 

Most people are waiting for refunds, it seems odd that the airline would email you directly regarding refunds? Based on what I've read I'd expect Emirates to complete their direct customer refunds for refunds request accepted up to end of May by end of September, I imagine OTAs/agents adding another several weeks. 

What airline?

Free WIFI by the major players only seems to ever work for a few months. Seems the contracts to install them never have an SLA or service clause. Graft in it's true form. 

1 minute ago, Stese said:

Yes i just used the website and not my phone and have managed to do it. 

 

There will be two fees to pay, the initial fee to convert from original currency and then when you want to forward it from transferwise to your thai account they make another (smaller) fee. 

 

You can get around this i presume if you use the transferwise bank card and thus don't need to forward it to a thai bank account? I'm not sure.

 

I think still best to convert and sent straight to Thai bank. Not sure what advantage in keeping it in Transferwise??

I think the idea is to lock in a favourable rate if you believe the baht is undervalued. Keeping it in TW gives you FCA protection upto 80k if I remember correctly (yeah i cant see anything happening that would jeaopardise your thai savings but the greeks thought the same until everyone took a haircut over 50k), also you not faced with regulatory restrictions with withdrawing money (i.e do you still need a work permit to move money out of thailand?)

Yep got a few TW multi-second transfers, refresh bangkok bank in the next tab and its there within 5 seconds. It's the future.

However dont count on it 100%, sometimes it delayed a day and sometimes they say you will be paid out by 1am the next day - and sure enough exact to the second your paid out. A bit annoying if you've misplanned and sat in a patpong cheap beer bar waiting till 1am 555.

Also don't understand why using my balance is the most expensive funding option too. It's cheaper to withdraw back to your back and pay that way, but alas too much effort 

Something is a miss, I can't see their mummies in the photo? I thought Thai adults under the age of 50 couldn't attend a police station without their mum? 

Also isn't something of this scale, with 11 poeple, surely one of them is connected to and a announcement that the investigation will not be impeded worthy of a press conference?

This all seems very odd. Another oddity, it almost sounds like they were arrested too rather than scheduling a mutually convienent time to turn themselves in? 

7 hours ago, Don Mega said:

Why would one consider transferwise to transfer baht deposit from a secured credit card to a Thailand bank ?

Because faced with bureaucracy of dealing with Thai banks it would often be more reasonable to load your TW with the credit card take the hit which will be about 4-7% (2% forex if applicable - not sure if loading in THB possible, 3.3% tw loading fee on CC, plus a spread of about 1% if not all in THB) then pay yourself. On the face it's an expensive transfer, but if we're talking 10,000 baht balance, and thus say higher end of 7% - 700baht in fees to TW I'd do that any day then go to bank and deal with insanity - oh you renew your passport please go get police report, to a good day - sign these 1000 sheets of paper.. 

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 it looks likely that regardless of what happens, tourists must travel to CW to claim their extension (or 'claim' amnesty should it be extended). So seeking a bit of advice..

The news article says "automatic". There's nothing automatic about CW, nothing what so ever..