LarsBKK

1 hour ago, internationalism said:

all flights to europe do include minimum 23kg.

 

I don't know where you book. But neither KLM, AF nor Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss nor Finnair from BKK to HAM include checked baggage in the price shown on Google.com/flights, their respective websites, momondo or sky scanner. Each of those offer you to add checked baggage in a second step while booking at additional cost as of 2 days ago. Extra fee for one checked bag was KLM, AF  3000 Baht for the round,  FinnAir 70EUR one way, LH Group between 4700 and 5600 Baht for the round. 

11 hours ago, tomster said:

I still can't get my head around why they don't offer a long term visa/extension for the under 50's with the same financial requirements as the retirement extension.

 

Soooooo many people under 50 leave and take their online incomes with them to spend else where - they are pointlessly losing millions of dollars for what?

 

Just does not make any sense at all.

My point exactly. I retired 5 years ago at 37 and there simply is nothing except Thailand Elite at a ridiculous price to stay here long term for me. Before Covid it wasn't that much of a problem as I like traveling but it is sure not easy to consider Thailand your home of choice if you are under 50 and gay (so marriage visa isn't an option). 

12 hours ago, cyril sneer said:

flights are the cheapest i've ever seen at the moment

 

depends how you search for them..

I thought so too until I had to book a flight to Europe. Now almost all fares include carry-on luggage only. So you have to add between 4000 - 7000 baht per checked bag. Pre Covid the prices were a bit higher than now but the main airlines included at least one checked bag. So right now it is not really cheaper to fly (at least to Europe).

1 hour ago, ThaiFelix said:

Why would immigration be involved?  Proof of income for visa purposes?

OP wrote that he won't choose wise.com because that results in domestic transfers which won't be accepted by immigration. I merely pointed to the funds for long term stay option of wise.com

6 hours ago, thaisail said:

My experience with Kasikorn has not been great. I think this issue is far above the heads of the people responding on their customer help line. Besides, I have no proof that Kasikorn is behind this issue. It could be just Lazada trying to avoid loosing the credit card margin. 

 

I tried to set up transferwise with Schwab bank about a year ago. The name has now changed from Transferwise to just "WISE". I am looking into that option. However, the immigration needs to see transfers from a foreign bank to a Thai bank. With "Wise" the transfer is recorded as a domestic transfer instead of a foreign bank transfer. I will try to talk to immigration to see if they will accept "Wise" transfers. But I think we all know how that will go!

You can choose a reason for the transfer at wise. If you choose "funds for long term stay in Thailand" option it will not be displayed as domestic transfer and will be accepted from immigration. 

I'm 43 years old, German nationality and will stay in Thailand until 26/01/2022. Then I'll go back to Germany. 
I'll check Safety Wings.

I would much prefer a Thai solution as that hopefully would help avoid having to pay first and get reimbursed later in case of COVID hospitalization as Thai insurances will hopefully be accepted in hospitals here as payment. Or am I mistaken believing that?

Hi everyone,

I arrived in Thailand on 27th Nov 2021 under Test & Go. I had bought travel insurance at Axa Thailand. I went to immigration to extend my stay for 30 more days which wasn't a problem. Today I tried to extend my insurance at Axa. As the insurance finished on 26th Dec and I did not tell them before the expiry date they can't extend my policy. I also can't buy a new policy at Axa as I am already in Thailand and wouldn't be covered. They have annual health insurances but no insurances for tourists that are already here and "ran out" of their insurance. I googled insurances but so far was not able to find an insurance that allows for me being already in Thailand. Any suggestions?