Ricardo

Let's hope that the DNA-samples don't become 'accidentally' contaminated or mislaid.

10 hours ago, Ricardo said:

Overall the Qatar/Emirates/Etihad sales were all slightly-disappointing this year, IMO.  One can only hope for oil-prices, and airfares, to drop as the year progresses !

Lo-and-behold, one only says it, and then it happens ! 

I just got an email from Qatar, for a Thai-Sale on flights from their five Thai destinations, book by 11th February for travel up to 10th December.  Search via their usual website.  A quick check showed some sample-fares lower than their January-Sale !

And some new offers also from Etihad, some may come with 23kgs of luggage, rather than the usual 30 kgs.  Book until 18th February, for flights from 1st March to 31st July (although there may well be block-out periods).  To London from B23,580, Paris from B19,610, etcetera (with the usual caveats).

https://www.etihad.com/en-th/deals/view-more/?promotion_id=11748

I arrived into BKK on Qatar yesterday, and was similarly suprised, there were a lot of Russians onboard, perhaps Qatar is offering good-prices for former-charter travellers ?  Although I think it was also a code-share with S7 ?

And I can see how they might prefer UTP to BKK, given how popular Pattaya used to be, with that market ?

On 04/02/2018 at 8:15 PM, Khun Han said:

Return flights from BKK to Oslo with budget carrier Norwegian are available on selected dates October through to December for less than 13,000Bt when booked through an OTA. Hold luggage and sustenance are extra on these flights.

Now if only the LCCs could find a way to charge for air, en-route !

Overall the Qatar/Emirates/Etihad sales were all slightly-disappointing this year, IMO.  One can only hope for oil-prices, and airfares, to drop as the year progresses !

Etihad just announce that, for their very-cheapest  (Economy Deal)  fares issued after 31st January 2018, the allowance will only be 23 kgs, all other grades of Economy  (Saver, Classic & Flex)  remain at 30kgs.

https://www.etihad.com/en/before-you-fly/baggage-information/allowances/

"DEPUTY Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan would not be required to declare his extravagant watch collection as assets under the anti-graft law if the watches did not belong to him"

But surely he would have been morally-obliged (or even legally-obliged ?) to return a high-value borrowed-watch or watches, within a reasonably-short time after he'd died, to the estate of the lender ?

I do hope that the former-soldier PM's loyalty to his colleague is not misplaced.

Caesar's wife, or his deputy-PM, needs to be seen to be above suspicion, not untouchable.

1 hour ago, canuckamuck said:

This is basically what I took, only a month in advance so not many choices. Going to Beijing with air china, than off to Calgary via Van on Air Canada.  Return Air Canada to Korea, Korean air to CNX. 30,000 baht. Could have done better if I had more wiggle room on the trip and booked earlier

That's an interesting routing, for a reasonable price, did you find it online (where ?) or via a live travel-agency ?

Oh, and have a good trip, of course !

One oddity, all the other previous articles have spoken about the Eastern-Seaboard line to Laem-Chabang & Map-ta-phut as branching-off the medium-speed heavy-freight line at Kaeng Khoi, rather than only being the old meter-gauge line from Bangkok, as the map shows ?

And surely what the PM broke-ground on last month was just a 3-km test-track, near Khorat, the first real section from Khorat to Bangkok is still to be properly started, or " Thailand’s section is on the way" as the article prefers to phrase it ! 

Sale on KLM, book by 31st January, for travel between 25th January and 30th November, best fares seem (on a quick viewing) to be in May & June.

https://dream.klm.com/th_en?WT.ac=hp_carrousel_dreamdealswi18#!/

Fares to London 'from' B21,045 ,  Paris B20,999 ,  Amsterdam B20,899 ,  Munich B21, 948,  lookmuch better than the ones in the Gulf-airline sales this month,

50 minutes ago, AlQaholic said:

If they just use the good old Thai diesel trains there will be significant cost savings.....Which then can be used to purchase a few submarines, surveillance balloons or even a rocket to send the first Thai astronaut into orbit!

You're way behind, on that last suggestion  ...

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Phirada-poised-to-become-first-Thai-to-go-into-out-30226264.html

And having decided to run it slower, will they also now admit that the Chinese-line will similarly be medium-speed, rather than keeping-up the pretence of 'high-speed' ?

As you say, the problem is with the cost of the alternatives, you need to look for a Sale on Cathay Pacific or Korean, perhaps ?

My older son flew back home from YVR on Xmas-Day, returning 9th January for about £750-return, with Cathay Pacific and a 65-minute connection in HKG both ways.

My younger son flew CNX-YVR-CNX with Korean mid/late-June, similar cost but a 12-hour connection going, and just a couple of hours on the return-trip.

I've also known slightly-cheaper deals on ANA via BKK, in a Sale.

2 hours ago, Arkady said:

  Bear in mind that income arising overseas is taxable, only if it is remitted to Thailand within 12 months of arising.  So, if anyone ever asks, you are remitting income or whatever paid into your UK account more than 12 months ago.

"within 12 months of arising"

I believe that you meant to say  "in the same calendar year as it arose" ?

The Thai tax-authorities (unlike HMRC) are said to work on a calendar-year basis, so in theory it might arise in December and be safely transferred the following month ?

But I am open to correction, if anyone else knows better ?

13 hours ago, Rc2702 said:

So if I get off a flight at 1.30pm and show the free bus operators an flight from suvarnabhumi leaving at 6 that same day. I can travel between two airports for free?

 

If so is a proof on a phone showing flight ok?

I would have thought so, but can't say from personal-experience, my trips are usually in the other direction, and I use print-outs of tickets as proof.

They write down, on their form, the flight-details (perhaps the onward-airline is being recharged a cost ?) and these would also appear on your phone, I imagine.

How many divisions do the media have ?

The current PM just has to grow used to the fact that, as the November-election (which he has promised) approaches, regular political-activity and comment will resume.  And not everybody will view him as a hero.

This is normal and expected, and part of what he has committed to delivering.

So get used to it, encourage and channel it, rather than complaining about it.

Unless he really does want, which I'm sure none of us would wish, to become a d*******.  

4 hours ago, THAILIBAN said:

 

Then fly OMAN AIR, their return fares to Europe are sometimes 17K (and that is not even a promotion then) and they offer 30KG of luggage even when paying that little

That's an excellent price, I'm supposedly on their mailing-list but have never seen much to shout about before, what time of year is that sort of price available ?  Perhaps you might post a link, next time you see it, to help-out the rest of us ?

Looking right now at the Oman Air site, I see they too have a January-Sale, booking 8th-18th January (that's tomorrow !) for flights 8th January to 31st May.  Bunging-in a couple of mid-week dates in May, it shows prices of just-under B22kfor LHR, which is indeed quite good !

http://www.omanair.com/en/best-fares-deals/special-deals/up-to-50-off-in-business-economy-class-to-all-our-international

I wonder why they didn't email me, since I've got a frequent-flyer card on them ? !

Just now, Ricardo said:

Sale on Thai Lion Air, book by 21st January, for flights between 17th January & 30th June, on both domestic & international routes.

 

Many domestic-fares from B690 one-way, several at B490 & B590.

 

http://www.lionairthai.com/en/Promotion/New-Year-New-Discoveries?utm_source=website&utm_medium=webbanneren-so&utm_campaign=NewYear_NewDis_15JAN18-TH&utm_content=NewYear_NewDis_15JAN18-TH

Sale on Thai Lion Air, book by 21st January, for flights between 17th January & 30th June, on both domestic & international routes.

Many domestic-fares from B690 one-way, a few at B490 & B590.

http://www.lionairthai.com/en/Promotion/New-Year-New-Discoveries?utm_source=website&utm_medium=webbanneren-so&utm_campaign=NewYear_NewDis_15JAN18-TH&utm_content=NewYear_NewDis_15JAN18-TH

1 hour ago, jayboy said:

In referring to Abhisit's disgraceful boycott of elections in 2013, this person taints the forum (again) with dishonesty.

I think you mean the election in February-2014, in 2013 the country was still being guided & advised by Skype from Dubai, or 'Thai democracy' as some liked to call it ?

Etihad have now launched their own January-Sale, in competition with Qatar and Emirates, it's for bookings up to 21st January with travel between 22nd January & 30th June.  The other two had been booking up to early-December.

Some sample return-fares from Bangkok are quoted as,  'from'  B23,030 to London or B19.810 to Paris or B22,280 to Amsterdam.  Etihad also operate flights to/from Phuket.

https://flights.etihad.com/en-th/flights-from-thailand?CID=ema:air:thailand_168_hours_special_offer_jan_18jan18:gueststhen:etihadairwaysfaretactical:allsegments:&gsn=29543102&utm_campaign=thailand_168_hours_special_offer_jan_18jan18&utm_medium=email&utm_source=gueststhen&utm_content=etihadairwaysfaretactical&&CID=ema:&utm_campaign=&utm_source=&utm_content=&utm_medium=email

On 11/01/2018 at 3:09 PM, webfact said:

The new top tourism official had some straight talk for anyone unhappy about airport food prices: Don’t eat at the airport.

It occurs to me to wonder, might the Tourism Minister ever say, "If you find Thailand too expensive these days, then just don't come here" ?

1 hour ago, yellowboat said:

Wrong.  The majority of Thai voted for the Shinawartes, not to be bullied oafs in green uniforms. 

Agree about the military, but it's a long time (2005) since a majority of people voting (let alone all Thais) voted for the Shinawatras, at the last election (2011) it was 48.41% for Yingluck & PTP, which was the largest single party.

Other minor parties then joined a post-election coalition to enable PTP to form the government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_general_election,_2011

It would be interesting to know, but we never will unfortunately, what PTP & Yingluck would have got in 2014, following the protests over the widespread-amnesty & the rice-scheme fiasco, also the failed school-laptop scheme & other broken promises.

Personally I think she would have had a reduced share of the vote, but might still have managed another coalition, after all the minor parties don't care who they support, just so long as they get some of the goodies. Indeed, before the 2011 election Bhumjaithai & Chartthaipattana had pledged to support whichever party won, which isn't IMO quite the same as their supporters having voted for the Shins, although that's what they got.

Interesting article and thread.

I think the key factor will be who Thaksin picks as leader, going into the election, and will it be another family-member or another loyal-outsider like Samak, or someone completely different ?  Negotiations are clearly now underway, hence the jockeying for position & declarations of loyalty, described in the OP.

Also whether he will continue to fund the party, given that the military (and their backers, whoever they really are) are clearly determined not to permit his return, he may be getting tired of it all.

I don't have any answers, but look forward to watching what goes on, this year.  And hope that it stays peaceful.