Booked on a Air Asia flt to Vietnam next week. UK national with Thai G/F.  Checked in on line this morning and check in was confirmed. Went to print boarding passes page. The boarding passes where there but captions in red stated ‘This is not a boarding pass’. Please proceed to our document check counter. Rang the call centre and the guy just said ‘special check’ and bring the print outs of the boarding passes.

Never happened before. Can anyone throw some light on it. Cheers

For better attention I moved this to the common Travel forum (from Don Mueang forum).

 

 

Not unusual on an international flight that may need a visa.

 

SWMBO and I got those on our flights to Japan.

 

Didn't bother to call as we had to use the Check-in counter anyway for baggage.

Edited September 28, 20178 yr by sometimewoodworker

Possibly because they have to do a Document check, Visa etc.

1 hour ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Not unusual on an international flight that may need a visa.

 

SWMBO and I got those on our flights to Japan.

 

Didn't bother to call as we had to use the Check-in counter anyway for baggage.

Yes. I flew to Saigon last week and Thai needed to see my visa on arrival paperwork.

Quite usual if you have baggage to check in anyway !

9 hours ago, norfolkandchance said:

Booked on a Air Asia flt to Vietnam next week. UK national with Thai G/F.  Checked in on line this morning and check in was confirmed. Went to print boarding passes page. The boarding passes where there but captions in red stated ‘This is not a boarding pass’. Please proceed to our document check counter. Rang the call centre and the guy just said ‘special check’ and bring the print outs of the boarding passes.

Never happened before. Can anyone throw some light on it. Cheers

airlines don't directly issue boarding passes when additional documents checks are needed.

 

 

You always have to go to their online check-in counter, and they usually - but not always - issue duplicate passes, though God knows why. 

3 hours ago, Currumbin said:

Yes. I flew to Saigon last week and Thai needed to see my visa on arrival paperwork.

Depends on whether you need a visa, though they always ask. But you need to go to the online check-in counter, regardless of visa requirements, and whether or not you have baggage to check. 

If you see this, no point in even printing anything out.   And if you're planning to be at the airport at all early, really not much point in even "checking-in" online at all.  (Then again, on the long-haul flights where I'm not on a discount airline, I reserve my seats when I make the reservations.)

 

18 hours ago, norfolkandchance said:

Booked on a Air Asia flt to Vietnam next week. UK national with Thai G/F.  Checked in on line this morning and check in was confirmed. Went to print boarding passes page. The boarding passes where there but captions in red stated ‘This is not a boarding pass’. Please proceed to our document check counter. Rang the call centre and the guy just said ‘special check’ and bring the print outs of the boarding passes.

Never happened before. Can anyone throw some light on it. Cheers

I had the same going to Malaysia last week and the same response when I called the help line. Got to the airport early no special desk went to the air Asia sales desk very helpful lady who said go to the machine type in your code and I got my boarding pass

When I was a child my parents told me "this is not a boarding school " ....and then they left me there and didn't come back......

9 minutes ago, nchuckle said:

When I was a child my parents told me "this is not a boarding school " ....and then they left me there and didn't come back......

oh ....  i'm sorry to hear that ....  pls don't worry ... 

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

oh ....  i'm sorry to hear that ....  pls don't worry ... 

 

 

1 hour ago, nchuckle said:

When I was a child my parents told me "this is not a boarding school " ....and then they left me there and didn't come back......

They will come back!

Thanks for your inputs. I do not need a visa and have no check-in baggage. I do however have a new passport since I booked the flt. Maybe this is the reason. Anyway we’ll just turn up and see what happens. Cheers

The airline is responsible for bringing passengers back who do not meet the entry requirements to Vietnam. A big problem if the return flight is full. The airline also have to pay a fine which may be a few thousand dollars. This is why they want you to do a regular check-in at the desk. 

3 hours ago, norfolkandchance said:

Thanks for your inputs. I do not need a visa and have no check-in baggage. I do however have a new passport since I booked the flt. Maybe this is the reason. Anyway we’ll just turn up and see what happens. Cheers

As a UK national you do require a visa to enter Vietnam. A visa exemption scheme does not remove the fact you are a nationality that requires a visa. Even Thais may need to have a visa, my wife had one when she worked in Vietnam.

It is the same for my wife in the UK, she cannot get a boarding pass from online check in even after having entered the country on a visa.

Surely Visa Exempt means exactly that, you don't need a Visa. A UK National can stay for either 14 or 15 days in Vietnam wthout a Visa! Re the need to check in this seems to be for varied reasons but i think mainly it is to check that you have flights out of a country within the period of Visa exemption .In someways can protect the customer as well as if it is only discovered at the departure gate that you have no booked flight out it may be too late to rectify the situation.