Thought I'd post a quick report that may be useful to others.

 

My visa history: long term stay with a mix of tourist and education visas, with occasional long-term breaks in-between (ranging from 3 weeks to 9 months).

Have not tried entering visa exempt in the last 5 years.

 

My ed visa finished, so I went on a 3 week road trip.

I was planning to re-enter by land in Laos, but got tired of travelling, so booked an air ticket from Vientiane to Suvarnabhumi.

 

To my surprise, the kid at the airline check-in started grilling me with questions:

"what is your purpose of travel to Thailand?"

"how long do you plan to stay?"

... and to my shock... "where will you stay and do you have a proof....?"

 

I was taken back by that. This was the airline personnel, NOT immigration. Are they responsible for my accommodations??? When did that happen?

 

Anyway, I kept my smile, even though I was pretty sure that this was total bullshit. They have no right to ask me immigration-related questions. I had a tourist visa, I was not trying to enter with an exemption. In any case, this was not even immigration personnel.

 

I had no proof of accommodation in Thailand (I did not think I'd need a copy of my condo contract if I have tourist visa)... but I talked the kid into accepting just writing down my address.

 

At the actual Lao immigration, NO QUESTIONS.

At the Thai immigration at Suvarnabhumi, NO QUESTIONS.

 

<deleted> Thai Smile? 

 

This made no sense to me.

 

Was the airline kid just out of line... or did they have instructions to do this?

 

In the future, if you fly in from Laos, be ready with a proof of accommodation for your stay.

 

Kid was out of line. Acceptable to ask for onward flight but very unusual if one has a visa.

Even flying visa exempt then only onward flight needed for airline. Lucky it wasn't me. I would tell him to shove it!

It's because they are getting too many denied entry (even with valid tourist visa).