Coronavirus: Brit couple fear they'll be trapped in Thailand for months as flights axed

[The Fugitive]

If they stay, their travel insurance (assuming they have any) will expire. They will then be in the same position as 80+% of ex-pats who have no medical cover. Cover or not, if you should need a ventilator and none are available, the outcome is likely to be the same.

[rumak]

2 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

I think your case is completely different to the couple in question...

Seems they expected to come on an incident free holiday, half way round the world in the middle of a pandemic !! Ooooops, that back fired...

Most of us have made some bad decisions .....  you're right though,  theirs was not so smart.

I do feel for the many foreigners living here for many years that are affected , mostly with immigration issues.  It appears that helping their situations is not a

priority at all .   My yearly extension comes up in June.   

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by rumak

[CraigInBangkok]

3 minutes ago, The Fugitive said:

If they stay, their travel insurance (assuming they have any) will expire. They will then be in the same position as 80+% of ex-pats who have no medical cover. Cover or not, if you should need a ventilator and none are available, the outcome is likely to be the same.

yeah ... but most of us, did'nt travel here in the middle of a pandemic

Edited March 25, 2020 by CraigInBangkok

[Ventenio]

hey guys, wouldn't it be fun if the world was in chaos??  yea, let's go to Thailand....live our life!!!  explore the world!! help others!!!  bring 4 quid as everything is free over there.... our family thinks we are crazy!!!  wow, this is soo much fun.

 

5 days later.   Now I'm a little scared.  I don't want to die.  Please God, hear my prayers.  

[Ian Nagle]

54 minutes ago, madmitch said:

Theyre not exactly unique. There are probably thousands of people in the same position right now. It's not news.

Agreed. This smells of self promotion ME ME ME. Most people would be having a cool head and not running to the tabloids.

[WineOh]

34 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

you mean drinking Chang

you mean she's a chang? ????????

[Canuck1966]

1 minute ago, Liverpoolfan said:

you mean she's a chang? ????????

chaang-nam, even better!????

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, madmitch said:

Theyre not exactly unique. There are probably thousands of people in the same position right now. It's not news.

It is in Chorley.

[sandyf]

1 hour ago, madmitch said:

Theyre not exactly unique. There are probably thousands of people in the same position right now. It's not news.

Quite, been blown up to sell papers. Flights suspended for 2 weeks and headline says "trapped for months"

I suspect they have booked through an agent and not provided the agent with valid contact details, hence the lack of information.

A friend of mine went back to the UK on Friday, his flight was brought forward at the last minute. He was very fortunate, he only switched his English phone on to get his son to put beer in the fridge. The agent had been calling, no emails. 

I couldn't believe it, he has had the same Thai sim card for years but never thought to give the number to the agent.

[UbonThani]

6 minutes ago, sandyf said:

Quite, been blown up to sell papers. Flights suspended for 2 weeks and headline says "trapped for months"

I suspect they have booked through an agent and not provided the agent with valid contact details, hence the lack of information.

A friend of mine went back to the UK on Friday, his flight was brought forward at the last minute. He was very fortunate, he only switched his English phone on to get his son to put beer in the fridge. The agent had been calling, no emails. 

I couldn't believe it, he has had the same Thai sim card for years but never thought to give the number to the agent.

Who buys newspapers?

[Virt]

“Although it says online you could change flights with no charge, we tried to do this and this was untrue, it was trying to charge us over £1000.”

 

That's outrageous that Emirates didn't do a rebooking free of charge like many other companies did. 

 

I arrived on koh Chang March 7, and Friday the 13th my government advice people to return home. 

Busy weekend while contacting insurance and Thai Airways. Thai airways managed to get new seats on a plane the 19th which we accepted and cut our holiday short, because it was clear that we could end up stranded if we waited to long.

 

Thai airways rebooked tickets without any charge because of the situation. 

That's good service. 

 

Emirates should have done the same. 

No way these people will fly Emirates again. 

[Enoon]

47 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

I think your case is completely different to the couple in question...

Seems they expected to come on an incident free holiday, half way round the world in the middle of a pandemic !! Ooooops, that back fired...

 

They were travelling to Thailand.

 

The "dream destination" that successfully concealed, from the worlds tourists, the true extent of the risk that it had been taking (with its favoured "traffic") and the infection/risk within its own borders.

 

All Thailand had were "Patients Under Investigation".

 

Perhaps this couple actually believed that?

 

 

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by Enoon

[lordblackader]

Cry me a river. 

[Longchop]

Always amazed how dumbos like these even find their way to the airport where they always  clog up the security/ immigration lines because they think that the rules don't apply to them. Then arrive at  their destination with £2 spending money and expect us all to believe they are millionaire ex sas operatives  and now attention seeking wanting their mugs in the papers because of a hiccup in their travel itinery. STILL PLENTY OF FLIGHTS/SEATS TO UK EVERY DAY around £500 each so go buy your tickets and <deleted> of home you muppetts

[lkn]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Did it myself in my 20s and 30s, as an old guy you've forgotten what it's like to be young.

I've got total sympathy for them, nobody thought the world was going to end last Friday.

The couple are not in their 20s or 30s, the women is quoted as being 40.

 

At that age you should know better, or at least know that if you travel in the midst of a pandemic, where a lot of flights have already been cancelled, you are very likely to be stuck somewhere, and if you do, don’t “tweet the Prime Minister” and expect a response (yes, the article mentions she did that).

 

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

When was the last time nearly all flights everywhere were cancelled .......... never.

Actually, you don’t have to go back more than 10 years with the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, which closed most of Europe’s airspace and also left a lot of people stranded in Asia.

 

That was actually *less* predictable than this current situation, as the writing has definitely been on the wall for quite some time. Case in point, the ministry of foreign affairs in my country not only advised everyone to get back home weeks ago, they also texted me directly about open seats on a plane leaving for Scandinavia a few days ago, and yesterday I got another text basically saying “if you don’t leave now, don’t expect *any* planes at all after 1st of April”.

 

[lkn]

51 minutes ago, Virt said:

“Although it says online you could change flights with no charge, we tried to do this and this was untrue, it was trying to charge us over £1000.”

 

That's outrageous that Emirates didn't do a rebooking free of charge like many other companies did. 

Emirates probably waive the normal rebooking fee for all flights, but if you booked economy super saver and now try to rebook as one of the last business class seats, you will have to pay the difference.

 

The quote in the article is vague about what these 1,000 pound are for, but I am quite sure it is not the “fee” for doing the rebooking. No rebooking fee would be that high, that is just absurd.

[Cabradelmar]

Selfish. Don't expect a bailout from your own bad choices... Keep smiling, you might not be for long when the money runs short

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, RandolphGB said:

This is entirely their own fault.  There have been lots of warnings for weeks telling people not to travel.

 

Indeed, just because a person COULD get a flight to Thailand in the past couple weeks doesn't by any stretch mean that they SHOULD have decided to travel here, given the spread of the pandemic. Warning lights have long been flashing for anyone who bothered to pay attention.

 

[UbonThani]

Stupid has no age limit. Someone who is stupid at 30 will be the same at 40,50 etc

 

If you lack basic thinking skills by 30 forget about it. Might as well be test subjects for vaccines.

[BobbyL]

Absolutely zero sympathy. They knew precisely what has been occurring around the world recently. 

[Elzear]

I was on Koh Chang last week end and could not believe the amount of westerners there ? When I left the island on Sunday, a minibus full of ´them’ was arriving ! I am puzzled ? Surely they were not all Russians ? With this coming and going and promiscuity it won’t be long for the Pangolin (my name for that viral mongrel) to hit the island.. 

[ICELANDMAN]

3 hours ago, madmitch said:

Theyre not exactly unique. There are probably thousands of people in the same position right now. It's not news.

You meant many idiots

[toenail]

Many people would be willing to trade their worries / stress for their challenges right now ????

[rumak]

1 hour ago, Longchop said:

Always amazed how dumbos like these even find their way to the airport where they always  clog up the security/ immigration lines because they think that the rules don't apply to them. Then arrive at  their destination with £2 spending money and expect us all to believe they are millionaire ex sas operatives  and now attention seeking wanting their mugs in the papers because of a hiccup in their travel itinery. STILL PLENTY OF FLIGHTS/SEATS TO UK EVERY DAY around £500 each so go buy your tickets and <deleted> of home you muppetts

great first post.   be careful, rumak is famous for his sarcasm

[saakura]

3 hours ago, spiekerjozef said:

I thought many people loved to stay an extra couple months in Thailand.

“I have already been made redundant from my job and have no further money to support being here any longer."

 

Please contribute generously to their upcoming Go-fund-me request and they will happily stay for months.

[rumak]

25 minutes ago, ICELANDMAN said:

3 hours ago, madmitch said:

Theyre not exactly unique. There are probably thousands of people in the same position right now. It's not news.

You meant many idiots

I wholeheartedly agree !!   the missionary position gets soooooo boring after endless encounters.

[Kadilo]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

 

 

What always amazes me is the fairly good looking western guys bringing absolute chubby mingers with them to Thailand.

Have white men lost all respect for themselves?

.....and then take them to Pattaya after selling to her as a beach holiday so he could sneak off and find some action. 

[sanemax]

Just now, Kadilo said:

.....and then take them to Pattaya after selling to her as a beach holiday so he could sneak off and find some action. 

Is that the type of thing that you would do ?

[saakura]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Nah, It's entirely normal for most of the world, live hand to mouth, holidays with minimum money and no backup.

Did it myself in my 20s and 30s, as an old guy you've forgotten what it's like to be young.

I've got total sympathy for them, nobody thought the world was going to end last Friday.

When was the last time nearly all flights everywhere were cancelled .......... never.

 

What always amazes me is the fairly good looking western guys bringing absolute chubby mingers with them to Thailand.

Have white men lost all respect for themselves?

Maybe not all white men coming to Thailand have had a damaged past and ended up here on a rebound.

[Kadilo]

9 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Is that the type of thing that you would do ?

No, I would not take a bag of sand to Saudi either. 

Edited March 25, 2020 by Kadilo