Thai travel agent offers “Vaccine Tour" to US for 76,000 baht

[webfact]

Picture: Daily News

 

Daily News reported that comment online was rife after a tour company promoted a trip to the United States with a Johnson and Johnson vaccine as part of the deal.

 

For as little as 76,000 baht for ten days seven nights (in a group booking) you could fly to San Francisco under the "Chim Chop Chiit" tour.

 

This is a play on a promotion that took place in Thailand last year and translates as "Eat Shop and get vaccinated". 

 

Hotels, Sprinter car and driver, visits to tourism places, breakfast, vaccine charges and insurance were all included.

 

Picture: Daily News

 

As were all arrangements for the all important return trip to Thailand arranged through the Thai embassy in the US. 

 

Potential travellers were enticed by thoughts of going to the Golden Gate Bridge, Twin Peaks, shopping in Union Square - then the all important J and J vax - then a spell on the beaches of Santa Barbara and Malibu before returning happy and most importantly, vaccinated to Thailand. 

 

Daily News said that many people found this most amusing. 

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-05-04

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

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[Justgrazing]

8 minutes ago, webfact said:

Hotels, Sprinter car and driver,

 

But will it be a runaway success .. 

 

[sqwakvfr]

76,000 or approximately $2400 for all that?  Not in San Francisco.  Maybe across the Bay in Oakland or Hayward(just look up the crime stats in both cities).  As far as I know no one who registers on the California government website is guaranteed they will get the J&J on shot Covid 19 Vaccine.  If one is unlucky and is given the Pfizer shot then at a minimum one has to stay 3 weeks.  I have already planned this out and the lowest figure I have come up with for me(a longtime CA resident with a valid CA drivers license) was just over $5,000 if I got the Pfizer or Moderna jab.  

 

This offer could be a little bit of "underselling" the cost of this trip.  Also, eating in CA can be very expensive.  A bottle of water that costs 10 Baht goes for almost a dollar.  

[smedly]

and if something happens and the booking is cancelled 

 

DO YOU GET A FULL REFUND ?

 

If not then this sounds like a scam similar to the fitness gyms that offered lifetime membership then once they had raked in a fortune pocketed the money and sold the business on to a partner or friend and kept the subscriptions

[mtls2005]

Don't you (target audience: Thais) need a visa?

 

 

[Phuketshrew]

Then Thai's have missed a trick here. Could have opened up places like Phuket for vaccination tourism.

[brucegoniners]

I'm sure you'll be staying at a 5 star hotel in the heart of downtown San Francisco and will fly first class each way. What a deal!!!

[Brierley]

Does this include the 14 days enforced quarantine when they return?

[vandeventer]

27 minutes ago, brucegoniners said:

I'm sure you'll be staying at a 5 star hotel in the heart of downtown San Francisco and will fly first class each way. What a deal!!!

And you may have to pay for the Vaccines as it is only free to Americans and Border Jumpers.

[John Drake]

3 hours ago, sqwakvfr said:

76,000 or approximately $2400 for all that?  Not in San Francisco.  Maybe across the Bay in Oakland or Hayward(just look up the crime stats in both cities).

 

Thai travel agents are good at working out deals. I go through them for that reason. Before Covid, used to get flight and 8 days in Honolulu at Hilton Wakiki for 46,000 baht.

[aviator581]

How Stupid

Edited May 4, 2021 by aviator581

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

For as little as 76,000 baht for ten days seven nights (in a group booking) you could fly to San Francisco under the "Chim Chop Chiit" tour.

Starting price maybe... 

[Regyai]

What celestial adjustments do they make to have

"ten days seven nights"      

become a possibility

[thailand49]

This might be tour I would take?  From the U.S. particular S.F. I need to make a quick trip but due to all the requirements of getting back I'm still here.

 

If 76,000 gets me back in without doing the paperwork, quarantine, insurance I would consider basically I skip the sight seeing but take the accommodations in S.F. do my personal business in town and see family and most important get my J&J vaccine which should be easy since I'm on Medicare quick call to my Doctor prior to arriving and arranging.

 

If the Santa Barbara trip and wait until the group returns for the flight back to Thailand. Normal fare now if Eva was operational run at 43,000 baht, accommodation on my own for 10 days normally run me 1300.00 USD = 40,000 baht the tour providing much of the days I save right there. 

 

If being able to return without C.O.E. quarantine I think I come out ahead? especially if I don't need the 100,000 USD coverage insurance!????

Count me in where do I sign up?

[Deli]

Foreigners living in Thailand accepted ? Who knows...

[natway09]

Come on in sucker !!!!!!!

Just add it up & it will be double that.

Just a good hotel on your return will cost 40,000 for 15 days & yes, you still need to quarantine on your return

[mrfill]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

For as little as 76,000 baht for ten days seven nights (in a group booking)

No mention of the group size. It may be 2, 20, 200 or 2000

[stretch5163]

5 hours ago, Brierley said:

Does this include the 14 days enforced quarantine when they return?

ASQ free for Thais

 

[DrDave]

7 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

Don't you (target audience: Thais) need a visa?

 

 

Yes, and good luck with that.

Tourist visas are notoriously difficult, if not impossible to obtain for most Thais.

[mvdf]

14 hours ago, John Drake said:

 

Thai travel agents are good at working out deals. I go through them for that reason. Before Covid, used to get flight and 8 days in Honolulu at Hilton Wakiki for 46,000 baht.

 

Amazing. I wonder how they (airline, hotel and travel agent) make a profit from that kind of deal. 

[ExpatOilWorker]

It is just a matter of time before we have a grey market for vaccines. 

As soon as borders open someone will hand carry a box of vaccines in.

[G Ying]

For sure going to SF, get a 2 doses vaccine and get quarantined back in Thailand does not make it.

But according to Bangkok Post yesterday "The Maldives is preparing a vaccine tourism programme combined with a staycation package, said Mr Chotechuang.".

 

So with some adjustments like going to closer country (Singapore ? Maldives ?), get a J&J vaccine and fly back, let's say after July 1st when quarantine won't be mandatory for vaccinated travelers, then definitively I would go for it !

Better to try something rather than waiting and waiting.

How long have private hospitals here been asking the authorization to propose an alternative ?

[John Drake]

3 hours ago, mvdf said:

 

Amazing. I wonder how they (airline, hotel and travel agent) make a profit from that kind of deal. 

 

Always wondered myself. But I figure the costs are tailored to the Thai market. I'm not sure I could get one night in Hawaii coming from the stateside for that price.

[sqwakvfr]

2 Dose Vaccine regiment takes at least 3 weeks.  Therefore, I do not see how a 10 Day USA Vaccine tour can be accomplished unless the J&J Vaccine has been guaranteed by this tour operator.  I have contacted some friends in the Los Angeles are and depending on which pharmacy they went to they got the Pfizer(2 shot), Moderna(2 shot) or one person who I know got the J&J at the Costco pharmacy.  As far as I know one cannot reserve a specific brand of vaccine when you make your appointment. 

[John Drake]

14 minutes ago, sqwakvfr said:

2 Dose Vaccine regiment takes at least 3 weeks.  Therefore, I do not see how a 10 Day USA Vaccine tour can be accomplished unless the J&J Vaccine has been guaranteed by this tour operator.  I have contacted some friends in the Los Angeles are and depending on which pharmacy they went to they got the Pfizer(2 shot), Moderna(2 shot) or one person who I know got the J&J at the Costco pharmacy.  As far as I know one cannot reserve a specific brand of vaccine when you make your appointment. 

 

I would be willing to bet that there are some Thai pharmacists in California who might just be able to arrange a stock of J&J to be on hand when the tour group happens to arrive.

[snoop1130]

Thai travel agencies offer COVID-19 'vaccine tours' to U.S

 

FILE PHOTO: People wait to receive the second dose of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine at the Bang Khun Thian Geriatric Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand April 21, 2021. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Travel agencies in Thailand are selling coronavirus "vaccine tours" to the United States, as some wealthy Thais grow impatient awaiting mass inoculations that are still a month away amid the country's biggest outbreak so far.

 

The tours reflect global differences in vaccinations, with the United States and Britain making swift immunisation gains, but many lower income nations - and increasingly their well-off citizens - are still working to secure doses.

 

Bangkok tour operator, Unithai Trip, has packages from 75,000 baht to 200,000 baht ($2,400 to $6,400) for trips to San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, with prices dependent on the time gap between doses.

 

"Johnson & Johnson is one jab, but 90% of inquires want Pfizer," which needs about 20 days between the first and second doses, the agency's owner, Rachphol Yamsaeng, told Reuters.

 

He said a group was tentatively scheduled to leave next week.

 

My Journey Travel is offering a 10-day trip to San Francisco for a Johnson & Johnson shot and said it has received hundreds of calls in three days.

 

The vaccine tours could be a boon for Thailand's tourism agencies after travel collapsed during the pandemic.

 

"All tour agencies are suffering now," said Rachapol, whose agency is also offering similar trips to Serbia. "Whatever we can do, we have to try to do it."

 

A spokesman at the U.S. embassy in Bangkok declined to immediately comment, but the U.S. State Department's website lists medical tourism as a valid reason to visit.

 

The United States is not the only destination offered to Thais. Another agency, Udachi, advertised a 23-day "VACCation in Russia" to receive the Sputnik V vaccine for up to 210,000 baht ($6,700).

 

Thailand's main vaccination drive is set to begin in June with locally-produced AstraZeneca shots.

 

Its latest outbreak has accounted for more than half of its total 74,900 infections and 318 fatalities.

 

Thailand's tourism ministry warned on Wednesday that customers should carefully examine vaccination packages after the foreign ministry said U.S. regulations may vary by state.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-05-05

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[StayinThailand2much]

On 5/4/2021 at 12:39 PM, smedly said:

and if something happens and the booking is cancelled 

 

DO YOU GET A FULL REFUND ?

 

If not then this sounds like a scam similar to the fitness gyms that offered lifetime membership then once they had raked in a fortune pocketed the money and sold the business on to a partner or friend and kept the subscriptions

 

Maybe the slogan "Chim Chop Chiit" is a typo, and it was meant to be: "Skim Cra* Shi*"...

Edited May 5, 2021 by StayinThailand2much

[Andy from Kent]

On 5/4/2021 at 12:39 PM, smedly said:

and if something happens and the booking is cancelled 

 

DO YOU GET A FULL REFUND ?

 

If not then this sounds like a scam similar to the fitness gyms that offered lifetime membership then once they had raked in a fortune pocketed the money and sold the business on to a partner or friend and kept the subscriptions

 

 

FOR SURE it is a genuine scam designed for only the most gullible.

 

[Fromas]

D*mned ironic if these Vaccine Tours turn out to be the most popular tour package in Thailand.

RIP TAT.

[Mango Bob]

These people can get. a tour and the vaccine.  While foreigners here can not get <deleted>