Thailand plans to resume international flights by November

[Aussiepeter]

21 minutes ago, BumGun said:

Australian's trying to return from India were threatened with years in jail and massive fines if they managed to some how find their way home. During the Brisbane lock down WA etc closed their borders to Qld.

 

18 months and the only quarantine centre is Howard Springs, how we have treated Aussies trying to come home is a national disgrace,  the vaccination roll out is a complete balls up, the random state lockdowns a national embarrassment (finer postcode based granular control would have been best where we acted as a nation rather then a bunch of fiefdoms) Another example, Australian citizens who were pregnant when the flew out of Aus. and couldn't get back because of Covid had their kids over seas and the kids being born over seas means they are not Australian citizens and the parents can't come home because their kid isn't a citizen.

 

The only countries completely  forbidding their citizens leaving unless they receive permission from the dear leader is us and North Korea. I think it was Clive James who said  "it's not that Australians are descendant from convicts that's the problem, it's that so many of them are descended from jailers"  

 

They've already backed away from the "opening the country if you're vaccinated and only home quarantine on return in October this year" to maybe sometime next year ...maybe.  At some stage Australian's themselves  are going to have to stop sucking their thumb, come out from under the bed and face the world again.

 

This isn't a sprint, things could change next week where some state goes full idiot and locks their borders again and local lockdowns are inevitable.

 

That said, I don't blame the politicians , they went full stupid with the support of the idiot voters as seen in the re-election in Qld, WA and Tas. Governments.  Hell, WA wanted a full time border shut down to ostensibly control the "drug problem" and McGowan won with a bigger majority!

 

You may not be effected, but that doesn't mean plenty aren't and to presume we're some sort of free country is absurd,

Not wishing to 'poo-poo' this answer, but this bit about children being born overseas from Australian parents preventing the parents from returning is totally incorrect. ANY child born ANYWHERE to a parent who is an Australian Citizen, may apply to become an Australian Citizen by Descent. Sure, you have to apply for it, but that's no big deal, assuming the relationship of the parents is genuine (i.e. the child was not conceived as a way to expedite migration to Australia). My daughter was born in Chiang Mai, - I applied for her citizenship at the Oz Embassy BKK and it took a whole ten days. As for the bloke who says Oz is a police state - well, not true. I never see the cops here., but then I don't break the law. I don't drive drunk. Don't park where you can't park - you don't get fined. Work & don't pay tax - well, that's illegal. Don't value your life and chose to ride a motorcycle without wearing a helmet - well that is insane & deserves a fine. My Thai wife has been here for 8 years now - she goes to TAFE (Technical College) to learn to read & write English and it is free. They even find paid jobs for migrants, if they so wish. She says she will never go back to LOS, as its' government is ***t and doesn't take care of its' people - only themselves. Every one of her class feels the same way & nearly all are Asian migrants - Thai, Lao, Cambodian, Indonesian, Vietnamese and even a few Japanese. Yes, the vaccine rollout here is slow, but we live in the bush & I don't want the AZ vax, so I'm prepared to wait for one of the better ones. Bottom line ? Wife & I would rather be here, very safe, where under 200 from a population of 26 million have died from Covid, than in LOS.

[Thaibart]

Last week I booked flights from London to Bangkok for mid October because that’s when the county will open to visitors. Business Class fares cost £5500 and now I hear that it will be November. I am in the U.K. and have had two jabs. <deleted> is going on in Thailand, the country I have loved for the past 35 years. 

[dinsdale]

47 minutes ago, pookondee said:

 

Australia never had a hugely grim Covid situation, and of course are not even landlocked with other countries.

Yet they have the most draconian measures in the world,

in not even allowing people to leave.

 

And I would'nt call Thailands Covid situation hugely grim...just yet.

 

Going on that logic it should be Australia opening in October and Thailand opening mid next year, though everyone knows Thailand wont be getting tourists.

 

They might get a few returning, who have lived/stayed long term before,

those who have business, condos, Thai gf...whatever.

 

But Id be very surprised if a regular tourist just wanting a getaway will go through all that <deleted>.

Especially if aware of the risk of being dragged off to a Covid "hospitel" after all the trouble and expense of getting there.

 

You are misinformed. It is because of hard medicine that Australia is where it is now. Apart from that they have done 17,465,839 tests. 

[jaiyen]

8 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

The flaw in this plan is that International Airlines may not want to start flying airplanes into Thailand until they can fill a whole plane up with tourists who's entry is not going to be filled with hoops and paperwork, and as Thailand has not and is not making assurances of what you will need in November, nobody will book and no airlines will schedule flights

Exactly. Thailand hasn't taken into consideration that no airline will be flying anywhere near Thailand this year. Also Thai Airways owe millions of Dollars to many of the airports that they use. Will have to pay their bills first !

[androokery]

I don't intend to pour sunshine on someone's rainy parade or negative expectations on who will or won't visit Thailand in the near future. But I have some insight into the bookings of packaged holidays in the Nordic countries. They're planning to resume flights into Phuket from October this year and they're almost fully booked. These travellers spend most of their time at or near their resorts so they would probably be fine with the sandbox model and its limitations. They may cancel but right now it looks like they're pretty optimistic. 

[bermondburi]

1 hour ago, jaiyen said:

Exactly. Thailand hasn't taken into consideration that no airline will be flying anywhere near Thailand this year. Also Thai Airways owe millions of Dollars to many of the airports that they use. Will have to pay their bills first !

Except that airlines already are flying into Thailand, some daily.

[smudger1951]

12 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

The flaw in this plan is that International Airlines may not want to start flying airplanes into Thailand until they can fill a whole plane up with tourists who's entry is not going to be filled with hoops and paperwork, and as Thailand has not and is not making assurances of what you will need in November, nobody will book and no airlines will schedule flights

It was just so easy to lock it all down on 23rd March 20, the day I was booked to return to LOS. As you say, it's not so easy to get planes and passengers in the sky again.

I'm hoping to be on one

[RichardColeman]

4 hours ago, Thaibart said:

I am in the U.K. and have had two jabs. <deleted> is going on in Thailand, the country I have loved for the past 35 years. 

You and me both, 2 jabs but stuck in the UK away from the family, no end in sight and idiots in charge of the signal box

[mstevens]

7 hours ago, pookondee said:

 

 

Well, hopefully, it might FINALLY sink in to people of all countries, that a huge number (is it still 99.5%?) of people recover from this virus with no major issues.

 

The idiocy right now is to many people seem to be carrying on as if this is a death sentance for one all infected.

 

Just to be clear, worldwide approx. 2% of people who contract Covid die from it. Or in other words, 1 in 50 who contract Covid don't survive. That is the worldwide average. Obviously in some countries the survival rates are much higher.

 

[Chelseafan]

11 hours ago, Optomist said:

Wrong

 

As per previous post, the missus has just arrived back from London and is in 14 day quarantine in Bangkok, she has been told by her amphur that she has to do a further 14 days when she gets back home

 

Perhaps you can enlighten us all as you seem to know better...

 

[madmen]

5 hours ago, androokery said:

I don't intend to pour sunshine on someone's rainy parade or negative expectations on who will or won't visit Thailand in the near future. But I have some insight into the bookings of packaged holidays in the Nordic countries. They're planning to resume flights into Phuket from October this year and they're almost fully booked. These travellers spend most of their time at or near their resorts so they would probably be fine with the sandbox model and its limitations. They may cancel but right now it looks like they're pretty optimistic. 

How when a minister a few days ago said tour packages 150k baht 7 days. Are these packages being sold already? 

[RichardColeman]

1 hour ago, mstevens said:

 

Just to be clear, worldwide approx. 2% of people who contract Covid die from it. Or in other words, 1 in 50 who contract Covid don't survive. That is the worldwide average. Obviously in some countries the survival rates are much higher.

 

Now take out of that number ALL the people in there 80's and 90's and 100's over average life expectancy , all those with obesity issues and tell us what the number is ?

 

Think you will find the number of healthy under 80's is relatively low and show that the world is being destroyed needlessly.

 

Mask up, protect the old and infirm, lock up the fatties and wash your hands and get on with life.

 

Oh, and by the way , we have probably added over 70 million people to the planet during covid - 2% loss of life in the mostly old and obese hardly makes a dent in that number 

 

 

[Stargeezr]

There is a lot of people who do not die from COVID, but there are also lots of them who have side effects

for a long time, and it is all ages that get the long lasting side effects.  Everyone is happy that COVID is not as deadly as Ebola.

  Most of us do not want to catch COVID to see what our outcome will be.  I hope that a lot of Thais get their shots by December.

That is when I will seriously decide if I will go to Thailand after January 2022, but more likely I will wait until November 2022

before I venture out on an international flight anywhere.

Geezer

  

[kiwikeith]

17 hours ago, bdenner said:

What sort of medication is Anutin giving all these jokers, I want some!

It's called, Drift,    Drift and Dream

[kiwikeith]

1 hour ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

There is a lot of people who do not die from COVID, but there are also lots of them who have side effects

for a long time, and it is all ages that get the long lasting side effects.  Everyone is happy that COVID is not as deadly as Ebola.

  Most of us do not want to catch COVID to see what our outcome will be.  I hope that a lot of Thais get their shots by December.

That is when I will seriously decide if I will go to Thailand after January 2022, but more likely I will wait until November 2022

before I venture out on an international flight anywhere.

Geezer

  

Quite right, I and many friends, and mostly over 60,here stuck in NZ after coming home for Xmas are now debating whether to get vaccinated and run the gauntlet. 

Both a big decision. 

[Poet]

3 hours ago, mstevens said:

 

Just to be clear, worldwide approx. 2% of people who contract Covid die from it. Or in other words, 1 in 50 who contract Covid don't survive. That is the worldwide average. Obviously in some countries the survival rates are much higher.

 

The error you are making is obvious but surprisingly common and a large part of why the world has overreacted as much as it has. That would be 2% of all people tested, which is a very different thing from all "people who contract Covid".

No government or organization claims that they are testing anything more than a small fraction of the infected. Those most likely to get tested are either those who are already bad enough to require medical help, or those entering hospitals or care facilities for other reasons that also happen to be associated with increased mortality.

In every country, as the number of tests has increased, the number of deaths relative to the number of confirmed infected has decreased. The most credible research now estimates that Covid-19 has roughly the same death rate as influenza, affects roughly the same groups, but has higher transmissibilty making it more dangerous overall.

At this stage, no credible organization is claiming that Covid-19 has anything close to a 2% death, it is most likely about a tenth of that.

[simple1]

8 hours ago, Aussiepeter said:

where under 200 from a population of 26 million have died from Covid, than in LOS.

 

As a matter of detail, the above is not accurate. Whilst very low for the size of population, the death rate from Covid in Oz is currently 910. The deaths were mainly in Victoria (820) due to a number of errors made with enforcing isolation policies.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=covid+deaths+australia&oq=covid+deaths+australia&aqs=chrome.0.0i433j0l9.7396j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[Bozo travel]

You’d think they’d be getting tired of throwing up schemes that are unlikely to eventuate.

Travel Insurance will kill off most of tourism.   You can’t get it for cancellations while ever a COVID case is on the planet. 

 

Regular scheduled flights won’t happen either, since it will only be a trickle of travellers at first &  those passengers will get “bumped” until flights are economically viable

 

And , since Covid19 numbers are rising,,,who wants to come to a place that’s still in lockdown. 
 

November NEXT year is a better bet.....but this virus thing is only getting worse & the “experts” are really only guessing at ideas on how to manage it.    
 

These quarantine hotels turned out to be incubators ,  the latest idea in Australia is to send the “sick” out into desert away from society.   Lock them up in abandoned mining camps ????????

 

[Ganesh108]

18 hours ago, Spellforce said:

What does it mean ? Because today we still have may internationals flights with passengers ?

Maybe is it a translation issue ?

 

Flightradar24 in real time:

 

Probably an empty plane to get Indians out on a repatriation flight.  The Indian embassy organizes a few per month.

[charmonman]

I am not sure what they are talking about here. There are already international flights arriving at Suvarnabhumi, just not many. How do they think all these people staying in ASQ arrived?

[Xmas]

Very confusing with different stories almost daily. Thailand must ramp up its vaccination program now or they will have no chance attracting visitors anyway, whether opening Phuket or other areas.

People are not going to risk travel for a 2 week holiday. Opening Phuket without quaratine may attract expats who have been waiting to return home to Thailand , but others I think is doubtful. Just get on with the vaccinations !!!

[DerbyDan]

19 hours ago, phills2k1 said:

I stayed at a prominent hotel for my ASQ in December and I swear to god, I've never had worse food in my life. They even managed to screw up toast somehow

 

Most of my meals ended up just being white rice with prik nam pla to get me by

 

Cost me 85000 baht for that privilege

 

nice to hear some honesty for a change

[Excel]

3 minutes ago, madmen said:

Hard to to believe I got 5 star free last year. There is a touch of racism, just pike Pattaya nobody wants the Indians 

As Martin Brundel once said "I'll try to think of a question for that answer"  ????

[maddermax]

Nothing will be moving if they don’t get the vaccines out there ASAP. 

[madmen]

6 minutes ago, Excel said:

As Martin Brundel once said "I'll try to think of a question for that answer"  ????

Haha deleted it, I was typing in a trance or something 

Edited May 16, 2021 by madmen

[lks7689]

12 hours ago, pookondee said:

 

Australia never had a hugely grim Covid situation, and of course are not even landlocked with other countries.

Yet they have the most draconian measures in the world,

in not even allowing people to leave.

 

And I would'nt call Thailands Covid situation hugely grim...just yet.

 

Going on that logic it should be Australia opening in October and Thailand opening mid next year, though everyone knows Thailand wont be getting tourists.

 

They might get a few returning, who have lived/stayed long term before,

those who have business, condos, Thai gf...whatever.

 

But Id be very surprised if a regular tourist just wanting a getaway will go through all that <deleted>.

Especially if aware of the risk of being dragged off to a Covid "hospitel" after all the trouble and expense of getting there.

 

Australia didn't have a grim covid situation precisely because of the draconian measures. 

 

It's exactly what the Hong Kong medical expert who was in charge of their Sars recovery said at the beginning of covid; only by implementing draconian measures would you be able to flatten the curve and recover. And it's exactly why the whole world is still not getting better a year and half onwards because there's always individuals who think they should be free to do whatever they see fit whatever the consequences to those around them. 

[DBath]

20 hours ago, AlfHuy said:

Farangs to register for vaccine from August.

Farang to maybe get 1st vaccine in November.

Waiting for 2nd on in March 22.

All incoming foreigners quarantine for 3 weeks in state owned hotel for a friendly fee of only 8000 Baht/person/night, including a bowl of sticky rice.

They think they can gouge their way to resolving the 1.5 trillion baht International tourism revenue shortfall by simply putting people in quarantine and charging 8000 baht per - it won’t even make a dent. They should be focusing on getting vaccines rolled out and stop with the smoke and mirrors, but they can’t even do better than a below average job of that. On top of this, they’re threatening people with hefty fines and prison time for not registering and for not taking the vaccine. The ignorance behind it all is just astounding...

[Jeffr2]

16 hours ago, ukrules said:

I didn't modify your post, I partially quoted it.

 

It's very clear you have no idea

You also violated forum rules.

[metisdead]

Off topic posts, inflammatory posts, troll posts and the replies have been removed.

[cclub75]

1 hour ago, lks7689 said:

Australia didn't have a grim covid situation precisely because of the draconian measures. 

 

It's exactly what the Hong Kong medical expert who was in charge of their Sars recovery said at the beginning of covid; only by implementing draconian measures would you be able to flatten the curve and recover. And it's exactly why the whole world is still not getting better a year and half onwards because there's always individuals who think they should be free to do whatever they see fit whatever the consequences to those around them. 

 

The Zero Covid strategy can work only for an island...

 

For a country like Thailand it didn't and it won't.

 

Furthermore the country can't afford it (that's another issue).

 

For instance New-Zeland can afford it (rich, isolated country)... But what about Maldives ? Population 500 000... and there is only tourism there. Nothing else !

 

So go to explain to 100 % of the population that they must seal off their island... Forever... Because even with full vaccination... Covid cases are still increasing in Maldives... ????

 

Last but not least, after 15 months of data... is it still possible to justify the Zero Covid strategy ?

 

The way you're using the word "consequences" highlighst the core issue : we over state the reality of the menace.

 

For Thailand and its 70 millions... a few hundred deads in 1 year... and so many people are loosing their cognitive abilities, are unable to put the menace into perspective... that's the real issue there.

 

So to summarize... Zero Covid strategy is :

-technically impossible to implement for many countries

 

-financially impossible to sustain for many countries

 

-not justified from a public health point of view