This morning I applied for the Thai Pass (TP).  It took me nearly 3 hours.  Upon completion I realized that it is not at all friendlier (for the applicants) than the previous process, the Certificate of Entry (CoE). 

 

Why?

 

1. The CoE was a 2-step process.  You needed to book and pay for your airfare and hotel only AFTER preliminary approval of visa, vaccination certificates, etc.  However, to apply for the TP, you must FIRST book your flight and book AND PAY for your hotel.  After paying for airfare and hotel your TP application may be rejected and it is up to the applicant to get her/his money back from airline and hotel.  Good luck with that.

2. Secondly, the TP website states as regards the Vaccination Certificate:
"Please upload the certificate of both your 1st and 2nd dose of vaccination (only the 1st dose is required in case of Janssen vaccine). The certificate of vaccination should include your personal information for identification such as your full name, date of birth, nationality, passport number and vaccination details."  As an EU citizen I am concerned because the EU vaccination certificate does NOT contain the passport number (for privacy reasons).  The previous CoE website did not require the passport number to be included in the vaccination certificate and I actually got pre-approved without a passport number in my certificate.

 

3. The CoE website accepted all sorts of scans, including PDF scans.  The TP website is less friendly as it allows only JPG scans to be uploaded (there is no error message if you try to upload a PDF, but this was my conclusion after trying several times).  So before you start your session on the TP website I can recommend that whatever PDF documents you have (such as your hotel booking confirmation and payment proof) you scan first into JPG format.

 

For me now it remains to be seen (for up to 7 working days) if my TP application will be rejected or approved.  

As I said, the TP process is not friendlier for the applicants.  It is probably friendlier for the approvers because for them it is only 1 step instead of 2 steps.

I gave it am honest try, but after hours of dealing with API/error messages I give up. I'll take the hit on refunds and cancellations and go to Mexico instead. Thailand can KMA.

 

Issue #1 is a problem if you buy air ticket and it's not approved.

 

#2 is a problem for some nationalities but not all. 

 

Issue #3 isn't a problem at all, it's easy to solve.

Now Now, it is only the first day.  Give it some time for the alcohol to seep really deep in the wound.

//CLOSED//

 

In order to keep as much information as possible in one thread, please post in the Thailand Pass topic here:

https://aseannow.com/topic/1237604-thailand-pass/