DannyS1951 Posted November 24, 2021 Share Posted November 24, 2021 Might be a bit of a push, but I wonder if anyone knows which airline(s) Thai Post uses for standard airmail going to the US. At the beginning of the month I started a very small test for business reasons on how quickly a small (less than 20g) airmail letter arrived at its destination. For 4 countries I found the following: UK - 8 days Canada - one in 12 days and another in 15 days France - 19 days USA - Not yet arrived with the first being over 20 days since sending That got me thinking on which airlines would Thai Post have contracts with to carry the mail. I'm guessing that Thai Airways gets the main share and that could explain the difference between the UK with 5 flights a week and France with just 1 a week. Now if I've read it correctly, there are no Thai Airways scheduled services to the US, so who carries mail from here to there? Just posting on the chance that someone on the forum actually knows this. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieH Posted November 24, 2021 Share Posted November 24, 2021 Ok, bad news is they use whatever airline is available.Recehtly my parcel to the US took 6 weeks ! After 4 weeks as per regs I chased it up. Here is how my parcel went...... Local Post Office to Swampy airport where it sat for 2 weeks, was then put on a flitght to TURKEY ! Eventually arrive in the US and cleared customs 6 weeks in all. Apparently they wait for the consignment to be full before sending it, hence 2 weeks at swampy. I now use DHL for US destinations.Thaipost is too slow and unreliable at best for that route. Naturally others may have a different experience but thats mine. ???? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyS1951 Posted November 24, 2021 Author Share Posted November 24, 2021 Thanks Charlie. The pricing is a bit critical so that rules out the couriers. I'm pretty sure the French envelope stayed in Bangkok for two weeks. The timing works at right that way. Looks like the US is just pot luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrendsd Posted November 24, 2021 Share Posted November 24, 2021 I used to sell online and sent numerous packages daily via Thai post for 15 years My experience of different countries pre covid was as follows UK France 7 - 15 days normally, now and again up to 25 days Eastern Europe 20 - 40 days South America, really do not bother, 3 months or packages just lost Canada, stopped sending there after packages were taking up to 3 months to arrive, this was down to Canada Customs holding them, not just ones sent from Thailand but from numerous countries USA 20 - 40 days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyS1951 Posted November 24, 2021 Author Share Posted November 24, 2021 Thanks Darren. I had the same experience with Canada when I was selling books overseas. The problem again was a big customs backlog but this month's test with just letters went rather well. I am hoping for all tests to go through in 30 days but I'm getting worried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieH Posted November 24, 2021 Share Posted November 24, 2021 29 minutes ago, DannyS1951 said: Thanks Darren. I had the same experience with Canada when I was selling books overseas. The problem again was a big customs backlog but this month's test with just letters went rather well. I am hoping for all tests to go through in 30 days but I'm getting worried. My experience with Canada in the past few months has been really good with items delivered within 3wekks ! Far better than previously as described above and I had just about given up until the apparent turn around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyS1951 Posted November 30, 2021 Author Share Posted November 30, 2021 Standard airmail to the US does seem to be a problem. Are there any scheduled flights to the US still flying? I guess mail backlogs in any of the countries mail gets transferred through could be the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyS1951 Posted December 9, 2021 Author Share Posted December 9, 2021 The first of my airmail test envelopes to the US arrived in exactly 30 days. If the other two which were sent a week later arrive this weekend then it's repeatable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyS1951 Posted December 22, 2021 Author Share Posted December 22, 2021 (edited) Just in case it is of interest to anyone else, here are the results of my very small test. I sent 7 minimum weight rate standard airmail envelopes with no registration and tracking. 4 were sent on the 4th. November and another 3 on the 11th. November. The results were as follows: To the UK sent 4th. November arrived in 8 days To Canada sent 11th. November arrived in 12 days To Canada sent 4th. November arrived in 15 days To France sent 4th. November arrived in 19 days To the US sent 4th. November arrived in 30 days To the US 11th. November arrived in 40 days To the US 11th. November arrived in 40 days I'm not sure what to make of this yet. It's obvious that US airmail is problematic. If you are engaging in ecommerce of low price items it could be worth warning US based customers that long delays should be expected. It should also be noted that the two lower weight airmail rates to the US are not supported so the starting rate is at third rate of over 40 grams. Edited December 22, 2021 by DannyS1951 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now