Would Normal Tourists Accept This?

[KhaoYai]

23 minutes ago, ed strong said:

yeh i lost the op when he mentioned he organised a hotel taxi and wasnt happy when a van arrived with other customers on board, when he clearly asked for a solo trip!

 

Lol thats Thailand and the more time you spend here the more you have to just brush these type of things off, as the are a regular occurrence and they will take advantage of you if you let them.

You may note that firstly, I am not a newcomer and secondly, I booked a solo car on my first trip back and there was no problem.

[richard_smith237]

2 minutes ago, ed strong said:

Flying through 3 airports, one of them being abu dhabi (or that area) in this day and age is asking for a ruff trip. Just travle to london and fly direct, would be easier and less stresfull.

 

As mentioned not flying economy would help also, especially direct as you will not have any queues at the airport.

Which airlines are flying direct ? Bangkok to London ?

 

Would you buy a ticket with any of them at the moment ? 

 

 

 

[KhaoYai]

9 minutes ago, ed strong said:

Flying through 3 airports, one of them being abu dhabi (or that area) in this day and age is asking for a ruff trip. Just travle to london and fly direct, would be easier and less stresfull.

1. Qatar fly through Doha.

2. I flew through Abu Dhabi in December and January with no problems at all.

[richard_smith237]

2 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

You may note that firstly, I am not a newcomer and secondly, I booked a solo car on my first trip back and there was no problem.

Did you book and they confirm it ? 

Or, did you make the request ? (there’s a subtle difference).

 

In my case, I contacted the hotel and asked them for confirmation that the transport from airport to hotel is private. 

 

 

[KhaoYai]

10 hours ago, robblok said:

Lot of it seems totally not Thailand related. But your carrier and even some UK stuff. So tourists who want to travel will all have to accept this.

As for you asking to be alone in your bus is reasonable but is it a rule or not ? Also depends again on how much you pay. You said it yourself it was cheap. Cheap often means they cut costs.

 

A lot of it seems normal to me. Yes its a 24 hour airport but with so many less guests shops will close earlier because of it It is the same all over the world. Why operate at a loss. So your moans are understandable. But you are comparing it to a normal situation and it still is not a normal situation.

Firstly, please read my post correctly - I did say that the problems were not just down to one particular sector.

 

I booked solo travel from the airport after reading about someone being required to quarantine after travelling from the airport with a passenger who subsequently tested positive.  On my first trip back in December, the hotel complied with my request at no extra charge.  I asked for the same this time and they failed to comply.

 

Manchester, Doha and Suvarnabhumi are all 24 hour international airports - Suvarnabhumi is the only one I know of where all cafe's close around midnight - the others are also quieter than normal.

 

Overall, please try to understand, I am asking if a 'normal tourist' would wish to accept travel like this.

[Mac Mickmanus]

4 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

 

Overall, please try to understand, I am asking if a 'normal tourist' would wish to accept travel like this.

I think that they would accept that , yes

[EVENKEEL]

47 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

 

 

they are more likley to think you are a something that rhymes with hat.

rat, sat, at, bat, batt, brat, cat, chat, drat, fat, flat, gnat, hat, mat, matt, matte, pat, plat, rat, sat, scat, scatt, skat, slat, spat, splat.  doh

[KhaoYai]

41 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Regarding the arrival issues: No van and long time to process PCR.

Which hotel and how much was the T&G rate ?

I'm not going to mention the hotel name - after reading some of the defamation reports recently.  However, its in Soi 3 and normally frequented by our Arab brethren.  Normally I wouldn't even buy a cup of tea there but as I said, I only expected to be there for 6 hours - and I was on my first trip.  On that occasion the car from the airport took me directly to the Piyavate Hospital for my PCR - the hotel has now changed their partner.

[KhaoYai]

2 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

I think that they would accept that , yes

Well in 20 years of travelling mostly in economy, I haven't ever had to wait 2 hours for my bags.  I also usually arrive at check in early and don't have to wait for hours to check in.

 

When I fly with Etihad I am able to use business class check in - that wouldn't have made much difference this time. There were around 40 people queueing at Qatar business class - something I've never seen with Etihad.

[ed strong]

26 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Which airlines are flying direct ? Bangkok to London ?

 

Would you buy a ticket with any of them at the moment ? 

 

 

 

Yes Bangkok to London or Amsterdam.

 

To get where you need to go.

[ed strong]

1 minute ago, KhaoYai said:

Well in 20 years of travelling mostly in economy, I haven't ever had to wait 2 hours for my bags.  I also usually arrive at check in early and don't have to wait for hours to check in.

 

When I fly with Etihad I am able to use business class check in - that wouldn't have made much difference this time. There were around 40 people queueing at Qatar business class - something I've never seen with Etihad.

As mentioned the middle east (abu dhabi / doha) is extremely busy area at the moment and choosing to fly through there at this time is going to be hectic.

 

Only way i would travel was a direct flight, more airports = more potential problems.

[KhaoYai]

2 minutes ago, ed strong said:

As mentioned the middle east (abu dhabi / doha) is extremely busy area at the moment and choosing to fly through there at this time is going to be hectic.

I flew through Manchester/Abu Dhabi/Bangkok over the Christmas period - traditionally much busier than March and had no problems at all.

[Mac Mickmanus]

7 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

Well in 20 years of travelling mostly in economy, I haven't ever had to wait 2 hours for my bags.  I also usually arrive at check in early and don't have to wait for hours to check in.

 

When I fly with Etihad I am able to use business class check in - that wouldn't have made much difference this time. There were around 40 people queueing at Qatar business class - something I've never seen with Etihad.

Qatar airways are quite popular at the moment, because they offer ticket flexibility  , free cancellations and date changes if you cannot fly because of Covid . 

   Etihad charge a lot of money for flight changes or just cancel your ticket .

Maybe thats a reason why Qatar are busy at the moment ?

[Polar Bear]

The problems at Manchester Airport are out of Qatar's control. The only reason they appear to be worse affected is because their flights are busier, and they are still a full service airline, so there are more checked bags (compared with the LCC).

Manchester Airport laid off a lot of staff during the pandemic and then completely failed to plan for reopening. Now people are flying again, and they've got no baggage handlers. It takes 6-8 weeks to get them trained up, and they are still actively recruiting, so it's going to be months before they are fully staffed again. 

When the baggage handling area gets overwhelmed, they stop accepting bags. The check in desks can't send anything down until it's cleared, so everything grinds to a halt. When that's a technical/engineering issue, they send handlers up to check in to stack bags anywhere they can behind the desks to keep things moving. When it's a staffing issue, there is no-one to send, so everyone just has to sit and wait. 

It's a mess, and it was completely predictable and preventable if Manchester Airport management had done their job.

[KhaoYai]

48 minutes ago, ed strong said:

Flying through 3 airports, one of them being abu dhabi (or that area) in this day and age is asking for a ruff trip. Just travle to london and fly direct, would be easier and less stresfull.

And add 6 hours to my journey? No thanks.

 

49 minutes ago, ed strong said:

As mentioned not flying economy would help also, especially direct as you will not have any queues at the airport

Not true - note my comments about the Qatar business class check in.

[KhaoYai]

10 minutes ago, Polar Bear said:

The problems at Manchester Airport are out of Qatar's control. The only reason they appear to be worse affected is because their flights are busier, and they are still a full service airline, so there are more checked bags (compared with the LCC).

Not on this occasion.  I got to the bottom of the problem.  Apparently the Thursday morning Qatar flight out of Manchester was grounded due to a technical fault - they left the passengers waiting firstly an hour at the gate then 5 hours on the plane before deciding it wasn't going (directly from the mouth of a passenger).

 

They then sent most of the passengers to a hotel without their luggage but they failed to tell the baggage handlers that.  The result was that their baggage was off-loaded and on to the carousel just before my flight arrived. With no passengers there to collect that baggage the handlers were unable to place the luggage from my flight on the carousel.

 

I realised there was something wrong when I noticed the tags on the baggage going past me as I was waiting were lablelled MAN-DOH - the wrong way.  It turned out those were the offloaded bags.

[richard_smith237]

21 minutes ago, ed strong said:

48 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Which airlines are flying direct ? Bangkok to London ?

 

Would you buy a ticket with any of them at the moment ? 

 

 

 

Expand  

Yes Bangkok to London or Amsterdam.

 

To get where you need to go.

I'll help you because you seem to be more intent on flippancy than knowledge. 

BKK-AMS-LON is not a direct flight from BKK to LON.

 

BKK-LON... 

 

EVA - No

British Airways - No

Thai Airways - A couple of times per week and have recently cancelled a lot of flights (not trustworthy)

Scoot - A couple of times per week - They are a budget airline, I wouldn’t trust them. 

 

So... the ‘direct option’ is not quite as simple, you may have checked this before pulling the trigger and posting a silly response....  Additionally, not everyone wants to or can readily afford to pay business class, again, you may have considered this before posting a flippant response. 

 

 

The Op has a valid complaint - Long check-in times are extremely poor planning / baggage delays again, poor planning. 

 

It seems Covid has been used as an excuse by a lot of companies to cut a load of staff - these same companies had been slow to bring people back into the fold as things pickup, poor planning again. 

 

 

[KhaoYai]

17 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Qatar airways are quite popular at the moment, because they offer ticket flexibility  , free cancellations and date changes if you cannot fly because of Covid . 

They do not offer date changes free of charge if the fare on that day is different - which it usually is.  I had to change my outbound at the last minute due to my daughter being taken in to hospital - it cost me £310.

[KhaoYai]

9 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

The Op has a valid complaint - Long check-in times are extremely poor planning / baggage delays again, poor planning. 

Don't worry about it Richard - some of these people seem to think its my first trip when in fact I've been travelling this route and most of its variations for over 20 years.  A result of that common Asean Now disease - skim reading.

 

They also fail to note that I said I would accept these problems as I have little choice but to travel at the moment.  The Thai government want to re-start the decimated tourist industry but their attitude to travellers still hasn't changed - like it or lump it - always been the same.

 

Whether the problems are airline related or not - any government wanting to kick-start its tourisim sector would be well advised to monitor problems in all areas and do what they can to remedy those problems - again, like it or lump it.

[Polar Bear]

27 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

Not on this occasion.  I got to the bottom of the problem. 

Lots of poor decisions from Qatar there, but there were huge queues on Friday and Saturday as well with no apparent tech issued. Qatar have started opening check in desks 4 hours before the flight, and calling passengers individually to ask them to check in early. That's about all they can do. 

A passenger isn't going to know whether the baggage fiasco was Qatar's fault or the baggage services, or most likely some combination of the two. (There have also been multiple other instances of passengers being left on the tarmac for hours because the airport doesn't have enough ground staff to get them off the plane.)



For the record, IM(NS)HO everything happening at the Thai end is just theatre for dramatic effect, so I don't see any point trying to look for logic in it any more. 

[London Lowf]

1 hour ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Qatar airways are quite popular at the moment, because they offer ticket flexibility  , free cancellations and date changes if you cannot fly because of Covid . 

   Etihad charge a lot of money for flight changes or just cancel your ticket .

Maybe thats a reason why Qatar are busy at the moment ?

Qatar airways are quite popular at the moment, because they are cheap - invariably top of the listings (or very close) on Skyscanner.

 

Personally, I take my chances with with the risky Thai Airways rather than supporting any Middle-Eastern regime.

[Robin]

I will agree with O/P that no tourist is going to come to Thailand with the restrictions in place.  They will not come until they can do as before Covid:-  book a flight and hotel on the Net,  and travel with no restrictions and enter visa exempt or 28 day visa on arrival, enjoy holiday on beach or bar, fly home with no restrictions, no quarantine..

Until Thailand wakes up to these realities, I cannot believe that it wants tourism bac as it was.

NB travelled back to UK last month.  No restrictions, just fill in form on line, book ticket and fly.

O/P might consider checking on Seat Guru to see what his seat might be like.  You normally get what you pay for on any flight.

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

Complete twoddle.  I always travel economy - I couldn't visit 6 to 8 times per year if I didn't and as I already stated, it was the worst trip I've ever had (20 years and over 150 trips). My post, if you hadn't realised is asking if a 'normal' tourist would put up with the conditions as they are at the moment - that is what the Thai government are hoping but in my opinion they are peeing in the wind.  I can alsOverall, you post seems to be more about bragging than comenting on the actual purpose of my post.o tell you that the queues at business class check in were comparibly large - something I've never experienced with Etihad.

 

You may like to waste money but I don't - on my first trip back I waited just 6 hours for my PCR result, why would any sane person wish to pay 9 or 10,000 for 6 hours. Business class is a very nice experience but is it worth 3 times the price of an economy ticket - no way. You clearly haven't travelled enough to realise that like myself, the majority of travellers travel economy.

 

Overall, you post seems to be more about bragging than comenting on the actual purpose of my post.

 

Its a sad part of being an Asean Now member that posters often have to put up with comments from people bent on trying to be-little rather than on the actual content. I say trying because your post just made me laugh and also told me much about your personality.

 

You may not realise this but most people reading your post will derive your bragging and boasting - they will not be impressed by your 'pralines and expresso', they are more likley to think you are a something that rhymes with hat.

Just choose a decent airline, it doesn't have to be business class.

And choose a decent hotel - if you want to enjoy it.

When I made my last trip I know I had to quarantine. I don't like to waste money. But I also don't like to feel miserable. So I thought about the hotels which I know in Bangkok, and I thought about which one has good food and good cake and good espresso. And that's the one I selected. I paid maybe 2000B per day more than a cheaper hotel would have cost. Sure, that is money and it adds up. But then again, if 2000B per day is the difference between hating every day of it or actually enjoying it I think that money is well invested.

It's like going to a nice bar and paying more and having a good time. That's a lot better than sitting in an ugly cheap place and having a bad time.

Obviously it's up to you what you choose. But like I said above, don't expect high quality for little money - anywhere in this world.

[impulse]

2 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

Well in 20 years of travelling mostly in economy, I haven't ever had to wait 2 hours for my bags.  I also usually arrive at check in early and don't have to wait for hours to check in.

Pre-Covid, there was a period of years when I had no clue how long it took for bags to be delivered to the carousel.  I was in the immigration queue with thousands of tourists, occasionally well over 2 hours.  I was just pleasantly surprised that my bags were still on the carousel when we finally passed immigration.  Then onto the taxi queue, which could easily go another hour and result in a white knuckle trip in a clapped out car with a bad clutch and a yaba addict at the wheel.  That was just the nature of flying into BKK.

 

So in answer to the OP question, yes.  Normal tourists accept that kind of nuisance.  In their droves.  Otherwise, the queues wouldn't have been so bad.

 

[sjaak327]

12 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

It seems part of the problem is that you seem to be a cheap Charlie. 

Don't expect first class service if you are not willing to pay for it.

 

When I arrived in Thailand a couple of month ago I had to quarantine for a week in a hotel. No problem on the departing airport, no problem arriving in Bangkok airport, Mercedes limousine ready just for me. And then a week luxury food, pralines and espresso. I would do it again - but it definitely wasn't the cheapest offer. 

Blame the messenger, not the country ! This whole thing is an utter mess, too convoluted so naturally prone to fail massively. I went through the whole charade, uploading vaccine certificates, insurance, hotel booking for the first night + test nonsense, received a QR code after about 7 days. Got a test before departure (I arrive 31-3, so it was still required). Got to the airport, voila Thailand pass QR code does not work, so lady had to manually enter all my data. Got through immigration, took ages to process me, and in the 15 or so minutes it took the lady to process me, forgot to leave the departure part of the TM6, so I don't have it.

 

 

Once stateside, pick up wasn't there, showed up 30 minutes later, drove me to a place on Phra Ram 4, turned to to be test center the hotel I got does no business with. Confused taxi driver, stopped to make a call along the road, after 15 minutes started to drive to... Lat Krabang for me to have the test with the actual test center the hotel does business with. Anyway, after a full 3 hours, I finally arrived at my hotel, which is a brand new apartment complex, no mention at all about the required self test, they did make a fuss about the TM6, which I am dead sure, wasn't returned to me by immigration. Anyway, 4,5 hours later test result came back, detected ! So I go downstairs, ask reception, guy makes a call, then shows me the PDF, which says NOT detected, and tells me I am free to go. 

 

 

Now, the Morchana app does not accept my Thailand pass QR code, either scanned or manual entry, I haven't received my self test from the hotel either. Do you mind if I ignore the whole thing now ? This is not how a holiday should be. Thailand is doing everything to prevent people from coming. Nothing more and nothing less. It has nothing to do with beging a cheap charlie, in Thailand service does not exist, not even in the highest price places. A third world country, let's not kid ourselves here. 

 

 

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

16 hours ago, Swiss1960 said:

Sooooo... what are you doing in Soi Cowboy, if you claim to have family in Thailand?

Since when do I have to answer to you?

You don't, obviously, so why did you?

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

they will not be impressed by your 'pralines and expresso', they are more likley to think you are a something that rhymes with hat.

Nothing wrong with cats.

[Liverpool Lou]

2 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

I'm not going to mention the hotel name - after reading some of the defamation reports recently. 

So KhaoYai's your real name?

[Liverpool Lou]

2 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

its in Soi 3 and normally frequented by our Arab brethren.  Normally I wouldn't even buy a cup of tea there

Why the nasty insult directed at us Middle Easterns?    Maybe that hotel wouldn't normally allow you to buy a cup of tea there?

[Mac Mickmanus]

17 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

I first resumed travel back to Thailand in December last year and have just returned to the UK after a second trip

Could be that you have just arrived in the U.K after a long flight , its cold and maybe you are a bit tired, fatigued and jet lagged ?

  You could rest for a few days and you may be in a better mood then ?