Thai Pass odyssey

[Beau Curt]

one man's experience at making a Test & Go application (failed?) ...

 

I consider myself well informed: at least I have read every visa posting for the past six months

I finally finished the T&G application on April 13, ten days ahead of arrival date
enough time for sure, I thought
but until now (April 12) have never heard another word from T&G
so now I must cancel all the reservations (Insurance, Hotel, Flight) this PM ?
arg !

 

how could this happen ?

 

the application process was laborious
I spent the better part of two days making reservations, filling out forms, comparing data, uploading docs ...

I personally made some things more complicated: at 79 yoa I no longer qualify for insurance from some providers. But they dont tell you until After you have completed all the paperwork

 

there were many other time wasters:
many fields one had to type in by hand, Paste was blocked
my favorite: a list of 1200+ hotels -- Unalphabetized !
my hotel "56 Hotel" should have been at the top, but it was 2/3rds through

 

since the day before yesterday I have been sending "Urgent" emails.  No response from T&G.  My hotel answered by return: please rebook a new reservation

 

then I remembered that I also had a web address to communicate with T&G:
https://medium.com/thailand-pass/where-do-i-contact-for-thailand-pass-support-1636daadc180

 

I typed in the personal code received when completing the application: APPROVED

since I had no account at T&G, one might assume that the approval would be returned by email, but Not so
rather one must pick it up

cavalier at best

[smutcakes]

From speaking to friends recently most of them have been getting approved within a day.... when i did mine in December it took about 7 days to come through, and like you emails/calls to their emergency lines went unanswered.

Unlike you i did not find the website or the documents required challenging to get, or submit, actually i found the submission fairly easy. I also just contacted the hotel i wanted to stay at directly and got the booking confirmation directly from them.

[richard_smith237]

For the uninitiated, I understand it can be somewhat alien - but its not a difficult process. 

 

I think the biggest issue is the T&G hotel itself. 

It would appear that most of the hassles are with those who have booked ‘cheaper T&G’ hotels which do not have clear confirmation of transport and PCR test etc. 

 

In reality - Booking one of the ‘famous’ T&G hotels like Centrepoints or Siam Mandarina etc will see a faster response (they are just more professional). 

 

As the Op found out - Insurance is an issue, especially for an older person.

But, there an an obvious direct link to insurance on the Thailand Pass Website - That site covers a visitor upto 85 years old - its 650 baht (for 30 days) - I doubt the policy is any good, but it gets you in the door. 

 

 

 

[internationalism]

there is a chance your pass landed up in spam folder. If you havent cleaned it yet do check there.

Yes, this supplied code is exactly for checking progress of you application. And edit it, if necessery.

I have stayed in the cheapest hotels, from 3600b. The most expensive one, for 4700b khaosan villa, turned to be the worst experience.

Booking hotel, getting insurance is easy. 

Filling up thailand pass is little complicated, but can be done in 5 minutes. 

[Beau Curt]

thanks for the replies

I checked Spam routinely

I waited (too) patiently assuming that we all had the same objective

but I dont think that is correct

had I not found that place on the web to enter the T&G code, I would have had to start all over from scratch

I never saw an insurance offering specifying the elderly

that would have saved some pain

I filled out completely four insurance policies before I found one that would accept me at 78

made me feel aged

I finally settled with World Trip, but considerably more than 650 B. ! 

 

I cant understand how the application process could be considered normal

though obviously it would have improved with practice and the easy availability of req. docs

but I am skeptical it could ever by completed in 5 mins. !!

choosing a hotel was relatively easy

I chose from among the cheapest hotels $30 and was satisfied with the process

56 Hotel answered each of my queries by return while T&G never answered one

it must have been the mark up from $30 to $154 (including tests)

I dont know how long it took to get approved as nothing was dated.

[TheFishman1]

Get rid of the pass TIT

[kokopelli]

The insurance company I used was up to 99 years old. Can't recall which one it was but it was mentioned frequently in postings. Recently got rid  of all my T&G info (by mistake) so can't provide any details.  It was a hassle.

[DFPhuket]

I'm rather tech savvy and have applied/been approved for 2 Sandboxes and 5 Test & Gos. But the inability to copy/paste any data, jpg instead of pdfs, etc. would make it a challenge for people with minimal tech skills. Add that to different methods of booking PCRs and taxis for Phuket than in Bangkok and it just adds confusion.

 

My approval for my next trip (I return next week) took 5 days. In December it took 2 hours. Why did it take 5 days since I used the exact same process, vaccination and insurance documents?

[xxeo]

I had my application accepted yesterday. Within two days!

 

All documents must be uploaded as pictures; make screenshots of pdf-documents.

 

I booked my SHA-Hotel on Agoda, Ibis Pattaya, and received the confirmation instantly. The screenshot of agoda's confirmation was good enough for the Thai Pass.

[Letseng]

2 hours ago, DFPhuket said:

I'm rather tech savvy and have applied/been approved for 2 Sandboxes and 5 Test & Gos. But the inability to copy/paste any data, jpg instead of pdfs, etc. would make it a challenge for people with minimal tech skills. Add that to different methods of booking PCRs and taxis for Phuket than in Bangkok and it just adds confusion.

 

My approval for my next trip (I return next week) took 5 days. In December it took 2 hours. Why did it take 5 days since I used the exact same process, vaccination and insurance documents?

In Dec mine took 2 days, husband's took 10 days. Applied for together i.e. same time. 

[Trvlr55]

When you completed T&G application you would have been given the "code" to check your status.

  Is always possible and really a good idea to manually check there to see approval, then you can print out QR Thaipass.

When I applied back in Nov there wasn't an online list of hotels, but required to get confirmation letter from hotel before applying. So many people just uploaded their email confirmation instead of the confirmation letter. No idea if this is still the case.

Yes, I agree T&G needs to be gone. Was always a lot of work.

[yimlitnoy]

On 4/12/2022 at 10:26 PM, Beau Curt said:

thanks for the replies

I checked Spam routinely

I waited (too) patiently assuming that we all had the same objective

but I dont think that is correct

had I not found that place on the web to enter the T&G code, I would have had to start all over from scratch

I never saw an insurance offering specifying the elderly

that would have saved some pain

I filled out completely four insurance policies before I found one that would accept me at 78

made me feel aged

I finally settled with World Trip, but considerably more than 650 B. ! 

 

I cant understand how the application process could be considered normal

though obviously it would have improved with practice and the easy availability of req. docs

but I am skeptical it could ever by completed in 5 mins. !!

choosing a hotel was relatively easy

I chose from among the cheapest hotels $30 and was satisfied with the process

56 Hotel answered each of my queries by return while T&G never answered one

it must have been the mark up from $30 to $154 (including tests)

I dont know how long it took to get approved as nothing was dated.

Thailand please get rid of this cumbersome Thailand Pass and Insurances.  I also am older at 71 and I am very confused by the procedure to return to Thailand after my, very soon, trip to Canada.  I love Thailand but why make it so difficult to fly back to Thailand?  Can't you do like others countries and simplify the entry?  A visa on entry, money and full vaccinations proofs are all what should be needed to visit this beautiful country.  Why make it so difficult?  I see so many empty restaurants and closed hotels in Bangkok and Koh Chang, what are you trying to do?  Have you seen the food lines in Pattaya and Samui?  Are you trying to ruin this beautiful country and push to misery the low income people trying to make a living?

Edited April 15, 2022 by yimlitnoy
grammatical correction

[internationalism]

ask some your younger relatives to help with thailand pass.

but really you should read all recent discussions here on covid subforum, as well as on immigration subforum.

If you dont have insurance start looking for one. The cheapest one, covering only covid, but good enough for thailand pass, is only from 650b month or from 4200b year. 

Many insurance policies, at that mentioned, require 14 days from the start date to activation.

Do get flexible airfare and wait till May for clarification. You will have enough time for getting thailand pass, that takes max 7 days