350 British Tourists Cause Near-Riot At Bangkok Airport

[yoshiwara]

Some lessons will be learned from this. I suspect all of these people will think twice before booking with a non european airline in the future.

I'm not 100% on this but are European carriers still obligated to provide hotel cover when they fly outside of Europe ? I know they are obligated when the flight is within Europe ?

I do not see the logic of this comment unless it is to suggest that European airlines as a group provide superior service to any individual SEA airlines operating out of Bangkok.

No validity in the conclusion at all.

[agord]

If you can't get the flight you want just sharpen some bamboo and pile up some tires and someone eventually will give you what you want.

Thanks mate i needed a good laugh. Well done!

[yoshiwara]

...

I never realised that EU regulations applied in Thailand....

This is the EU regulation in question:

eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:046:0001:0007:EN:PDF

It applies to all flights from an EU airport and all flights to or connecting to flights to an EU airport.

This EU regulation describes in minute detail the obligations of airlines in case of a delayed or cancelled flight, but please don’t skip the preamble, which includes the following text:

(14) As under the Montreal Convention, obligations on operating

air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases

where an event has been caused by extraordinary

circumstances which could not have been avoided even

if all reasonable measures had been taken. Such circumstances

may, in particular, occur in cases of political

instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with

the operation of the flight concerned, security risks,

unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that

affect the operation of an operating air carrier.

--

Maestro

Indeed.

I blame the British abolition of the law which required individuals to queue at bus stops.

Ever since then the country has descended into anarchy.

[tracer5050]

sounds like bad planning to me. Why would to travel with no money or credit cards.Maybe they dont travel much??? Good way for them to learn a something about traveling .

[hextac]

If you can't get the flight you want just sharpen some bamboo and pile up some tires and someone eventually will give you what you want.

Alternatively, you could just wear a yellow shirt, sit on the floor of the airport and get anything you want with the added bonus of knowing you'll never get punished. Much easier...

[maneerat]

My daughter took the morning flight with Thai Airways from Khon Kaen to Bangkok today 24-4-2010.

She left Bangkok Airport with Eva Air to Europe at 12.40 in the afternoon.

She hasn't notice any problem at the airport. Only her som tam was not spicy enough......

[vespachiangmai]

did Thai air offer Americans and those traveling to the usa hotels rooms after 9/11

[vespachiangmai]

Good thing it wasn't Americans who did this, everyone and their mothers would be bashing yanks.

Don't believe me. Last week there was a post about America asking Thailand to resolve their problems peacefully and the forum was lit up with half the post suggesting Americans are too assuming and full of themselves. For asking for peace.

Double standard?

big double standard. And how did Americans behave after being stranded the day's after 9/11

At the time I was in the travel industry and we had clients stuck all over the world Can't remember one making a big complaint sure they were frustrated but at least rolled with the punches.

[hegenious]

If you can't get the flight you want just sharpen some bamboo and pile up some tires and someone eventually will give you what you want.

Alternatively, you could just wear a yellow shirt, sit on the floor of the airport and get anything you want with the added bonus of knowing you'll never get punished. Much easier...

^^I would love to see you pull that off

[Pez]

A friend of mine who has been stranded in Bkk for a week now went to the airport to-day Saturday 24th. because he arrived at 06:30 he was given a piece of paper, when he asked how far was he on the list he was told No6. No he was not on that flight this am. I appears you have que in line for each flight to get a new piece of paper. There are a number of Embassy reps on duty also. There are quite a few people camped out at the airport all in one location 3 meals a day are offered free of charge. There is a customer comments book, almost all compliment the Airport Authority of Thailand for their management and service provided to the stranded travellers. However, the opposite has been written about a certain carrier close to home.

There is talk but not confirmed of an extra flight to-day, for these people stranded at the airport it must raise their anticipation and when disappointed is bound to cause a lot of upset, to blame it all on the Brits is rather narrow minded, something that can be levelled at many Ex pats including myself.

The person who posted the comment about the friend who arrived from Chang Mail and didn't see anything at the Airport - I despair!!!!!

[danc]

A little off topic...

Of the myriad of reasons as to why one becomes an ex-pat, as a UK Citizen, the one that most frequently comes to the fore is the Daily Mail and its sister publication The Mail on Sunday. (from which the article on which this thread hangs was taken) (source: me)

Edited April 24, 2010 by danc

[eastlight]

I'm one of these stranded passenger but fortunately a calm one not joining the Brown shirts at the airport. My flight was cancelled Tuesday night by my Asian airline and the earliest guaranteed return seat Ive been offered is May 5th - two weeks later. My airline have a waiting list for getting people back earlier if seats are free but it's long. They tell us it's better to stay at hotels and not go to the airport.

I'm lucky enough to know Thailand, to have a local SIM with Internet access and have relatives here - so dealing with this situation is easy enough for me. I'm staying at a £20 a night hotel in On Nut (with pool), keeping updated with the web and not going near the reds (except our airline office is in Silom). Staying longer here is great in some ways but still not ideal. I'll overstay my visa and the Thai gov are only waiving the fees until the end of the month so that's no good for me. My travel insurance will only pay £15 a day up to £250 which is hardly cover for 2 weeks is it? Plus my work will make me take more of my annual leave AND send me work to do here.

But I'm in a better situation than others Ive met and frankly far more clued-up. Most people are tourists needing to get back to university exams or jobs who have no way of keeping up with events except texts their Daily Mail reading mums are sending them everyday. Imagine that! The news they're getting is so wrong half the time that they must be in such confusion. Outside the EU they have to pay their own way while they wait to be rescheduled. Most don't know this so are camping at the airport or airline offices feeling unjustly uncared for. "Mum back home says it's a right!"

Still, despite the hardship and stress it does annoy me the way my fellow Brits act in these situations and Ive seen it myself at the airline office this week. We've adopted this culture in the UK in the last 15 years of "He who fusses the most gets the most back". I hate this attitude and it's so far from Thai ways it's a recipe fo disaster.

I doubt it's a near riot like the last days of Saigon (stupid journo) but I can see how 500+ people stressed out and trying to make the biggest fuss to 30 Thai girls is not a good situation. It only took 2 rude Australian ladies to queue-jump the hour wait at our airline office to nearly start a protest movement.

(the other topic was locked so I thought I'd post my perspective on this here)

Good sensible comments

[WillArzonia]

and why dont they bring a few credit cards for emergency situations. Were these Cheap Charlies really so stupid to travel and get drunk for their last pennies??

The airport is not a nursery and neither a hostel. Let them sleep in the parking lot, not in the departure hall, so they are not blocking the way for travellers with valid tickets.

Why am I not surprised that those Cheap Charlies are Britons?

I don't know, why are you surprised and who said anything about Cheap Charlies? Probably best to keep twatish comments like that to yourself rather than jump on the bandwagon and make yourself look a complete arse. Perhaps some of these people don't have credit cards or there could be any number of reasons they couldn't get cash. People with jobs, families, homes have been left stranded for days on end in a foreign country through no fault of their own, and who probably also have travel insurance and, yes, VALID TICKETS! These people want to get home, now, and the reason they're hanging around is to get the next available flight. So what would you do in the same situation sat on your ass for a week in an airport, perhaps with elderly parents or young kids to take care of, and a job you needed to get back to? Would you sit there twiddling your thumbs and say mai pen rai to yourself. Grow up.

No, I'd tell that dam_n volcano to stop -- now. Then everything would be OK!!

[eastlight]

There are serious problems in England these days. The only word I have for the much of that country now is "THUGS". Not sure what happened there the past few decades but clearly something is not right over there

Couldn't agree more - not so long ago we British were thought of as 'gentlemen abroad' - now we're just thought of as a tattoed bunch of thugs. Yes there are serious problems in the UK - that's why I left the dump 10 years ago

[Bottlerocket]

'

Shouldn't the source read "The Daily Wail"

How many times we are told don’t believe what you read on internet

That's because it's filled with viewpoints outside the accepted norm of the corporate octopus of information control and you might actually learn something.

[eurasianthai]

And by the way, not so easy to get pictures, they do not seem to like it too much...

[wintermute]

And by the way, not so easy to get pictures, they do not seem to like it too much...

Are you the 18 year old backpacker in the front catcalling the police?

[eurasianthai]

Well, he does not seem to be looking at the backpacker.

If indeed he was one.

[misterjag]

The vast majority of people sleeping at the airport are stranded and desperate to leave Thailad because their scheduled flights were cancelled by volcanic dust and they were supposed to return to their jobs after a scheduled vacation.

They're not at the airport because they're fleeing "Red Shirt Mayhem".

The thread title is duplicitous.

[JackHughes]

There are serious problems in England these days. The only word I have for the much of that country now is "THUGS". Not sure what happened there the past few decades but clearly something is not right over there

Couldn't agree more - not so long ago we British were thought of as 'gentlemen abroad' - now we're just thought of as a tattoed bunch of thugs. Yes there are serious problems in the UK - that's why I left the dump 10 years ago

Simple answer: - Socialism.

Our 'reds' have created an underclass who have no understanding of personal responsibility yet have an undeserved sense of entitlement. And these people get to vote too, we're doomed.

[gemini81]

No handouts? I find it difficult to have sympathy for people who travel without money or other resources such as a credit card or someone at home who can wire them money. I flew in from Singapore on Thursday and most of the "tourists" I saw sleeping in the airport or walking aimlessly around looked like low class trashy types who spent all their money while on the other side of the World, the same type of alcoholic sex tourists who ruin Songkran in Pattaya with their drunken low life behavior. Running out of money far from home is not a very intelligent thing to do. The "danger" in Bangkok is also greatly exaggerated since the confrontation is happening in a very small part of a large city. When the EU comes up with silly laws requiring airlines to reimburse passengers for incidents which are not the airlines fault, such at this, it only drives up the cost of travel. Also the sad reality of business is that there is little reason for the airlines to show "loyalty" to these economy class passengers since most will fly any carrier that happens to have the cheapest price on the day they want to go.

not everybody is rich! sure a lot of them came for a family holiday, maybe on a budget. You sound unbelievably arrogant on your whole post! I'm glad you're better than every other tourist or traveller.

[eurasianthai]

The vast majority of people sleeping at the airport are stranded and desperate to leave Thailad because their scheduled flights were cancelled by volcanic dust and they were supposed to return to their jobs after a scheduled vacation.

Indeed, but it is not a joke for people stranded in Bangkok.

I have been in Bangkok airport from 5 p.m to 2 a.m the next day every day for the last 5 days and I'm getting very tired of it.

Very tired of how unefficient Thai Airways is.

And I do not really understand jokes about it anymore.

Edited April 24, 2010 by eurasianthai

[jackspratt]

The vast majority of people sleeping at the airport are stranded and desperate to leave Thailad because their scheduled flights were cancelled by volcanic dust and they were supposed to return to their jobs after a scheduled vacation.

They're not at the airport because they're fleeing "Red Shirt Mayhem".

The thread title is duplicitous.

Given that it accurately reflects the headline in the online "newspaper" from whence it is taken, how can it be duplicitous?

[rufanuf]

The vast majority of people sleeping at the airport are stranded and desperate to leave Thailad because their scheduled flights were cancelled by volcanic dust and they were supposed to return to their jobs after a scheduled vacation.

They're not at the airport because they're fleeing "Red Shirt Mayhem".

The thread title is duplicitous.

Given that it accurately reflects the headline in the online "newspaper" from whence it is taken, how can it be duplicitous?

Thats correct...must be triplicitous No?

[draftvader]

And by the way, not so easy to get pictures, they do not seem to like it too much...

Are you the 18 year old backpacker in the front catcalling the police?

Do you take a lot of pictures of the back of your own head at the airport?

[safeandsound]

Couldn't agree more - not so long ago we British were thought of as 'gentlemen abroad' - now we're just thought of as a tattoed bunch of thugs. Yes there are serious problems in the UK - that's why I left the dump 10 years ago

I agree unless your name is Mohamed, pray 5 times a day and adamantly will not accept the local traditional culture in any way or form whatsoever you might as well pack up and leave.

[animatic]

'

Shouldn't the source read "The Daily Wail"

How many times we are told don’t believe what you read on internet

That's because it's filled with viewpoints outside the accepted norm of the corporate octopus of information control and you might actually learn something.

As well as a whole range of comments from those who

likely would be institutionalized if they ever stated their

deeper desires in open public.

Some of the things I have read, (and had to moderate on forums)

would have caused 30 day evaluations if said to

your average room full of medical personnel and judges.

[boynamedsue]

There are serious problems in England these days. The only word I have for the much of that country now is "THUGS". Not sure what happened there the past few decades but clearly something is not right over there

Couldn't agree more - not so long ago we British were thought of as 'gentlemen abroad' - now we're just thought of as a tattoed bunch of thugs. Yes there are serious problems in the UK - that's why I left the dump 10 years ago

Simple answer: - Socialism.

Our 'reds' have created an underclass who have no understanding of personal responsibility yet have an undeserved sense of entitlement. And these people get to vote too, we're doomed.

and this is whats cumming to usa! obummers doing eveything in his power to get it done be4 the next elections, he knows americans dont want to be like europeans!

[richieudon]

There are serious problems in England these days. The only word I have for the much of that country now is "THUGS". Not sure what happened there the past few decades but clearly something is not right over there

Agreed

Gone right down the pan. It makes me ashamed sometimes. Glad I live here now.

I feel so sorry for all the old people who fought for Britain, really sorry..

[eurasianthai]

And by the way, not so easy to get pictures, they do not seem to like it too much...

Are you the 18 year old backpacker in the front catcalling the police?

Do you take a lot of pictures of the back of your own head at the airport?

Tricky thing to do indeed, am I good or not?

Edited April 24, 2010 by eurasianthai