Holiday In Bangkok 19 Th To 23Rd

[mallmagician]

Hi there.

I live in chiang Mai, and I have relatives visiting for a couple of weeks from Sunday.

Having cancelled the kanchanburi part of our trip, we are now wondering how our new itinerary stacks up with the current flood situation.

Current plan

They arrive in chiang Mai 16th, then on 19th we have flights booked to Bangkok ( don muang )

We have hotel booked for 4 nights in the on nut area (imm hotel) - we can cancel this with no loss if we cancel 3 days in advance I.e. By this Saturday...

We then fly out from don muang to Phuket for the remainder of their stay. They will then fly back to bkk (don muang) on 28 th before they go to swampy to catch their uk flight on 29th.

Non of the flights are refundable...

Given the flood situation, one option is to lose all the internal flight money, cancel the Bangkok leg and fly direct to phuket from chiang Mai. But this is not ideal, as they and I are on a budget. We will lose a chunk of money if we do not cancel our hotel in time, but similarly, if we cancel the hotel, and all is well in bkk centre, we then have lost out on the internal flights we have booked.

It's a bit of a catch 22.

Also, are we amongst a sea of tourists perhaps avoiding bkk? I.e. Will there be shows cancelled due to poor ticket sales e.g. Siam niramit? Would our planned Segway tour be possible?

Not sure what to do. It's an expensive round trip for my relatives, so I want to avoid being caught up in flood stuff (plus I've had enough of that here in chiang Mai this year!)

Thanks for any and all insight, advice, observations, tips etc etc.

Cheers

[Xonax]

I hear that the Don Muang area (not the airport itself) is heavily flooded, so it could be difficult to get from and to this airport. Most of Bangkok is safe by now, but nobody can predict what will happen in the next days. Like many other people in BKK, we have already left the car parked on higher grounds at the wife´s office. The on Nut area is not yet flooded, but is one of the risk areas if the flooding gets worse. I suggest you to avoid Bangkok, or at least avoid Don Muang and On Nut, or any other risk area.

[Genericnic]

Even though the tickets are nonrefundable, I would check with the airline to confirm that, especially since Don Muang is flooded. Since Suvarnabhumi is not flooded, I wonder if they will be rerouting flights there.

David

[mallmagician]

Hi There,

Thanks for this info.

We are booked with Nok Air. THey have a notice on their website saying that people with flights booked for 11-17th (Not our flights - though they may extend this timescale)can be CHANGED, but NOT refunded.

I cannot find any information on accessibility to/from DM Airport. But I assume if it is inaccessible, then the airline will HAVE to reroute (As mentioned above).

So it doesn't look like we can get a refund on flights at all, so I think its probably worth risking the 8000baht we have riding on the hotel booking. If its flooded, then Im sure they wont still try to charge us for the room (I would hope anyway).

What a tricky situation. I feel for those that live there, having gone through some flood issues myself in Chiang Mai this year.

Thanks for the input folks.

If anyone knows about the ability to get to and from DM Airport, then that would be appreciated.

Thanks

[SantiSuk]

I flew out of Don Meuang at noon today (Thursday). Still dry as a bone at the airport and its vicinity. No problem getting a taxi from Swampy or City to DM even using the ground level highways. Areas to the North of DM are inundated and flood barriers are protecting the Northern suburbs with an expectation they could well be breached.

The national newspaper I bought at DM said it was highly unlikely Bangkok would avoid the floods within the next few days/week and that DM would be one of the first areas to be inundated (only Thailand could locate their flood defence efforts in an area of town that would be subject to flooding!).

On Nut was in a section of the Bangkok flood potential map, shown in that same paper, described as lower risk.

At the very least, have a Plan B to hand.

Nok Air have a link on their reservations page about alternative flight plans, but I couldn't read it - it's in Thai. Might be worth getting someone to read it or calling them. You may find that they will be using Swampy if DM goes under - until Swampy gets ...well... swampy (Swampy is in an area described as medium risk on that map)

Edited October 13, 2011 by SantiSuk