I am agreeing with you. The bottom line...you dress like you can afford to be here, you have no issues...you show up at the airport looking like a backpacker...well....

And yet there are many backpackers in Thailand. How do you explain this?

Prostitute users > backpackers?

Unfathomable too!, I agree with Clarkson, they should all be taken out to long term parking & shot.

Edit:- doh, that's backpackers, not ladies of the night.

Why would you say such a thing, I wonder?

I am agreeing with you. The bottom line...you dress like you can afford to be here, you have no issues...you show up at the airport looking like a backpacker...well....

And yet there are many backpackers in Thailand. How do you explain this?

Prostitute users > backpackers?

Unfathomable too!, I agree with Clarkson, they should all be taken out to long term parking & shot.

Edit:- doh, that's backpackers, not ladies of the night.

Why would you say such a thing, I wonder?

"I agree with Clarkson" is balding, overweight impotent middle-aged man code for "I wish I was young again, and didn't have to pay for pussy. I know! I'll disguise my seething sense of resentment by issuing risibly harsh authoritarian diktats from my spunk-encrusted armchair in the hope that someone will pay me some attention."

And yet there are many backpackers in Thailand. How do you explain this?

Prostitute users > backpackers?

Unfathomable too!, I agree with Clarkson, they should all be taken out to long term parking & shot.

Edit:- doh, that's backpackers, not ladies of the night.

Why would you say such a thing, I wonder?

"I agree with Clarkson" is balding, overweight impotent middle-aged man code for "I wish I was young again, and didn't have to pay for pussy. I know! I'll disguise my seething sense of resentment by issuing risibly harsh authoritarian diktats from my spunk-encrusted armchair in the hope that someone will pay me some attention."

I had to google this up.This and this is what I found. Very British!

However, if you intended to "do a Clarkson" on backpackers, it didn't work. Many of us expatriate managers or business owners first came to Thailand as backpackers, some of us decades ago when we were still in our early twenties. Even though we may now be middle-aged and balding, we may not be discussing all from mere armchair experience.

I have been flying into Thailand with one way tickets for 13 years now and have never been asked by IMMIGRATION for the return tickets.

THOUGH many airline companies do ask for one lately.

Just 2 weeks ago when flying back from Sydney I was asked by British airways and was told if no return ticket no entry to the plane.

Luckely I had a ticket this time around to KL for a trip I planned in advance.

So again IMMIGRATION coesnt seem to care too much but it seems the AIR COMPANIES getting more diligent.

I have been flying into Thailand with one way tickets for 13 years now and have never been asked by IMMIGRATION for the return tickets.

THOUGH many airline companies do ask for one lately.

Just 2 weeks ago when flying back from Sydney I was asked by British airways and was told if no return ticket no entry to the plane.

Luckely I had a ticket this time around to KL for a trip I planned in advance.

So again IMMIGRATION coesnt seem to care too much but it seems the AIR COMPANIES getting more diligent.

Read the posts of Mario2008 and explain to us what you don't understand.

Or why you post before reading the whole thread.

I flew just some days ago for a one day trip Phuket-Singapore-Phuket, with TIGER Airways to get a new 30 day Stay allowance in TH.

At the check in counter in Phuket I asked if the staff in Singapore will make me a problem for not having a return Ticket out of TH at check in there later?

The Tiger Ground staff seemed not to understand what I ment.

And in Singapore at check in, nobody spoke a word or asked questions. I flew many times short trips in SEA without return Tickets out of TH, never a question asked.

So its the law to have such a outbound ticket, but its seldom put in place from the Thai Immigration officers.

I think probably more for the citicens of seemingly poorer countrys some concern.

But some Groundstaff of different Airlines, when check in, care!

You can also try to ask the Airline to pay for any cost you make them if TH Immigration does not let you in the country and sign such a document, offer a Creditcardslip.

Anyway, how many people cross dayly the landborders to TH and do not need such an outbound ticket?

sorry i may have confused people a bit and opened a can of worms.

when i was questioned by immigration it was about accomodation etc i was a traveler wearing shorts tee shirt etc - i was totally un-prepared.

i think it's mainly on long haul flights the airline check in staff have asked about my visa because it's expensive for them with fines and if they are responsible to fly me back to the u.k etc ?

many times on cheap local flights they don't look into it,

once your on the airplane you should be fine.

I recently went home for a little while and, being in a hurry, I got a 2-entry tourist visa instead of non-B. The person at the Consulate said I had to have a return ticket to get the visa. So, I purchased a fully-refundable one-way out of Thailand.

Then, later, the airline representative said that I had to have a return ticket to get on the plane. Perturbed, I did it again (bought a second one-way). And sure enough, I got flagged checking in at the airport, and the manager had to look into it (took awhile) and came back to verify my return flight (which I had).

They said that I would not have been able to board that aircraft without it.

Later, I spoke with the manager again because I thought maybe this was an airline rule, not a Thai immigration rule. But, they said it was a Thai rule.

The good news is that when the airline refunded my tickets both times, even though the charges on the credit card statement showed the currency to be baht, I had no loss - the refunds were both 100%, and processed very quickly.

There is no such rule. If you have any kind of visa you may enter without onward ticket.

Thank you for all the replies. It is very kind of everybody here.

But it seems there is still controversy above.

Anyway, maybe I was lucky, when I got on the air plane and arrived in Thailand, nobody asked me about a return ticket. And now I am back.

Hah... Thank you all.