Dual Pricing

[Suradit69]

In my opinion, it depends on your situation. When I lived close to Disneyland, they'd have discounts for "local residents", seems perfectly reasonable to me, and hardly "racist". If you are working here, paying taxes on a Thai salary, show a work permit and still don't give you the same price, I think you may have a legit gripe. Since that probably isn't the case (nothing personal, just "odds are"), I don't think you have a legit gripe.

Local residents. Not all Californians. Not all Americans. Not all people with appearance of a certain race. Not the same thing at all.

As several people have pointed out, at many venues if you have a Thai driver's license or work permit, you'll be charged the Thai rate.

It may be true that cashiers make the initial decision based on appearance, but that's a fairly accurate way of doing it and probably correct 95% of the time.

Racial profiling is widely practiced in the US for purposes far less trivial than getting into an amusement park, including ridiculous things like removing Sikhs from airplanes because they looked like Muslims (to xenophobic airline personnel) or police stopping anyone with brown skin in Arizona to check his/her immigration status.

[Fookhaht]

Yawn; how many threads have we had in the past year about dual pricing? How much have those threads changed anything? TIT; live with it or don't go anywhere because the Thai's are not going to change anything that they consider to be normal behaviour....period.

Completely untrue.

Did you follow the recent bruhaha about the dual pricing at Asiatique? Thais and foreigners both protested and management backed down.

Keep whining. Once in a while, someone listens and acts.

[NewlyMintedThai]

Whining on a forum does nothing.

If it bothers you so much, at least write a letter to the editor.

[NoshowJones]

I almost always get the Thai price when I show the work permit, even the driver license works pretty often.

But hey, you showed them.

I never carry my work permit. My work keeps it. Usually just by speaking Thai gets me the local price. Sometimes I have to show my drivers license.

Your'e work is not supposed to keep it, it's yours. It does not belong to the people or person who employs you.

[Neeranam]

I almost always get the Thai price when I show the work permit, even the driver license works pretty often.

But hey, you showed them.

I never carry my work permit. My work keeps it. Usually just by speaking Thai gets me the local price. Sometimes I have to show my drivers license.

Your'e work is not supposed to keep it, it's yours. It does not belong to the people or person who employs you.

I thought that it says somewhere on the WP that it should be shown at place of work, so easier to keep it there. No need to take it anywhere .

[cdnvic]

Removed a troll post and the justified angry replies.

[Neeranam]

Since arriving I've been welcomed, treated very well, given smiles and I'm happy to pay less than UK prices for most-everything (Why the wine!! Why does wine have to be so damned expensive)

In the UK I'm not allowed to look at anyone on the tube, grumpy bunch of sods..

The last time I went on the BTS in Bangkok it seemed much the same.

[NoshowJones]

I almost always get the Thai price when I show the work permit, even the driver license works pretty often.

But hey, you showed them.

I never carry my work permit. My work keeps it. Usually just by speaking Thai gets me the local price. Sometimes I have to show my drivers license.

Your'e work is not supposed to keep it, it's yours. It does not belong to the people or person who employs you.

I thought that it says somewhere on the WP that it should be shown at place of work, so easier to keep it there. No need to take it anywhere .

Yes, it should be shown at your place of work, I was a school teacher and I kept it in my briefcase, not in the directors office. if someone ask me for my work permit and the director wasn't in, they wouldn't get it at that time. Also workers at other jobs are not always on the premises so would maybe keep it in their car. the WP is yours, not your'e employers. you should always have it with you when you are at your'e job.

[TomTao]

Its not just us foreigners who are affected by dual pricing, one of my wife's Thai friends who lives in Perth come across for some cosmetic injections, she was quoted one price, but durine the procedure ahe let slip that she lives in Australia 10,000 Baht got added on in an instant.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Thaivisa Connect App

[jayboy]

Yawn; how many threads have we had in the past year about dual pricing? How much have those threads changed anything? TIT; live with it or don't go anywhere because the Thai's are not going to change anything that they consider to be normal behaviour....period.

Completely untrue.

Did you follow the recent bruhaha about the dual pricing at Asiatique? Thais and foreigners both protested and management backed down.

Keep whining. Once in a while, someone listens and acts.

The policy at Asiatique was changed because of pressure led by Richard Barrow, the well known local blogger and twitterer.I was quite impressed but this kind of pressure wouldn't work everywhere.

Writing letters doesn't help and in any case it is a well known fact that all foreigners writing letters to the English language newspapers are invariably mad.(OK being facetious but it sometimes seems like that).

Edited January 6, 2013 by jayboy

[phuketjock]

So your 3 Thai friends lost out.

Because you wouldnt pay 100bht extra (2 quid)

The Uk have many cities where local citizens access to local attractions are discounted or free.

And charge tourists exhorbitant prices.

Where? And how do they know who is local and who is from the town next door??

There are no ID cards in UK. how do they know who are tourists, they could look like anyone

from anywhere in the world in UK but could still be local. So what cities are you talking about???

[Kananga]

You could pay 10,000,000 baht a year in income tax and have lived in Bangkok for 300 years, procure a Thai driving license, work permit and even speak better Thai than the royal family's Thai language teacher but unless you have a Thai passport you wont be paying the Thai price at Lumpini stadium. Their dual pricing policy is as RACIST as they come.

[NewlyMintedThai]

You could pay 10,000,000 baht a year in income tax and have lived in Bangkok for 300 years, procure a Thai driving license, work permit and even speak better Thai than the royal family's Thai language teacher but unless you have a Thai passport you wont be paying the Thai price at Lumpini stadium. Their dual pricing policy is as RACIST as they come.

NATIONALIST, not racist.

Please.

[TommoPhysicist]

You could pay 10,000,000 baht a year in income tax and have lived in Bangkok for 300 years, procure a Thai driving license, work permit and even speak better Thai than the royal family's Thai language teacher but unless you have a Thai passport you wont be paying the Thai price at Lumpini stadium. Their dual pricing policy is as RACIST as they come.

NATIONALIST, not racist.

Please.

I think we already had this discussion and CDNvic (I think it was) ruled that as far as he were concerned Nationalist and Racist are too similar to distinguish between. Anyway dual pricing is racist as they initially charge on your racial features, and only back down if offered paperwork.

Edited January 6, 2013 by TommoPhysicist

[NewlyMintedThai]

Not for anyone with a brain.

A RACIST policy would charge people of one race one price, while those of another race get another price.

In fact, the policy is NATIONALIST. Any Thai NATIONAL -- no matter what their race or ethnicity (don't forget that the population of Thailand is multi-racial. There are Chinese-Thais, Lao-Thais, Khmer-Thais, Indian-Thais, Persian-Thais, various hill tribe groups, and yes some European-Thais and mixes thereof) -- gets one price and any non-Thai citizen gets another.

It's really not difficult.

[balo]

Add Central Department Store to your list of places to boycott:

http://www.shoppinga...ourist-card.php

Can anyone tell me if foreigners get a better price with this tourist card ? What are the privileges ?

And I am not talking about 7% VAT refund......

Maybe we will get a better price than Thais....

Edited January 6, 2013 by balo

[jayboy]

Not for anyone with a brain.

A RACIST policy would charge people of one race one price, while those of another race get another price.

In fact, the policy is NATIONALIST. Any Thai NATIONAL -- no matter what their race or ethnicity (don't forget that the population of Thailand is multi-racial. There are Chinese-Thais, Lao-Thais, Khmer-Thais, Indian-Thais, Persian-Thais, various hill tribe groups, and yes some European-Thais and mixes thereof) -- gets one price and any non-Thai citizen gets another.

It's really not difficult.

I think that is absolutely correct, though the word "nationalist" implies a degree of aggression towards outsiders which I don't think is present in the two tier pricing policy.Nevertheless it is also rooted in the past when it could be reasonably assumed that a foreigner in Thailand was considerably wealthier than the majority of Thais, clearly not the position now.I find it hard to get too worked up about this issue and believe in cases like the Asiatique which is dependent on tourist revenue market forces eventually take care of the problem, such as it is.In the case of national cultural sites I tend to think that it's perfectly fair that Thais should pay a little less and foreigners should pay a little more.

[TommoPhysicist]

Not for anyone with a brain.

A RACIST policy would charge people of one race one price, while those of another race get another price.

In fact, the policy is NATIONALIST. Any Thai NATIONAL -- no matter what their race or ethnicity (don't forget that the population of Thailand is multi-racial. There are Chinese-Thais, Lao-Thais, Khmer-Thais, Indian-Thais, Persian-Thais, various hill tribe groups, and yes some European-Thais and mixes thereof) -- gets one price and any non-Thai citizen gets another.

It's really not difficult.

You deliberately make it difficult in order to further your apologist views in defending the indefensible.

(aka racist = indefensible, nationalist = defensible)

Edited January 6, 2013 by TommoPhysicist

[seligne]

It's fairly standard practice in North America for residents of the state or province to pay a cheaper fee for admission to state/provincial parks, etc. The rationale is that residents pay taxes locally. Makes sense to me.

[NewlyMintedThai]

"Nationalist" as in based on one's nationality...

Edited January 6, 2013 by NewlyMintedThai

[NewlyMintedThai]

Not for anyone with a brain.

A RACIST policy would charge people of one race one price, while those of another race get another price.

In fact, the policy is NATIONALIST. Any Thai NATIONAL -- no matter what their race or ethnicity (don't forget that the population of Thailand is multi-racial. There are Chinese-Thais, Lao-Thais, Khmer-Thais, Indian-Thais, Persian-Thais, various hill tribe groups, and yes some European-Thais and mixes thereof) -- gets one price and any non-Thai citizen gets another.

It's really not difficult.

You deliberately make it difficult in order to further you apologist views in defending the indefensible.

It's only difficult if you lack brain power.

I'm also not defending it -- I think it's wrong.

I'm just assigning a proper term to it.

[TommoPhysicist]

Maybe we will get a better price than Thais....

I think you will find the card doesn't apply in any store you want to shop, and for any particular item you try to buy.

Discount in really expensive shops to a similar price in the cheaper shops is sometimes possible.

[TommoPhysicist]

It's fairly standard practice in North America for residents of the state or province to pay a cheaper fee for admission to state/provincial parks, etc. The rationale is that residents pay taxes locally. Makes sense to me.

But they don't go about it by adopting a policy that all dark skinned visitors are from out of state unless they can prove different. And all white people should be given the discount rate as they clearly live in state.

Edited January 6, 2013 by TommoPhysicist

[TheWalkingMan]

It's fairly standard practice in North America for residents of the state or province to pay a cheaper fee for admission to state/provincial parks, etc. The rationale is that residents pay taxes locally. Makes sense to me.

You are comparing something for USA locals (Live in a state or city and get a discount) with a policy which seems to say... If you are Thai or look Thai then you get the discount. That is comparing apples with oranges.

[TommoPhysicist]

You have no idea what you're talking about. It's from CENTRAL...of course it doesn't work in other stores. And it DOES give you a 5% discount on any full-priced item you may wish to purchase. Thais pay full price...

In CM, Central is an umbrella company selling floor space to a vast assortment of independent shops, maybe your Central is different.

[NewlyMintedThai]

It's fairly standard practice in North America for residents of the state or province to pay a cheaper fee for admission to state/provincial parks, etc. The rationale is that residents pay taxes locally. Makes sense to me.

You are comparing something for USA locals (Live in a state or city and get a discount) with a policy which seems to say... If you are Thai or look Thai then you get the discount. That is comparing apples with oranges.

You're confusing the policy with ways that some people can cheat the policy.

I've got a friend who looks 65 but is actually 45. He can sometimes get a senior citizen discount because of the way he looks.

The policy is not "anyone who looks old gets in for cheap"; the policy is "anyone over sixty gets in cheap".

The fact that some people can cheat their way in, and that the ticket vendor does not always demand ID, does not change the policy or somehow make it insidious.

But, hey -- being a victim of racism is so much more fun.

[NewlyMintedThai]

You have no idea what you're talking about. It's from CENTRAL...of course it doesn't work in other stores. And it DOES give you a 5% discount on any full-priced item you may wish to purchase. Thais pay full price...

In CM, Central is an umbrella company selling floor space to a vast assortment of independent shops, maybe your Central is different.

It works at all stations within Central that are issuing Central receipts.

Instead of being a grumpy wump, why don't you just get one of these magic cards and start enjoying the benefits of being a farang?

[TommoPhysicist]

If they were to hang a sign up,

"All Thais who want the discount price should show their ID card on ticket purchase, failure to show will charged at Tourist price" Then charge accordingly, then it would be in order. But it doesn't work like that.

Edited January 6, 2013 by TommoPhysicist

[NewlyMintedThai]

If they were to hang a sign up,

"All Thais who want the discount price should show their ID card on ticket purchase, failure to show will charged at Tourist price" Then charge accordingly, then it would be in order. But it doesn't work like that.

Thank goodness. The lines would be a mile long.

Anyway, we're getting to the bottom of things now. You don't find dual pricing offensive, only that it's not policed with 100% precision.

Perhaps we should dress those minimum wage, high school educated ticket vendors in Gestapo outfits, and teach them to click their jackboots and say "ver ah ur paperzzz!".

[TheWalkingMan]

It's fairly standard practice in North America for residents of the state or province to pay a cheaper fee for admission to state/provincial parks, etc. The rationale is that residents pay taxes locally. Makes sense to me.

You are comparing something for USA locals (Live in a state or city and get a discount) with a policy which seems to say... If you are Thai or look Thai then you get the discount. That is comparing apples with oranges.

You're confusing the policy with ways that some people can cheat the policy.

I've got a friend who looks 65 but is actually 45. He can sometimes get a senior citizen discount because of the way he looks.

The policy is not "anyone who looks old gets in for cheap"; the policy is "anyone over sixty gets in cheap".

The fact that some people can cheat their way in, and that the ticket vendor does not always demand ID, does not change the policy or somehow make it insidious.

But, hey -- being a victim of racism is so much more fun.

Hi NMT,

I never mentioned the word racism in my post. I accurately pointed out the difference in pricing schemes between Thailand and the USA.