BTS coin ticket machine etiquette

[WorriedNoodle]

Well here is a new experience that had me firing a few choice expletives at a Chinese woman on the BTS.

 

I was walking up to the BTS ticket machine to buy a 15THB ticket to the next station, there were only two machines to choose from and the other around a corner had a queue of three. Just as I arrived a Chinese woman cleverly pushed in front, selected 34THB, and put in 10THB coin. She then fumbled in her purse and found more coins to add to reach the total of 34THB. Whilst this was going on her young Chinese boyfriend or husband sided up pushing in front of me and asked her for his ticket as well - they spoke Chinese to each other. She selected 34THB again but this time only found another 15THB or so of coins in her purse. He then looks in his pockets but only has notes. She then sends him away to the change counter, which is also three deep in queue people and at same time holds the ticket machine waiting to add missing coins. I looked behind me and there were about three other Thais now in the queue. I was tempted to press the RED cancel button for the woman, but that could have got messy so I just passed on some choice words she likely didn't understand and moved away. An old Thai friend always told me when one smells a bad smell to walk away. Luckily the other machine queue had reduced to one so I got in there. The Chinese man was still waiting for change at the counter as I walked through the gates and the other Thais were just waiting in the queue behind his Chinese woman who was trying to explain the delay reason in sign language pointing to her guy waiting for coins across the platform. Arrogant, selfish or just stupid? I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt but I hope I do not see it again.
 

[Roger Lee]

I've noticed that waiting in line isn't something that's taught or followed. Not the only country with this self serving ignorant arrogance.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[impulse]

Chinese folks snaked your place in line?  After a few dozen times (living in China), it didn't take a rocket science degree to figure out how to keep that from happening 90% of the time.  The other 10%, they just plain outmaneuver me.  They're that good.

 

You wanna blame someone, blame whoever decided that machines that don't take bills are a reasonable choice with today's technology.

 

I've seen newbies of all persuasions walk up to the BTS ticket machines, pull out a bill, then fumble for change when they figure out there's no slot to insert their bill.  And others who fume at the friendly people behind the glass when they can't buy a ticket, just get change to go wait in yet another line.

 

Edit:  BTW, I can't feel much sympathy for anyone who complains about waiting in those lines more than once or twice before they buy a stored value card.  They kind of bring on their own pain.

 

 

Edited January 24, 2017 by impulse

[userabcd]

I also do not understand why one has to queue at a window to exchange a note for coins where also sometimes there is no queue. Then one has to go and queue to insert coins in a ticket machine to obtain a ticket. Why can they not just issue a ticket at the coin exchange window.

[berybert]

Buy a rabbit card. Cost 80 baht and stick a few hundred baht on it when needed. Saves queueing at the window and at the ticket machine.

Well worth it.

[tutsiwarrior]

where does one purchase a rabbit card for purposes of traveling on the BTS? if ye purchase one for 80 baht does that mean that ye have 80 baht credit to travel? and where do you 'top up' the card?

 

I'll be down in BKK in a coupla weeks and need to use the BTS (never have before) and the whole idea of trains and queues makes me nervous...a good thread as I needed answers fer the same questions; do the machines take bills?, etc...

 

 

[smokie36]

7 hours ago, berybert said:

Buy a rabbit card. Cost 80 baht and stick a few hundred baht on it when needed. Saves queueing at the window and at the ticket machine.

Well worth it.

 

This. 

[smokie36]

7 hours ago, tutsiwarrior said:

where does one purchase a rabbit card for purposes of traveling on the BTS? if ye purchase one for 80 baht does that mean that ye have 80 baht credit to travel? and where do you 'top up' the card?

 

I'll be down in BKK in a coupla weeks and need to use the BTS (never have before) and the whole idea of trains and queues makes me nervous...a good thread as I needed answers fer the same questions; do the machines take bills?, etc...

 

 

 

You  buy the card at the ticket window....same with topups.

[tutsiwarrior]

ticket window? you mean that there is an alternative to queing fer change then queing fer ticket machines? I can just saunter up and say: 'a return to Ekkamai, please' just like in the UK?

 

please forgive a rural bumpkin's ignorance but maybe some other similarly afflicted folks can benefit from the info...

[kkerry]

https://card.rabbit.co.th/en

 

Ask the ticket staff for a Rabbit card for 300 baht, stored value type. They will give you a card with 100 baht or so stored value left after the deposit and card fee.

Top up as required, and you can use any excess value in a number of retail shops like Coffee World, McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Mezzo,  etc.

If you use any of the retail outlets, then some give you a discount of 10% (McDonalds) or maybe a buy one get one free coffee, free cake etc. Varies over time.

I put a thousand baht on mine and use for a mix of travel and snacks.

You can top up at some of the retail outlets if you think there will be a long line at the ticket box in peak hour but you pay about 1.5% extra that way.

Edited January 24, 2017 by kkerry

[tutsiwarrior]

hey, right on...and ye can use them at burger king as well? I sure do like them whoppers wid cheese...

[bkkcanuck8]

12 minutes ago, kkerry said:

https://card.rabbit.co.th/en

 

Ask the ticket staff for a Rabbit card for 300 baht, stored value type. They will give you a card with 100 baht or so stored value left after the deposit and card fee.

Has it gone up, I seem to remember it costing 130 baht minimum, which included a fee and deposit (to cover negative balances) leaving 50 or 60 baht for initial use.  A minimum top-up being 100 baht (forget the maximum -- maybe 1000).

[kkerry]

4 minutes ago, bkkcanuck8 said:

Has it gone up, I seem to remember it costing 130 baht minimum, which included a fee and deposit (to cover negative balances) leaving 50 or 60 baht for initial use.  A minimum top-up being 100 baht (forget the maximum -- maybe 1000).

 

It depends on the promotion they have going. I have four cards (spares for visitors). I think the first one cost 300, and the latest one 200 baht with 100 baht credit included. Three hundred baht is a good starting point as you should have enough credit left to travel for a couple of days whatever the promotion. Once I start getting to my last 100 I top-up as soon as I can, to avoid peak hour queues. The line at Morchit can be thirty people long sometimes. Maximum top-up is 4000 baht I believe.

[gdgbb]

7 hours ago, userabcd said:

I also do not understand why one has to queue at a window to exchange a note for coins where also sometimes there is no queue. Then one has to go and queue to insert coins in a ticket machine to obtain a ticket. Why can they not just issue a ticket at the coin exchange window.

It's a change and top-up booth, not a ticket booth, that's why.

 

I do not understand why anyone who has a problem with queues wouldn't get the right change before they get to the BTS where they know full well there will be a queue.  Or buy a card.  It's so easy to make life easy (or difficult) for yourself.

[gdgbb]

6 hours ago, kkerry said:

https://card.rabbit.co.th/en

 

Ask the ticket staff for a Rabbit card for 300 baht, stored value type. They will give you a card with 100 baht or so stored value left after the deposit and card fee.

Top up as required, and you can use any excess value in a number of retail shops like Coffee World, McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Mezzo,  etc.

If you use any of the retail outlets, then some give you a discount of 10% (McDonalds) or maybe a buy one get one free coffee, free cake etc. Varies over time.

I put a thousand baht on mine and use for a mix of travel and snacks.

You can top up at some of the retail outlets if you think there will be a long line at the ticket box in peak hour but you pay about 1.5% extra that way.

A prepaid BTS card can also be bought at the change/ top-up windows, top up again at any BTS window when the queues are small or non-existant and no commission is taken off.

[dave2]

12 hours ago, gdgbb said:

A prepaid BTS card can also be bought at the change/ top-up windows

 

so whats it called and whats it look like please :)

 

dave2

[kkerry]

Maybe this one?

 

 

[Dave67]

Worked there for 2 Years , they have zero manners . KFC on a Sunday was a free for all, The staff , I believe, had been told not to serve queue jumpers but they were all at it, Crossing the road withou looking is another PRC trait, because if you get injured or killed even, its  the drivers fault legally , doesnt matter if you looked to cross the road or not

[gdgbb]

6 hours ago, dave2 said:

 

so whats it called and whats it look like please :)

 

dave2

The card says it's a BTS Sky SmartPass and it looks like every other credit card-sized card, just as the one kkerry posted.   Mine has a 5 year validity and has a different nighttime picture of part of Bangkok on it but I've had it some time and I don't know if the picture gets changed.

 

If you only need it for BTS Skytrain travel and don't want to use it for shopping or pay a commission don't get a Rabbit card.

Edited January 25, 2017 by gdgbb

[dave2]

31 minutes ago, gdgbb said:

The card says it's a BTS Sky SmartPass and it looks like every other credit card-sized card, just as the one kkerry posted.   Mine has a 5 year validity

 

thanks for the info

 

i usually get a day pass like kkerrys but a pre paid one would be quite usefull

coz i get down to bangkok quite often and the bts ticket queues are a pain

 

dave2 

 

[kkerry]

1 hour ago, gdgbb said:

The card says it's a BTS Sky SmartPass and it looks like every other credit card-sized card, just as the one kkerry posted.   Mine has a 5 year validity and has a different nighttime picture of part of Bangkok on it but I've had it some time and I don't know if the picture gets changed.

 

If you only need it for BTS Skytrain travel and don't want to use it for shopping or pay a commission don't get a Rabbit card.

 

This is the only BTS SKY SmartPass I could find on the BTS website, no longer available it seems.

http://www.bts.co.th/customer/en/01-conditions-recharge.aspx

 

[Crossy]

The best option for the occasional visitor is a stored-value Rabbit, the MRT has an equivalent if you use the MRT and Purple Line, it's good for over a year between uses without losing any value.

 

It's important to understand that single-ride passengers are not really wanted by any transit system, they are expensive to service (change, filling machines, counting cash, etc etc) and low revenue, most systems don't go out of their way to encourage them, in fact Hong Kong, London and Singapore are actively trying to do away with casual ride tickets.

[siam2007]

31 minutes ago, Crossy said:

The best option for the occasional visitor is a stored-value Rabbit, the MRT has an equivalent if you use the MRT and Purple Line, it's good for over a year between uses without losing any value.

 

It's important to understand that single-ride passengers are not really wanted by any transit system, they are expensive to service (change, filling machines, counting cash, etc etc) and low revenue, most systems don't go out of their way to encourage them, in fact Hong Kong, London and Singapore are actively trying to do away with casual ride tickets.

 

 

In a few months from now there will be the new SPIDER card which can be used on BTS, both MRT lines, Airport Express and several Bus lines. Finally !

[Crossy]

Just now, siam2007 said:

In a few months from now there will be the new SPIDER card which can be used on BTS, both MRT lines, Airport Express and several Bus lines. Finally !

 

Nah, believe nothing you see in the media. June keeps being waved around and no amount of "no way José Somchai" will change that.

 

Mangmoom (Spider) is a year away if contracts were let now, but there's no budget for modifications, no commercial agreements, no operating company. The General can wave around Article 44 as much as he likes, none of the operators is going to shell the several million dollars it's going to cost to implement without subsidy (100% + is expected by the operators).

 

Mangmoom MAY happen on the Red, Pink and Yellow lines (all slated to go live in 2020), but I'm not holding my breath.

[MrJohnson]

19 hours ago, siam2007 said:

 

 

In a few months from now there will be the new SPIDER card which can be used on BTS, both MRT lines, Airport Express and several Bus lines. Finally !

Don't hold your breath!

 

[MrJohnson]

The last few days has seen a huge number of Chinese coming to Thailand for the NY break. They can be infuriating, that is for sure. When queuing remember - elbows out. Can't imagine living in China. They make the Thais look incredibly polite which, by and large, I believe they are.

[lamyai3]

On 1/24/2017 at 0:57 PM, tutsiwarrior said:

ticket window? you mean that there is an alternative to queing fer change then queing fer ticket machines? I can just saunter up and say: 'a return to Ekkamai, please' just like in the UK?

 

please forgive a rural bumpkin's ignorance but maybe some other similarly afflicted folks can benefit from the info...

 

No, you can do that at the MRT ticket windows but not on the BTS. The ticket window only does stored value cards or gives change for the machines. Given that you could be stuck in both queues during peak hours, a rabbit card is a much better alternative, even for those on a shorter trip. 

[siam2007]

On 27/01/2017 at 0:24 AM, lamyai3 said:

 

No, you can do that at the MRT ticket windows but not on the BTS. The ticket window only does stored value cards or gives change for the machines. Given that you could be stuck in both queues during peak hours, a rabbit card is a much better alternative, even for those on a shorter trip. 

 

Plus the Rabbit card gives you a 10% discount at McDo when using it there  ;-)