10tazione Posted October 4 Posted October 4 https://www.khaosodenglish.com/tourism/2025/10/03/thailand-to-collect-300-baht-entry-fee-from-foreign-tourists/ Thailand will begin collecting a 300-baht ($9.20) entry fee from foreign tourists within the first four months of the new government ... “The entry fee can be viewed from two perspectives: while tourists may see it as an added burden, the government will ensure they understand that the additional 300 baht will improve their safety, welfare, tourism infrastructure, and convenience,” he said Quote
emiel1981 Posted October 4 Posted October 4 How many times have we heard this? Seeing is believing. And the discussion about an entry fee deterring tourists from coming to Thailand. Sigh. Someone who's put off by a $10 entry fee? I don't believe it. If you can't afford that entry fee, how can you even go on vacation? siriusBE, PeterRS and vinapu 2 1 Quote
iendo Posted October 4 Posted October 4 2 hours ago, emiel1981 said: How many times have we heard this? Seeing is believing. And the discussion about an entry fee deterring tourists from coming to Thailand. Sigh. Someone who's put off by a $10 entry fee? I don't believe it. If you can't afford that entry fee, how can you even go on vacation? I agree! But I also acknowledge that my $50 flight back from Ho Chi Minh City will now be 20% more expensive. One of the great things about living in Thailand that it is a great hub from which to make short trips to neighbouring countries. Not even that long ago there were crazy deals to fly with Airasia and such. Now, if you see a $5 or $10 promotion, you best believe there is an extra $50 of surcharges on top, each way. So from that perspective it is a pity. floridarob and vinapu 2 Quote
floridarob Posted October 5 Posted October 5 18 hours ago, emiel1981 said: Someone who's put off by a $10 entry fee? I don't believe it. If you can't afford that entry fee, how can you even go on vacation? There are a lot more taxes/fees already added in the plane tix 🙄 Quote
jimmie50 Posted October 5 Posted October 5 Quote I assume this new fee will be rolled into the airfare price rather than something that is collected when passing through immigration upon entry? Quote
floridarob Posted October 5 Posted October 5 13 minutes ago, jimmie50 said: I assume this new fee will be rolled into the airfare price rather than something that is collected when passing through immigration upon entry? https://loyaltylobby.com/2025/10/05/clown-show-continues-thailands-newest-tourism-minister-chases-the-300-baht-tourism-fee-yet-again/?omhide=true Quote
zoomomancs Posted October 6 Posted October 6 14 hours ago, floridarob said: https://loyaltylobby.com/2025/10/05/clown-show-continues-thailands-newest-tourism-minister-chases-the-300-baht-tourism-fee-yet-again/?omhide=true If the airlines won't co-operate they could make it an add on to the tdac but that would take more than 4 months. Tourists don't want another qr code or a queue to pay at the airports. Quote
floridarob Posted October 6 Posted October 6 9 hours ago, zoomomancs said: Tourists don't want another qr code or a queue to pay at the airports. Bali has like 4 different ones to do for tourists.... Visa, Immigration, Health and some extra tourism tax that supposedly no one checks, it's like $10usd I think, when I enter thru Jakarta I don't do that one, entering Bali, I do, just in case vinapu 1 Quote
ChristianPFC Posted yesterday at 12:44 PM Posted yesterday at 12:44 PM On 10/4/2025 at 11:14 PM, emiel1981 said: Someone who's put off by a $10 entry fee? I don't believe it. If you can't afford that entry fee, how can you even go on vacation? It's the principle. It feels like someone is trying to fuck me, but not in a good way. "entry fee...improve their safety, welfare, tourism infrastructure, and convenience" who believes this? It's just a money grab! Same with visa vs. visa free entries. When I started traveling in SEAsia, I went to countries with visa-free entries (for German passport) first. vinapu 1 Quote
PeterRS Posted 13 hours ago Posted 13 hours ago Re @iendo's earlier post, with those cheap special offers, as he states be prepared to pay a good deal more because chances are things will go wrong. I realise that millions fly Air Asia and are happy with the airline. I ended up having so many cancellations and lengthy delays that now I just refuse to fly them. And judging from Skytrax comments, many thousands are furious with them. Once my bf and I had flown to Penang for a long week-end. As the airport is about an hour away from our hotel near Batu Ferringhi and there was only a morning or late evening flight back to Bangkok, we were up around 5:00am to get there on time. A long queue had formed but no staff. Eventually another passenger directed my attention to a sign. Flight cancelled! Everyone rebooked on 9:00pm flight! In KL for a fun few days, I had a 1:00pm flight back to BKK where I had an important business dinner over a contract. In the queue for the flight, I happened to be looking at the departure board above the check-in desk. Suddenly that 1:00pm departure flipped over to 4:30 pm departure. No announcement. No nothing! Since my dinner was vital, I had no alternative but to race over to the main terminal and purchase a very expensive ticket on TG. The worst, though, were flights to and from Hanoi. Months earlier I had purchased one of these crazy ultra-cheap returns departing on the evening flight on a Wednesday with the return flight later on the Saturday evening. That gave me almost three full days in Hanoi and I booked a non-refundable 2-night stay deal at a good hotel and one night in Halong Bay. Some weeks later later I was invited to speak at a Conference in Singapore on the Monday and Tuesday. So I booked Cathay Pacific's cheap once daily flight which would be returning to BKK around 2:45 pm leaving me about 3 1/2 hours before the Air Asia flight. Two weeks before the Hanoi flight, I decided to check Air Asia's site in case there had been any change in the departure time. It was only then I discovered the evening flights had been cancelled. Without ever informing me, they had booked me on to morning flights. But that Wednesday I'd still be in Singapore when the flight departed. I was livid. But of course with low cost airiines there is nothing you can do. Just check the conditions of carriage! I ended up having to cancel the Air Asia flights without getting a refund, take Tiger Air from Singapore to Hanoi and then an expensive Air France return on the Saturday evening after returning from Halong Bay. I complained several times to Air Asia's head office in KL. The first was by phone. After holding for about 35 minutes, someone answered and said she'd put me through to the relevant department. The lady whom I then spoke to said she had no idea why I had been put shrough to her. She was a gate agent. "They aways do this", she explained. After several letters, I just gave up. Some weeks later Thai Air Asia called to offer me compensation of a one way ticket to Chiang Mai which I'd have to use within 3 months. I was very far from polite in my answer! vinapu, iendo and Ruthrieston 2 1 Quote
captainmick Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago I am surprised at Peter RS’s experience with Air Asia rescheduling. I have had flights rescheduled and the airline had automatically issued an email titled URGENT : AirAsia Flight Reschedule Notice. The email clearly sets out the old and new flight times and provides options by clicking buttons in the email to accept the change and reserve seats, or to free of charge move to a different flight between same departure and destination points on same or a different day, or to request full credit which is applied to your Air Asia account and can be used against further bookings up to 730 days from the date on which the credit is issued. I found the process to be particularly well communicated, user friendly and actually much better than the mechanisms many full service airlines have for dealing with changes and cancellations. 10tazione and splinter1949 2 Quote
PeterRS Posted 4 hours ago Posted 4 hours ago 4 hours ago, captainmick said: I am surprised at Peter RS’s experience with Air Asia rescheduling. It may be that their rescheduling methods changed partly as a result of my Hanoi disaster! It was some years ago. But Air Asia had both my phone and email. They told me they had phoned when the schdule changed about two months before the flights bur they could never get an answer. They then sent me their so-called proof of phoning, but they had stupidly got one digit wrong! So I asked why, since i had paid for my tickets, they had not simply emailed me. No answer other than "we always tell customers by phone"! In complaining i had also sent by courier three letters to Tony Fernandez in KL, the CEO. Not one was acknowledged let alone answered. Quote
