A quick refresher on the Thailand Pass
As you may remember, we arrived in Saskatoon December 6 concluding five fantastic weeks in Phuket. It takes a good week to shake the brain fog of a 13 hour time change. That’s our excuse for not applying immediately for our e-visa for our January 7, 2022 trip. Really, our flights January 7 were a month away, 32 days to be exact.
Visas for Thailand are confusing. You can go for free for 30 days with a visa on arrival which we did on our October 2021 trip. The downside is when you stay longer you have to go in person to immigration with a passport photo, documents, photo copies of your passport and cash in hand. ฿1900 each about $74 CAD for a 30 day extension. We know this because we did visa extensions in Phuket when our return flights were cancelled.
Our January trip we plan on staying 84 days. That would mean 2 addition trips to immigration, there must be a better alternative. If you are over 50 years old, there is a “Retirement Visa”. It costs $130 CAD each and is done online through the Thai Consulate in Vancouver. That’s what we applied for. The retirement visa application requires a digital passport photo taken within 6 months, a copy of the last or most recent used visa page in your passport. Luckily, ours was recent from our Phuket adventure. Also required, a picture of you holding your passport with the identification page visible, a letter showing proof of health and travel insurance appropriate for Thailand, proof of residency at our address in Canada as well as proof of residency in the jurisdiction of the Thailand Consulate in Vancouver. The Saskatchewan driver’s licence with address and picture ID are used for both residency requirements. We also needed to print, fill out, sign and scan a declaration form. The last document required was a copy of our most recent bank statement, showing both our names and an appropriate balance. Basically an amount to prove you can live for 90 or more days in Thailand. Actually much more than that, if you are retired and broke, do not apply. You know the saying about getting your ducks in a row? We were really duck hunting.
Linda’s retirement health insurance which we pay for monthly provides a letter showing proof on insurance that we could download from their website. It wasn’t exactly what the Thai Consulate was looking for so we phoned the insurance provider and asked for a detailed letter of insurance coverage that we could use. They never did email it on time, so we ended up using the one off the website which is slightly vague but does include wording regarding COVID-19 insurance and amount of coverage which was a priority.
We applied for our visa December 15. Once the documents are uploaded we got directed to a pay portal. We thought we would be smart and use Linda’s Mastercard for her visa payment and Gary’s Mastercard for his visa payment. It might prevent us having our credit cards locked again for having 2 identical transactions a few minutes apart which originated in Thailand. BMO did that to us last time. Linda’s payment didn’t generate a receipt. When Gary did his payment a receipt was generated. A closer look at Linda’s visa portal showed that payment was pending. We called BMO Mastercard and they had not declined her payment nor had it even shown up. We finally went into to Linda’s visa application and used Gary’s card which generated a receipt. Perfect.
The next day, December 16, 2021 we had our visa!
The next step then was to obtain a Thailand Pass. You can’t enter the country without it! The prerequisites for the Thailand Pass are: paid airline booking, paid hotel booking, paid arrival RT-PCR Covid test which is coordinated with the hotel but paid separately . The hotel booking also includes a private car for airport pickup. The hotel calls it a limousine transfer from the airport. You are basically considered contagious until your RT-PCR Covid test results come back negative. Back to the required documents, you also need appropriate visa, vaccination documentation and the previously mentioned insurance letter. We tried our first choice hotel and they wanted us to email our credit card for payment. Not going to happen! Then they sent us a payment portal link. It pre-populated the address country field with Thailand and we could not enter our own address. It was unsuccessful when we submitted our credit card payment. We phoned the hotel and came to the realization we would not be staying there. We went to our second choice hotel, The Grande Centre Point at Terminal 21. We went through the booking process and got a verified receipt for the booking but the Covid testing was a separate charge through the Bangkok Hospital portal. The medical payment confirmation showed some Thai font logo and “successful”. I phoned the hotel and asked for a better receipt. I might have been more successful phoning the pope at Christmas.
We really needed a better receipt for the Hotel and PCR test, and a better proof of medical coverage. We knew it! We uploaded all our documents to the Thailand Pass website. Airline itinerary, date of departure from Canada, date of arrival in Bangkok, date of departure from Thailand, visa documents, vaccine documents, medical insurance proof and scanned copies of our passport information page.
Several days passed. No word on our Thailand Pass. December 18th due to Omicron, the Thailand government announced the discontinuation of the Thailand Pass. They will no longer accept applications under the “Test & Go” program. However, they did say they will process the ones in the system. We got ours in on time, thankfully.
Before bed December 22, 2021 we both got emails indicating that our Thailand Pass application was rejected. Linda’s was rejected solely on the hotel receipt which did not show the payment of the Covid testing. Remember that was paid separately from the hotel booking. Gary’s was rejected on the same basis of not having a proper receipt for the covid testing as well as not having properly documented travel health insurance. Remember that letter that we were waiting for from our insurance provider? To add insult to injury, an insurance representative had called Linda at home several days prior to confirm what was needed. Still no document for insurance and of course the previously mentioned hotel and testing receipt. Looking back on emails, Gary asked the Grande Centre Point Terminal 21 hotel for a receipt on December 15.
OMG, we have an expensive hotel, covid testing and our return flights for 2 from Saskatoon to Bangkok, but now we can’t go? It was one of those moments when you could scream. All of this at bedtime! We couldn’t stop thinking about it. Gary sent a quick email to the contact at the hotel for a receipt. He also phoned the hotel. It wasn’t long before receipt that we needed was in Gary’s in-box. Gary then forwarded the required documents again for both of us to the support email for the Thailand Pass. We were lucky to find the email on one of their webpages. Within 2 hours his pass was approved. He now had the elusive Thailand Pass official document and QR-code. We thought Linda’s would arrive by morning. Guess what? It didn’t
We phoned a support number in Thailand, after 240 minutes you get disconnected. We dialled again, and 240 minutes later we got disconnected. This was supposed to be a 24 hour hotline but despite the lovely sounding voice on the other end saying please hold, high call volumes and the whole spiel with some nice music playing over and over again. No one answered. Ever.
In Asia there are some different messaging apps similar to WhatsApp they are LINE and SIGNAL. Gary, of course, has them all. He had previously used LINE to contact the owner of Lady Naya Villas and a few others. While in total despair, Linda ran across the ThaiConsular LINE link on some obscure webpage. On the off chance that someone actually used the app Gary sent off a message. The message included Gary’s Thailand Pass and our hotel receipt with the following message “Please Help Me. My wife and I are travelling together and my Thailand pass was approved and hers was rejected.” At 1:12 am December 24 they replied and provided two contact emails. At 3 am (Gary’s witching hour) he checked the computer and saw the reply on LINE. He sent an email to the 2 email addresses provided by the ThaiConsulate on LINE. He included a copy of Linda’s rejection email, her full name as on her passport, her passport number, the hotel receipt, the comprehensive insurance document that we had finally received, Linda’s access code for her Thailand Pass portal, our flight departure time and arrival time in Bangkok and of course her visa document. We woke up at 7:30 am, Gary was itching for Linda to check her phone for emails. Yippee, she had her QR code and approval document. What a great Christmas present, albeit a day early.
We had our Covid PT-PCR tests booked and completed on January 5. We had checked out various providers and decided to book with Haztech again. Prices are pretty much the same but not all companies provide the test we need. Haztech does, also it’s the same price for mobile service that comes to the door! We had our tests at noon and the email with our negative results arrived in our email at 2:51 am January 6th.
People must think we are crazy. If this keeps up we might be crazy soon. Thailand here we come! What could possibly go wrong? Let me think, the flight we are taking from Saskatoon to Toronto was cancelled the first 3 days of January. Bad weather and Omicron has created a real issue with flight delays and cancellations. When we booked in November Omicron wasn’t the issue it is now!
Saskatoon > Toronto > Incheon > Bangkok
27 hours travel time
Back to reality. Our flight left Saskatoon on time despite the bitterly cold weather! We didn’t get to sit together because Linda was upgraded to Business Class, leaving Gary back in economy with no food. Apparently, they gave Linda the upgrade because she’s an awesome person that was the exact weight required to balance the plane. That’s correct, they upgraded her to the front row on the right side by herself to balance the plane. What a stroke of luck, she got the Business Class full meal deal including breakfast with real cutlery. Economy gets no food, only coffee or tea in paper cups. Gary had envy, Linda had guilt. Either way it was weird not being seated together on this flight. Gary had 2 seats to spread out which was ok.
The flight from Toronto to Incheon Korea was delayed 1 hour and 39 minutes. The reason was mechanical trouble before the aircraft’s last flight which was Frankfurt to Toronto. Our third flight, AC6996 on Asiana Airlines from Incheon Korea to Bangkok was held at the gate long enough for us to get on board. Our baggage did not.
On arrival in Bangkok each passenger was identified as “Test and Go” or “ASQ” (Alternate State Quarantine), a polite term for quarantine in your hotel), We are Test and Go, we get tested on arrival at hotel and hopefully get results in 12 hours (read more on this below) and are free to go. We presented our QR code and proceeded to processing. There are rows and rows of plastic chairs, and about 20 people to check each person’s entry papers. They had a pink coloured quarantine form to fill out. We were some of the few travellers or immigration staff wearing N95 masks. Actually there were a few airline staff from Toronto also wearing N95 masks.
Once our documents were filled out and checked we walked through Immigration where our QR codes were read and every document we had were double checked. After that we were off to luggage carousel #19 and a man standing there holding a sheet of paper with our names on it. We were listed with everyone one else from Toronto whose luggage never made the connection in Incheon. We spent 20 minutes filling out forms for lost baggage claims on 2 suitcases. They say our luggage will be on the same flight and come in around midnight Jan 9 and hopefully get delivered to the hotel on the 10th. Once we were done filling in lost luggage forms it was off to the exit. We found the correct driver and about 40 minutes later we were checking into the hotel.
After check in we were escorted to the 4th floor for covid testing. It is actually done outside on the terrace. Several deep stabs and swirls in one nostril and we were good to go to our suite, room 2105.
We ordered a fruit plate and ate some trail mix for a bedtime snack. The bathroom in this hotel is really nice. We showered and went to bed.
We found our breakfast outside our door when we woke up. After eating we were informed the hospital is running late with test results. We don’t get our test back until 6pm. That’s our first day in the hotel, in bathrobes. We washed out some well worn travel clothes in the sink with a bar of soap. Maybe by the time it dries we can go out or even better our luggage arrives. Until then we are checking out the Terminal 21 ASOK Mall online map. We can hit the ground running when we finally get clearance.
We have a few video clips below of our trip.
Late breaking News: at 4:30 pm Bangkok time we were advised that our covid tests were negative.