bertheike

Excuse me, but my friends english is not that good, and as long my friend stands him face to face together and allowes to explane the problem with me there is nothing agains data protection acts. I not want to have datas from him, I want to give him datas from the passangers onward travel. and if you compare that with your bank, they also speak with me about your details if you allow them !

Land-of-Miles

It is questionable whether visa running is legal, according to my other half visa runners are periodically arrested and deported. My problem is that if these people really wanted to live more permanently in Thailand there are a variety of totally legitmate ways to acheive this. Those that do not obtain proper long stay status tend to be those holding down poorly paid "english teacher" or other such roles, essentially to fund their "nightlife" activities. Thailand would be better off without people like this, and those of us regular visitors who have proper status prefer not to be "tarred with the same brush".

The Government has gone on record as saying they do not want "poor quality" tourists and/or long staying visitors. Whilst I am not always the biggest fan of the current Thai Government this is one of their more sensible initiatives.

SpeedbirdLHR

As others have said before, the BRU agent took the appropriate steps. Your friend, couldn't prove on checking in that he had onward travel plans from BKK within 30days. You claim that there was a booking with a LCC, then you should have given your friend a printed copy of that booking to take with him. You happily quote the rules, but you must also be aware that your friend would be required to prove that he has onward travel plans and that he should be prepared to present them if requested, particularly if requested by BKK immigration.

What would you have said had BA allowed him to travel and then he reached BKK but was denied entry because he couldn't prove that the was intending to leave the country within 30 days and they questioned the return date? Would you then blame BA for allowing him to travel without the proper documentation?

None really. The delay was caused by weather and therefore wasn't within the airline's control. LHR services faced considerable disruption yesterday evening due to severe weather in West London. Based on our briefings today, it seems to have had a major impact on all services yesterday evening from around 1830 BST.

The Saint

I'm afraid Bertheike is correct. There is no data protection issue here. The passenger had clearly consented to Bertheike dealing with the agent and any necessary processing of the data.

It seems to me a strange sort of rule. If it is based on BA not depositing someone into Thailand who might overstay, then it is hardly a solution to rejig his ticket so it appears that he is going to leave within 30 days when BA knows full well he has no intention of taking that return flight on that date.

Agree that the pax should have brought the necessary documentation, but surely the answer was to get hold of the real exit flight information (possibly by being a little more cooperative and giving a fax number) rather than creating some bogus return flight to get rid of the problem.

bertheike

Never ever heard about this ! If the previus entry stamps are "real" and not faked. I agree paying money under the table ( what happens regular ) by many immigrationoffices is illegal and not correct. But leaving and reentry the Kingdom same day is absolutly legal and not questionable.

If you speak about " your other half " I think you are married with a Thai national. May be in this position it is much easier to get a permanet resident.
But those which are not aged 55plus have not that much availabilities to stay longer than max 3 month.
I personaly invested big amounts in properties and also only get a max 90 day visa. Not that I want to stay at the moment permanet, but may be in 5 years.

This sounds a litle arogant !
What is proper status and what not ?
With the poor quality tourists I agree ! But not with long staying visitors spending big money in THailand and regular tax payers.
A friend of mine lives for 18 years in Phuket, he has a 2 million company and holds a legal working permit. But he also only gets a max. 90 days visa.
He pays taxes, never ever got anything from the Thai goverment and spents minimum 3 Thais a legal job.
But if you have any idea how one gets a legal permanent resident, iam really interested. ( whithout marrying a Thai ).

jhm

Surely if visa running is indeed illegal , a Thai immigration officer would refuse to admit someone after seeing pages and pages of entry and exit stamps ?

Smirnoff

Be warned also about visa checks for onward flights (next day or later) on the same itinerary, where a visa is required.

I recently travelled ZRH-LHR, as the first sector on a ZRH-LHR-DME booking. The LHR-DME flight was the following day. On my trip to/from ZRH, I was carrying my passport without the Russian visa. The security staff at the gate at ZRH really didn't want to let me board for LHR, as I couldn't show the visa for Russia. I explained about having a second passport with the visa, but it took several phone calls, almost missing the flight, before they gave in and let me board.

jhm

Assuming you're British, I find it surprising that they were going to deny you boarding on a flight back to your own country notwithstanding the flight to DME the following day (not even the same day)!

Smirnoff

Yes I am. I took my clean passport to ZRH, rather than the 2nd one with all the visas and stamps in it. And they were doing their best not to let me on the flight to LHR, with a flight to DME the following afternoon.

jhm

Are you sure the ZRH security person wasn't just being overzealous ?

I can't believe that if I buy a xONEx, I have to have visas valid for every segment of my journey otherwise I might get denied boarding!

bertheike

Sorry, Iam striktly for it, that the airlines check for the entry regulations, to prevent a denie of entry. But the Thai immigration requests no returnticket after 30 days ! They only request a valid return ticket, or to show the money to buy it !again see the following out of visa thailand?.

3 out of my last 5 entrys have been with oneway tickets on TG. The return was always on a separate OW in a separate reservation.!
TG even did not ask to see the return. And I think they should know best about their own immigration rules!

Due to captains info the delay in BRU was a technical issue, then they missed the slot and after landing in LHR they had to wait 45 minutes for a free gate ! But may be there was fog and they didnīt find the way from the runway to the gate

bertheike

now the next horror.
My friend had only one bordcase 9.5 kg.
This agent in BRU refused this as cabin luggage. He only would accept 6 kg.
He had to checkin this bordcase.
missing that connection in LON my friend asked for his luggage ( which was checked through to BKK ) and was told this would be reloadet to terminal 3 onto TG. I checked his PNR in AMADEUS and there was realy a remark " please reload luggage to Term 3 ". After he arrived in BKK, his luggage was not there, it should arrive with the next BA plane another 10 h. later. After this arrived I phoned baggage claim, and they confirmed itīs still in LON ! and will not come until next days BA flight ! He could buy things up to 3000 THB 65 Eur. or around 45 GBP How helpful if you only have these things you just wearing.

Smirnoff

I'm quite sure they were. But I was still held back until the end and about to shut the doors, before they relented. I would love to know what the rules are, about checking visas for onward next day flights.

Dave_C

So not only did he have a ticket that was for an 11 month stay in Thailand, where the maximum allowed for tourists is 30 days (and BA can get fined for a Visa violation), he had a carry-on case that was over 50% more than the maximum permitted for the cabin.