"Airmail" taking weeks from THA to the USA - is that normal?

[BurgerGung]

Hi there,

 

seems the post office waits until it has sufficient mail to send to a specific country? 

 

Any idea about how they will handle the X-Mas rush? How many weeks do you expect X-Mas mail to take?

[Langsuan Man]

When using tracking, I never see letter mail taking a week to get to the US, but I do see it sitting in US Customs @ Los Angeles for a week or more

Edited November 25, 2018 by Langsuan Man

[ezzra]

The other day i sent a very important legal document to Melbourne via express mail, 530 Baht, 8 days they said, 3 weeks later and a card dropped in the recipient mailbox to come and collect the "misdelivered" package" upon inquiring what happened Auspost claim that no one home and they wrongly dropped the misdelivery card in the wrong mailbox, no apologies and no compensations from either Thai Post or Auspost  while we suffered great losses...

Edited November 25, 2018 by ezzra

[mtls2005]

For standard airmail (37 baht/oz) I allow 14 calendar days for delivery from Thailand to the U.S. Obviously if there are a boatload of holidays on either end I'd bump that up a bit.

 

Based on my sending stuff THL->USA and USA-->THL, it seems to take ~ 10 calendar days. This is for standard letters, postcards, birthday cards etc.

 

I would think Thai Post dispatches airmail to the U.S.A. each/every (365x) day?

[CharlieH]

The delay isnt the Thai end its clearing customs.

That can vary dramatically depending on where it lands. If it goes into LA or Chicago different to New York and so on. Thats luck of the draw on which flight it gets put on.

 

 Xmas increase in volumes will exacerbate the situation.

[KittenKong]

I sometimes send post to the UK. I find it always gets delivered within 7 days (often less), but in the other direction (UK>TH) it can easily take 3-4 weeks. No idea why.

[robblok]

I sometimes send post to the UK. I find it always gets delivered within 7 days (often less), but in the other direction (UK>TH) it can easily take 3-4 weeks. No idea why.

Strange i order fishing stuff from ebay from uk sellers and its almost always here in 1.5 week.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[userabcd]

Sent an envelope by airmail 2 weeks ago. The post Office staff said it will take 2 weeks to deliver the letter to Europe. In these modern time and frequent flights, mail delivery seems to have worsened from what it was in the 80's and 90's. 

[Genmai]

Unfortunately it has been normal in my experience. However, looking at the tracking it is almost never the case that the issue is on the Thai side. If you want something delivered for sure and quickly do DHL.

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, robblok said:

Strange i order fishing stuff from ebay from uk sellers and its almost always here in 1.5 week.

Things sometimes get here in less than a couple of weeks for me also, but my point was that for me it invariably takes longer for letters to go UK>TH than for letters to go TH>UK.

[rak sa_ngop]

3 hours ago, KittenKong said:

I sometimes send post to the UK. I find it always gets delivered within 7 days (often less), but in the other direction (UK>TH) it can easily take 3-4 weeks. No idea why.

Probably depends on your local post office delivery system. I live in central Bangkok and I always receive my Mastercard statements within 7 -10 days of the statement date.

[Toosetinmyways]

Magazine from UK average 6 days to Thailand never missed an issue in 20 years.

A4 document envelope last month to New York via EMS took 4 days to LA. It then sat for 18 days in LA. Then three days to New York. Couriers do not deliver to PO boxes.

[robblok]

Things sometimes get here in less than a couple of weeks for me also, but my point was that for me it invariably takes longer for letters to go UK>TH than for letters to go TH>UK.

For me its not sometimes its always usually 9 or 10 days. Maybe packages have priority over letters. I live in BKK that might make a difference too.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[zzaa09]

6 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

For standard airmail (37 baht/oz) I allow 14 calendar days for delivery from Thailand to the U.S. Obviously if there are a boatload of holidays on either end I'd bump that up a bit.

 

Based on my sending stuff THL->USA and USA-->THL, it seems to take ~ 10 calendar days. This is for standard letters, postcards, birthday cards etc.

 

I would think Thai Post dispatches airmail to the U.S.A. each/every (365x) day?

That's about right from my experiences.

From Thailand-to-U.S. * 8-10 days express post [not standard mail]

[Pungdo]

I send a lot of stuff to Australia via Airmail, from cartons of shirts to just a letter, last year I had a letter take 5 weeks to be delivered, cartons take anything from 2 1/2 weeks to 4 weeks normally, however the problem is not at this end, I always use tracking and normally it takes no more than 2 days to be put on a flight outbound.

It was suggested to me that Aust Post treats anything coming from Thailand with a degree of suspicion which slows everything down, perhaps US Post does the same.

EMS however is normally delivered in around 7 days, I've seen it on an aircraft out of here on the day I posted it and the flights are overnight, so the parcel is showing as accepted in Sydney the next morning, that means 6 days to deliver it, bloody hopeless.

[cnx355]

On ‎11‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 7:38 AM, Langsuan Man said:

When using tracking, I never see letter mail taking a week to get to the US, but I do see it sitting in US Customs @ Los Angeles for a week or more

It seems similar for Mail from Thailand to Canada is always delivered between 7 to 10 business days. When I use tracking, it leave Thailand after 3 days .   

The usual delay is at Canada Custom in Richmond, BC. More than 4 days is not unusual.

 

Note for Canadian: *  At the moment we have a Canada Post rotating strike, so if urgent use DHL-FEDEX or UPS.  Parcel are retained abroad at most SE Asia countries as no space to accept  them.

[Gillyflower]

I once lived in Melbourne..  One of our letters took six weeks to get from the end of Collins Street to the top of same street.

[shaurene]

I have often sent to New Zealand, average time 5-6 working days.

[rocketdave]

I was living on the South coast of England when I came back here to see if could retire here some three years ago. Many people I know asked me to send them a postcard so on my first full day here I sent a bundle of postcards from the Pattaya post office. No one believed I'd sent them until a month after I'd arrived home (I had been in Pattaya for a month) they all turned up on the same day, eight weeks after posting at a main post office. I have lived here on and off for over 30 years and the postal service can no longer surprise me!

[tweedledee2]

I sent a letter by EMS from Surin to Missouri, USA that arrived within 7 days. I have also received 2 letters from the IRS Regional Office in Texas that arrived 5 weeks after the date of the enclosed correspondence, informing me I had 30 days to respond. Both letters had a "La Poste" cancellation stamp.

[connda]

If you add "Registered Mail" to your letter/package you'd find out that it's being held up in the USA by the rather inept USPS (you can track registered mail).  The last letter I sent to the US took over 30 days to transit from New York to Pennsylvania and it had already cleared US Customs.  Other letters average between 10 days to three weeks transit once inside the US.  That's pretty pathetic.  Then best of luck during Christmas.

The average transit time for registered mail to go from the Thai post office locally and to be loaded on a plane bound for the US is about 48 hours.  The problem is not local.

 

 

Edited November 26, 2018 by connda

[Bangkok Barry]

I recently sent a letter to the UK using EMS and was therefore able to track it. It got from Khon Kaen to the airport in Bangkok and then stayed there for a week before being put on a plane to London.

[Searat7]

Mail service between Bangkok and USA got worse about 2 years ago so I now use the much more expensive Priority Air Mail for my monthly mail forwarding... about 7-8  days vs 3 weeks.

[scorecard]

I've used EMS service many times over several years for an envelope of documents Thailand to Melbourne. 500Baht every time.

 

Received in Melbourne every time (I know from the tracking and a confirmation e-mail from the receiver) between 3 to 5 working days.

 

 

[scorecard]

33 minutes ago, scorecard said:

I've used EMS service many times over several years for an envelope of documents Thailand to Melbourne. 500Baht every time.

 

Received in Melbourne every time (I know from the tracking and a confirmation e-mail from the receiver) between 3 to 5 working days.

 

 

Correction, should be Chiang Mai to Melbourne. Received in Melbourne every time (I know from the tracking and a confirmation e-mail from the receiver) between 3 to 5 working days.

[DJ54]

Best guess two weeks.... takes 10 days to get delivery by FX

[Small Joke]

On 11/25/2018 at 7:52 AM, ezzra said:

The other day i sent a very important legal document to Melbourne via express mail, 530 Baht, 8 days they said, 3 weeks later and a card dropped in the recipient mailbox to come and collect the "misdelivered" package" upon inquiring what happened Auspost claim that no one home and they wrongly dropped the misdelivery card in the wrong mailbox, no apologies and no compensations from either Thai Post or Auspost  while we suffered great losses...

Courier.

I mean, did you consider your lost  opportunity cost in saving a few bucks?

[Media1]

On 11/25/2018 at 8:08 AM, CharlieH said:

The delay isnt the Thai end its clearing customs.

That can vary dramatically depending on where it lands. If it goes into LA or Chicago different to New York and so on. Thats luck of the draw on which flight it gets put on.

 

 Xmas increase in volumes will exacerbate the situation.

yes

[theusedversion]

Post office told me last time I was there that airmail was 2-3 weeks to the US. If you want it sooner then you have to go with EMS but expect to pay for it.

[user343434]

Same here.. From Germany to TH or TH to Ger, min 2 weeks of you pay some 50$ priority (may be more) charge and get your Letter in 3 days. My client sends me important Documents like that. Phone call with info there comes a letter and 2-3 days later the post-boy rings the doorbell.