Thai Airline - BEWARE- Domestic and Foreign Travelers

[FangFerang]

I was at Swampy and Don Muang last week, and over half of all domestic flights were cancelled.    Now they are pushing "no-refund" promo flights, and refuse refunds or date changes, even at a fee.  DO NOT BUY PROMO TICKETS.  They will eat your money and laugh when you complain.  I cannot imagine how many Thais, already strapped for money during COVID, are being shorn like sheep with the blessings of all the "powers that be".

 

What a great scam!!  Perfectly legal apparently, and with some Thai airlines having filed for bankruptcy protection, I have since found that Europeans are paying the price for this, too.  It is not all THAI SMILEs over here, and the scams rage on, with the blessings of government.....  Hell in a handbasket, I even saw a monk complain.

 

Again, DO NOT BUY PROMO TICKETS.  This is not despicable.  Despicable at least has a shred of civility and fair play in it.  This is pretentious self-serving theft posing as policy.

[tonray]

Air Asia still owes me from canceled flights 1 year ago.....they are all going down that route. I will never fly them again....crooks

[mr mr]

skies the limit.

[Pravda]

Book a non refundable with your foreign credit card and do a chargeback.

 

Never use Thai bank card to transfer money.

[tomazbodner]

No refund is if YOU want to cancel the flight after booking it. No rebooking (change of flight), no cancellation. That was condition on promo tickets since forever. For airline-cancelled flights you get a voucher or refund, as per applicable laws in the country.

[Fat is a type of crazy]

I  doubt that the bigger airlines would not offer a refund or voucher if they are cancelling the flight. Give them a call - if it is Thai Smile as you infer, which is owned by the same company as Thai Airways,  you'll get a credit or a refund for sure. 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Fat is a type of crazy

[mtls2005]

53 minutes ago, FangFerang said:

I was at Swampy and Don Muang last week, and over half of all domestic flights were cancelled.

 

The arr/dep boards at SBIA/BKK reflect information for flights which carriers removed ages ago. You should not infer that a flight which displays as "CANCELLED", was actually ever going to fly that day.

 

55 minutes ago, FangFerang said:

Now they are pushing "no-refund" promo flights, and refuse refunds or date changes, even at a fee. 

 

Who is "they"? THAI Airways?

 

Can you share an example?

 

 

Your advice to use caution when choosing an airline and a particular itinerary is good. Just maybe scale back on the CAPS and the histrionics? And offer some examples?

 

 

I feel quite sane strongly recommending people avoid booking a new itin with THAI - after all, they are in bankruptcy court. If you're holding an open ticket, note that while a refund is as likely as snow in Bangkok today, you can obtain a voucher or re-ticket through 31 December 2022.

 

https://www.thaiairways.com/en/contact_us/thai_special_assistance_form.page

 

Unless you need to travel in the next 30 days maybe hold off on any purchase. In the meantime check airlines' performance on potential routes, and follow them on Twitter to stay abreast of developments.

 

More reliable airlines probably fly any route that THAI does, albeit with a stopover. Qatar has an amazing amount of flights, and a very, very generous refund/rebooking/vocuher prorgam.

 

[internationalism]

so buy at the airport, just minutes before boarding.

That what is recommended by experienced travellers for almost a year now.

 

Some airlines do have unlimited travel passes for 3500b to the end of year. Last year it was 3000b. In case of cancellation, just wait for the next flight within hours. Airlines might do cancel half-empty flights, but the next one will be full one. 

[mtls2005]

11 minutes ago, internationalism said:

just wait for the next flight within hours.

 

Be careful assuming this for the AirAsia Pass, assuming there is a next flight (that day). 

 

In its previous iteration same day travel was not allowed if your original flight was cancelled. Many complaints.

 

In the event a passenger’s scheduled flight is cancelled, terminated, diverted, postponed, rescheduled or delayed before the passenger has reached his final destination as a result of a flight cancellation, Thai AirAsia-caused missed connection, flight delay, or omission of a scheduled stop due to circumstances beyond Thai AirAsia’s control or for reasons of safety or commercial reasons, Thai AirAsia shall at its discretion, either:

 

a) carry you at the earliest opportunity on another AirAsia flight on which space is available at no charge; or

b) make a refund in the form of credit into your AirAsia account.

 

 

https://www.airasia.com/deals/en/gb

 

https://www.airasia.com/deals/en/gb/terms-and-conditions/fd-pass

 

 

[wprime]

5 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

No refund is if YOU want to cancel the flight after booking it. No rebooking (change of flight), no cancellation. That was condition on promo tickets since forever. For airline-cancelled flights you get a voucher or refund, as per applicable laws in the country.

 

Sometimes they instead rebook you on another flight which can be days later and if this isn't convenient for you then you just lose your money.

Edited March 5, 2021 by wprime

[watgate]

I had a pleasant surprise from Qatar Airlines. I had booked a return flight back to the US before the pandemic hit and was due to fly back on April 1, 2020. I had booked the flight through a consolidator and did not have any cancellation insurance. The consolidator, who will go nameless, told me I would be getting 200 usd refunded to me from Qatar Airlines for the loss of my money due to my cancelling my return flight since I had decided to remain in Thailand due to the pandemic. I checked periodically with the consolidator about the refund and finally after several months they abruptly did a 360 degree turn and said I was SOL. Needless to say I was teed off and not very happy. 

     Just recently, I was notified by my credit card company that a 200 usd credit from Qatar Airlines had been posted to my account. I was very happy and contacted Qatar Airlines about the 200 credit. I thanked them and said it was very nice that they reached out to their customers to show them they cared about them and that they understood about all the difficulties folks encountered due to the pandemic. The refund softened the blow of my flight cancellation and it was very encouraging to experience first hand an airline that does care about its customers.