News Forum - Thailand Pass remains, at least until the end of June

[Thaiger]

A good news and bad news day yesterday as the Thailand Pass was scrapped for Thais at the end of May, but remains an online digital gateway requirement for foreigners, at least until the end of June, perhaps beyond. The only good news for foreign travellers, in yesterday’s briefing, was the removal of quarantine for unvaccinated, or under-vaccinated, inbound arrivals. Now unvaccinated travellers can arrive and undertake an ATK test, under the supervision of a health professional, at the airport. If negative they can go on their way and self-monitor their health whilst in Thailand. But, if they test positive, […]

The story Thailand Pass remains, at least until the end of June as seen on Thaiger News.

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[Cabra]

The insurance scam continues...

[Vigo]

37 minutes ago, Cabra said:

The insurance scam continues...

There is no scam. There is no obligation to visit Thailand. Most travel insurance policies include coverage for a Covid hospitalisation when hospital treatment is required. Only unvaccinated  visitors run the risk of assuming non medical hospital quarantine stay. They can easily avoid the risk by being vaccinated.  The minimum indemnity of $10,000 is small amount and if a visitor is traveling without health insurance, then most likely they should not be traveling. I doubt that  the insurance requirement is an issue for typical  95%+ visitors.  The obstacle to travel now will be the cost of the travel.

[Cabra]

42 minutes ago, Vigo said:

There is no scam. There is no obligation to visit Thailand. Most travel insurance policies include coverage for a Covid hospitalisation when hospital treatment is required. Only unvaccinated  visitors run the risk of assuming non medical hospital quarantine stay. They can easily avoid the risk by being vaccinated.  The minimum indemnity of $10,000 is small amount and if a visitor is traveling without health insurance, then most likely they should not be traveling. I doubt that  the insurance requirement is an issue for typical  95%+ visitors.  The obstacle to travel now will be the cost of the travel.

The evidence is overwhelming that these policies being sold to tourist are not fit for purpose. They do not payout and/or offer such limited coverage to be worthless. Added to that the fact there is no onslaught of tourist overwhelmed the Thai hospital system due to covid is further evidence that the hoisting of these policies on travelers is nothing more than a money making scheme. The money one pays for these worthless policies may not be large, but that misses the point. No one like to taken advantage of, and these forced covid insurance policies are taking advantage of a nacient (almost non-existent) risk, and that's wrong headed. Stopping buying into this idea that forcing someone to buy something that is worthless, and that they don't need, is not hurting Thailand. 

[Cabra]

55 minutes ago, Vigo said:

The obstacle to travel now will be the cost of the travel

And this forced insurance mandate only exasperates the problem

[Poolie]

Show us this 'overwhelming evidence' then, Mr Cabra.

[oldschooler]

TP must be linked to Covid Pandemic State of Emergency, currently to 1 June. When that goes ( pandemic declared endemic here) TP should go.
Masks will be here forever officially though it seems but use will fall away.

[JJJ]

1 minute ago, Cabra said:

The evidence is overwhelming that these policies being sold to tourist are not fit for purpose. They do not payout and/or offer such limited coverage to be worthless. Added to that the fact there is no onslaught of tourist overwhelmed the Thai hospital system due to covid is further evidence that the hoisting of these policies on travelers is nothing more than a money making scheme. The money one pays for these worthless policies may not be large, but that misses the point. No one like to taken advantage of, and these forced covid insurance policies are taking advantage of a nacient (almost non-existent) risk, and that's wrong headed. Stopping buying into this idea that forcing someone to buy something that is worthless, and that they don't need, is not hurting Thailand. 

Especially when the largest number of arrivals comes from Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia—usually on short trips. If you’re taking a $50 flight from KL, the insurance scam hurts. There has never been any solid evidence that this insurance was needed for someone who was seriously ill.  Whatever small amount of money saved by the government for these costs is surely dwarfed by the tax revenues lost from trips avoided. 

And for the reason to maintain the Thai Pass overall, the logic makes no sense. From BP:

 

“To make its decision, the ministry needs more solid information about infected cases coming from foreign entry to reach a conclusion, Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul said on Friday at an event organised by Chulalongkorn Alumni Associations and their partners.

"It's possible that we will cancel the registration requirement of Thailand Pass for foreigners. We need one more month then we will have a clear answer," he said.”

How does ThaiPass registration have any relationship to “infected cases coming from foreign entry”?  

I do suspect after Bangkok election the whole of the travel industry will be putting heavy pressure on scrapping Thai Pass as it serves no purpose. 

 

 

[Cabra]

2 minutes ago, Poolie said:

Show us this 'overwhelming evidence' then, Mr Cabra.

There have been numerous threads in this forum about people not being able to use the policies when needed because the insurance companies refused to payout or that hospitals refused to remit to the insurer. Leaving the insured to wrestle with the insurance company to no avail. Having to buy supplemental COVID insurance at this point makes about as much sense as having to buy supplemental insurance for alien abduction

[Cabra]

3 minutes ago, JJJ said:

There has never been any solid evidence that this insurance was needed for someone who was seriously ill

Not to mention the number of people actually being hospitalized is in decline. There is no valid argument for forcing this insurance on people. It's a money making scheme. Nothing more. It protects no one

[Poolie]

12 minutes ago, Cabra said:

There have been numerous threads in this forum about people not being able to use the policies when needed because the insurance companies refused to payout or that hospitals refused to remit to the insurer. Leaving the insured to wrestle with the insurance company to no avail. Having to buy supplemental COVID insurance at this point makes about as much sense as having to buy supplemental insurance for alien abduction

With respect, 'numerous' is not 'overwhelming.' 

[Cabra]

34 minutes ago, Poolie said:

With respect, 'numerous' is not 'overwhelming.' 

Regardless. It's still a scam when you force people to buy something they don't need. What next, earthquake insurance for all foreigners to rent property in THA. Or maybe Dengue fever insurance for all tourist. Ludicrous. 

[Dialemco]

Puzzled as does not seem to be any good news for tourism industry. Basically the TP is redundant but do not foresee it being cancelled until after the elections whenever they will take place probably not before 2023.

[Poolie]

1 hour ago, Cabra said:

Regardless. It's still a scam when you force people to buy something they don't need. What next, earthquake insurance for all foreigners to rent property in THA. Or maybe Dengue fever insurance for all tourist. Ludicrous. 

They were your ideas so, yeah, probably.

[Bob2sticks]

I applied for a Thailand Pass on Sunday night, it was approved in six minutes!
I thought it was a mistake, but there it was! 

[Soidog]

Can someone remind me (sorry, I’m being lazy), what is the earliest you can apply for the pass ahead of travel? Is there a limit such as 30 days prior to travel for example?

[JJJ]

1 hour ago, Soidog said:

Can someone remind me (sorry, I’m being lazy), what is the earliest you can apply for the pass ahead of travel? Is there a limit such as 30 days prior to travel for example?

The system only lets you do it for 2 months.

Honestly I think the only reason they don’t get rid of Thai Pass and insurance is to justify the new tourist tax.  If the Thai Pass had some disease control benefit why is it only for foreigners.

The government will justify the new tax by saying—see we got rid of the insurance so we have to introduce a new tax.

Also I think Thai Pass is just going to morph into a system to collect the tax because I don’t see how the airlines can implement a new system just because Thailand wants it.  Airport fees are typical but they apply to all passengers  

These scammers aren’t happy enough with the gobs of money they get from hotel taxes, vat, excise tax etc.  

 

[PJK]

Thailand Pass is a government joke at this point. The Kingdom is telling me they actually don’t want tourism at the levels of 2019. 
AsEAN countries that dropped all restrictions are getting the travel funds that Thailand apparently does not want! 

[DoUKnowWhoIAm]

12 hours ago, Cabra said:

Regardless. It's still a scam when you force people to buy something they don't need. What next, earthquake insurance for all foreigners to rent property in THA. Or maybe Dengue fever insurance for all tourist. Ludicrous. 

A kateuy- hug gold chain theft insurance? Or a compolsory funeral&burial insurance, if you plan to cross a road during yor stay?

[DoUKnowWhoIAm]

Will there be a separate TP application and insurance demand for the upcoming monkey pox pandemic?

[Cabra]

7 hours ago, DoUKnowWhoIAm said:

Will there be a separate TP application and insurance demand for the upcoming monkey pox pandemic?

Makes about as much sense as covid insurance... So probably

[rc1]

Time for the Daily CCSA briefings to stop.

You'll know you're getting somewhere when that happens.