Thailand forum

Brucemoon could have given more advice on this. When I flew with Quantas from the uk they were happy enough that I verbally said I was leaving Thailand within 30 days before returning. Ask your airline what their policy is, some are strict. Living in the land of the ahem,..free, I'm guessing they'll be understanding. I'd also email the Thai embassy and get clarification from them - take the email with you to the airport.

Sparts: Haha... "ahem" free made me laugh.

SBE: I gave the airline a ring and got the run around..... on said i need a return ticket.... next said onward within 30 days......

I think perhaps ill fork over the small amount on a cheap air asia ticket to be safe and just apply for a tourist visa anyway and see what happens. if for any reason have visa trouble ( which i shouldnt since ill now have onward travel to show them ) ill have a ticket to show the airline...

any other info or advice would be great guys

thanks

PS Not quite sure what was so unhelpful about my first reply think87?

No worries, I was wondering why I got thumbs down vote for my reply that's all. From what you said, you weren't the one doing the voting!

Hope you manage to get things sorted with United Airlines anyway... sorry I can't help with that specifically but I've never flown with that airline.

Sparts is right. Some airlines are more strict than others, and United can be one of the picky ones.

On our last trip, my wife had a Baltimore to Los Angeles to Tokyo to Bangkok ticket on United Airlines. She was almost denied boarding on her flight out of Baltimore by the check-in agent because she didn't have a Thai visa in her passport and her return flight was for more than the 30 days visa waiver period United's policy allowed. She had to plead just to get a seat on the flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles, but the check-in agent refused to check her bags through to BKK or give her boarding passes for the additional flights.

However, once she got to LA, the gate agent could have cared less and happily checked her luggage and issued boarding passes. I wish it were clearer, but sometimes it just depends on the individual airline employee working the desk or gate that day too.

Aren't the Thai consulates issuing no-cost or near-no-cost tourist visas these days? You could pick up a 60-day tourist visa, which should at least solve the problem of boarding the aircraft in the states and also give you much more flexibility in booking your onward travel once you arrive in Thailand.

P.s The consulate i emailed was the Royal thai consulate general in Washington DC so there probably more strict than the smaller consulates....

The thumbs counter works fine and I think things will settle down once people get bored clearing the cookies or using different browsers over and over again ... or maybe not!

I wouldn't take individual ups and downs personally -- the intention was that they'd be useful over longer periods -- which should move to a trend and erode trivialities.

Cheers

Yeah my only real concern was being able to board the plane.... I'm actually only going to be in thailand for a month or so, then a month in laos, month in vietnam etc through SE asia.

Got my visa today so im all set as far as being able to get on the plane out of the US lol.

The lady at the consulate wanted to give me a dual entry since i had the airasia ticket leaving thailand. I was like no thank you ill be traveling again within the first visa.... She looked at me like " WTF! this guys doesnt want an extra entry? " lol but all went well

thanks everyone for your help.

Ah, so they aren't giving free multi-entry tourist visas in Washington then! That's useful to know.

Try Vientiane (Laos) if do need another visa ... free 3-entry tourist visa, no "service charge". ;-)

What are your plans in Washington D.C.? Are you looking for work or for pleasure? Good luck on your trip over here though!

Sarah
Museums in D.C.