Thailand Clears Backlog of Thailand Pass Applications
Since Thailand took the lead in reopening to international tourism last year with its ‘Sandbox’ and ‘Test & Go’ schemes for vaccinated travellers, it has come in for a lot of criticism over the time it takes to obtain a Thailand Pass – without which airlines won’t let travellers board flights to Thailand.
Back in late December, I was told by Singapore Airlines that the backlog was around 90,000 applications and many were taking up to 60 days to approve. Some unconfirmed reports last month suggested that the backlog had grown to more than 110,000. Many travellers were complaining that they weren’t receiving their Thailand Passes in even 60 days, so had to cancel flights and accommodation and look for alternative destinations. Many of those headed to Cambodia where only a negative Covid test certificate was required on arrival (although there were issues with the format of those certificates which caused problems for some travellers).
But now the backlog has apparently been cleared because the Thai Government has updated the Thailand Pass application website to indicate that the passes will be issued within 3-7 days (last week it was still indicating that passes could take up to 60 days to approve). And there is solid evidence that it is achieving that timeframe as I found out this week.
Last week I published a blog post about the hassles associated with applying for a Thailand Pass – which is not a user-friendly process. That prompted a scathing response from the friend of one of my nephews who had shared the post on his Facebook page. The friend said: “People like this shouldn’t write about traveling, it just makes them look stupid”.
Thailand was the first ASEAN country to re-open for tourism. Image: Michelle Raponi
My nephew replied advising his friend that I write articles aimed at older travellers and the friend immediately apologised for her comment saying: “Sorry mate, I knew that comment would bite me in the butt (foot in mouth). Knowing the age group the article is intended for actually puts it all into context. Navigating the information in the current climate is hard for anyone but I would say especially for the senior traveller who may not necessarily be as internet savvy”.
I chuckled at the assumption that I was not internet savvy. Little did the friend know that I spent the best part of the two years ‘stranded’ in Australia because of the Covid pandemic doing back-office work for digital marketing agencies – SEO work, optimising Google ads, updating websites – that sort of stuff. And being a publisher of two online magazines, I’m probably a little more internet savvy than most people my age.
But the reference to looking “stupid” suggested to me that the friend didn’t read the blog post in full, because I wasn’t suggesting that I was incapable of completing the application – it was just that I lost patience with how user-unfriendly the Thailand Pass website was that I decided to go to Bali instead of Thailand.
However, I was intrigued that the friend claimed to have received her Thailand Pass in four days. I was highly sceptical of that claim. I’d not heard of anyone on the travel forums to which I subscribe receive it that quickly. But of course, those who comment on travel forums tend to be people who are having problems with something, not those for whom everything is going smoothly.
Phuket is offering both Sandbox and Test & Go options. Image: 简体中文
So, I decided to put the Thailand Pass application system to the test and follow through and complete my application to see if indeed it was possible to receive a Thailand Pass in four days. Although I’d decided to go to Bali instead, having a Thailand Pass would give me a fallback option in case Bali changes their entry rules as they did back in December.
The first thing I noticed when I went back to the Thailand Pass application website was that the site had been updated to state that application should be made at least seven days in advance of travel, instead of the 60 days as it had been stating the previous week. That suggested that there had been some improvements in the process and that the backlog of applications that existed in December and January may have been cleared.
Knowing that I would need to upload proof of prepaid accommodation and two PCR tests (day 1 and day 5), this time I focused on the accommodation requirements before commencing the actual Thailand Pass application. I checked the list of approved accommodation options in Phuket offering Test & Go packages and saw there was about 350 of them. They weren’t listed in any order, so I went instead to Booking.com and looked for options in my price range that had good reviews.
Then I checked those on Google Maps to see where they were located and checked their Google reviews. I also cross-checked prices on Agoda and on the hotels’ own websites. The prices were all pretty much the same, but the Agoda packages only included one PCR test, and the Booking.com packages didn’t specify the number of tests, so I opted to book directly with my chosen hotel because it was clear that the package included two PCR tests as well as an airport transfer.
Phang Nga is another popular Sandbox destination in Thailand. Image: Arek Socha
I made my reservation and got a confirmation, but at that stage no payment was requested. I emailed the hotel to ask about payment given that the Thailand Pass application required that the accommodation and PCR tests be paid in advance in full. The hotel replied and asked for a copy of my passport, and then next day emailed me a secure link for payment. A few hours after making payment I received receipts for the accommodation and PCR tests. From start to finish that took a little under 24 hours.
Once I had the accommodation and PCR receipts, I started my Thailand Pass application again. I breezed through the first couple of sections because I’d done those before. I tried uploading my vaccination certificate QR codes again, but they were still rejected as “invalid”. When I got to the accommodation section, I discovered that the site didn’t accept the accommodation reservation in PDF format (like the vaccination certificates in the previous section) so that issue hadn’t been resolved. I converted it to a jpeg and uploaded that.
Surprisingly in the following section the website does accept PDFs for the PCR test receipts, so I don’t understand why it doesn’t accept PDFs for the vaccination certificates and accommodation confirmations because that’s the format in which most people receive those documents.
The site is still “user unfriendly” in the accommodation section because you are required to select the place you are staying from a dropdown menu of about 350 hotel and resort options, but they are not in any order, so you must scroll through them all until you find the place you have booked. Whatever platform they are using for their online application form, surely it’s not difficult for those to be listed in alphabetical order?
Cambodia has been the easiest ASEAN country to enter. Image: © David Astley
The next section requires applicants to enter details of their health insurance and upload a copy of their policy. When I got to that section, I realised that my international health insurance showed my Philippines address, rather than my Australian address which I had entered earlier in the process, so I thought it would be wise to go back to that section and change my address to make sure they matched.
I clicked on the browser to go back to the previous page. Oops . . . bad move. The browser took me back right to the start of the process. Everything I had entered in the previous 30 minutes or so disappeared. I had to start all over again. The Thailand Pass application website doesn’t enable you to save drafts as you go along or edit details in a previous section once you’ve moved to the next section, so if you make an error, you need to start all over again.
For the third time, I commenced my Thailand Pass application again. This time I used my Philippines address and uploaded all the necessary documents. By now I knew the system inside out, so I had it all done in about 20 minutes. My international insurance documentation had to be converted to PNGs as well because that section wouldn’t accept PDFs either, but soon I had an application confirmation number, and I received a message that I would be advised “by secure email” within seven days whether my application was successful.
That was last night so I made a note in my diary for next week to check on the status of my application after seven days. This afternoon I had just finished a late lunch when I heard a ping on my phone indicating receipt of an email. I saw that it was from Thailand Pass. My first reaction was that they wouldn’t accept my international health insurance confirmation letter because it wasn’t signed (for some reason Bupa refuse to sign or stamp their confirmation letters).
The Philippines now has easy entry requirements like Cambodia. Image: © David Astley
I opened the email and to my surprise it was the approval for my Thailand Pass. Wow! I was blown away. I hadn’t expected that at all. Not only had they approved it within seven days, but they had taken only 18 hours to do it. I downloaded the QR code to my phone and I was ready to go. My scepticism of my nephew’s friend’s claim was unfounded. She had received hers in four days but mine had taken less than a day.
Obviously, that meant the big backlog that everyone had been complaining about had now been cleared. The application website is still not user-friendly but at least it works. The Thai Government could make the process so much easier if they listed the accommodation options in alphabetical order and enabled uploading of all documents in PDF format because not everyone (especially older travellers) has Photoshop on their laptops to do quick conversions from PDFs to PNGs or jpegs.
I checked some of the travel forums on which people had been complaining about the Thailand Pass, and I saw that some people are still experiencing problems, but most likely that’s because they haven’t uploaded the correct documentation.
I’m now grappling with the question as to whether I should post something on those travel forums to tell people I got my Thailand Pass in 18 hours (that’s excluding the 24 hours it took me to organise the prepaid accommodation of course). Will they believe me? Or will they be sceptical of my claim as I was with my nephew’s friend who received hers in four days.
Bali is opening up again after a false start in December. Image: Michelle Raponi
I suspect the reason that the Thai tourism authorities eventually got their act together was because if they didn’t, they would know they would lose tourists to other Southeast Asian nations that are also opening up. It’s easier to get into Cambodia and the Philippines right now, and for Bali there are no advance approvals required — although they are still imposing 5 days quarantine on arrival (3 days if you’ve had a booster shot) which will discourage many.
Cambodia, Philippines, and Bali all have new Covid cases much lower than Thailand on a population adjusted basis (7 day rolling average of new cases divided by population) so may be more attractive to travellers who might be concerned about catching Covid.
Even Vietnam and Laos are offering package and group tours to select destinations in their countries (and it may not be long before they open up for independent travellers as well). Malaysia has a travel bubble for Langkawi too, so Thailand really does need to keep its eye on the ball if it is to regain its crown as the leading tourist destination in Southeast Asia.
Header image: © Fokke Baarssen
