It is OK if it happens to the return flight to your home.
The problem is if the arrival flight. If the flight heading to Thailand or from Bangkok to Samui was late. It can lead to the following consequences
One-day late hotel check-in
If you arrived in Koh Samui a day late. What about your booked hotel room on that day was not present?
(Edit) The hotel is not informed about the late check in, the hotel will remarked as no show at the first day and still keep the room for you till the limit days as per policy.
In this case, the hotel will charge fully as the original book. You have to clarify with the agency in order to absorb these costs.
The agency will clear with the airline later. If you book online, your work can be much more difficult and last a pretty long time.
Mostly, the online platform which you booked the hotel only, will not handle with the airline for you. You habe to contact the airline by yourself.
If you booked both hotel ans flight together, seems like, you have chance that the platform will clear it for you.
If your hotel is in Koh Tao or Koh Phangan. Once your flight lands on Samui late can lead to you missing the connecting boat to those islands.
It is fine if it happens at the low season. During the high season is almost impossible to change the boat schedule within a day or one day in advance.
You will have no more seats available to those islands. To manage this problem you need to find a hotel in Samui for a stopover and go to those islands the next day.
The question is which hotel should you pick for the stopover?
It is easy, if you book the hotel and flight with a physical travel agency which has a service on the spot or local office here.
The local customer representative will help you find a hotel in Samui for a stopover.
No worry about the category of this Samui hotel. It should be the same level/category as the hotel on those islands you have booked.
The customer representative will also amend your boat and land transfer (
- Bus from Samui Hotel to the Samui pier
- Boat from Samui pier to the island’s pier
- Bus from those island’s piers to your originally booked hotel on those islands)
to the next day, you check out from Samui Hotel.
You can make a claim from the agency for the cost of the Samui hotel that you stopover.
First, You might have to pay with the hotel directly, then keep all bills with you back home. Then come to your agency office to clarify this issue.
So, everything is easy
Now, how about if you booked the hotel and flight via an online platform without local customer representative service?
You have to manage everything by yourself for a hotel in Samui for stopover, land, and boat transfer amendment.
Anyway, travelers who booked via online platforms like to book only flights or hotels or both but, mostly not transfers included.
They will find a taxi or boat ticket on the spot. So, the transfer amendment may not be needed.
But you have to tell your booked hotel on Koh Tao/Phagan that you will arrive at the hotel one day late. So that the hotel will still keep the room for you.
The hotel has the right to sell the blocked room to other guests if the original guests did come to check in within a number of days.
Of course, those who come first will have the most beautiful room even if they are the same room type but maybe have different layouts and positions.
Once you booked a hotel for a stopover in Samui and paid for that night. You can try to make a claim from the airline.
But dealing with the airline is much more complicated than with a physical travel agency. With the airline, a precise investigation should be needed.
They will ask many questions like why you missed the boat to those islands that day, there are really no other alternative boats.
Therefore, you are not safe to book an expensive hotel for a stopover in Samui. Because of the uncertain refund.
What if the international flight arrives in Bangkok late? But you still get your connecting flight from Bangkok to Samui.
Let’s examine a situation
As per the original schedule, flight X1234 from Vienna should arrive in Bangkok at 06:00 (local time)
Your connecting flight from Bangkok heading to Koh Samui will depart at 08:00
Your X1234 flight arrived 1 hour late at 07:00. You still have enough time to get on the Bangkok- Samui flight.
But your luggage does not. The transfer of luggage needs more time than the transfer of passengers.
Since your luggage cannot be transferred within 1 hour, that means you will come to check in at the hotel in Samui without luggage.
If your luggage is stuck in Bangkok, it should last for a half – 1 day to fly to you.
The problem is if you have many transits like
Vienna – Doha
Doha – Singapore
Singapore – Samui
And if your luggage is stuck in Doha, the mission of delivering your loving luggage can take 2 – 3 days.
If you are staying in Koh Phangan/ Tao then plus a half – 1 day.
Of course, this is a situation we cannot eliminate. It can happen to any person and me too.
So, let’s go for a solution or how to manage this situation when it happens. # How to handle when your luggage comes later while arriving late here.
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