Qantas passengers forced to hand over passports in 'frustrating' move
A picture taken by Ramya shows dozens of passports neatly stacked in a cardboard box on the floor of Bangkok Airport on Monday night. She explained she was left waiting for hours with her two young children as the flight from Bangkok to Sydney kept being delayed. When it was finally cancelled, she was told to hand over her passport alongside everyone else. She said there was no transparency about what was going on.
"I think the reason they took it was because they wanted to comply with Thai laws... I didn't actually know why," she told Yahoo, explaining passengers were relying primarily on each other to pass on information.
Passengers were then given an orange wristband and a "slip of paper" that allegedly acted as a receipt for the passport exchange. They were later herded off onto a shuttle and stayed overnight in a hotel.
Ramya was eager for an "uneventful flight" and, while an almost 24-hour delay didn't quite qualify as that, she said the situation overall was fine. However, she claims another passenger, who visits Thailand every week, was forced to give over his passport rather than simply head back to his accommodation.
Ramya and her fellow passengers were under the impression they were not able to make alternative travel plans themselves, and instead had to follow along with the airline.
"It was a waste of time for him when he's delayed for two days, and then has to come back [to Thailand] the day later [after his flight back to Australia]," she said.
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Qantas apologises for passport fiasco at Bangkok Airport
Yahoo News reached out to Qantas about the incident, and the airline has apologised.
"We sincerely apologise to customers for the disruption and understand the inconvenience this would have caused to their travel plans," a Qantas spokesperson told Yahoo. "Our teams worked hard to get passengers on their way as quickly as possible and all passengers have now arrived in Sydney."
Yahoo News understands the original flight from Bangkok to Sydney was delayed due to a mechanical issue. The passports were handed into immigration officials in order for the passengers to exit the airport and access their hotel accomodation, as is the custom with Bangkok Immigration regulations.
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