Long flight delay? Expect this

[Gaybutton]

Qantas passengers forced to surrender passports in Bangkok

Confused tourists caught in immigration limbo as late-night cancellation sparks airport uproar

by Puntid Tantivangphaisal, The Thaiger

July 23, 2025

Aussie travellers were left fuming in Bangkok after their Qantas flight was cancelled at the last minute—forcing them to choose between handing over their passports or sleeping on the airport floor.

The service from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport to Sydney was initially delayed for six hours before being officially cancelled late on Monday night, July 21, stranding dozens of passengers overnight.

Footage posted by frustrated travellers shows a cardboard box filled with Australian passports placed directly on the terminal floor. Around it, confused passengers crowded as airport staff appeared to fill out paperwork, also while sitting on the ground.

In a scene that left social media stunned, passengers were reportedly asked to hand over their passports before being allowed to leave the airport and transfer to hotel accommodation arranged by Qantas.

A Qantas spokesperson explained the move, saying: “Local border authorities are required to hold passengers’ passports during significant delays in line with immigration regulations.”

Qantas clarified that asking passengers to surrender passports is not part of their standard policy but is instead a requirement enforced by Thai immigration to legally permit foreign nationals to exit the airport after a cancelled international flight, Daily Mail UK reported.

Still, the passport handover sparked concern and outrage online.

“Is this normal to take away your passports? Never heard of anything like that! What was their reasoning??!” one user posted.

“They’d have to cut my arm off to take my passport,” another fumed.

“I wouldn’t have let them take my passport; that’s not standard practice for flight cancellations,” a third person wrote.

The airline apologised for the chaos.

“We sincerely apologise to customers for the disruption and understand the inconvenience this would have caused to their travel plans,” a Qantas spokesperson said. “Our teams worked hard to get passengers on their way as quickly as possible, and all passengers have now arrived in Sydney.”

Despite the resolution, the viral footage and mixed messages have left many passengers rattled—and questioning the rules that allow such a scenario.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Suvarnabhumi Airport for further comment.

Story and photos: https://thethaiger.com/news/bangkok/qan ... in-bangkok

[Jun]

The obvious approach for flight cancellations would be to stamp the passengers in for another 7 days.
Better still, do that and insist the airline buses them to a nice location.
Given that Thailand sets the policy, why unnecessarily annoy tourists, some of whom might be undecided about a return to Thailand ?

[Gaybutton]

Holding their passports forces them to stay in whatever hotel the airline puts them. They can't go to another hotel because they can't check in without their passport.

I'd love to see what happens next if the airline is holding their passports, but somehow lose a couple of them.

[Jun]

Holding their passports forces them to stay in whatever hotel the airline puts them. They can't go to another hotel because they can't check in without their passport.

The airline blames the Thai authorities.
As I said, if a country doesn't want to annoy customers, they should simply stamp them back in for another 7 days in such circumstances.
Staying at one of the hotels near the airport would be my idea of wasting a night.

[Gaybutton]

Staying at one of the hotels near the airport would be my idea of wasting a night.

I suppose that depends on what time they put everyone up in the hotel. Once checked in, it's probably not a great risk if they go where they want before returning to the hotel and retiring.

I've had it happen to me. They put us up in a very nice hotel, but it was in the middle of nowhere, not even close to the city or even the airport and no available transportation. I think they wanted to keep everyone in the same place so there would be no problem collecting everyone for the bus trip back to the airport and there would be no missing passengers. It was quite late at night. In my case the flight delay occurred in Detroit and for many of us we had already endured a long flight just getting to Detroit. By the time we arrived in Tokyo, after nearly 17 hours, everyone was exhausted and the last thing I or anyone else was interested in was going out. All we wanted was our dinner and getting to bed. Nobody objected.

I don't recall anyone, including the hotel, asking for our passports, but this was Japan, not Thailand. If they did ask, I probably would have handed it right over without complaint. I was too tired, too hungry, and too fed up to argue.

That was one experience I would gladly like to forget, but I still remember it all too clearly.

[Jun]

At my ex company, it was fairly common for people to spend the night in a hotel near Narita airport prior to the flight home.
I tried that just the once. Thereafter, I usually stayed in Shinjuku Ni Chime, which is far more interesting

[Gaybutton]

When it happened to me it was with the now long gone Northwest Airlines. When we finally arrived at the hotel, whatever its name was, they already had our names, checked in, and room assignments. I remember saying to the clerk that they really have this down to a science. This must happen fairly often. I distinctly remember him saying:

"Happen every day. Every day. Always Northwest."