Little Visa confusion, how does this work?

My wife and I were invited to join a tour of Thailand with her daughters school about 5 years ago. It was free for us so, of course, we went.

Personally, like you, I don’t like being tied to someone else’s schedule. I think I would have enjoyed it much more on my own schedule but I have to say they have some beautiful temples. What I really didn’t appreciate much was the head of the school that invited us owned a Vietnamese restaurant there and we were stuck eating Vietnamese food for the whole trip. Not that I dislike Vietnamese food but I also like Thai food and was dying to eat some while in Thailand. Of course, we were invited guests on a free ticket so I had to keep my mouth shut and paint a smile on my face. Anyhow, we made the best of it and had a pretty good time overall.

@OceanBeach92107

In my case, and forgive me for not mentioning it, I would be going through the airport.

and because of the good advice you gave earlier, when I renewed 90 days ago, I did use a service and just as you said, within about 2 hrs I was issued a new visa.

maybe in the morning I will see if the tour is still possible. Earlier today, I was told the regular plane was full now but I could go by a smaller, maybe 2 prop plane which lands at another airport but someone from the tour would meet us.

the price just seems too low?  6 million for airfare, 5 star hotel with food. Touring the usual cities and sights.

the airfare alone would run 3 million. But at the travel agents office,  it seemed to cover the above.

@OceanBeach92107
In my case, and forgive me for not mentioning it, I would be going through the airport.
and because of the good advice you gave earlier, when I renewed 90 days ago, I did use a service and just as you said, within about 2 hrs I was issued a new visa.

maybe in the morning I will see if the tour is still possible. Earlier today, I was told the regular plane was full now but I could go by a smaller, maybe 2 prop plane which lands at another airport but someone from the tour would meet us.

the price just seems too low? 6 million for airfare, 5 star hotel with food. Touring the usual cities and sights.
the airfare alone would run 3 million. But at the travel agents office, it seemed to cover the above. - @Dannyroc3

sounds like you got snagged with a classic bait and switch. let the buyer beware

@Dannyroc3

"the price just seems too low?  6 million for airfare, 5 star hotel with food. Touring the usual cities and sights."

When it sounds to good to be true...it usually is. At least that's my experience. If you proceed. proceed with caution. 

From my experience the "Tours" often consist of hopping around to different companies selling things and the tour guides heavily pushing people to buy stuff. There was a story not that long ago of one of the guides abandoning their tour for not buying anything. Im assuming theres something in it for them to cause that kind of reaction.

On another note; has anyone here done one of these group tour to a neighboring country trips?
They’re generally not something that I like to do because I don’t like to be on a schedule , but because I wasn’t going alone and Thailand is so foreign to me I thought I would do it because the pricing so reasonable. - @Dannyroc3

You mention "group tour to a neighboring country trips" but what does such a tour include? Where in Thailand does the tour go to? What cities/sites will you visit? It sounds sort of like a "magical mystery tour," just get on a bus and go wherever the trip takes you?

It seems like you'd want to book your own flight and accommodation yourself, then have a talk with a local agent *after* arriving in Thailand, maybe someone connected with the hotel where you stay, so that you can have a say in where you go/what you see and get some personalized advice based on your interests from someone who knows what they're talking about.

If you fly into Bangkok, you could do a temple/palace/river tour; the former capital Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage site can be done as a day trip from BKK; Kanchanaburi is similarly close if you want to see the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Death Railway; Hua Hin is a beach town about 3 hours away; there's a floating market and Chatuchak or "J.J." Market, supposedly the world's largest weekend market; etc.

There are also direct flights from HCMC  to Phuket (beach island) and Chiang Mai (mountainous province with hill tribes), maybe other destinations, but being quite famous, they're somewhat over-touristed these days.

What kind of tour do you want to experience?

Hi Danny. I "Liked" your post, and was going to ask whether you'd be exiting by land or air. I see from your later post that your question was related to exiting by air. Since you've already decided to forego taking the tour package and instead use the services of a local agent to do your June 3rd visa run, I'll answer your questions here for the benefit of other members and/or casual readers of this thread.

...One of my concerns was that because I’m on a multi entry visa , that when I cross the border, I might not be able to apply online before the existing visa expires on the third.
So I guess my question is- if a person with a multi entry visa where to leave the country before their visa itself expires, can the new visa be applied for and granted before the existing one terminates?

Yes, a person with a multiple entry eVisa, after exiting Vietnam, can immediately apply for a new eVisa. Upon approval and issuance of a new eVisa, the previous eVisa is cancelled. There is no obligation for a multi-entry eVisa holder to wait for the expiry date of their current eVisa. There was a time, up until a couple of years ago, where visitors were able to do what was known as "visa stacking", i.e. applying for and holding chronologically consecutive eVisas. This is no longer possible.

When submitting an application for a new eVisa where it asks for the dates of prior visits to VN, it's important that the most recent (current) visit "until" date shows as the same date which appears on the last "exit date" stamped in one's passport. As an example, if one held a multi-entry visa valid from Jan1st to Apr1st, but the holder exited VN Mar15th, the "until" date must show as Mar15th, not Apr1st.

By exiting via air, immigration will immediately be aware of your departure so there should be no deviation from immigration's stated turnaround of 3 days for approval (an explanation for this can be found here).

because of this confusion, and it ended up being a whole last minute affair with the Thailand tour package, I decided just to do the standard border run through one of the many visa companies that can do it expeditiously at the Cambodian border.

Good choice. Very good choice.

On another note; has anyone here done one of these group tour to a neighboring country trips?
They’re generally not something that I like to do because I don’t like to be on a schedule , but because I wasn’t going alone and Thailand is so foreign to me I thought I would do it because the pricing so reasonable. - @Dannyroc3

There've been numerous complaints from tourists who've had negative experiences with these too-good-to-be-true tour packages. Non-participation in tour activities (read, shopping excursions), not making purchases at preselected vendor locations, etc, have reportedly resulted in tourists being abandoned by the tour operator, the tourist's hotel stays being cancelled mid-trip, and even their return air flights being cancelled. Best avoided.

The people in Thailand are well versed in English, and unlike VN I don't think you'd have much trouble navigating your way while there.

Please keep us updated on your progress through this upcoming border run.