Thai students stranded as China study tour unravels
SingTao · 1 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
A planned 12-day study trip to China for 45 Thai students collapsed at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport when the group discovered, during check-in, that no air tickets had been issued for them . The students, from three schools in Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Chonburi, had enrolled in a programme scheduled for October 15 to 26 to study Chinese and learn about Chinese culture . Thai education authorities said the trip was privately organised and denied any official involvement, while police began examining possible fraud, false representation and the flow of the money collected .
Key Points
- The 45 students travelled to Suvarnabhumi Airport with parents and teachers, expecting to board a Thai Vietjet flight departing at 6:20pm on October 15 .
- Organisers had collected 39,900 baht from each student, for a total of 1.7955 million baht, with parents transferring money into a teacher’s bank account .
- The programme was first presented as a Xi’an study tour, but on October 11 organisers said accommodation there was unavailable and switched the destination to Beijing .
- One organiser reportedly used the title “doctor”, while another was accused of claiming to be an official of Thailand’s Office of the Basic Education Commission .
- Refunds promised on the day of the airport incident were uneven: some parents received full repayment, some partial sums, and one school’s parents said they got nothing .
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong families considering overseas study tours, the case underlines the need to verify flights, institutional partnerships and any claimed government endorsement before departure . It also shows how quickly educational travel can turn into a cross-border consumer and possible criminal dispute when payments are concentrated in private accounts and documentation is unclear .