Thailand Privilege Card Co (TPC), the operator of the Thailand Elite membership and benefits programme for foreigners, is preparing for a major overhaul of its packages, which is expected to come with price increases.
The new packages are expected to be available in October, but applications will be accepted until Sept 15 for the existing packages at the current posted rates, TPC has announced on its website.
There was some confusion earlier this month when TPC announced that holders of the five-year Elite Easy Access membership, its most popular offering accounting for 42% of all memberships, would be given until Aug 15 to apply for an upgrade to a 15- or 20-year package. The short notice caught many members off-guard and TPC subsequently backtracked on the plan.
People can now apply for Elite Easy Access until Sept 15, the same deadline as for the other membership packages, for the current one-time fee of 600,000 baht, with no annual fee. Existing members have also been reassured that they can renew their memberships three months or more before their expiry date, as has always been the case.
Elite Easy Access, aimed at frequent travellers, offers a five-year, multiple-entry visa with access to exclusive lounges where immigration is fast-tracked, along with limousine service and other benefits.
TPC has five other Elite membership packages offering 10- or 20-year visas plus VIP perks such as spa and golf course access and unlimited transfers, with one-time fees up to 2 million baht and annual fees in some cases.
Elite Flexible Plus, meanwhile, is for current members interested in investment and special privileges while working in Thailand. It requires an investment of US$1 million in real estate, a public company or equities listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
While acknowledging that fees for Elite Cards will probably rise in October, TPC has not said by how much.
It is estimated that there are about 30,000 members of all Elite packages.
The Elite Card was first proposed by Thaksin Shinawatra early in his first term as prime minister two decades ago, with Thaksin-sized ambitions to attract as many as 1 million affluent foreign visitors and investors. But it struggled in its first 10 years and ran up losses of a billion baht.
TPC has called its planned overhaul of the programme “a strategic move designed to adapt to the global economic landscape”. However, it has come under criticism over the vetting of applications. Law enforcement authorities have complained that some of the growing number of Chinese crime figures in the country are here on Elite memberships.
TPC said earlier this year that it was aiming for 10,000 new members in the fiscal year ending on Sept 30, with Chinese nationals being the top target because of the mainland’s reopening.
From Oct 1 to March 31, it sold just over 5,000 memberships, generating 3.1 billion baht in revenue.