Thai Domestic Flight Tickets: Fare Rules, Baggage Deadlines and Passenger Rights

Updated 8th Sep 2026

A Thai domestic ticket is a set of conditions as much as a price: what the fare includes, how late you may change it, and what the airline owes you if the flight does not operate as booked. Since 20 May 2025 the second half of that has been set by one instrument, Regulation of the Civil Aviation Board No. 101, whose English text is published by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT). This page covers what the regulation requires, and what individual carriers set for themselves in their own published conditions.

The regulation replaced a 2010 announcement by the Ministry of Transport on the protection of passengers using Thai air carriers on domestic scheduled services. Anything written about Thai domestic passenger rights before mid-2025 describes the instrument that was repealed. It binds airlines holding a Thai commercial air transport operating licence for scheduled services, on domestic flights and on international flights departing Thailand, and permitted foreign operators on flights departing Thailand.

What a Thai airline has to show you before you pay

Article 7 lists what a carrier must publicise while it is selling a ticket. The total price has to be itemised into six named components: the air fare; tax, such as value-added tax; fees, such as a credit card fee; charges, such as the passenger service charge; surcharges; and ancillary charges, such as a baggage service charge or an optional insurance fee.

Alongside the price, the carrier must give the general conditions applying to the fare, the conditions of carriage, the quantity, weight and dimensions of the baggage allowed, and which airline actually operates the flight. Article 8 then forbids a carrier from automatically adding any paid ancillary service. Extras are opt-in, and the charge, the details, the conditions and the procedure have to be declared clearly before you express an intention to buy.

That itemisation is a useful checklist on a booking screen, because some of those lines are set by somebody other than the airline. Bangkok Airways states in its conditions that taxes, fees and charges imposed by a government, another authority or an airport operator are the passenger's to pay, that they change constantly, and that one can be imposed after the ticket has been issued. Under those conditions, if a charge rises or a new one appears the passenger owes it, and if one is abolished or reduced the passenger can claim it back.

The same conditions fix the currency, making the fare, taxes, fees and charges payable in the currency of the country in which the ticket is issued, unless another currency is indicated at or before payment.

The passenger service charge is one of the items that sits on that charges line. According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand's newsroom, it is collected inside the airfare at the time of purchase, and travellers are not required to make a separate payment at the airport. The rise that took effect on 20 June 2026 applied to the international charge only, and the domestic charge did not change.

The method of payment can move the total as well. Thai AirAsia's own published schedule of charges names a credit and debit card processing fee, a direct debit processing fee, a digital payment processing fee, a convenience store payment processing fee and an instalment payment processing fee. Those attach to the payment method, not to the fare.

Fare types, and what the lowest one leaves out

On the carriers that sell fare families, the lowest fare leaves out things the fares above it include. Nok Air is the clearest illustration: its three ticket types, Nok Lite, Nok X-Tra and Nok MAX, carry 0 kg, 15 kg and 25 kg of checked baggage respectively on a domestic flight, while all three carry the same single 7 kg piece of hand baggage. A hot meal is served only on Nok MAX, and not at all where the booking or the change was made less than 48 hours before the flight.

Thai AirAsia describes the same split from the other direction. AirAsia's baggage page says a checked allowance is already included for guests with Value Pack or Premium Flex, which is another way of saying the base fare does not carry one.

Bangkok Airways takes a third approach, including one 20 kg checked allowance for an adult or child in economy and selling by booking class instead. Its conditions name those classes, P, R, B, G, V and Q in economy, E in premium economy and J in business, and set the no-show fee by them. Because those three carriers bundle differently, comparing two of their fares means comparing two different packages, and the airline pages cover each carrier on its own.

Baggage deadlines and per-piece limits

Baggage is a timing question before it is a weight question. Bangkok Airways sells prepaid extra baggage up to four hours before departure through its call centre, a ticketing office or an agent, and up to two hours before through its website or Manage My Booking; once bought it is non-refundable, non-reroutable and valid only on Bangkok Airways-operated flights. Thai AirAsia sells checked baggage online, in its app or through its chatbot up to two hours before scheduled departure.

AirAsia says on its own page that rates are higher at the airport, and Bangkok Airways offers prepaid baggage at what it calls a lower price. Since 13 April 2026 Thai AirAsia has stopped selling its Xtra Carry-On product at airport counters altogether: it has to be pre-booked on the AirAsia MOVE website or app up to two hours before departure, and at a counter a passenger can add no more than 3 kg of cabin baggage, to a maximum of 10 kg in total.

The per-piece ceiling is not uniform, so a bag that is inside one carrier's limit can be over another's. Thai AirAsia says it will not accept any individual checked item over 32 kg, and Thai Vietjet caps each piece at the same weight; Bangkok Airways states 32 kg too, attributing it to a directive from Airports of Thailand and requiring anything heavier to be repacked. Nok Air sets a lower limit of its own, requiring each piece of normal checked baggage to be no more than 30 kg.

Cabin allowances differ in shape as well as in weight. Thai AirAsia and Thai Vietjet each allow two pieces with a combined weight of 7 kg: one cabin bag of no more than 56 x 36 x 23 cm, plus a smaller bag that fits under the seat in front. Bangkok Airways allows one piece of 7 kg, sized 50 x 36 x 23 cm on its ATR72 aircraft and 56 x 36 x 23 cm on its Airbus A319 and A320.

Thai AirAsia also counts anything bought at the airport towards that cabin allowance, with an exception for sealed duty-free in a security tamper-evident bag with proof of purchase, within the destination's duty-free allowance. Items strapped, wrapped or tied together are not counted as one piece.

Changing your own booking

The change deadlines are the part to check before booking, because they differ by carrier and by fare type. Thai AirAsia allows no change at all inside 48 hours of scheduled departure on its standard fares. Premium Flex is the exception, with changes accepted up to two hours before the original departure and four hours before the new one, subject to the fare difference.

Moving to a cheaper flight does not return the difference: Thai AirAsia shows it in the revised booking as a Spoilage Fee, which is not refundable. Moving to a dearer one means paying the difference before the change is made. Route changes are not permitted, a flight cannot be added to a confirmed booking, and add-ons carry across to the new flight except seat selection, which has to be chosen again if the original seat has gone.

Nok Air's deadlines fall later than AirAsia's, and they vary by ticket type. Changes on Nok Lite and Nok X-Tra must be made at least 24 hours before the original departure date, and on Nok MAX at least three hours before, on the website under Manage Booking or, inside 24 hours, through the call centre or an airport counter. Nok Air will also change the name on any of its ticket types up to four hours before scheduled departure, for a fee.

A Bangkok Airways ticket, by contrast, is non-transferable and non-negotiable, so a seat somebody cannot use is not a seat they can hand on. Bangkok Airways also treats any change or cancellation made after the original flight has departed as a no-show, and applies a no-show fee that varies by cabin and booking class. Some discounted Bangkok Airways tickets are partly or wholly non-refundable, and where an unused non-refundable ticket cannot be used because of force majeure, evidenced promptly, the airline gives a credit for future travel less an administration fee.

Check-in deadlines vary too, and Bangkok Airways states in its conditions that they differ at every airport, that it advises the deadline for the first flight only, and that finding out the deadline for every subsequent flight is the passenger's own responsibility. It reserves the right to cancel the reservation if the deadline is missed, and to release the seat if the passenger is late to the gate.

Delays, cancellations and what the carrier owes you

Article 10 protects a passenger who presented for check-in within the time the carrier specified in writing or notified electronically, or, where the carrier specified no time, within 45 minutes of scheduled departure on a domestic flight. It also covers anyone transferred to another flight for any reason, and anyone whose flight has been re-scheduled by more than five hours or cancelled. Where a protected passenger pays for food, communications or accommodation the carrier should have provided, the carrier has to reimburse it, to the extent that it has established procedures for those protections.

Length of a domestic delay	What the carrier must provide
More than two hours	Food and drink, or a food voucher appropriate to meal times and the length of the wait, and free communication facilities. If the passenger no longer wishes to travel, an immediate offer of full reimbursement of the fare and fees for the part not flown
More than three hours	All of the above, plus re-routing to the ticketed destination or a nearby alternative, on that carrier or another, the same day or later at the passenger's choice and subject to seats, with no extra payment and the difference refunded if the new fare is lower. Alternative surface transport may be offered on the same terms
More than five hours	All of the above, plus compensation, paid immediately as a fixed cash sum or a voucher of at least equal value. Article 17 removes that compensation where the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances

If the re-routing uses a different airport from the one on the ticket, the carrier bears the onward transport from it. An aircraft held on the ground for more than three hours with no definite take-off time has to let passengers disembark, unless safety, security or air traffic management prevents it. Passengers still on board are owed proper ventilation, an appropriate cabin temperature, lavatory facilities and urgent medical assistance.

A cancellation, or a denied boarding caused by overbooking or a change of aircraft type, brings the same care, plus accommodation for at least one night and transport to it where the next flight departs more than a day after the original. The carrier must also offer, immediately, a free choice between full reimbursement, re-routing and alternative transport, and pay compensation. On an oversold flight it has to seek volunteers first, on terms agreed with them and confirmed in writing and handed over before departure.

Compensation for a cancellation is not owed in three situations: where the carrier proves it notified the passenger at least three days before a domestic departure; where it notified later but the substitute flight arrives within three hours either side of the original; or where the cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances, which the regulation defines as external events that are unforeseeable and unavoidable even after the carrier has taken all reasonable measures to prevent them. A refusal of carriage on one of the grounds set out in Regulation of the Civil Aviation Board No. 104 is a different matter, and CAAT states that a denied boarding under that regulation is not protected by No. 101.

The three-day notice has to go to the contact details or channels the passenger gave at booking. That is the practical reason to book with a phone number and an email address you actually monitor, and to check them in the days before a flight.

Downgrades carry a rule of their own: a carrier may not move a passenger to a lower class without their agreement, and must reimburse a proportion of the fare paid, banded by flight distance: 30 per cent for 1,500 km or less, 50 per cent above 1,500 km and up to 3,500 km, and 75 per cent above that. An upgrade may not attract any additional fare, fee or supplementary payment.

The regulation also requires the carrier to tell you. At boarding pass issue it has to hand the passenger a notice about the right to compensation and the right to care; on a cancellation, a denied boarding or a delay of more than two hours it has to inform each affected passenger in writing, with complaint channels for both the airline and CAAT. Where a carrier's own measures are more favourable than the regulation, Article 24 requires it to apply its own.

Refunds and complaints

Reimbursement runs on a form the carrier has to make available in the terminal, at its head office and branches, or as a download, and it goes back by the method the ticket was paid with. The clock starts on the day the carrier receives the complete form and documents: 14 days where the ticket was paid for in cash, 45 days where it was paid by credit card. A voucher, credit shell or mileage substitute has to be issued within seven days.

Buying through an agent of the carrier changes the outer limit, because the airline must then ensure the agent completes the reimbursement within 60 days. That is a reason to buy direct from the airline where buying direct and buying through an agent are otherwise equivalent. Where a refund arrives as miles or as a credit shell instead of money, the schemes behind it are covered in our guide to frequent flyer programmes in Thailand.

Complaints go to CAAT's own complaint management system, and its passenger rights protection page reaches both the regulation and the complaint route. The English text of the regulation is CAAT's own unofficial translation, and CAAT states that the Thai original is the only version with legal force. Carriers must also report each delay, cancellation and denied boarding to CAAT within 48 hours.

Holiday dates in 2026

Songkran, on 13, 14 and 15 April, is the only three-day run on the Bank of Thailand's 2026 list of financial institution holidays. The same list closes financial institutions on 1 and 2 January, 3 March, 6 April, 1 May, 4 May, 1 and 3 June, 28 and 29 July, 12 August, 13 and 23 October, 7 and 10 December and 31 December. The 16 October closure applies in Bangkok only.

That is a banking calendar rather than the national public holiday list, and the two overlap without being identical. Which months suit a trip is a separate question from which days the banks are shut, and the best time to visit Thailand covers it.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a Thai domestic flight have to be delayed before compensation is owed?

More than five hours. Below that the regulation requires care rather than compensation: food, drink and communication facilities over two hours, and re-routing or alternative surface transport over three. Compensation over five hours is paid immediately, as a fixed cash sum or a voucher of at least equal value, unless the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances, which Article 17 exempts.

What happens if my Thai domestic flight is cancelled?

The carrier owes free food and drink, free communication facilities, and an immediate free choice between full reimbursement, re-routing to the ticketed destination and alternative transport. If the next flight leaves more than a day after the original, it also owes at least one night's accommodation and transport between the airport and it. Compensation is owed on top, unless one of the three exemptions applies.

When does a Thai airline not have to pay cancellation compensation?

When it can prove it gave at least three days' notice before a domestic departure, when it gave notice later than that but the substitute flight arrives within three hours either side of the original, or when the cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances. The notice has to reach the contact details the passenger gave at booking, so those details are worth getting right.

How long does a refund on a Thai domestic ticket take?

Within 14 days where the ticket was paid for in cash and within 45 days where it was paid by credit card, counted from the day the carrier receives the complete refund form and documents. A ticket bought through an agent of the carrier has an outer limit of 60 days instead. A voucher or mileage substitute has to be issued within seven days.

Does the lowest fare on a Thai domestic flight include a checked bag?

Not on the carriers that sell fare families. Nok Lite carries no checked allowance at all, and Thai AirAsia includes one with Value Pack or Premium Flex, but not with the base fare. Bangkok Airways works differently, giving an adult or child in economy 20 kg and varying the fare by booking class.

Can I change the name on a Thai domestic ticket?

It depends on the carrier. Nok Air permits a name change on any of its ticket types up to four hours before scheduled departure, for a fee. A Bangkok Airways ticket is non-transferable and non-negotiable.

Can a Thai airline add paid extras to my booking without asking?

No. Article 8 of the regulation forbids a carrier from automatically adding any paid ancillary service, and requires the charge, the details, the conditions and the procedure to be declared clearly before the passenger expresses an intention to buy.