Wife (Thai National with Thai Passport about to expire; less than 6 months) Travel possible?

[Madao 18]

I want to travel with my wife to Thailand this winter from Jan to 1Mar 2023.  The problem is that her Thai passport is about to expire on 20 Mar 2023.  Will this be a problem for airline boarding and entry into Thailand?  Normally it's required a 6+ months passport expiration to travel (traveling from one's country to another country instead of her returning to her country), but since she is traveling back to Thailand with a Thai passport, does that apply.  We plan on getting her passport renewed while we are back in Thailand during that period.  I would renew it here, but we live in Alaska and the closest Thai Embassy is in Los Angeles.

[Mike E 11,722]

10 minutes ago, Madao said:

I want to travel with my wife to Thailand this winter from Jan to 1Mar 2023.  The problem is that her Thai passport is about to expire on 20 Mar 2023.  Will this be a problem for airline boarding and entry into Thailand?  Normally it's required a 6+ months passport expiration to travel (traveling from one's country to another country instead of her returning to her country), but since she is traveling back to Thailand with a Thai passport, does that apply.  We plan on getting her passport renewed while we are back in Thailand during that period.  I would renew it here, but we live in Alaska and the closest Thai Embassy is in Los Angeles.

This will depend on the airline and the country were she will transit (afaik there still isn't non stop service between the U.S. and Thailand).

[Madao 18]

I'll see if I can't get an email from the embassy about it.  Maybe I can use that if the boarding agent gives grief on the passport expiration not having 6+ months.   Technically she is returning to her country so I wouldn't think the 6+ month passport expiration rule should apply as long as she gets back to her country before it expires. 

 

We're planning on traveling ANA and we will have a layover in Japan and they can be picky about stuff like that; I had to fix a ticket before I could board once because I mistakenly booked 31 instead of 30 days in Thailand from Japan. If I had known at the time I suppose I could have told the agent I would do a visa extension or border run to fix the problem, but I'm not sure they would accepted that either. 

[Mike E 11,722]

Try https://www.iatatravelcentre.com

[Madao 18]

49 minutes ago, Mike E said:

Try https://www.iatatravelcentre.com

Thanks, it's a useful website with lots of option.  The website says it's ok after I filled it out so that good to know.

[TEX_715 6]

same issue, got denied boarding. had to book a ticket through hong kong which only required 1 month validity

[Madao 18]

12 hours ago, TEX_715 said:

same issue, got denied boarding. had to book a ticket through hong kong which only required 1 month validity

Thanks for the info.  The Thai embassy emailed me and said it wasn't an issue with them since she is a Thai citizen she won't have a problem entering the country with less than 6 months validity, but the airlines may have their own requirements.  I spoke with Delta about it, but was unable to get a clear/straight answer out of them about it.  We decided to go get her passport renewed before we go to avoid any issues.