Originally Posted by Soju
According to the Thai website booking, BKK to CAN e-tickets are available but not CAN to BKK. Just an educated guess: the Chinese government prohibits the issuance of e-tickets for outbound flights. Perhaps because Chinese travel agents report all outbound passengers to some agency prior to travel so they can check up on them. Either that or Thai Airways isn't setup in China for processing e-tickets.
I thought also that these could be the possibilities. Will call local Thai Airways office and ask if I have any other possibilities.
At least AY can issue e-tickets for example on a CAN-HEL-CAN trip.
I also found this from Thai Airways web page:
Conventional paper ticket may be selected, but must be collected from THAI city office only and that office must be in the country where the journey commences.
So it would seem, that this is not applicable only to China, but any international flight where no e-tickets can be issued.
-olli