I am in a pickle. We are in Bali and were due to fly to Thailand in 2 days. We are travelling on British passports and visa exempt. However, saw my daughters passport will be less than 6 months left on it (by a few days). We are on Asia X., and looks like they have a hard rule that they do not let people on planes who have less than 6 months left. Even if they did....it's very unclear what the Thai rules are. Different official websites say different things. Tried the Thai embassy and they had no idea either.

So we're looking to see where we can get to, so we can eventually get home. We are thinking of flying out of Bali to Hong Kong on Cathay. From looking at Hong Kong Immigration looks like no problem. The question I have before I buy the ticket is what is Cathay's policy on this - will they let us on the plane? I'm really worried about buying the ticket and losing yet more money if anyone has any thoughts or guidance, I would really appreciate it. I did try calling Cathay but the call centre seemed generally puzzled by the question and could only talk to the immigration rules not my question.

Thank you!!

Hi paulthetaxman and welcome to FlyerTalk.

The British Foreign Office says that you need six months to get into Thailand, as such your problem isn't going to be the airline getting into Thailand (sorry), but rather the Thai government:"To enter Thailand, your passport must have an ‘expiry date’ at least 6 months after the date you arrive and have at least 1 blank page."
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-ad...y-requirements
So it is pretty unlikely that any airline will fly your daughter to Thailand, and if they did, you may deport you on arrival.

The rules for Hong Kong are one month: "Your passport must be valid for at least one month after the date you plan to leave Hong Kong."
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-ad...y-requirements

Cathay recommends this website, that seems to have access to Timatic, which is the best source of what airlines will use: https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/ - it should really be the bible of what would be allowed, though you need to insert plenty of personal information

As far as I could tell your options would be:
1. Going back to the UK via HKG, should be fine with Cathay, even if you have a stopover (HK is a lovely place to visit as an alternative to Thailand, if lots more expensive). Other destinations or routes may work too but you're going to have to check jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction
2. Wait for a new passport (potentially emergency) and then resume your travels to Thailand

Either way, a painful lesson learned but I am sorry for the inconvenience. If you had no stopover most airlines should let you get back to your home country (even if the passport is fully expired), but I wouldn't be trusting anything other than a full service carrier with a single stop -> even if you were to choose something like Qatar (QR/Qatar Airways) then you run into Doha needing the passport to be valid for 6 months, so they worry about delays.... so even if transiting, may be painful. Luckily with CX/HKG you should be ok due to the laxer rules on British passports than would be typical, likely due to history.

[QUOTE=littlevoices;36416367]

Thank you for the detailed reply. Whats a bit more mysterious is the IATA site does seem to say though that her documents would be ok for Thailand but there�s a lot of inconsistency of info on various Thai government sites and as I said Air Asia seems to say no to passports less than 6 months.

does sound like Cathay is the way fwd at the moment.

FWIW, I have (pre-Covid) entered Thailand two or three times on an Australian passport with less than 6 months validity.
Cathay may want to see proof of onward travel.

https://london.thaiembassy.org/en/pa...e39c3bd00072ef

Interesting to know there is flexibility then, if the airline doesn't notice (which isn't that likely I feel, but clearly worked for DH188, unless it was land borders you were crossing?).

I would just say the following based on my risk appetite:

1. Traveling for a leisure trip, with children, knowing there is a risk of deportation sounds like a fairly extreme step for presumably some, but few benefits. I guess there my be a reduced chance that the country would deport your child only, but all it takes is one person following the (clearly stated) rules and it is trouble, and would they deport the whole family, or just one parent and one kid? Seeing another part of Bali (or Indonesia, or Hong Kong) for the time spent in Thailand would give a few fun memories I am sure.
2. If you have ever been deported from another country for any reason, this normally blocks off visa-free travel for many countries (at least for a number of years) and can come up in other visa situations. I would not want that on my kid's record.

Timatic requirements for British Citizen, resident in UK, leaving Indonesia:

Thailand - Destination Passport
Passport required.

Document Validity
British passports must be valid for the period of intended stay.

Contrast Singapore which has a 6 month rule

Singapore - Destination Passport
Passport required.

Document Validity
Passports and other documents accepted for entry must be valid for a minimum of 6 months from the arrival date.

Cathay and their outstations should follow Timatic - CX doesn't have a 6 month hard rule like Airasia (https://support.airasia.com/s/articl...language=en_GB ?)

Not wishing it on the OP..but would that be a deportation, vs a refusal of entry? Not sure if there�s is any difference a though the latter does sound a bit less adverse�

CX will just follow what timatic states. I have had family travel with them on an Indian passport to the US, which just required the passport to be valid for the intended stay.

Unclear why you post on CX thread since you go from Bali to Thailand on Air Asia.

If you can get to Thailand, I strongly doubt that Thai immigration will refuse entry to a family where a daughter misses the 6-month rule by a few days.
They are very eager to get tourists and are mostly worried about people who could create trouble, like overstaying their visa.. I never experienced or heard of anyone refused entry for that reason. Just make sure you have an onward flight ticket.

However, airlines are risk averse. When you fill the passport information with expiry date, they might deny you.
I have no experience with Asia X. But print the Timatic page which says that you are OK.

They were looking at CX to HKG as an alternative routing, as the first post indicates.

It seems to me that there's a huge difference - many people are refused entry due to documentation screw-ups every day. Being deported is a whole different kettle of fish.

Just a data point from experience (edit: April 2024):

Flew LHR-HKG, then two days later HKG-HKT.
At the time of our flight to Thailand we had about 5 months of validity left, CX still issued our boarding passes (even via OLCI - we got mobile passes and then printed ones at the airport) and let us on the plane. On arrival, immigration did raise eyebrows and mentioned the 5 months remaining, but let us through anyway.

Our return (out of Thailand) was on the same itinerary/PNR, if that's any help (flying out from BKK-LHR via HKG, no stopover).

When I first discovered that we had less than 6 months on our passports, we were frantic to get a 1-day premium passport, but seems like CX and other IATA airlines follow Timatic to the rule. This has worked for us as there was no mention of the 6 month validity rule on Timatic.

piggy backing on this thread:
does any kind soul coincidentally have experience entering Malaysia (KLIA) w/ a passport of less than 6 months validity?
a colleague will have just over 4.5months on theirs upon entering

Not at the border but Timatic for Malaysia is 6 months strict, akin to Singapore. Even if Malaysian Immigration will take you, good luck getting docs checked at the desk/gate.

thanks percysmith always having an answer!