Can I return to Thailand to use the airport

I'm looking to travel around southeast Asia at some point, and flights to and from Thailand from home are the cheapest. Am I allowed to fly into Thailand, spend 30 days there as a visa-exempt UK citizen, visit Vietnam, and then go back to Thailand just to use the airport? Or will I have to get the multi-access visa?

Also, I was wondering if I got a flight home from a different country such as Vietnam, but it has a transfer at Bangkok, will I need a visa for this? Is there a difference if the flight is self-transfer or not?

Best Answer

There are two issues.

One is, will the airline in Vietnam let you board? You, yes. The airline knows that Thailand has extremely lax entry policies towards Europeans. If your passport is valid, they will let you on the plane.

The other is, will the Thai immigration people actually let you enter?

It might not matter. There are two international airports in Bangkok: BKK (Suvarnabhumi) the “main” airport and Don Mueang (DMK). If you are flying in and out of the same airport, you don’t have to even go through immigration: you just walk from one gate to the other.

But if (as is not unusual) the flight from Vietnam lands at DMK but the flight to LHR departs from BKK, you will have to go through immigration.

If you do, well, it‘s still fine. UK citizens (and realistically, the citizens of any First World country) can re-enter Thailand as many times as they want, so long as they do so by air, which is your plan. You used to be able to do so by land and sea as well, but the Thai got tired, for whatever reasons, of farang living permanently in their country by just driving to Cambodia, having lunch, and coming back, once every 29 days.

TL;DR: Yes.