At Don Mueang your ticket matters as much as your passport. On one booking you can change planes inside security with no paperwork at all. On separate tickets you enter Thailand to collect your bags, so the entry rules apply even if you never leave the airport, and for most Western and Indian passports that means no visa, only a free online arrival card.
No visa is needed to change planes at Don Mueang on one booking, such as an AirAsia Fly-Thru: you stay inside security. On separate tickets, or to go into Bangkok, you pass immigration. That needs no visa on a US, UK, EU or Schengen, Canadian, Australian or Indian passport, which gets up to 30 days visa-free: just the free Thailand Digital Arrival Card, filled in online within 3 days of landing.
If you stay airside
At Don Mueang International Airport (DMK), only a connection on one booking keeps you inside security, without passing Thai immigration. Three airlines sell them here:
- AirAsia Fly-Thru: AirAsia flights on one booking, with 90 minutes to 6 hours between them at Don Mueang. Your bags are checked through to your final stop.
- Nok Air connecting flights: one itinerary, checked in once at the start, with 90 minutes to 6 hours between flights; you collect your bags at the end.
- Thai Lion Air’s LION CONNECT: one booking, with boarding passes issued to your final stop and 90 minutes to 12 hours between flights.
What to do depends on where you’re flying next:
- International to international. You land on floor 2. Follow the “Transfer to International” signs to your airline’s transfer counter, show your documents, put your hand luggage through the scanner and take the escalator up to departures on floor 3. You need no visa and no arrival card.
- Domestic to international. Follow the “C.I.Q Passengers” signs (customs, immigration and quarantine) to departure immigration.
- International to a Thai domestic flight. You pass Thai immigration on the way, so your passport must let you into Thailand and you need the arrival card.
- Domestic to domestic on Thai Lion Air. There are no airline staff at the transfer point, so you leave the terminal and check in again.
No limit on how long you may stay inside security is published, beyond the airlines’ own connection windows. Those windows are short: a 6-hour Fly-Thru connection leaves little more than the shortest trip into town needs. If you want to go out on a one-booking connection, ask your airline at the transfer counter first; you’d pass immigration both ways.
If a late first flight makes you miss the second on one booking, AirAsia and Thai Lion Air move you to the next available flight free of charge. Nobody does that for separate tickets.
If you want to leave the airport
Since 15 September 2026, passports from 60 countries can enter Thailand as tourists for up to 30 days without a visa, and every passport below is on the list.
| Passport | What you need |
|---|---|
| United States | Visa-free entry for up to 30 days; arrival card online |
| United Kingdom | Visa-free entry for up to 30 days; arrival card online |
| EU and Schengen states | Visa-free entry for up to 30 days; arrival card online |
| Canada | Visa-free entry for up to 30 days; arrival card online |
| Australia | Visa-free entry for up to 30 days; arrival card online |
| India | Visa-free entry for up to 30 days; arrival card online |
The immigration officer still decides at the desk whether you come in. Airlines often want six months left on your passport and a ticket out of Thailand; if yours runs out sooner, ask your airline before you fly.
Visa-free for 30 days
Thailand cut its visa exemption from 60 days to 30 on 15 September 2026 and widened the list of countries at the same time. For a layover there’s nothing to apply for and nothing to pay. Pages written before the change may still say 60 days, or describe visa on arrival for Indian passports; both are out of date.
The Thailand Digital Arrival Card
Every non-Thai traveller who passes immigration fills it in, children and babies included, whether they’re visa-free or hold a visa. It’s free and online only, at tdac.immigration.go.th, and you submit it in the 3 days before you land. Do it the day before you fly, while you have time and Wi-Fi. Look-alike sites charge a fee; the official one doesn’t. If you stay inside security, you don’t need it.
Visa on arrival and other passports
Since 15 September 2026, visa on arrival covers only three countries, and a new 15-day exemption only two. If your passport isn’t on the 30-day list, check the Thai foreign ministry’s pages for those schemes, and otherwise apply at a Thai embassy or consulate before you travel. Thailand issues a transit visa (TS) there, which asks for six months’ validity and an onward ticket. Otherwise book both flights on one ticket and stay inside security.
If you’re on separate tickets
With two bookings you’re not a connecting passenger, whatever your passport. Nobody moves your bags or checks you through: you pass immigration, collect your bags in the arrivals hall, check in again for your next flight and go back through departure immigration and security. AirAsia warns that it takes no responsibility for a connection it didn’t sell, and that you may have to leave the transfer area even with hand luggage only.
So your passport must let you into Thailand, and you need the arrival card, even if you never leave the airport. The airport’s minimum connection time of about 90 minutes is for one booking. On separate tickets, AirAsia suggests 4 to 5 hours between international flights and 2 to 3 between domestic ones.
If your next flight leaves from Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok’s other airport, allow at least 5 hours: a free shuttle bus links the two airports for connecting passengers. See flying on from Suvarnabhumi.
At the border
Don Mueang publishes no queue times for its immigration hall. Allow about an hour from landing to the train, and more when several flights land together. A long queue costs you time in town, not your flight, as long as you head back on time. Have the arrival card done and your onward booking to hand.
Before you go landside
- Take your passport, your onward boarding pass or booking, and the completed arrival card.
- Bags. Collected a suitcase? Leave it at the left-baggage counter on floor 2 of Terminal 2 before you head into town.
- Dress. For the temples, cover your shoulders and knees.
- Be back at Don Mueang 90 minutes before departure. On separate tickets you check in again, and AirAsia’s check-in closes an hour before departure.
The train, the buses and taxis: getting into the city.