Online Unfit to Fly Certificate in Thailand

Travellers, workers and students in Thailand need an unfit to fly certificate when illness stops them from taking a booked flight. The certificate gives an airline, employer or school a written medical opinion that the person should not fly on the dates stated.

Thailand moves a lot of people by air.

Visitors due to leave from Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang can fall ill days before departure, from food poisoning, a high fever or a holiday injury. Expat workers flying home on leave face the same problem. University students returning for a new term do too. The rainy season, which runs roughly from May to October, brings more colds, flu and mosquito borne illness including dengue.

Busy travel periods around Songkran in April add pressure, because changing a flight at short notice costs money.

An online request fits these moments. You can apply from a hotel room or apartment instead of travelling to a clinic while sick, and the receiving organisation decides whether to accept the certificate.

The doctor reads everything you submitted and decides, on their own judgement, whether an unfit to fly certificate is appropriate. Paying for the review does not guarantee a certificate.

The doctor looks at your symptoms, when they started, your travel dates and whether your details agree with each other. Your name and ID should match. Your account of the illness should make sense alongside the dates you ask for. If anything is unclear, the doctor may send follow up questions in the chat, and quick answers keep your request moving.

DrCertificate is a platform that connects you with independent doctors. DrCertificate does not diagnose, treat or prescribe.

A certificate is issued only when the doctor finds it appropriate.

Acceptance is decided by the employer, school or airline receiving the certificate, so ask them before you apply. DrCertificate cannot promise that any organisation will take an online note.

Airlines set their own rules, and unfit to fly needs differ from fit to fly needs. Thai Airways uses a medical information form, known as a MEDIF, which asks the physician attending the passenger to answer every question in the medical section and provides for that physician's signature.

The Thai Airways Aero Medical Center then gives medical authorisation for air travel depending on the documentation from the attending physician. If your airline sends a form like this, ask whether a doctor from an online service can complete it.

Work has its own rules. Thailand's Labour Protection Act lets an employer ask for a medical certificate from a first class modern medicine practitioner or an official hospital when sick leave lasts three working days or more. Check with your employer if your absence is that long.