Frequent Flyer Programmes in Thailand

Updated 10th Sep 2026

Thai Airways runs Royal Orchid Plus, Bangkok Airways runs FlyerBonus, Nok Air runs Nok Fan Club, and Thai AirAsia flights earn in AirAsia Rewards. Those four are the programmes covered here, and the question is whether joining any of them changes anything for someone who takes a few domestic flights a year.

Which carriers fly which domestic routes, which Bangkok airport each uses and how their baggage rules compare are covered on the Thailand airlines comparison page.

The honest answer for a few flights a year

Joining is the easy part. On two or three domestic trips a year, expect to stay at the base level at three of the four: the first elite tier at Royal Orchid Plus, FlyerBonus and AirAsia Rewards is set either in flown sectors or in five figures of points or miles. Nok Fan Club is the exception, and its first level above the entry class is set an order of magnitude lower than that.

The one worth doing the arithmetic on is FlyerBonus. Bangkok Airways publishes a sector route to its first elite level, Premier, and what waits at the end is concrete: its business-class lounge at five domestic airports, on an economy boarding pass. That route is 35 qualifying sectors inside 12 consecutive months, and the alternative is 12,500 qualifying points, both as Bangkok Airways published them on 8 September 2026, which is a lot of flying, but it is a target you can count.

How each programme earns, and what the first elite tier needs

The thresholds and benefits below are as each airline published them on 8 September 2026. Loyalty terms change without notice, so check with the airline before counting on any of them.

Programme	Earns on	Route to the first elite tier	What that tier gives on a domestic flight
Royal Orchid Plus (Thai Airways)	Distance flown, adjusted by booking class	Silver at 10,000 qualifying miles in 12 months, or 15,000 over 24 months	One extra checked bag of 23 kg on Thai Airways-operated flights
FlyerBonus (Bangkok Airways)	An origin-and-destination points calculator	Premier at 12,500 qualifying points, or 35 qualifying sectors, in 12 consecutive months	Blue Ribbon Club Lounge access, and 10 kg of extra baggage
AirAsia Rewards (Thai AirAsia)	What you spend, with AirAsia and with participating partners	Gold, once flown sectors pass the Red band of 0 to 13 a year; the programme publishes a spend route to each tier as well	An upgrade bonus of 100 points; the tier table marks priority services as not included at Gold
Nok Fan Club (Nok Air)	What you spend on the fare	Nok Star at 1,000 or 1,500 Nok Points a year, the two figures the airline publishes, counting points from flying only	One free premium seat selection and one free 10 kg bag a year, both at the check-in counter

Royal Orchid Plus, Thai Airways

Thai Airways credits Royal Orchid Plus miles on the distance between origin and destination, adjusted by the class of service booked. Membership is free, and enrolling and then taking a first Thai Airways flight adds a 2,500-mile First Flight Bonus.

Short domestic sectors credit more miles than they cover. Thai Airways credits a minimum of 500 miles on any flight it operates that is shorter than 500 miles, and every route on its own published domestic mileage chart is shorter than that: Bangkok to Hat Yai is 476 miles, to Chiang Mai 365, to Khon Kaen 233.

Treat that minimum as an earning rule rather than a shortcut to Silver. Tier levels are attained on qualifying miles, which are not the same measure as the miles credited to an account.

There are four levels: Silk at the base, then Silver, Gold and Platinum. Silver is attained on 10,000 qualifying miles in a 12-month period or 15,000 over 24 months, and Gold on 50,000 in 12 months, 80,000 over 24 months, or 40 international sectors flown on Thai Airways in any 12 rolling months, with booking classes T, K, S, G, V, W and L excluded.

Those are the criteria in force as of 8 September 2026. Thai Airways has announced a revision, originally due to take effect on 5 August 2026 and since rescheduled without a new date, and says the current criteria and terms continue to apply in the meantime. The airline's status and benefits page carries the current text.

Thai Airways has separately extended Platinum and Gold status expiring between 1 June and 31 December 2026 to 30 June 2027.

Anyone flying only inside Thailand earns the base mileage credit and not the tier bonus on top of it. Tier status bonus miles are described as a percentage of miles flown on international flights operated by Thai Airways, and the 40-sector route to Gold counts international sectors.

Two of the tier benefits do reach a domestic passenger. Silver adds one checked bag of 23 kg on Thai Airways-operated flights, and Gold has a dedicated check-in counter at row B for domestic flights at Suvarnabhumi Airport, whatever class the ticket is in.

Thai Smile stopped operating on 1 January 2024, having been merged into Thai Airways at the end of 2023.

FlyerBonus, Bangkok Airways

FlyerBonus is the frequent flyer programme of Bangkok Airways, with three levels: a base level on free enrolment, then Premier and Premier Plus. Points are awarded per flight on the origin and destination rather than on what the ticket cost, and the airline publishes a points calculator rather than a route table.

Premier needs 12,500 qualifying points, or 35 qualifying sectors flown, inside 12 consecutive months. Premier Plus needs 40,000 qualifying points or 50 sectors. Only base points from flying are qualifying: partner points and bonus points are not, and the airline excludes code-share flights, award tickets and non-revenue tickets under the classes of X, S and Z from qualifying sectors.

Premier carries a 10 per cent tier bonus, 1,000 welcome points and 10 kg of extra baggage on a Bangkok Airways-operated flight. Premier Plus carries 15 per cent, 2,000 welcome points and 20 kg. Status upgrades are processed at the end of every month.

The two lounges, and which one membership opens

Bangkok Airways runs two lounge products with similar-sounding names, and it is the Blue Ribbon Club Lounge, the airline's own business-class product, that the FlyerBonus lounge access conditions are written against. A Premier member gets in on a valid membership card and a Bangkok Airways boarding pass for a same-day departure from that airport. Premier Plus adds one accompanying guest on the same flight.

Seven Blue Ribbon Club Lounges participate and five of them are on the domestic side, at Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Samui, Chiang Mai and Phuket; Suvarnabhumi and Samui have an international one as well. For an economy passenger on a domestic sector, that is the most concrete benefit any of these four programmes gives at a first elite tier.

The other product is the Boutique Lounge, which Bangkok Airways lists as Bangkok domestic and Bangkok international, without naming which Bangkok airport, plus Chiang Mai, Don Mueang and Phuket. It is a separate product and the FlyerBonus lounge benefit is not written against it, so check which lounge a card actually opens before you rely on one.

AirAsia Rewards, Thai AirAsia

Thai AirAsia sits inside AirAsia Rewards, whose currency is AirAsia points. Points are earned on what you spend, flying with AirAsia or spending and converting with participating partners, rather than on distance or on sectors flown.

There are four tiers: Red, Gold, Platinum and Black. Red covers 0 to 13 flown sectors a year and Black begins at 50. Where Gold ends and Platinum begins, the banner and the table on the programme's own Thailand membership page give different bands, and that is exactly the number a member would plan around.

Gold adds an upgrade bonus of 100 points, and the tier table marks priority services as not included at that level. Priority check-in, boarding and Xpress Baggage are listed from Platinum upwards. AirAsia Rewards does not say whether they are delivered at Thai domestic airports on Thai AirAsia flights; neither of its tier pages names an airport or an operating carrier.

Nok Fan Club, Nok Air

Nok Air awards Nok Fan Club points against what you spend on the fare, rather than against distance or sectors, and points are valid for 36 months. There are four member classes: Nok Sky at the entry level, then Nok Star, then Nok Smile at 9,000 Nok Points a year and Nok Smile Plus at 15,000, counting only points earned from flying and not transferred points. Nok Air publishes two different figures for Nok Star: 1,000 Nok Points a year on its tier card, and 1,500 in its membership-status conditions and again in its downgrade clause.

Nok Star adds one free premium seat selection and one free 10 kg bag a year, both at the check-in counter. Nok Smile brings priority check-in at Don Mueang Airport, one free lounge visit a year, and two free premium seat selections and two free priority baggage uses at the check-in counter. Nok Smile Plus adds 10 kg to the baggage allowance itself, and priority boarding.

The free flight is not what status buys. Nok Sky, Nok Star and Nok Smile all redeem one at 6,500 points, so the entry class already has it, and only Nok Smile Plus improves on that, at 4,500.

Nok Air is overwhelmingly a domestic operator flying from Don Mueang, so the tier benefits above land on the flights a domestic passenger is already taking. A 10 kg uplift on a low-cost carrier's allowance is a gain that can pay back inside a single trip.

Thai Vietjet Air and SkyJoy

SkyJoy is Vietjet's programme. Its programme page states that its benefits and privileges apply only to flights operated by Vietjet and do not apply to flights operated by Thai Vietjet. That exclusion is written against the benefits and privileges, and nothing Vietjet publishes settles whether points can still be earned on a Thai Vietjet-operated flight.

SkyJoy's own tiers are qualified on the number of regular commercial flights operated by Vietjet, excluding charter flights.

Frequently asked questions

Can Royal Orchid Plus get me a free upgrade on Thai Airways?

Gold members get complimentary upgrades on Thai Airways international routes. Gold takes 50,000 qualifying miles in 12 months, or 40 international sectors flown on Thai Airways, so on domestic flying alone it is a long way off.

Does a short domestic Thai Airways flight earn any Royal Orchid Plus miles?

Yes. Thai Airways credits a minimum of 500 miles on a flight it operates that is shorter than 500 miles, and every route on its published domestic mileage chart is shorter than that, so a Bangkok to Khon Kaen sector of 233 miles credits the 500-mile minimum. Tier progress is counted in qualifying miles, which are a different measure.

Is Bangkok Airways' Blue Ribbon Club Lounge the same as its Boutique Lounge?

No, they are two different products. The Blue Ribbon Club is the airline's own business-class product, and its lounges are the ones the FlyerBonus conditions name for Premier and Premier Plus members. The Boutique Lounges are separate, and the membership lounge benefit is not written against them.