Looking at some travel and wondering how the 13 year old stepson could fly as he has no government issued photo ID yet. (They are issued at 15.) Is having no ID a show-stopper?

Passport.

Thai IDs are issued from 7 years of age

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_identity_card_policies_by_country

A student card or something should also be OK. Really, flying domestic showing IDs is only a minor formality - they normally accept all sorts of official IDs certainly doesn't have to be a passport despite what the airlines might say on their websites.

In Australia, it's still possible to board a domestic flight with essentially no ID (except if departing from an international terminal). Gotta love flying there...

Sounds pretty easy for children flying domestically in Thailand. As long as they are flying with a parent listed on the house book, that document alone is sufficient according to Air Asia phone support.

Thai ID is now required to be issued at age 7. There was some grace period when this first came into effect but I don't recall how long. Be aware that you will need guardianship papers if you travel without his mother.

Why not ask the airline? Simple

You can use Child's Birth Certificate for checking in.

Why not ask TGf to sort it out? Here we go again, farang getting involved where Thai person can sort it easily

Even though breadbin was incredibly helpful on this topic, we never did get a good answer, even from the agents collecting the tickets. (We were able to get two of them arguing with each other!) The phone service people said just a house book was enough for children, but the ticket agents said a picture ID was necessary. We were able to get a Thai ID for the lad in about an hour so we went that route just to make sure things would work out. The final answer here would be to just get a Thai ID and not worry about anything.

When booking on AirAsia, you tell them the ID you're using, and it gets recorded into your reservation. That's the ID you show them when you check in.

In Australia, it's still possible to board a domestic flight with essentially no ID (except if departing from an international terminal). Gotta love flying there...

Sorry I have to disagree with you on that ,you do need a valid form of ID to board a domestic flight here in australia usually a valid driving licence is sufficient failing that a passport is acceptable ...no ID no fly as nearly happened a few months ago when I was taking my 13yr old grandson up to Darwin to visit his uncle for a week he didnt have any ID and was initially refused at check in luckily we were in plenty of time to arrange a phopto copy of his passport to be emailed which the airline accepted plus I also had to provide proof that I was actually his grandfather !

Edited April 12, 201313 yr by steve down under

Wow times have changed, I flew a few domestic flights in OZ last year and no id was ever asked for.

When booking on AirAsia, you tell them the ID you're using, and it gets recorded into your reservation. That's the ID you show them when you check in.

That might be true if their online frustrator is working. I had to call in and the representative never asked about type of ID.