Two people are looking to apply for a tourist visa and also an Ed visa at the Thailand consulate in HK. I've heard that they require you to have airline tickets booked to Thailand for at least the tourist visa. Is that true? What about the Ed Visa? And, most importantly, must it be actual booked tickets or could it be merely an itinerary? The reason I ask is that we want to fly either at the end of next week or the beginning of the following week, but it may change to plus or minus 2-3 days based on something else, so we don't want to commit too soon, but we also want to get the visa done this week before the consulate breaks for Songkran holidays next week. Thanks.

Check the website !

http://www.thai-consulate.org.hk/web/3015.php?s=4283

Yes, saw that:

7.7 A copy of confirmed air ticket or an itinerary.

And its the same on the tourist visa page on the same website:

6. A copy of confirmed round-trip air ticket or an itinerary.

So do you interpret this as saying that an itinerary or a flight "on hold" or ticket.itinerary without financial commitment would be sufficient?

What exactly would satisfy the needs of "an itinerary"? Would just a word document typed up that says passenger's name, airline, flight numbers of a flight that they might actually take and then dates be sufficient, or is more required?

I have no idea !

Personally I have never used that Consulate.

Emailing or telephoning the Consulate may secure the information you seek.

Maybe someone else here will post more helpful information .

I had to show them a confirmed ticket for each entry when I got a double-entry tourist visa there last August.

And, most importantly, must it be actual booked tickets or could it be merely an itinerary?

You can use fully refundable tickets, for example most tickets purchased on Expedia US are fully refundable until midnight of the following day, PST time.

thanks all. is it just tickets into thailand that they want to see, and not tickets out?

They want to see a ticket out of the country for each entry. A cheap one way ticket to a nearby country will work.

A ticket out should not be needed for the ED visa. I suggest you check with the consulate to find out what their exact requirements are for the ED visa. Some places want to a see a lot of hours of study to issue one.