How many days are lost between the boarder runs and or both the runs and extensions .Is it 6 days?

No days are lost. Regardless of your travel itinerary, the visa is valid for three journeys to Thailand until the "ENTER BEFORE" date indicated on the visa.

It actually depends on how you use it. I*f used correctly you can get almost 270 days, but never exactly that number.

you can get 60 days + 30 day extension = 90 days, border run you lose a minimum of 1 day, ( as the exit date and re-entry date are the same ) so next 60 days + 30 days = 89 days, and the same again 89 days so 268 days, the 3 x entry needs to be valid for 6 months, and you would have to obtain it as close to your date of travel as possible, as all entries have to be made before the expiry date.( as post 2) and all border runs have to be made on the last day of your permission to stay. to achieve this 268 days.

any nights spent out of the country on border runs would increase the 268 days.

In order to do what you said above you would have to enter Thailand on the same day that thevisa was issued. Kinds hard to do since triples are not available in neighbouring countries!

Depends what you call neighbors ... Bali is 3 hours flight

But don't forget, the use before date (6 months) is taken from the date the visa was issued, not the date of first entry into Thailand.

In other words, get your visa as close to your initial travel date as you can.

scenario ! Visa stamp for September 8 arriving Thailand Sept 13- 15. does June 1 sound good for how long to put on the Application ?

I came in on triple visa (did not use all in end got retirement visa quicker than intended) any worked it all out first visa 90 days with 30 day extension border run 2nd visa just 60 days border run 3rd 90 days with extension total 240 days roughly 8 months did it that way to get the last visa in before 6 mth expired.

I came in on triple visa (did not use all in end got retirement visa quicker than intended) any worked it all out first visa 90 days with 30 day extension border run 2nd visa just 60 days border run 3rd 90 days with extension total 240 days roughly 8 months did it that way to get the last visa in before 6 mth expired.

How did you acquire the "retirement visa" ?

By going to Imigration as we all do.

By going to Imigration as we all do.

I find that hard to believe!

Despite going to immigration many times they have never given me a "retirement visa" only an "extension of stay -based on retirement.

How do I persuade the immigration officers to give me a "retirement visa " ?