Taxi from Don Mueang International Airport

From Don Mueang International Airport, we usually take the Airport Bus to BTS Mo Chit/MRT Chatuchak Park and then transfer to MRT. NOT so much because of money issue, but the Airport Bus is really convenient for us. But this time round, we were dead tired from our wee-hours flight from Taipei; opted for taxi.

Some people hail a taxi at Level 3, the Departure Floor to save on 50 baht service fee. Of course, this comes bundled with haggling with taxi drivers … “Lat Phrao? No, not going …. ” “Lat Phrao? 300 baht …”  Thanks but no thanks, we dutifully followed the legal way yesterday.

At Level 1, the Arrival Floor of the International Terminal (Terminal 1), turn left as soon as you’ve gone through the doors. Follow “Taxi” sign and walk towards Gate #8 at the far end.

At Gate #8, there are 4 desks #1-4, but only #3 & #4 were in operation. Queue up accordingly.

The airport was relatively quiet on Saturday morning – we were in the queue for only 5 minutes.

Upon reaching the counter, we were asked for our destination, then given a hand-written ticket and assigned a taxi accordingly. A staff then usher us out to the taxi queue.

The assigned driver and license plate number information stamped onto the ticket, shall matches the actual vehicle. You need to take note of this info for complaints, or if you need to trace your belongings.

The drivers helped with loading baggages at the airport and unloading them at drop-off.

Our fare from airport to Lat Phrao, around 16 km came up to approximately 130 baht + 50 baht surcharge = 180 baht. Our taxi driver didn’t use the Don Muang toll way, so we saved on the toll way fee. The table above shows taxi rate and my calculation for our 16km ride.

3 things to note:

1. Fare is based on actual meter + additional 50 baht surcharge for the taxi driver
2. Toll way / expressway fee must be paid by the passenger – taxi driver usually asks for the money before he/she passes through the toll booth
3. Any complaints, there are 3 ways to address it – take down the license plate and the time and place of incident:

• Call Tourist Police Call Centre at 1155 (24-hour)
• Call Department of Land Transport (DLT) at 1584 /02-535 1616 (24-hour)
  • But in a forum, there were complaints of “no English spoken” when a foreigner did call up 1584 to lodge a complaint
• Call National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Thai government at 1111 (24-hour)
  • It seems that they deal with all sorts of complaints from foreigners
• Call Palang Ruam Co Ltd at 088-690 5470 or 02-535 1616 or mail complaint slip (on the back of the ticket)

Read about my taxi ride experience from Suvarnabhumi International Airport here.