Taxi from Suvarnabhumi International Airport
“No meter” taxi scam from Suvarnabhumi International Airport still rings in my head, even though it happened two decades ago. Once bitten, twice shy indeed. Public taxi from Suvarnabhumi airport is not bf and my usual choice, but once in a while, we do use them. Bad drivers, good drivers, we experienced a mix of them. Getting out of Suvarnabhumi International airport from Nepal two days ago, we got a taxi from the official taxi rank at the airport.
After walking out from Arrivals gate at Level 2, we followed the signs to “PUBLIC TAXI” on Level 1, one floor down from the Arrivals level.
We walked out through Gate 7 to outside the building, turn right to the taxi rank, and there were no queue when we were there.
There are 3 lines: large taxi, regular taxi and short distance taxi (less than 10km).
I thought that the short distance category is rather confusing. Short distance taxi’s destination includes Lat Krabang Road, King Keaw Road, Rom Klao Road, Mega Bangna, Hua Takae, Suk Saman Junction, Hua Chiew University, Krungthep Kreetha Road and Chaloem Phra Kiat Road. I did a Google Map search – most destinations listed are 4-7km away, except for Mega Bangna approx. 18km away.
We approached one of the queue ticket dispensing machines, only to find it not working. We then used the next machine. Pretty easy – just need to click “press here” button.
After pressing the button, a slip will come out – it will show you parking lane number of assigned taxi, with corresponding name of the driver, ID, car license plate and also tel number.
As we walked towards Lane 14, there were many taxis waiting – spotted a large MPV taxi in the parking lane.
Khun Annop Poongtomc, our assigned driver is an exemplary driver – not only that he helped with our luggage, he is soft spoken and a safe driver too. He waited two hours for this trip – a slow day, even though it was the end of long weekend in Thailand. He checked our slip, and then returned it to us. Bf told him our destination, and the driver took heed of bf’s preferred route.
Calculating fare is based on distance plus 50 baht service fee. We paid around 300 baht including 50 baht service fee for approx. 30km distance, quite close to estimate fare.
|
Distance |
Rate |
Our fare (THB) |
|
0-1 km |
35 THB |
35 |
|
1 – 10 km |
5.5 THB |
55 |
|
10 – 20 km |
6.5 THB |
65 |
|
20 – 40 km |
7.5 THB |
75 |
|
40 – 60 km |
8.0 THB |
|
|
60 – 80 km |
9.0 THB |
|
|
80+ km |
10.5 THB |
|
|
Minute (slow traffic) |
2.0 THB |
|
|
230 |
For taxi service complaints:
- Call Airport of Thailand’s call center 1722 or 02-132 9199
- Call Suvarnabhumi Airport 02-132 0360 or email suvarnab_suggestion@airportthai.co.th.
- 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
Read about my taxi ride experience from Don Mueang International Airport here.
