zink

I wonder if I can avoid paying this passenger fee altogether (I have already paid ticket for a flight that departs from Bangkok after 1st February).

About misleading advertisement: in many countries it's illegal to advertise partial price of flights. Thus a total price including various fees (like aircraft fee, airport fee, fuel fee, crew fee, possible reservation fee) must be included in advertisement. I hope also Thailand will adopt this practice.

"Clearly, this problem will not go away by itself."

Of course it will. When the airport experience is not new, the sightseers will go away.

Read my post again, even though the number of sightseers will decrease, overall amount of people will still be the same during high season because the number of passengers will significantly increase.

Currently we have 100000 sightseers and 80000-90000 passengers, about 180000-190000 people in total per day.

The airport has the capacity for serving 45 million passengers per year or about 123000 per day. However this is just an average number, naturally number of passengers will be higher during the peak season. Let's assume that during the busy peak season number of passengers will be 25% above average, thus there would be about 154000 passengers per day (when the airport will be running at full capacity). If we assume that there will also be about 35000 other people (sightseers, those who are waiting for friends/relatives, etc.) we will have 190000 people per day. Exactly the same number that is causing huge problems now...

Clearly, this problem will not go away by itself.

From here: http://www.tourismthailand.org/about/about...px?ParentID=213

Price will be increased by 50% (suprise, suprise)

Routes will be:

AE1 Suvarnabhumi-Silom (by expressway)

AE2 Suvarnabhumi-Bang Lamphu (by expressway)

AE3 Suvarnabhumi-Sukhumwit 3 or North Nana

AE4 Suvarnabhumi-Hua Lamphong (by expressway)

Does that mean that AE3 won't use expressway and will instead go along Sukhumwit all the way? In that case 150B airport bus will probably be even slower option for reaching lower Sukhumwit than 35B public bus + 25B skytrain combination.

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but the Aibrbus plane on which Thaksin arrived to the ASEM meeting made a stop in Moscow. This is a "bit" strange, since according to the manufacturer, the plane should be able to fly from Bangkok to Helsinki without a refuelling stop.

After the ASEM meeting Thaksin took a small 10-seat jet to London while the plane that brought him flew back to Thailand , there weren't any reports of unusual baggage movement from that plane in Finland.

Thus, chances are high that those 50-60 suitcases were left in Moscow.

From the Nation: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/09/20...es_30014111.php

Coup leaders confronted Prin Suwannathat - commander of the First Infantry Division and a classmate of Thaksin during their military academy years.

They asked him: "We have a consensus for a coup. What's your stance?"

Prin reportedly replied: "It's up to all of you."

This is really funny:

General1: Hey, we are doing a coup, what do you think?

General2: Up to you...

In case somebody forgot: "Suvarnabhumi Airport Will Always Have Electricity", http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=82408

There is also thread called: "Suvarnabhumi Airport Will Never Be Flooded"

Fare SA to Central City 300 baht on meter

Toll Way 70 baht to 100 baht depends where you go.

Now new airport surcharge 100 baht! Announced today.

How can it be?

Lower Sukhumvit -> Don Muang on meter: 150-180B depending of the traffic. Isn't the distance to the new airport roughly the same? Thus total cost should be about 350B (70B tollway, 100B surcharge, 180B meter price).

What did I tell you?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...533;entry885953

I will be very suprised if the surcharge will be only 50B. It will probably be increased (to 100B for example) just like every other fee at the new airport.

Great news

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the whole idea of banning them from curbside and making more room for airport buses was to try to alleviate this problem by getting people to start using the airport buses instead. Huge numbers of passengers at most major airports around the world make extensive use of airport buses, but to my knowledge they were never very popular at Don Muang. I never even new they existed there until recently. Hopefully this will change at Suvarnabhumi and it will become more civilized.

They weren't trying to make more room for airport buses, they were trying to make room for their overpriced limousine service.

I've used buses at Don Muang couple of times and they were quite full (there is also a luggage rack there). However, there are two problems with those:

- they depart only every 30 minutes. Thus if the bus has just left, it doesn't make much sense to wait for a new one.

- they are quite expensive if you aren't travelling alone. For two people bus would cost 200B and taxi about 300B, for three people the price would be the same.

In the pdf it was mentioned that airport buses will serve "first class hotels". I hope that this isn't true, airport buses should serve all important hotel areas frequently.

Will they still require a 50 Baht surcharge/tax/ripoff to take the taxi from the airport like what is presently done at Don Muang

I will be very suprised if the surcharge will be only 50B. It will probably be increased (to 100B for example) just like every other fee at the new airport.

Visa rules: http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Vietnam/Visa+and+Health

"Required by all except:

(a) nationals of Bulgaria, China (PR) (AB passport), Cuba, Korea (Dem Rep), Mongolia (AB, AC or AO passport), Romania, Russian Federation and Ukraine (AB passport);

( nationals of Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand for stays of up to 30 days;

© nationals of The Philippines for stays of up to 21 days;

(d) 1. nationals of Denmark, Finland, Japan, Korea (Rep), Norway and Sweden for stays of up to 15 days;

(e) transit passengers continuing their journey within 24 hours, provided holding valid return or onward tickets. At present, visas can be issued for either groups or individuals."

About departure taxes in rich and poor countries: is Vietnam poor enough?

GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power from CIA factbook:

Vietnam: $2,800 ( https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/vm.html )

Thailand: $8,300 ( https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/th.html )

Departure taxes in Vietnam: US$14 (525B Ho Chi Minh City), US$12 (450B Hanoi) and US$8 (300B Da Nang) ( http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Vietnam/Do's+and+Don'ts )

the "average thai" won't be getting on a plane to fly internationally ......

Actually there are now very cheap international flights available, thus this hike will affect also "average thais". For example Bangkok-Singapore (without departure tax) is available for 1499B with AirAsia. Adding 700B departure tax on top of this will increase the overall price dramatically.

This will probably affect Thailand's tourism as well. Middle class people from the neighbouring countries will think twice before coming to Bangkok...

About connecting passengers: Airlines pay landing fees to the airport each time they land, thus connecting passengers are also bringing income to the aiport. That's why airports want to achieve "hub" status. While it's true that connecting passengers don't pay passenger service charge, you must consider that they using less airport's resources. For example they don't pass immigration while normal passengers pass twice through it and they don't use baggage claim/check in facilities. In addition, connecting passengers pay landing fees twice (via airline).

Some airports have noticed that they can make lot of money from non-aviation related sources. Singapore and Hong Kong airports are prime examples of this, according to the Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Changi_Airport ): "The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore derives 60% of its total annual revenue (over US$500 million in the year ended March 2005) from non-aeronautical sources, with 30% from commercial space rental and a percentage of sale receipts. Liquor and perfumes are particularly popular, accounting for over half of total retail sales, followed by watches and tobacco products."

IATA has mentioned several times that Thailand should do something similar with the new airport instead of raising fees: allocate more space for businesses, attract businesses and encourage competition between them. In the long run this would benefit both passengers (who would need to pay lower fees and will have more shopping choises) and the airport (who will get more money). Guess what happened? King Power Duty Free will have a monopoly for duty free sales at the new airport... No wonder that the new aiport will charge higher landing fees than Singapore's airport, even though cost of labor is much higher in Singapore...

BTW: Here are the summary of various fees in Singapore (1 SGD = 23.8B):

- Passenger service charge (included in ticket's price): 21 SGD = 500B

- Limousine service: 35 SGD = 833B

- 6-seater airport shuttle to the center and most hotels: 7 SGD = 167B

- MRT to the center: 1.4 SGD = 33B

Suddenly, it becomes quite hard to justify various costs at the new Bangkok airport considering that the overall level of prices is higher in Singapore...

This doesn't really affect me as with another poster, I always have someone picking me up in a car, but nevertheless, I am amazed at the paranoia exhibited with people thinking Thais are out to scam them simply because the are Foreigners.

In the example given with the family of 4 arriving in Thailand after 24 hours flight and the headache of having to get a short transfer bus to catch a taxi, I note the poster did not mention the hassles at the other end of either getting a shuttle for a rental car (at virtually every US airport) or the shuttles to your own car (SFO is prime example of this).

Does anyone remember the first 5 years or so at KLIA where you couldn’t get a regular taxi at all at the airport and were forced to get a limo at about 50% more.

Airports today are required to pay their own way, and just like with airlines, convenient service is the first to go. I would imagine that the limo services pay for the booth space and this was part of an exclusive deal to insure they get the customers. This is not a Thai scam, this is capitalism. Sorry

TH

1. It's understandable that long time parking cannot be located right next to terminal in big airports. But we are talking about taxis here.

2. The limos will cost at least 100-200% more, not 50% more like in KLIA.

3. Limos don't have much to do with convenience. They won't be much different than ordinary taxis. Take a guess where extra money will go:

a) To the limo driver

To finance more luxurious limos

c) To AoT management pockets

4. Monopolies are bad for the economy in the long run. They have nothing to do with capitalism.

By the way... Did you read Nation last week end ?

They wrote a piece about Suvarnabbhumi.

They confirmed something that i've heard before : passengers will have to take a shuttle bus, from the terminal, in order to go to the taxis station, 6 km away !

And it will be forbidden for taxis drivers who are droping passengers to wait at the terminal...

If it's really true (everything can change without notice in Thailand)... i mean it must the only airport in the world with such a stupid system. No ?

The guy who bought the "limousines" licence gave his conditions : "put the taxis meters away from my terminal"...

There is a thread about it in general topics section: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=78758

"Limousines" will be operated by AoT which is a state owned company. I'm sure that politicians in charge receive a decent compensations for giving AoT monopoly in this area...

I'm not aware of any major airport in the world where you aren't able to get a taxi from the terminal.

I'm sitting in the 1st Class lounge in Doha typing this message... in transit to LGW.

Over zealous staff at BKK made me check in ALL my Hand Luggage even though I had bought a new piece fitting the new 50% reduction now in place on UK flights. I explained that the UK rules were relaxed on Monday/Tuesday, but they were having none of it.

My point is that there seems to be a total confusion over this whole matter. The UK authorities have clearly stated that bags of 45x35x16 cms are now allowed, but no liquids other than prescription medicines and baby milk. Why then was there all the confusion at Don Muang on the afternoon of 17th?!!

Definitely total confusion! We flew Bangkok to Helsinki (Finn Air) and then Helsinki to London Heathrow (British Airways) on the 15th (check-in at 10p.m. on the 14th) and the biggest restriction we encountered was a check that we only had one carry-on bag apiece at the gate in Helsinki. I had made sure we had no 'liquids' and stowed the simple camera in the checked-in luggage, but I'm not sure we'd have had any problems if I hadn't. Mind you, I was sweating about what would happen to my carry-on luggage at Helsinki. However, all the restrictions there seemed to be on US-bound flights.

You wouldn't had any problems even if you would had liquids and electronics within your hand luggage: "Passengers may carry normal hand luggage on flights from the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport to the UK if it is their final destination." http://www.finavia.fi/finavia_release?id=65877 , restrictions only apply to flights from/to US and from UK, thus Helsinki - London flight isn't affected.

Some people are confused probably because they don't know that aviation authorities in each country independently decide on which restrictions (if any) apply in their countries. Just because one or two countries introduce restrictions doesn't mean that every other country will automatically follow.

A poster at 2bangkok made an interesting discovery by looking at transportation guidelines of the new airport ):

There will be NO taxis or airport buses leaving from the passenger terminal!!! If you want to take a taxi or airport bus, you will need first to take a shuttle bus to the bus terminal, which is located over 2 kilometers away from the passenger terminal according to the document.

Just by conincidence, there will be (probably grossly overpriced) "Limousine service" available directly from the passenger terminal...

Those, who thought that the new airport will have better transportation options will be very disappointed. In fact things will change to worse, it will take a longer time to get from the new airport (unless you want to overpay for limousine service).

Thanks for the information!

Where I can find timetables and prices for this Samui - Chumpon catamaran?

I'm planning to travel to Samui for a holiday and I have a few questions:

- how much a taxi between airport and Chaweng beach costs?

- what about songthaew between villages, I heard it shouldn't cost more than 50B?

- Any experiences on "Samui paradise Chaweng", "Ever Green" and "Samui Island Beach Resort and Hotel (Bungalow)" hotels?

- Going from Samui to Bangkok by a night train seems an interesting idea. Any experiences? How much a trip from Chaweng to Nathon would cost with luggage?

I heard that you can buy complete ferry+train tickets at railway station in Bangkok. Does that mean that when I arrive by ferry from Samui, the bus will be waiting at the port and will take me to the railway station?

How safe is Surat Thani railway station in the night?

How much time I should reserve for a trip from Chaweng to Surat Thani railway station? For example if I take 10.26pm train, would it be ok to leave at 5pm to Nathon and 6pm from Nathon by Ferry (I heard that ferry ride takes three hours)?

- And about those cheap AirAsia flights: Is there any way to get reliably to Surat Thani airport from Chaweng in time for the flight (flight leaves at 10.45am)?

Thanks for any assistance!