scrunchielaura

I should be able to derive it from the timestamps of the pictures of my digital camera. Will check that out.

Vince

Photograph a known accurate clock with the camera. That way, by comparing the camera's time stamp versus the time shown in the picture, you'll have a record of how much your camera's clock is off.

I am certain Orbitz included the AoT service charge, aka departure tax, of 700 THB when the ticket was issued and paid for by the OP. However, in the extremely unlikely event that it was not included it would be collected by the airline upon check-in. In this case you could pay with a credit card.

If the OP is flying Thai Airways, then, no, the departure tax cannot be paid via a credit card. Last year I flew a round trip on Thai using a paper ticket that was hand filled out by the check in staff at LAX. I was either not charged the departure fee for the BKK-LAX leg, or (more likely) they forgot to list the TS tax on the ticket. When checking in at BKK for my return flight, they sent me to the Thai ticket office to purchase a departure tax voucher for 700 baht. Cash only!

And, yes, the departure tax is still baht 500 BUT it is supposed to be paid by the airline and included in your ticket price, therefore no need to pay separately at a kiosk.

The departure tax was raised to 700 baht at the same time it began to be included in the ticket price.

The airport is an unorganized mess for the most part, so by the time you clear immigration and customs and have a bite to eat it will probably be time to check in for your next flight anyway.

If jimmym40 arrives after 10PM, then by the time he clears whatever formalities are required, the food vendors will have shut down for the night.

One place to hang out in the airport until things start opening again is landside at TBIT. The vendors will be closed overnight, but the seating area remains open. I did exactly that once when connecting from a TG flight to a 6AM WN flight.

I wonder if it is possible to take one of the free hotel shuttles to a hotel where the restaurant remains open late. After a leisurely meal take the same shuttle back to the airport.

it is like i reach Bangkok at 06:20 pm and the Los Angeles Flight Leaves at 07:20

How soon is your trip? If your travel date is beyond the latter part of October, be aware that Thai have changed the Los Angeles schedule. Instead of a non-stop flight leaving in the early evening, the flight will leave at dawn and stop to refuel in Japan.

O Ok so you never saw those Hopewell stanctions running along Makkasan Road/Kampang Phet7 Road? Remember where NASA used to be?

The airport line is not using any Hopewell structures, one or two were removed (much to the annoyance of the Hopewell company who still owned them).

It is not just one or two Hopewell structures that were removed along that route, but all of them. If you check the current Google Earth image, there are none of the structures left. A year or two ago, they were still present in the older Google Earth data.

But i do know that when i get a small shock from my laptop lead then that is not good. At least the laptop has a transformer so i am feeling a 12v shock, but i how about electrical showers etc that have straight connections to the mains i.e. 250V. Surely these are earthed ?

The shock you are feeling is not a "12 volt shock". Instead, you are being shocked by about half of the line voltage. In short, you are being shocked by about 120 volts AC.

Here's why: Your computer's power supply, no matter how it is built or how it works, does not perfectly isolate its output from the power line. There is always some leakage across the insulation in the power supply's transformer. The leakage is about equal to each side of the 240 VAC. Thus, the leakage splits the difference and ends up putting 120 VAC to the computer's case. The amount of current that can flow is low, so you simply feel an uncomfortable tingle instead of being thrown across the room.

There's a further complication: If both sides of the 240 VAC line voltage were to be balanced around the earth voltage (ie one side at earth+120V while the other side is earth-120V), then the leakage voltage would be darn near the earth voltage and you wouldn't get shocked.

A story: Years ago in America at work we had an office full of computer equipment all plugged into grounded power strips all daisy chained from one to the next. The end power strip was plugged into a 2 pin outlet via a 3 pin to 2 pin cheater plug. The lack of a proper ground didn't affect most of us. However, the "big boss" sat next to an old cast iron steam heat radiator which was apparently earthed. Every time he'd touch his computer and lean against the radiator, he'd get quite a shock! Checking with a volt meter showed 60 VAC (half of the American 120 VAC power). With twenty leaking power supplies all wired together, there was quite a bit of current possible at the 60 VAC.

Having flown LAX-BKK-LAX three times on the Thai A340-500, I'm saddened to see these flights canceled.

The airline's board of directors also decided to swiftly sell all four of its Airbus 340-500, which are only used for long-haul flights, she said.

Hah! They've been trying to sell them for a year or more. There just isn't a market for this niche aircraft. I think Thai is stuck with them.

My proposal for what Thai should do with the A345's: Remove the 42 premium economy seats and replace them with 56 economy seats @ 36" seat pitch. This will result in an aircraft with 60 business and 169 economy seats. Next, on Thai's A340-600's, replace the 8 first class seats with 12 business seats resulting in 72 business and 199 economy seats. Then pretend the A345's are A346's for scheduling purposes. On any given day, whichever flights have the lowest load factor get an A345 substituted. If their booking engine sees too many flights exceeding an 84% load factor on one day, some of the flights could have their seat availability reduced so as to not overbook an A345.

What about a voltage converter for larger U.S. electronic components such as a X-box, a lap top or MP3 rechargers? Would it be practical to buy a converter in this situation and if so are they readily available?

Check the voltage ratings of your electronics. Many electronic items these days can handle both 220/240 and 110/120. If they can't, it is likely that the manufacturer makes an alternate power supply that handles the other voltage.

My laptop and cell phone both had dual range power supplies. Of course their power plugs have the US style pins - but Thai outlets accept those just fine. My camera on the other hand needed a different power brick.

Hope the run way is parallel to the existing one (??). Live not too far from airport.

The third runway will be parallel to the existing west runway within the existing airport area. There has already been a significant amount of work done on it.

The fourth runway (if it is ever built) looks like it will be parallel to the existing east runway on what is now the east side access road. I'm assuming that by then a south terminal will have been built obviating a need to get directly from BangNa-Trat to the (existing) north terminal.

Average daily passenger traffic through Bangkok's new airport between Dec 28 and Jan 3 is expected to be 121,000 passengers, exceeding the airport's designed capacity of 120,000 passengers, said Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT). About 17,000 more passengers are expected to go through the airport each day in the period, above the daily average of 104,285 passengers on normal days. In other words, there would be 850,000 more passengers passing through the airport in the period.

Lets count: Dec 28, 29, 30, 31, Jan 1, 2, 3. That's seven days. Seven days times 17,000 passangers is only 119,000 more passengers.

Hmmm: 104,285 plus 17,000 is 121,285. And 121,285 times seven days is 848,995.

So, the article should have said that there would be about 850,000 passengers passing through the airport, not 850,000 more.

I have a digital camera's battery charger in USA.

But since Thailand has a different power system, what do I need to do to make the battery charger work in Thailand?

Take a look at the data plate on your charger. If it says something like 110-120volts 60Hz, then you'll need to bring along a step down transformer, or get a Thai/European spec charger for your camera. If it says 110-240volts 50-60Hz, then your charger will work just fine in Thailand and chances are it will also plug right into most Thai outlets too.

In the new flight schedule due out at the end of the month, Thai Airways has renumbered their BKK<->JFK flights. Flight TG790 (BKK->JFK) is now called TG792. Flight TG791 (JFK->BKK) is now called TG793. Nothing else about the flights seems to have changed. The departure and arrival times are slightly different than in the past, but these revised times already apply to TG790/1.

The only reason I can think of for this arbitrary change is that TG is planning to offer an 8th or 9th weekly flight. In other words, two flights a day on some days. With four aircraft on the JFK and LAX routes each sitting idle about 5 to 6 hours a day, they should be able to squeeze out an extra flight leg occasionally. The flight number change might allow the first flight of a day to be TG790, and the second flight to be TG792.

I read in a different forum that some people who booked TG790/1 many months ago have had their reservations canceled, instead of having them moved to TG792/3.

I really want a good comfy seat for such a long haul.Pref flat bed.Seems Cathay are not flat beds and last time I flew Thai their busines class wasn't up to much either.

The Thai business class to JFK and LAX (via their Airbus A340-500's) is a "flat bed", although it isn't level. The exact same seats are also on all their few A340-600's.

And, you can always try Thai Airways from Bangkok straight to New York and then on to the Big City. This might be the fastest flight of all.

It might even be the cheapest. Last year, on the BKK <-> LAX route, Thai business class was significantly cheaper than say Cathay Pacific. I don't know if this is the case when flying to New York today.

One problem going via New York is making the final hop up to Toronto. No Star Alliance airline flies JFK to YYZ. American Airlines does fly that route - on a small regional jet that departs after a 5 to 6 hour layover. The better options for the hop to Toronto depart from either La Guardia or Newark. Having to change airports kind of ruins the advantage of a nearly direct flight.

alternatively take airport express to ekamai bus station then by bus ----about 300 baht

One can also take the free shuttle to the airport bus terminal and then take the express bus direct to Chonburi. The bus fare Suvarnabhumi to Chonburi is 59 baht. The bus is the same 9904 bus that runs Mochit <-> Chonburi. The catch is that only five trips a day swing into the airport bus terminal - two in the morning, one midday, and two in the late afternoon. The bus ride itself takes just over an hour. Add to that your time to get to the bus terminal and the wait time until the next 9904 bus.

Has to be a different aircraft then. I was flying a pretty new A340-500 and the seats had a lot of adjustments, all electronic. They even had a regular 3 prong electrical outlet between the seats.

It sounds like you were in business class. The seating in that class is 2+2+2 and the lavatories have a window. And those seats do indeed have a lot of "electronic" adjustments.

The premium economy seats are arranged 2+3+2 and one has to go back to the economy section to use the windowless lavatories.

The legrest is adjustable, but has a confusing control. I think it requires raising it all the way up and then it starts getting longer, and then bring it back down to the desired level. Something like that. I just messed around with it until it happened.

I was referring to the premium economy legrest. It simply folds up from the front edge of the seat. These seats aren't motorized. Instead, the two available adjustments operate on spring and human power. Hmmm, maybe pulling on the leg rest may extend it out further...

I've flown the LAX-BKK-LAX flights in both business and premium economy. I can't sleep on my back, and thus had trouble sleeping in either class. As a result, the extra seat pitch in business class wasn't useful.

I didn't notice any hard bar in the premium economy seats. On the other hand, the leg rest was totally frustrating. It was too short to be useful. (The design must have been tested by short Thai people.) These seats could really use some sort of foot rest attached to the back of the seat in front. I spent much of the time with my toes hooked on the very back of the armrests of the seats in front.

What I found most frustrating about the BKK-LAX flight is that they keep the window shades shut the whole way even though it is a bright sunny day for the second half of that flight.

BTW, I'm booked for another round trip in premium economy. (Note to self: bring an inflatable beach ball or something similar to use as a foot rest.)

Supposedly the airport is already operating almost at max capacity of 45,000,000 passengers per year.

Assuming even 40,000,000 people pay ...

The 45 million counts both arrivals and departures. Only departing passengers pay the fee. That means only about 22 and half million times 700 baht.

I've flown the LAX<->BKK route once in business class and once in premium economy. The premium economy is very definitely a good value!

Two negatives:

I found the premium economy seats really hard to sleep in. I just couldn't find a comfortable position. The fold up "leg rest" was simply annoying and totally useless. I wished there was a foot rest incorporated into the back of seat in front.

The InFlightEntertainment system simply "doesn't work". It works good enough for a tradeshow demo, but doesn't work in the real world. The cabin crew had to reboot the system several times each flight.

Two notes:

This May I bought a round trip ticket at the Thai check-in counter at LAX for about $1550. This was for a flight leaving in under three hours. The premium economy cabin was only about two-thirds full.

I'm not sure Thai will be flying this route come January. There is some online chatter that they've agreed to sell all four A340-500's to South African Airways as Thai can't make money on their LAX/JFK flights.

Thai now has four of the A340-500 aircraft. That's enough for daily flights to and from both LAX and JFK and about 10 hours of downtime every other day per aircraft. The downtime should be plenty for maintenance or short flights to other destinations. I haven't done the "math", but I think the schedule allows them to pull one aircraft out of service for one round trip and still cover the service with the other three aircraft (albeit with a delayed departure).

If one of the A340-500's is unavailable, I think they can substitute an A340-600. The seating plan is such that every business and economy passenger gets the the type of seat they booked, and premium economy passengers can be assigned a pair of economy seats.

Hmmm, something's different..., perhaps better, but...

Here's my vote against the gray skin. If I want to read gray text on a gray background, I'd turn my monitor brightness and/or contrast down. At least the text to background contrast in the old skin was reasonably high. Also, I'm using Mozilla on a Mac and the new font shows as a beautiful but impossible to read soft-focus anti-aliased font. I was starting to reach for the eye-glasses I don't have...

PS, I used the instructions here to switch back to the old skin.

Last month I bought a last minute (round trip) ticket at the Thai Airways check-in counter in LAX. The staff there had to hand write out my return ticket. When I was checking in at BKK for my return flight, the counter agent carefully read through the list of paid taxes/fees on the ticket. The staff at LAX had either forgotten to charge me the departure tax*, or hadn't listed it on the ticket. I had to go to the Thai Airways ticket office in Suvarnabhumi to pay the 700 baht, get a payment voucher, and take it back to the check-in agent.

* They did charge me $12 less than a price I had seen on the Thai Airways website - but $12 does not equal 700 baht.

What is a light bar?

They are just restaurants/bars named "light bar". It isn't clear if "light" is used as in "light duty" or "light bulb".