scrunchielaura

I am scheduled to arrive in BKK from LAX at 6:10am. My flight via Thai Air from BKK to Chiang Mai departs at 7:45am. What are the odds of my making the flight to Chiang Mai?

Your odds are quite good. The airport is fairly empty at that time of day.

I arrived on that flight last month. I walked from the gate, got through passport control, (skipped the baggage carousels as I had only carry-on,) wasted an hour exploring the land-side part of the terminal, caught the airport shuttle bus, and arrived at the bus depot just after 8AM.

I just flew from Bangkok to Los Angeles using the Thai Airways direct flight. I had to go through a liquids screening "twice". The first checkpoint was at the X-ray machines that all departing passengers go through. The second was at the top of the ramp down to the gate. At this second checkpoint glove wearing security personal partially unpacked all my carryon items. Afterwards, they urged me to quickly repack my stuff. The "helpfulness" of the Thais slowed me down. They also insisted that everything go back into my luggage. I ended up having to repack my stuff my way once I got onto the aircraft.

The same setup existed at the end of last year. At the time it made sense because of the more restrictive liquids rules for USA bound flights. Now that the same liquids rules apply to all passengers, I didn't expect to have to go through the second checkpoint.

The Thai Airways International has signed a three-year with the Mass Rapid Transit Authority (MRTA) of Thailand in order to rent about 1,500 cubic meters of MRTA land at 450 baht per cubic meter.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 26 March 2007

Hmmm. 1500 cubic meters is about 12 by 12 by 11 meters. What is Thai Airways going to do with a house sized pile of dirt? Oh, I know, they'll fill the runway cracks with it.

Perhaps they are renting 1500 square meters.

Only guaranteed airline to USA with seatback entertainment from BKK would be Singapore Airlines via Singapore.

Thai Airways also has seatback entertainment (even in economy) on all of their flights to the USA.

I almost gotta believe that it is too long of a flight, at about 16.5 hours per leg and that is hurting demand more than cost. I just priced a flight out on that itinerary and it came out to about $1400USD. That price is competitive or beats comparable prices on airlines with connecting flights.

It will be too bad if they decide to take the non-stop away. I was thinking about using the BKK-JFK flight in a little while, and I would always rather do a non-stop even if it is a long one.

I've flown the LAX<->BKK non-stop. The westbound direction is scheduled as 17 hours. It really didn't seem anywhere near that long. Perhaps that's due to the creature comfort level of their Airbus. Perhaps it's because I was sitting "toward the front". Perhaps both.

Years ago, a flight about half as long on a 747 left me much more wiped me out.

You might look into an "open-jaw" ticket. In the past I've flown from A to B, and then returned home C to A (arranging my own transportation between B and C). This counts as a round trip ticket.

I don't know if flying A to B, and then later B to C would count as an open jaw route. Even if it does, you have the complication of needing to find one airline that flies to all three of your locations.

Congratulations!

I'll be transiting through LA (Los Angeles) while you're there.

It is kind of poetic to travel from the City of Angels to the Corner of Angels. "Los" in Spanish refers to mountains forming a corner of sorts in which the city is located.

How are you flying BKK to LAX - direct using Thai Airways, or making a connection elsewhere?

Thanks for the replies.

If I manage to get to a health food store, I'll be on the lookout knowing that I just might find some.

But I'm not going to be here long enough to bother making my own.

I am vegan and have developed a hankering for some non-dairy ice cream. Is there any available in the LOS? Non-dairy (vegan) ice cream can be made in a variety of ways from soy, rice, and probably even other base materials.

I probably can't go and get any myself, but might be able to arrange for someone to fetch some for me from Bangkok, Pattaya, or points between. (Although I do foresee a slight refrigeration issue...)

My hosts have informed me that if you are vegan you can announce that with:

(females) di-chan kin jeh

(males) phom kin jeh

I recently applied for a tourist visa via the consulate in Los Angeles USA.

They require a "prepaid" return envelope. At one place on the web site they say that the US Mail, Fedex, UPS, and etc. may all be used for the return. Elsewhere they strongly recommend the US post office's ExpressMail.

After much thought, I Fedex'ed my application to LA and included an ExpressMail return envelope. I think that turned out to be the correct choice:

I sent my application out on a Saturday. The consulate received it Monday morning. They held it two days and then sent my visa back Wednesday. I received it the following day (Thursday).

A friend created a FedEx account and had the visa returned that way. The consulate sat on the paperwork for two weeks before sending the visa (overnight).

I will be applying for a double entry visa to Thailand. I have a couple of questions about the application form though (http://www.thaiembdc.org/forms/visa.pdf).

1)On the right side is "Official Visa" and "Courtesy Visa", I'm assuming I just check "Tourist Visa" on the left, and leave these alone, correct?

Correct. The choices on the right are simply additional visa types. They aren't variants of the ones on the left.

3)The application asks for "Reference person and address in Thailand" and I don't have any reference person. How should I go about answering this question?

I recently applied through the LA consulate. I left the reference person fields blank. They mailed my passport w/visa back two days after they received the passport.

I think the reference fields are for some of the other visa types.

Not a map, but a picture showing both Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang:

http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery-detai...ame=bangkokport

Scrunchielaura......that's the best. Thank you......from Google Earth?

Nope. This image is from NASA.

Google Earth has a different image. I think it is lower resolution. From what I remember, on Google the terminal is just a foundation and it shows just one or two runways. NASA shows two completed runways w/ a third under construction.

Does anyone know why the runways are asphalt or some other dark colored material? I'd think that in Thailand's hot climate that concrete would be better.

Not a map, but a picture showing both Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang:

http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery-detai...ame=bangkokport

i don't get this, usually it takes me less than one hour from landing to a Sukhumvit hotel, why bother?

1) The flight is 17 hours.

2) The flight arrives at dawn.

3) My destination is not Bangkok. My destination is two+ hours away. (Ground transportation is being arranged for me.)

4) I may have a full day of things to do before getting to check in.

I recently learned I will have a traveling companion who could collect the baggage while I remain gate-side and duck into a lounge.

There is no way you can collect you luggage and then go back to the departure area unless you have an onward ticket and pay the 500 Baht departure tax to go back through immigration.

OK, that's a definitive answer.

Once you've gone to the baggage area, your only option would be a nearby hotel.

That means I'll have to wait a few hours till I get to my hotel.

Thanks.

I'll be travelling business class via Thai Airways to BKK before, um, er, Suvarnabhumi is opened. Upon arrival I'd like to pop into the business class lounge to clean up after my long flight from LAX. Some questions:

Do they even allow lounge access upon arrival, or are only departing and connecting passengers allowed in?

It looks like all the lounges are gateside of the security/passport check - and checked baggage claim is outside. Can I go out, collect my checked bags, and return gateside to a lounge? I guess I could use the lounge first, and collect my bags later - but that would mean they'd be sitting unguarded in baggage claim.