RoninTech

Unfortunately the flight to Had Yai leaves from the domestic terminal where Thai has only a business lounge I believe.

Doh! Maybe we could hang in the first class international lounge for 4-5 hours or so and then head over to the departure gate in the domestic terminal. Is it far from one to the other? Since our luggage will probably be checked all the way to Hat Yai, I imagine we wouldn't have to go through customs and check-in at BKK.

Cheers,

RoninTech

Hi All,

As a present for me and the missus' 10 year wedding anniversary, we accumulated enough airmiles to get us 2 free first class tickets to Thailand and back. We honeymooned there in January Y2K and have been back a couple of times via economy flights. We will be flying into BKK on Thai Airways first class from Frankfurt this January. We get in at 6:20am and then have to wait 7 hours for our departing Thai airways flight to Hat Yai (business class as there is no first on this leg). My question is do you get any special treatment when arriving on TG international first and what lounge(s) would we have access to to while away the hours? Fingers crossed that we could get into the first class lounge but I'm not sure if having an arrival FC boarding pass stub would qualify us for that?

Cheers,

RoninTech

I don't mind the concept of 2 airports. Both of Bangkok's have been good to us in the past. We've had to connect stuff like this before and in all other cases I can remember it was obvious and if you asked how you got a nice easy response. We'll be landing in swampy this February late at night and for the first time will have to transfer to DM to make our connector to Hat Yai early the next morning (all Thai Airways). Just to be prepared I did the usual google search on how to transfer from Suvarnabhumi to to Don Muang. It sure makes for some interesting reading! Whispered rumours of a TG shuttle, pages and pages of how to make sure you don't get ripped off by the taxis, fake buses that will dump you off the beated track etc. Its not the end of the world and we'll just make it into an adventure. However it'd be much nicer if there was a no-brainer connection between the 2. I imagine the taxi thing is no big deal but based on the number of negative posts there's got to be something there as you just don't see the same volume of negativity when searching on different connection transfers.

I sure got excited when I saw the announcement of all flights going back to Swampy as it would completely eliminate this added complexity to our trip. Unfortunately we just miss the window. Next time we'll be happy to not have to deal with the transfer.

Cheers,

Paul

P.S.

Gizza job - I can do that - gizza job

Your hired yozzer!

Thanks machlad. Airport Suites (old Comfort Inn) is our old standby from pre-Suvarnabhumi trips . We've already booked ourselves in there. We'll post back next year on the results of our hunt for the elusive Thai Airways transfer shuttle.

Ahh, the legend of the Thai Airways shuttle grows some more..... . Brownie points to the first person with a report of an in the wild sighting. A picture gets you big karma!

Cheers,

Paul

Can anyone expand on what Thai Air does to get you from one airport to the other? We'd be getting into BKK late at night and needing to fly out to Hat Yai first thing in the morning. Is the old Comfort inn/Best Western still open at Don Muang?

Cheers,

Paul

Thanks all!

We will arrive on a Thai flight from either Beijing, Hong Kong or Narita but I don't see any reference to Thai providing a bus or something to get to the other airport. Well since we haven't booked the flight yet we'll look into using another airline for the BKK-HDY and back hops. I wonder if lots of other travelers that would normally prefer to stay with Thai are going to other carriers because of this? I wish Thai would pick one airport or the other rather than using both. Seems odd for such a popular international tourist destination and the country's flagship carrier.

Still if that's the biggest issue, its all good!

Cheers,

Paul

We are getting ready to book another trip to Thailand (Satun province, Turatao area) from Canada this winter. Is it true that Thai no longer flies to Hat Yai from BKK and that you have to transfer to Don Muang for a Hat Yai flight? Our international flight from Canada gets in late and we need to get to Hat Yai early the next morning in order to make a ferry connection to the islands. We usually crash for a few hours at the airport hotel. If we need to transfer we'd barely have enough time to catch any z's. On previous trips the flight to Hat Yai left from the same airport as the one we arrived at, either Don Muang or Swampy.

If Thai has changed this, do they take care of shuttling passengers to connecting flights at the different airport or are you on your own.

Cheers,

Paul

I want to go to Koh Lipe. Nok Air has a flight to Trang leaving at 9am, and then there is a TigerLine Travel boat leaving Trang Port (Hat Yao) at 12:30pm arriving Koh Lipe at 3:00pm. Tigerline Travel said they will pick you up at Trang Airport for an extra 100 baht per person, and you will make the ferry no problem.

However, I am hesitant to spend 2.5 hours on a ferry - long journey.

Instead, I could fly to Hat Yai. It looks like the ferry ride from Pakbara is much shorter - 1.5 hours. But the woman from Tigerline said getting from Hat Yai airport to Pakbara Pier is time-consuming, difficult and expensive.

Anyone have any suggestions on the easiest way to get from Bangkok to Koh Lipe in a single day.

Link: http://www.tigerlinetravel.com/index.php?cat=lineboat

I always went to Koh Lipe using the Hat Yai way but it can be boring to spend a night in Hat Yai, so I will try the trang way next time.

Hat Yai to Pak Bara takes 2 hours at least (but it's cheap), then 1.5 hours to Koh Lipe by speed boat and 4 hours with slow boat, so it seems better to go from Trang.

Please tell us after you try it.

We usually take the first flight from BKK to Hat Yai in the morning. Minivan to Pak Bara and Ferry to Lipe and we are usually in a bungalow by 4pm.

Cheers,

Paul

We now also think to come on the 2nd in the morning from BKK.

If we by luck sit in the same airplaine we could share a taxi to save money.

Sounds good h90. If we can all fit in one cab with our bags, that would sure save some cash.

Fantastic! Thanks for the great information Krub!

Once you are at Hat Yai airport you have basicly two choices on how to get to Pakbara pier.

First choice, you can buy (inside arrival hall) a ticket for a mini bus to take you to Hat Yai city/town and this will drop you off neer the train station, opposite the train station is a mini buss office and from there they will take you to Pakbara.

Second choice, Take a taxi from right outside the arival hall and go straight to the pier, the cars are not marked as taxis but are all nearly brand new, you have to haggle for the price of the 1.5 - 2 hour drive.

When you get to Pakbara dont just jump on the first boat that is going there, ask at all the ticket boothes for the fast ferry, this takes almost half the time of the normal ferry.

Great info Don! The wife and I are flying into Hat Yai at 08:25 on January 2nd. We thought we had to go into town and hook up with the min-bus outfit opposite the station to get to Pak Bara. A taxi direct from the airport sounds like a much better way to go even if it is more expensive. Last year we were waiting at the minibus office until after 10:30 so we ended up on the slow ferry by the time we got to Pak Bara. Any guidelines on what we should expect to pay for a taxi ride to the pier right from the airport?

You can check out some of our pics from last year on Lipe here. We had an absolute blast. Originally we had intended on splitting a month between Lipe and Bulon Leh but we liked Lipe so much we stayed there the whole time. We plan on staying the whole of January there again .

We are arriving at 22:50 on New Years day and are flying out to Hat Yai at 06:55 first thing in the morning on the 2nd. We decided to stay at the airport hotel to get some sleep for a few hours. Can someone give walking directions from international arrivals to the Novotel or is it best to find and wait for the shuttle?

Can't wait to get back to Thailand.

Cheers,

RoninTech