Cannot get a taxi anymore at 3rd Floor at Suvarnabhumi

Just for fun, I decided to try the 4th floor (Departures) taxis on Tuesday night. Yes, the turnstiles revolve both ways now, so it's easy to get out. There was no guard. The only problem is that there were far more people trying to get taxis than there were available taxis. Probably would have been faster at the normal queue downstairs.

Interesting, what time was it exactly? That 6-8pm period can result in what you describe as there are many pax returning to BKK and it is prior to the late evening outbound long haul peak (so less arriving taxis dropping off pax).

My main priority about using departures is to ensure that I get a nice new taxi rather than the lottery of whichever taxi is next in line downstairs (the time issue is not as relevant anymore given the improvements to the AOT stand in the last 2 years).

It was right about 11pm. Actually, I thought there would be plenty of incoming taxis at the time, but there certainly weren't enough.

I agree with you that using departures to grab a taxi is about choosing the taxi and driver you want.