Heads up... Air Asia CNX to Utapao/Pattaya flight

[luther]

After reading on Thai Visa about how hard/expensive it was to get a taxi from Utapao airport into Pattaya, I bought the package (flight+transfer} through Air Asia. The Air Asia van waited for another flight to land so we waited in the parking lot for an hour before heading into town. Ugh!

 

Three days later on the way back, the driver took an extremely circuitous route, stopping along the railroad tracks to hand over a 1,000 baht to a friend (?) and making some very wild U-turns.

 

The flights were fine, but the transfers were nerve-wracking.  Will fly Bangkok Air to Suvarnabhumi next time.

[mesquite]

Thanks for the heads up.  I was considering taking this flight to UTP then transit to Pattaya.  I'll go BKK as usual.

[Mahseer]

Kan Air also fly this route and bus service is to Central Festival I believe. There are also taxis available that would be cheaper and quicker than either of the Bangkok options.

[LannaGuy]

20 minutes ago, Mahseer said:

Kan Air also fly this route and bus service is to Central Festival I believe. There are also taxis available that would be cheaper and quicker than either of the Bangkok options.

 

yup Kan Air, without communication, cancelled my flight to BKK and caused me UNTOLD stress and hassle

 

Clowns avoid them

[Mahseer]

10 minutes ago, LannaGuy said:

 

yup Kan Air, without communication, cancelled my flight to BKK and caused me UNTOLD stress and hassle

 

Clowns avoid them

Bit harsh ain't it? They are a small airline and no doubt don't have redundancy of aircraft so inevitably there will be cancellations but understand the lack of communication bit.

 

i just flew round trip Chiang Mai-Hua Hin for 1,380baht which was an absolute bargain and flights were even on time.

[wump]

Isn't the official price 600 Baht from UTP to downtown? In total, would be waaaaayyyy cheaper than Bangkok Airways, even without the taxi or bus from Suvarnabhumi... quicker as well. There is also A LOT of private taxi services in Pattaya that you can book and give them your flight number. I wouldn't bother with that minibus for such a short journey. It's not that cheap anyway.

[steve187]

flying coffins and baht buses go from Kilosip to pattaya, must be a way of getting the kilometre or so from the airport to Kilosip/Queen Sirikit hospital, i would have thought there would be baht buses in the airport, but maybe not. there are motorcycle taxi's for the reverse journey.

[steve187]

7 hours ago, wump said:

Isn't the official price 600 Baht from UTP to downtown? In total, would be waaaaayyyy cheaper than Bangkok Airways, even without the taxi or bus from Suvarnabhumi... quicker as well. There is also A LOT of private taxi services in Pattaya that you can book and give them your flight number. I wouldn't bother with that minibus for such a short journey. It's not that cheap anyway.

reports are that taxi's are ripping off customers.

[wump]

So pre-arrange with a private company or just use Grab. Not that hard as you know your flight times in advance.

[lordblackader]

5 hours ago, steve187 said:

reports are that taxi's are ripping off customers.

Cost me 1,000 baht last time I did the trip, both directions. Next time I'll fly to Bangkok and catch a bus or van down, it's only a 30 minute extra drive and the flights are cheaper as well.

[KhunBENQ]

3 minutes ago, lordblackader said:

Cost me 1,000 baht last time I did the trip, both directions. Next time I'll fly to Bangkok and catch a bus or van down, it's only a 30 minute extra drive and the flights are cheaper as well.

Unfortunately U-Tapao looses it's attraction due to the poor transport situation.

[KhunBENQ]

As these U-Tapao experiences are of common interest not limited to CNX I move the thread to the travel forum.

Links remains in Chiang Mai forum.

 

[siam2007]

5 hours ago, wump said:

So pre-arrange with a private company or just use Grab. Not that hard as you know your flight times in advance.

 

 

grab is the same rip-off in Pattaya, as they charge up to 6 times what they would charge in Bangkok for the same distance

[wump]

Yes, but certainly not 1,000 Baht. Go and check in your app if you have time.

 

And it's 700 with PT Taxi now stop moaning... "Next time I'll fly Bangkok Airways, pay three times the airfare and land in an airport 20 times the size and 1 hour further away" ...what a load of BS. You should support these Utapao flights or they'll get cancelled again.

 

NOBODY is forcing you to use the taxi mafia down there.