everytime i arrive at donmuang airport, i don't stand in long line for local taxi queue on 1st floor. From arrival hall, i go up to 3rd floor and get a taxi just after dropping a departing customer. one thing good for this tip is i don't have to pay 50 baht surcharge for airport.

But i wonder if it is illeagal or not...

yea...i do exactly the same, not sure if its ilegal though but it beats fighting with taxi drivers about not turning the meter on, but if a taxi driver gets u pissed off...make sure u leave both rear doors open, he has to get out to close them.

once i waited till the taxi had been driving for 15 min...then told him..hey your losing money u forgot to turn the meter on and i only pay whats on the meter, after a small arguement and me pretending to call the tourist police he turned it on ;-)

3rd floor, eh. That's a good tip, Ken. Arigatou I'll try it in December.

I know the Taxi feeling,recently we went to get a taxi and a good number of taxi's refused a fare because my fiancee told them she wanted the meter on,its quite apparent they are up to old tricks once stopped by the authorities and looking to rip off unsuspecting tourists.

Its not a good practice as it causes kaos at the taxi departure rank.

I have been doing that for Years. I have done it in China as well. You just head right for the arrival area in any Major Airport.

I've done this many times. Fairly recently a driver wanted to charge me the extra 50 baht drivers in the arrivals area are entitled to. I argued with him that he had NO queue time at all and was lucky to have another passenger so quickly. He didn't press further for the extra 50 baht.

thanks guys, for other useful tips!

"Meter" is one of the issue when getting cabs. But i feel that things are much improved than many years ago.

i visited bangkok for the first time when i was a junior high student, and i saw many of "TAXI METER" but none of them used it. Then 13 year-old kid learnt something about reality of this world.

that's what I always do but sometimes even though at 3rd floor, there are lots of people waitng to catch taxi there I like do too, this is not something new and many people do the same.

Yes, you are right. I know many people is doing this and it's not something new.