In the future... Not this month, but all times in the future after that, send your flight details and I'll pick you up at the airport until they open that thing.

haha good idea Don lol^^

Like CT said, who knows is probably the correct answer :-)

I will have to say that last few times I flew in the taxi mess was mostly a thing of the past. They have an actual taxi stand out front of arrivals and you have to stand in a line and get a slip where they mark which driver took you and has a number to lodge a complaint. Everything is metered. I've never had anybody try anything funny since they put in the taxi queue. The only scam you have to worry about is the toll road because "too much traffic" when you're arriving on a Sunday at 4am. :-)

The funny part is that the scammers still don't get it. The cops make them stand way on the other side of the road and they whistle and yell at you while you're standing in line for a fully metered taxi.

Sometimes I wonder what the economics behind scamming someone is when I see stuff like that. Does anybody ever cross the road and take one of these scam taxis? Maybe 1 per day? There are 10 or 15 guys lined up so you run your scam maybe twice a month?

Couldn't they make more offering a legitimate service than trying to take someone for 900 baht? The fare is usually 200 - 300 so their "profit" is only 600 or 700 baht. If they get two suckers a month that's 1200 - 1400 baht. Isn't there something legitimate they could be doing that would earn them more than 1200 - 1400 baht per month?

I see the same thing where I live. I've got the Grant Hyatt and Four Seasons down the street from me and I see the same hustlers out there every single day trying to pull the 200 baht for a 40 baht ride scam on guys coming out of the hotels. But the hotels bring their guests metered taxis so these guys end up sitting out on the sidewalk all day doing absolutely nothing. Every once in awhile I see them snag an unsuspecting tourist who got off at the Ratchadamri BTS and has no clue where he is but for the most part they sit out there for 12 hours a day and average maybe one fare a day.

I can't help but think that these guys could easily make more than the 160 baht they scam off unsuspecting tourists if they just drove their cabs legit.

I have to be missing something here. :-)

Latest reports say the airport rail will be opened in April 2010.

Here a tip: If you want to get a taxi quick after arrival, just go down 1 floor to departure.

Every some seconds a taxi is arriving bringing passengers for departures.

You go to one of the arriving taxis and ask for your transport. The taxi driver is happy not

to wait for another order and will pick you up.

^^Haha very true story about the scammers. They don't seem to be the smartest people around. Maybe it comes down to laziness, they rather scam a person per day than work legit. If legit, they are forced to do more work for pocketing the same money.

bet, not before 2011.lol

As time has passed I've heard August '09, then December, now April '10 for the rail link to open. If it's anything like when they were building the Skytrain we'll be lucky to see it running this year :-(

here is Thailand NAKA Van,

Admin: true!!!

Bill's right about the metered taxis downstairs...very reasonable wait (Nov. of '09) on three occassions

drivers were direct and fare was as expected

Going to departures used to be my norm but ever since they put in the taxi queue outside of arrivals there doesn't seem to be a real need to anymore. Plus the coppers at departures aren't happy about it because it slows down traffic so they yell at the drivers sometimes.

Thanks for all tips, ladies and gents.

Have a great day.

Cheers.

Yup, go to departures. Coppers are a pain, but if you don't have much luggage no problem. The beauty besides a lower fare is you don't have to wait in that line which is sometimes very long.