My wife and I get into Suvarnabhumi on a Korean Airlines flight at 1:15 AM on Saturday, and depart for Phnom Penh on Air Asia at 7:00 AM.

I was originally thinking that we'd just use the Louis Tavern dayrooms for a few hours, but then I realized that we're going to have to claim our bags (and presumably go through customs and immigration), and are unlikely to be able to check in so early for the second flight. This presumably shuts us out from being able to access the dayrooms--they're in a ticketed area of concourse G, are they not?

What do you all think -- am I condemned to shell out $200 to spend less than one night at the Novotel? Am I going to have to start looking for a new wife, after I force the current one to camp in an airport and arrive in Cambodia without a shower?

You do have to go through customs and immigration even just to check in for the AirAsia flight. AirAsia does not have a transfer desk or any method of checking in other than walking up to the check-in counter outside immigration. AirAsia starts check-in 2 hours before the flight and never early. Taxies are cheap and there are cheap decent hotels around, I'd say hop in a taxi and go book a room a moderate hotel if you want a shower and don't have any kind of lounge access. Otherwise, if you slept on the plane, hop in a taxi and go have a late dinner/early breakfast. Since you are outside immigration anyway, no sense in staying at the airport when transportation is so cheap and readily accessible.

You can get decent $40 hotels with just a $7-$10 taxi ride.

Why not get a taxi to soi 5 (250 baht) , check in the Fortuna Hotel (1200 baht), have a shower ect..., go next door to Foodland and have a meal (300 baht for 2), see some of the night life, go back to hotel and rest for a couple of hours, ....taxi back to airport and presto, u save your marriage.
Wait... on second thoughts, if your wife is the jealous type you better forget all the above LOL

Why not get a taxi to soi 5 (250 baht) , check in the Fortuna Hotel (1200 baht), have a shower ect..., go next door to Foodland and have a meal (300 baht for 2), see some of the night life, go back to hotel and rest for a couple of hours, ....taxi back to airport and presto, u save your marriage.
Wait... on second thoughts, if your wife is the jealous type you better forget all the above LOL

Thanks, but, um... maybe not. I've stayed at the Fortuna before, traveling on business, and while it's pretty nice, I'm not sure NEP is really to my wife's taste.

How long does it take to get to Sukhumvit in a taxi from Suvarnabhumi at the middle of the night, anyhow? I remember the trip from Don Muang very well, but hear wildly varying estimates with the new place.

Late night arrival to Sukhumvit should not be more than 30 min. I made it from the plane to Sukhumvit in 45 minutes last trip but I move fast. Back depends on traffic but for a Saturday 7:00am departure it shouldn't be an issue either.

Since you're not going to have time to participate in Bangkok's nightlife or dining, why go all the way into Sukhumvit?

Here's a post (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=633153) I made about a small, comfortable guest house not far from the airport. If you ask, they'll pick you up and bring you back, for a fee.

If that sounds too spartan for your tastes, try the Grand Inn Come (http://www.inncomehotel.com/index_En.htm) (which one person said was literally 10 minutes from the airport) or the Avana (http://www.avanahotel.com/index.php) for a bit more luxury.

The Novotel Bangna (http://sofitel.com.au/Novotel-Bangna/detail/default_en.aspx) is in between the airport and the denser urban sprawl if international brand names are what floats your boat.

I often have a similar time-wise schedule to you. I arrive about 00:50 on the TG flight and have an early flight the next morning. I don't travel with any checked bags, so I have all the options, including staying at the LT Dayrooms if I want. My wife and I have a rented condo nearby Emporium on Sukhumvit, which being no checked bags means it only takes me about 30 minutes, or 45 minutes at most from stepping off the plane to arriving at our condo. But even without checked luggage and no traffic, it just doesn't seem worth it to me to go into the city, just to sleep for only 2 hours and then head back out again.

In your case it will be even worse. By the time you get your luggage, get to the hotel, check in, and finally get to bed, then in the morning check out and get to the airport, you'll have very little time for sleeping. If you only want a shower, I believe the LT Dayrooms also have a shower facility whereby you could shower there, then go through immigration and get your bags and hang out at the airport for a few hours.

I personally wouldn't recommend any of the cheaper motel/guesthouses around the airport as those kind of places tend to be pretty rundown. On top of that, it will likely take you just as long, or sometimes longer, to get to than a Sukhumvit hotel, being they are not well known and you can easily get a taxi driver that doesn't know where he's going. Even under the best of conditions it will still take you a minimum of 20 minutes to get there, whereas under 30 minutes to Sukhumvit. Likewise for the Novotel Bangna being it's on the wrong side of the airport and still takes a good deal of time to get to.

If at all possible, I'd recommend trying to travel without checked bags, and then use the LT Dayrooms, which now have also opened additional rooms on Concourse A (ask about them at the LT Lounge), so use either Concourse A or G, depending on which one is closest to your arriving flight. That way you can at least get almost four hours of sleep. If you can't, then stay at the airport Novotel vs. any other hotel if getting an extra hour of sleep is important to you.