Last week we flew USM-BKK-CNX (with the stop in Sukothai) and Bangkok Air sent the baggage straight thru no longer requiring baggage pickup at BKK. Bangkok Air seems to have eliminated the baggage tags and gone to a normal appearing bar coded routing tag. You are issued a colored sticker (stick on your shirt) upon check-in in the form of an airplane of varying colors depending upon your destination. If one is flying from USM to connect to an international flight the sticker states "CIQ" and a separate bus is available upon arrival to take those connecting passengers directly to international departures. Seems to work the same way from CNX and Sukothai. These passengers clear immigration and customs in Samui and become transit passengers in BKK. Quite nifty for international connections. Domestic departures turn right after baggage pickup to get to the lounge. Simple and short walk.

Since we were not on an international connection, I do not know if this eliminates the 300 baht Samui departure tax. BTW: note that I said 300baht which, as of last week, was the latest.