Trying to understand BKK arrival times
 

Doing a IAD to BKK Trip. Can’t understand why all flights arrive in BKK late evening? (i.e., 10PM+,11PM+) instead of morning or afternoon?

Example:
Total 23H:05M hours

12:30 PM – 4:45 PM+1
Washington, D.C. (IAD) – Tokyo (NRT) United 803 · Boeing 777
Layover in Tokyo NRT
1h 30m

6:15 PM+1 – 11:35 PM+1
Tokyo (NRT) – Bangkok (BKK) ANA 805 · Boeing 787

**** Since flights arrive late what do you do on arrival (11:35PM) night if you ultimately want to go to Pattaya Beach area??

a. Stay one night in a BKK hotel?? or
b. Get transportation to go straight to Pattaya Beach??

I feel getting in so late you’re wasting a hotel night$$$

Just book a transfer in advance and go straight to Pattaya. No traffic at that time and you don't need to move again

Well, not all flights into BKK arrive at night. The airport is very busy during the rest of the day as well. I suggest either a night in a hotel at the airport or in town (you'll be exhausted anyway) or a transfer as suggested.

Sorry but not all flights arrive in the evening. E.g. most flights from Europe arrive BKK in the early morning (TG flights) or early afternoon.

Ask your Pattaya hotel to arrange a transfer. Or google "transfer from BKK to Pattaya" to find your options (most likely you will be able to book a transfer online).

If you really don't want to arrive late, then fly another route. For example, IAD-FRA-BKK could get you in early morning, mid-afternoon, or late afternoon. IAD-DXB-BKK gets you in
around 7:00 PM. So many options to pick from...

Yep.

Although for me, I much prefer arriving at midnight, because then you can grab some food with your initial excitement buzz, then passout in your room.
Coming via Europe, I have to force myself to stay awake and usually fail around 5-6pm.
I think it's quicker to go via Japan/Korea/China too, but I've never checked flights from the east coast USA.

Both TG and NH have redeyes from HND that arrive very early in the morning if you want to connect from UA.

Don't recall if they have them from NRT as well (probably not).

I agree that I totally prefer arriving late night. Then I can just go pretty much straight to bed when I get to my accommodations and wake up with my clock more or less reset.

It is very easy to get to Pattaya as noted above that time of night there's usually not much traffic so you can get there in 90 minutes or so. I've done that trip a couple of times. Obviously you arrive late at night but that shouldn't be a problem with most places. The town stays up late anyway but traffic is a little better late night than other times of day once you arrive.

Thanks for everyone's reply. I didn’t literally mean “all” but "most or some" of the flights on UA that seem to have less than 24-hour flight duration. Also, was having an issue with departing BKK with UA/ANA flights departing at 12AM Sunday. That totally blows my Saturday night.

I did see a favorable roundtrip flights on Emirates IAD-DXB-BKK. Also, will consider different routes but I initially was looking on UA/ANA IAD-NRT-BKK

I think booking a transfer and going straight to Pattaya, get a good night sleep and be as fresh as I can in the morning is the best option if a late night arrival time is chosen.

Again thanks everyone for your advise.

UA doesn't have BKK flights. If UA is flying into NRT/PEK/SIN/whatever, they're probably timing the flight for a good timing for departure from the US destination and a good arrival time into NRT/PEK/SIN, not "hey, let's optimize the arrival and departure times for our Asian flights for someone who wants to connect to or from BKK on a partner". Thus you will see late arrivals into BKK (for BKK-NRT you're flying a TATL-length flight AFTER a TPAC, so add six-seven hours plus layover time, so no wonder the arrival times blow).

Eva Air (BR) has North American flights that leave from the US at oh-dark-hundred and TPE in the late evening, and are timed pretty well for a BKK daytime arrival and departure, if that is what you are looking for. They're also in *A so you might even get UA miles. Their business class is well-regarded and not impossible to get on miles.

+1 on EVA Airlines.

I would very disappointed should they some day decide to scrap their wee hour departures from North America.

Once upon a time I flew Asiana from Seattle to Seoul on a flight that left in the middle of the night. That's long gone on that airline.

If you're willing to take a puddle jumper to NYC you'll have lots of options that will put you into Bangkok in the morning or early afternoon. You could take MU through PVG, LH through FRA, BR through TPE, CX through HKG, etc, etc....lots of choices if you don't have to be on United.

Ya, about that, only if you are adventurous and brave. Notice I did not say stupid.

I fly MU all the time. They are safe, have better service than any US airline, have free wifi on all their 777-300 flights and new planes. Not sure why that makes me adventurous and brave. I know I'm certainly not stupid.

I checked EVA and all flights from IAD or BWI had +2 day (> 24hr durations). However, it sounds funny if I drove or Amtrak to JFK then its a +1 (<24hr duration).

I'll look into LH, BR, and CX routes and times. May have to depart from JFK

Again thanks for all the advise.