Leaving BKK
 

It was a year ago since I departed the airport at BKK and that was on NWA. The airport tax had just started to be included in the price on the airline ticket. I would like to verify that fee is also included in the ticket price on AA airlines and the policy has not changed.

unchanged ... 700 baht included in your ticket taxes

Everything included in the ticket. No more airport toll booths.

Thought of another question........would you say the food service on the Ord-NRT (AA) and NRT- BKK (JAL) is as good as on NWA? By that I mean the frequency and quality of the food. I have made 8 trips to Asia in the last few years on NWA and never have flown AA before. Just wondering what differences I might expect to find.

I'm assuming that you are talking about flying in economy.

It's been a long time since I flew NW to Thailand (1999, to be precise), but after that trip I swore that there had to be a better way to go. I switched to AA and found it to be a better experience overall. I think that the food was marginally better on AA. These days I fly Thai Air, which is far, far superior to both AA and NW.

Overall NWA food is "OK" if you are in first. AA food, IMHO is superior to NWA food hands down (with the exception of that cheese pizza, which I hear is gone now)

If your talking coach, I cannot comment.

Exiting BKK last April I asked after the "toll booth" having gotten scolded two years earlier for missing it. The check-in agent acted like I was nuts. Hell, I thought maybe I was nuts, or had fallen for some scam. Good to know that both there is no toll booth presently, but there was one in the past.

Cost is the same, but certainly easier when buried in the tix.

To confirm, it this for all airlines? Last year, be had to pay even though I would have thought Thai air would have included it (if any body did). I had to exchange some US$ at the airport to pay.

We are on an AA award ticket in Feb. The NRT-BKK portion is carrier by JAL. Can I assume the tax is already paid this time?

I hope the departure tax isn't included. I am flying KL BKK-TPE-BKK for a MR, overnighting airside and then catching the NW 28 the next morning. Just hoping NW hasn't collected the depature tax as I hate to pay it twice.

Yes, it's included in tix for all airlines. One possibility for explaining what happened to Mr. Vker comes to mind. The booths came down and taxes were supposed to start being included in tickets some time around last February, say Feb. 28th for sake of argument (I can't be bothered to find the exact date with a search because for present purposes it doesn't matter). The official policy was announced four to six months before the effective date. Once the announcement happened, as the airlines sold tickets, including FF tickets, the airlines should have collected the tax for departures from BKK after the effective date of the change, Feb. 28th. If the pax had purchased the ticket before the policy-announcement date, as might have happened with quite a number of FF award tix, the pax still had to pay the tax in cash upon departure; that was done by having check-in agents examine the tickets to see whether the tax had been paid and, if not, collect the tax (undoubtedly because the airline is liable to pay it to AoT regardless of whether the pax actually paid).

I'm no expert on reading the mumbo jumbo that appears on airline tickets. Old-fashioned paper tickets probably have a place where you can see the tax getting calculated and imposed. E-tickets may or may not. But it's worth a look. The 700 baht tax would be about $21.

Without additional details re: your trips, I'd say that you have already paid the departure tax for both trips (twice, if you will). 700 THB for BKK-TPE-BKK and 700 THB for your NW itinerary.

The airlines choose to collect the Departure Tax as they are responsible for paying AoT now, and they know if you have already paid it based on the fare details. There could still be many tickets out there, issued before the increase and automatic inclusion, so they continue to monitor the situation. I had a departure in late September and had to pay the 700 THB at check-in as my ticket was issued before the tax started to be included in the fare. The exact USD amount, or whatever currency was used, will vary as the exchange rate. You can request a fare breakout, I believe the Departure Tax code is "ST", at least it is on my receipts.

Thanks very much for the info.^

Yes, unfortunately.

Here's the tax part of my NW ticket:

ROE1.00NW XT5.00XA 7.01XY5.50YC22.12TS4.50XF SFO4.5 1USD/1.0009CAD

I can confirm that the tax of 700 BHT is included in every ticket as well.

rgds,
Drew