Flight from Suvarnabhumi 4am on Apri 19 ...

[loginwith]

Hi,

 

Friend of mine has to catch an International flight which departs 4am (in the morning) from Suvarnabhumi.

 

I guess she should leave here around midnight. How is the traffic around that time?

 

And how is the traffic around 2am to 3am in Pattaya (coming back from the airport)?

 

I guess it should be ok?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

[KittenKong]

I guess she should leave here around midnight. How is the traffic around that time?

And how is the traffic around 2am to 3am in Pattaya (coming back from the airport)?

I would expect both times to be OK for traffic, though you should be wary of drunken drivers (who, by then, may be passing out at the wheel).

[thaibeachlovers]

Don't even try. Stay in an hotel close to the airport the night before. There are several that have pick up and drop off service. Only takes a truck accident blocking the road and miss flight.

[KittenKong]

Only takes a truck accident blocking the road and miss flight.

This is true but it could happen at any time, not just at Songkran. Also the motorway is very wide so an accident blocking the entire carriageway would be rare. And there are other alternative routes, particularly at that time of night. Bear in mind that the official holiday period will be completely over by then and Bangkok traffic will be normal.
I think for a 4am flight I would also be inclined to go the airport at midnight as you can just wait up for that. It's flights leaving at 9am that I am more inclined to go up the day before for, and to take a nearby hotel room. It's too easy to oversleep and who wants to get up at 4am anyway?

[Dick Crank]

Well if it's a flight with any kind of jet lag do what I do, stay in bkk, pay two nights hotel, and leave for the airport at your leisure!

[KhunBENQ]

 

6 hours ago, KittenKong said:

Bear in mind that the official holiday period will be completely over by then and Bangkok traffic will be normal.

The only concern would be that April 19 is the peak of hooliganism in Pattaya.

During daytime is absolute chaos and gridlock.

But midst in the night?

 

What does @JSixpack think ?

[JSixpack]

41 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

 

The only concern would be that April 19 is the peak of hooliganism in Pattaya.

During daytime is absolute chaos and gridlock.

But midst in the night?

 

What does @JSixpack think ?

 

I think in the middle of the night you should be OK. I agree w/ KittenKong:

 

16 hours ago, KittenKong said:

I would expect both times to be OK for traffic, though you should be wary of drunken drivers (who, by then, may be passing out at the wheel).

 

Thais aren't driving to Songkran in the middle of the night, though they do habitually get up early w/ the chickens. I'd say from reports that of those who are driving the percentage of drunks is pretty high.

 

A year or so ago I advised a member who insisted he had to go to Immigration on the 19th to go in the middle of the night, or no later than 6 AM, and wait around until it opened. Didn't hear back from him so I guess it worked. However I also noted the presence of hotels nearby. :) Me, I'd use a hotel as has also been suggested above for greater comfort and safety, but the "going gets tough, tough get going" philosophy usually works out cheaper.

 

[Rimmer]

A troll post has been removed

[NanLaew]

I've done the after midnight Pattaya - Suvarnhabumi drive for a red-eye flight twice in the past 5 weeks. No problems.

 

I fly in and out up to 10 times a year and in about 18 years of going to Suvarnabhumi airport from either Bangkok or Pattaya, only twice have I encountered a traffic accident that caused significant delays. One was a multi-car, fast-lane shunt on Highway 7 before it became a motorway and added about 45 minutes to the afternoon trip from Pattaya. More recently, a bread van turned over just before the Highway 9 (ring road) coming from Bangkok at 8 AM and that easily added an hour.

 

If the OP is totally risk averse, by all means go early and grab a cheap, off-airport hotel but I wouldn't bother.

[KittenKong]

The only concern would be that April 19 is the peak of hooliganism in Pattaya.

During daytime is absolute chaos and gridlock.
But midst in the night?

I certainly would not suggest driving anywhere during the day on the 19th, but I dont remember much

traffic after midnight in previous years. Even on the evening on the 19th the traffic in Jomtien seems to be clear by about 9-10pm.

My only objection to the hotel scenario is that the OP's flight is at 4am, which means check-in at 2am, which to me makes taking a hotel rather pointless. I would rather stay awake until 4 and sleep later on the plane, always assuming that the flight is long enough to allow time for sleeping. I suppose some people would rather go to bed very early and get up at 1am, but I cant see myself doing that.

My next flight is at 9am and for that I will certainly be overnighting in a Bangkok hotel, as I did last time I flew at that hour. Though I prefer to be in central Bangkok where I can have a nice early meal out the evening before followed by a good sleep. Getting through Bangkok to the airport at 6.30am is not much of a problem and it means I can get up at 6 rather than at 4, as I would have to do if I spent the night in Jomtien. 6 for me is easy: 4 is hard.

[Dick Crank]

 hotels your going to have to checkout the prior afternoon if you don't take the two nights. Carrying a suitcase around bkk in the heat for a 2am check in it's not my cup of tea. Sure you can store it or the hotel may hold it but is it worth the chance of theft or the time it takes when you could return to your room after a night out and have a nice cool shower?(priceless)

 

Even the price of drinks hanging around all day would be more then the hotel room, unless your looking to save money on water

[altcar bob]

Last bus Ekkami leaves bus station approx 11 pm,get off at first available stop as it comes off elevated section, taxi airport  abut 140 baht... perfect for 4 am flight....keep to main roads on way to bus station   be ok

[loginwith]

Thanks all.

 

Everyhing ok. Very light traffic conditions :-)

[Dick Crank]

On April 18, 2018 at 12:37 PM, loginwith said:

Thanks all.

 

Everyhing ok. Very light traffic conditions :-)

Can you keep us updated on your arrival and trans from the destination airport?

[jimster]

On 4/17/2018 at 5:31 PM, NanLaew said:

I've done the after midnight Pattaya - Suvarnhabumi drive for a red-eye flight twice in the past 5 weeks. No problems.

 

I fly in and out up to 10 times a year and in about 18 years of going to Suvarnabhumi airport from either Bangkok or Pattaya, only twice have I encountered a traffic accident that caused significant delays. One was a multi-car, fast-lane shunt on Highway 7 before it became a motorway and added about 45 minutes to the afternoon trip from Pattaya. More recently, a bread van turned over just before the Highway 9 (ring road) coming from Bangkok at 8 AM and that easily added an hour.

 

If the OP is totally risk averse, by all means go early and grab a cheap, off-airport hotel but I wouldn't bother.

Suvarnabhumi airport hasn't been open that long yet. It was opened in Sep 2006 so around 11.5 years.

[wgdanson]

On 4/17/2018 at 5:31 PM, NanLaew said:

and in about 18 years of going to Suvarnabhumi airport

Wasn't opened until 2006......sorry Jimster, you got there before me.

[NanLaew]

34 minutes ago, jimster said:

Suvarnabhumi airport hasn't been open that long yet. It was opened in Sep 2006 so around 11.5 years.

Good catch.

 

So in the remaining 6.5 years of to/from Don Muang, I had NO issues.

 

Do we see a trend here?

[jimster]

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

Good catch.

 

So in the remaining 6.5 years of to/from Don Muang, I had NO issues.

 

Do we see a trend here?

Many foreigners tend to greatly over-exaggerate when it comes to Thai traffic issues and suggestions in getting to the airport in Bangkok. They even go so far as to suggest getting to the airport a ridiculous number of hours before your flight departs just in case of a once in a blue moon accident that blocks the entire 4 lanes of a motorway like the Bangkok-Pattaya motorway.

 

Unlike in China where an entire road is blocked in the event of a big accident forcing traffic to wait for hours until they complete their investigations or whatever they do at the scene of an accident, the first priority of Thai police is to keep traffic flowing so within minutes, at least one lane or detour is made to allow traffic to flow.

 

Glad you have put some sense into this discussion - for a 4am flight coming from Pattaya I would aim to arrive at the airport around 2-2.30am, unless I had lounge access due to being a business class passenger or having Gold member frequent flyer status, in which case I'd aim to arrive around 3 hours before the flight departure. If you're starting from Pattaya and using the motorway to get to the airport, 2 hours is plenty of time, usually it doesn't take more than 1.5 hours. Delays at that time of night are very rare. However, most people would probably choose to stay somewhere closer to the airport unless they live in Pattaya and have reliable transport to get to the airport at that time of night.

 

Each to their own about how they make plans to catch flights but if you know Thailand well it should be a piece of cake estimating how much time is needed.

 

Personally I like the lowest stress option so a 4am flight is out of the question as that's about the most ridiculous time for a flight I could think of (who comes up with such schedules?) I guess it also depends on where you're flying to. For a 4am flight it's probably somewhere no one has heard of like Ashgabad (Turkmenistan). Scheduled flights to regional countries like China, Korea and Japan have red eye flights departing between 11pm and 1am and arriving in the early morning.

[Basil B]

Bit late now, but going back over ten years ago I wanted to avoid the madness off Songkran, landed BKK on the 18th and over nighted in BKK, intending to leave late afternoon for my place in Jomtien, spoke with tour/travel agent next door to the hotel I was staying at to arrange a car down to Jomtien that evening, this was 11am in the morning, agent said why wait have car, traffic no problem, so midday I was on my way, within 90 minites were were passing the Pattaya city sign, driver first tried to come in via Nakula roads were grid locked then Pattaya Tai, then Phepprasit and eventually drove down to the south of Jomtien, this was long time before Jomtien Second road was built, got on Beach Road heading north, by this time it had been 3 hours since we departed Bangkok, by now my drivers phone was going off constantly, being called all the time as customers were needing pick ups for the airport, we were inching up beach road 4 lanes going north and traffic just got slower and slower, after over two hours on beach road and probably a mile from my destination, I ditched the car and yomped the last mile with all my gear including my dive gear, avoiding buckets of water, half way I soon saw whey beach road had come to a stand still, there was 4 lanes of traffic coming south...

 

Maybe things are better now with the second road but somehow I doubt it...

 

The only time I changed my plans an hoteled in Bangkok the night before was April 2009 when the Red Shirts disrupted the Asian summit.

 

My advice is to leave 2 hours before check-in opens and have travel insurance so if something does happen you should not have to stump up high costs for re ticketing. 

[wpcoe]

@Basil B:  All it took was one premature return home on the 19th to teach me to wait until *late* evening arrival on the 19th, too.  Luckily my driver was a Pattaya fellow and he knew which back roads to minimize delays.  Minimize, but not eliminate, of course.  I think it only took 2.5 hours, but my neighborhood was still in full Songkran mode, so still, I should have waited.

 

Also, wasn't it the Yellow Shirts that closed the airport?

[Basil B]

1 hour ago, wpcoe said:

@Basil B:  All it took was one premature return home on the 19th to teach me to wait until *late* evening arrival on the 19th, too.  Luckily my driver was a Pattaya fellow and he knew which back roads to minimize delays.  Minimize, but not eliminate, of course.  I think it only took 2.5 hours, but my neighborhood was still in full Songkran mode, so still, I should have waited.

 

Also, wasn't it the Yellow Shirts that closed the airport?

It was not the Airport I was worried about, on the Friday things started to kick of around the hill, it was getting silly, lot of tension so I book a hotel in BKK for Saturday night, after that the summit was abandoned, I had a birds eye view of the  helivac  out of the Royal Cliff down to Satihipp,when I get to BKK the Red Shirts had returned, nothing funny about a thug with red tee shirt, black berry and a base ball bat standing outside a skytrain station.