You made it to Thailand and are planning a trip to Bangkok. Or you are going somewhere within Thailand. Chances are you will be flying into Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK). There is another major airport in Bangkok, Don Mueang (DMK) which is also a high traffic airport. This article is for those flying into BKK airport and are interested in taking the Airport Rail Link.
If you are looking to go into the city, you will encounter a few options for getting to where you need to go. The first is to book transportation through the accommodations where you will be staying at, but using airport transfer through hotels is not usually the most cost-effective way to get around.
Secondly, you can get a taxi to take you to where you need to go. BKK has a good system to get taxis. Proceed to the basement and you will find a que. Let them know where you need to go, and you will be assigned a taxi. Note that there is currently a surcharge on top of the taxi meter rate, this is normal and no way to avoid it.
The final way to use the Airport Rail Link (ARL). Of course, the location of your destination should determine the best course of action when leaving BKK and going to your destination. If you are going into the city using the ARL is a very reasonable and cheap method of travel. It is very convenient and easy to use, and best of all it is really cheap.
First, you will follow the signs to go down to the basement or lowest level of the airport. You can either take the elevator, staired escalator, or escalator ramp. The escalator ramp is great if you have a trolley with luggage as it is designed for the trolleys, and you do not have to wait in often lengthy lines for an elevator.
Once you get to the bottom level you will find small shops such as 7/11 where you can grab snacks for on the go, although no food is allowed on rail link, so eat up before getting on the train.
There are automated ticket machines that takes bills, coins, and credit card. Unfortunately, there was no option for paying with QR at those machines. There is a ticket counter where you can buy tickets with a real person if this is what you prefer. The machines were super easy to follow and had options for English of Thai. Sorry if you prefer another language! Once you selected your destination and paid, the machine gave a small coin/chip that you tap to enter railway turnstiles. When you exit at your station instead of tapping it you insert the coin into the turnstiles to return the coin.
Once in, go down another set of escalators, to platform taking you to train. As BKK is the terminal and starting station, you do not need to be worried about getting on the wrong train. They will all go the way direction.
On train you need to listen to announcements or look at station names as you arrive. The map does not light up or indicate where you. There are easy to see names at each station.
My journey cost me 35 Baht to Makkasan Station. The duration of the trip was 25 minutes from BKK to Makkasan Station. This is the junction with the MRT, the metro line within Bangkok. Makkasan Station was 3/4 of the way to the terminal station of Phaya Thai, which intersects with the BTS, Bangkok’s SkyTrain system. I consider that extremely reasonable to get that far into the city. If you are a family of 6 and each paid 35 Baht, that would come out to 210 Baht to get to a downtown location. Using a taxi to the same location would be considerably more, so if your destination is near an Airport Rail Link station, this is a superb way to go! The Airport Rail Link also connects with the MRT and BTS to easily get to many locations, but you have to buy additional tickets to those train lines. There is no ticket that includes it all.