Airport taxis: two kinds of airport, and only one where you get fleeced

Before looking for the price, find out whether one exists. It is the only question that matters walking out of a night flight, and almost nobody asks it.

Some Asian airports publish their fare table, to the kilometre, on their own site. Others publish nothing at all. In the first case you can check the meter; in the second you can only trust the official counter — or get fleeced. The scam only exists in the second case, and knowing which you are landing at settles the matter before you take off.

Checked on 7 September 2026.

Family 1: the airport publishes its table

Bangkok — Suvarnabhumi

The operator, AOT, publishes the official rate. Here it is as given.

On top of that comes a 50-baht airport surcharge, paid directly to the driver, plus expressway tolls, which are yours. The meter is mandatory.

The public taxi counter is on level 1 of the passenger terminal, between gates 4 and 7. That is the only place to take a taxi.

What to do, concretely: go down to level 1, ignore everything that approaches you on levels 2 and 3, and refuse any flat fare quoted. Meter, plus 50 baht, plus tolls — the rest is a negotiation the published table spares you.

Hanoi — Noi Bai

The operator publishes its bus routes to the fare, from 12,000 to 55,000 dong depending on the line. That is a spread of more than seven to one against a taxi, for a journey barely longer.

The full route-by-route list, taken from the airport’s own site, is in our Hanoi airport guide.

Family 2: nothing is published, and the counter decides

Bali — Ngurah Rai

The airport runs an official counter in arrivals, with fares fixed by destination zone — the island has about a dozen. The price is agreed at the counter before you leave, in rupiah, and you are then matched with a driver.

The mechanism is sound. What is not is the figure: the airport does not publish those zone fares in any form you can rely on in advance, and they are revised periodically. We found amounts on blogs and booking platforms; we do not repeat them here, because none comes from an official source and an undated fare on this subject is wrong within six months.

Counter-intuitive but true: in Bali, the flat fare quoted at the counter is the right reflex, where in Bangkok you should refuse one. The test is not the shape of the price, it is who sets it.

Ho Chi Minh City — Tan Son Nhat

No official table published either, as far as we could find. Two metered companies are the local reference, Vinasun and Mai Linh, and the figures in circulation put a trip to District 1 at around 150,000 to 200,000 dong, plus roughly 10,000 dong of airport exit toll.

Treat those as an order of magnitude, not a tariff. They come from commercial guides, not from the operator. Bus routes 109 and 152 reach the centre for a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of dong — a gap worth considering if you travel light and by day.

The reflex that settles 90 % of it

Never take a taxi from someone who comes to you.

At every airport on this list, the official taxi is taken from a counter or a marked rank, after you have walked out of the arrivals hall. The person who approaches you inside, badge or no badge, is not part of the official system — and even when perfectly honest, will sell you a dearer ride.

What not to do

Search “airport taxi price” and believe the first result. Half the pages on this subject are booking platforms with an interest in taxis looking expensive.

Negotiate where a tariff is published. In Bangkok, negotiating means agreeing to pay more than the table. There is nothing to discuss.

Refuse a flat fare where the counter sets it. In Bali, insisting on a meter takes you outside the official system — the exact opposite of what you want.

Arrive without local cash. The official taxis at these four airports work in cash, in local currency.

In short

• Bangkok: meter mandatory, table published, 50 THB surcharge, tolls extra. Counter on level 1, gates 4 to 7.
• Hanoi: public buses at published fares, 12,000 to 55,000 VND.
• Bali: official counter, zone price agreed before departure, no fare publishable in advance.
• Ho Chi Minh City: Vinasun or Mai Linh on the meter, orders of magnitude only, route 152 very cheap.

The general rule fits in one sentence: where a fare is published, check it; where none is, go through the official counter and nowhere else.