I don't want to be arguing about whether I'm going to get on the meter or not. That never happened to me, when grabbing a cab at any of the two Bangkok airport

I don't want to be arguing about whether I'm going to get on the meter or not. That never happened to me, when grabbing a cab at any of the two Bangkok airports. As a matter of fact the service there works pretty well. What did happen, though, was that I got into a taxi with a doctored meter. This could range from a fairly innocuous 20% surcharge (which is still not OK, to be sure) to meters in cardiac arrest mode, charging about factor 15 (literally). Within city limits the situation may be different. My experience is that when you get into a cab, which is parking at one of the more touristy areas they try to take you for a ride and are rarely willing to engage their meters. There's usually never a discussion if meter, or not, if you hail a cab on the street. This only applies to Bangkok. In other places in Thailand it's practically impossible to get the driver to engage the meter, even if he's (it's almost always a he) legally required to do so. Note to first time visitors: Not engaging the meter and agreeing on a flat fee is always a bad deal. 5$ may seem cheap to you. But for the same ride you would have paid 1/3rd of the price with the meter engaged.