Suvarnabhumi Airport, recently.

Badminton player Pannawit "Tawan" Thongnuam returned to Bangkok after being knocked out of a tournament in Malaysia, only to be ripped off by a taxi driver on his ride home from Suvarnabhumi airport.

"Back from playing for the country, this is the greeting. The meter of my taxi went up almost every 50 metres," he lamented on his Facebook account.

"From Suvarnabhumi to Pinklao, it's 800 baht. That's for real," he added.

Pannawit, who is the boyfriend of top Thai player Ratchanok Intanon, returned to Thailand on Sunday from the 2018 Badminton Asia Team Championships in Alor Setar, Malaysia.

The Thai team was ousted in the knockout stage by South Korea on Friday.

Pannawit told Daily News online he took a taxi home from the airport on Sunday night and noticed that the meter clicked over almost every 50 metres.

He ended up paying almost 800 baht for the trip, which was normally no more than 400 baht.

He hoped the authorities would crack down on overcharging by taxi drivers.