When we made our trip in Jan. with Thai Air, we got a hotel room in Bangkok for our 7-hour stopover and had a shower and a lie down, which was very welcome after being in a sitting position for so long. It made us appreciate the time between flights more than if we were just hanging about in the airport. We did feel we'd had a break away from the plane.

The hotel should have been within the airport complex, but the taxi driver took us to the wrong one (same chain, same hotel name but one was in the airport, the other outside - be aware, if you leave the airport on a short stopover, you have to pay airport taxes to leave the country again). Normally hotel rooms are free if you're on a short stopover of 8 hours or over (not sure what the maximum limit is), but we just managed to scrape in with 7 hours.

On the way back from NZ we had an 18-hour stopover, so we had a good night's sleep in a hotel, several very nice meals in comfort and a little look at Bangkok. Both times we arrived at our destination feeling pretty chirpy.