MEL_Traveller
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- Apr 27, 2005
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Just completed three flights in Vietnam Airlines short haul and thought I would share some notes in case it helps any future travellers.
The flights were BKK-HAN, HAN-SGN and SGN-SIN. These were booked as a single ticket via the VN website. Fares were economy classic/lite/lite respectively.
The initial booking is the time to add any ancillaries such as choosing a seat. Once ticketing is compete the manage booking function can be sketchy and a little difficult to navigate. You can still go in and select seats or request an upgrade, but you have to do this via two or three steps starting with ‘add ancillaries’ which first takes you to a page to add bags and extra meals, followed by seating.
VN heavily promotes their ‘instant upgrade’ facility which they say is available *immediately after booking*, with upgrades starting at USD50 for domestic flights and USD60 for short-haul regional. This is actually not the case and instant upgrades are only available once online checkin opens 24 hours before the flight. They offer ‘full fare’ upgrades from the time of booking, but this was in the hundreds of dollars.
Our flights were operated by a350s for the first two and we upgraded the BKK-HAN during [online] checkin where we were offered a price of AUD250. It was not clear if this was for one passenger or all passengers, but we took the plunge and it was indeed the total price for both pax, so $125 each.
Business class is well worth it for VN. Checkin can be quite slow, and the queues were long for economy and bag drop.
On board there is a limited offering for short-haul business class… red and white wine and beer are the only alcoholic beverages, together with pepsi and water. Longer flights offer champagne and an enhanced beverage menu. We did have flat beds however, but no headsets were offered for the IFE. As it turned out from our later flights, the catering in business for these short flights is identical to economy, except plated on crockery with metal cutlery. The towel service is with fabric towels in business and wet-wipes in economy.
The other advantage of business class arriving into Vietnam is a special immigration queue. Immigration arriving and departing Vietnam is super slow! Business class and ‘Sky Boss’ passengers from VietJet Air get access to a dedicated lane which saved us around 30 minutes.
Departing there didn’t seem to be an express queue for business class, but it might have been we didn’t notice it as we were in coach.
On average it seemed to take 2-3 minutes per passenger to process for immigration… may not seem like a long time, but it adds up if there are ten people in front of you.
The domestic flight was operated by an a350, being in economy we took a headset from the door during boarding. The IFE was surprisingly current, with new releases including the Downton Abbey movie. Not promoting the movie, but noting that it was available on Vietnam Airlines a month before it’s official release in Australia!
We were given a full lunch with tea and coffee on the domestic flight. Many trip reports only showed a snack for these domestic and regional flights, but this didn’t turn out to the case.
During online checkin we were able to secure exit rows for free on the SGN-SIN sector. A saving of AUD39 per person. It made for a comfortable ride. The aircraft being an a321 didn’t have individual screens, but the drop-downs didn’t come with audio, or any way to access the audio. Subtitles were in Vietnamese only.
It was on this flight we worked out the menu was identical to business class, save for the plating and presentation. And that the beverage service was the same as well. Business class on the a321 looked tight and was about the same as QF/VA/ZL domestic.
All up we paid AUD450 each for the tickets including the upgrade to business class on the BKK-HAN sector. I would have paid for the upgrade to SIN as well but the smaller aircraft meant they weren’t offered. If you can, stick to the a350s and 787s which offer plenty of seats up front. Interestingly the domestic flight never offered an upgrade, save for the full-price version at $770 for the two of us.
All flights left on time and arrived in time, although they were well ‘padded’ Block times for each sector were between 2 hours and 2hrs10mins, but flying time was 90 minutes on each.
Baggage was out quickly with priority bags out first every time. Even ‘economy lite’ fares offer 23kg baggage, and hand luggage didn’t seem to be weighed for ‘foreigners’. Vietnamese pax using their ID cards to travel all had their cabin bags weighed and tagged at checkin, but the same wasn’t applied to us.
While on the a350 from BKK I took a quick trip to look at premium economy. It was really comfortable! It had a generous recline similar to the old Qantas dreamtime seats. While PEY isn’t sold as a separate class on these short regional flights there didn’t seem to be any way to secure a seat in this cabin either at online checkin or by paying. I asked at the gate and they might have been able to do it there, but there were no seats together so we passed up.
One note is that VN operates two versions of the a350. One version has the super comfortable PEY seats in a 2-4-2 arrangement, the other is standard economy seating 3-3-3 with an inch or two more legroom. I’m guessing all the flights to australia and europe operate with the premium version and the standard seating is for domestic. But be aware an equipment swap could possibly see you with a downgrade in seating on a long haul.
VN is the premium and expensive option on short flights, their competitors being Bamboo Airways and VietJet Air. VN however is all inclusive and was still cheap by Aussie standards.
Oh… airports in Vietnam are barely air conditioned. Shorts and t-shirts are the order of the day.
Any other questions let me know.
The flights were BKK-HAN, HAN-SGN and SGN-SIN. These were booked as a single ticket via the VN website. Fares were economy classic/lite/lite respectively.
The initial booking is the time to add any ancillaries such as choosing a seat. Once ticketing is compete the manage booking function can be sketchy and a little difficult to navigate. You can still go in and select seats or request an upgrade, but you have to do this via two or three steps starting with ‘add ancillaries’ which first takes you to a page to add bags and extra meals, followed by seating.
VN heavily promotes their ‘instant upgrade’ facility which they say is available *immediately after booking*, with upgrades starting at USD50 for domestic flights and USD60 for short-haul regional. This is actually not the case and instant upgrades are only available once online checkin opens 24 hours before the flight. They offer ‘full fare’ upgrades from the time of booking, but this was in the hundreds of dollars.
Our flights were operated by a350s for the first two and we upgraded the BKK-HAN during [online] checkin where we were offered a price of AUD250. It was not clear if this was for one passenger or all passengers, but we took the plunge and it was indeed the total price for both pax, so $125 each.
Business class is well worth it for VN. Checkin can be quite slow, and the queues were long for economy and bag drop.
On board there is a limited offering for short-haul business class… red and white wine and beer are the only alcoholic beverages, together with pepsi and water. Longer flights offer champagne and an enhanced beverage menu. We did have flat beds however, but no headsets were offered for the IFE. As it turned out from our later flights, the catering in business for these short flights is identical to economy, except plated on crockery with metal cutlery. The towel service is with fabric towels in business and wet-wipes in economy.
The other advantage of business class arriving into Vietnam is a special immigration queue. Immigration arriving and departing Vietnam is super slow! Business class and ‘Sky Boss’ passengers from VietJet Air get access to a dedicated lane which saved us around 30 minutes.
Departing there didn’t seem to be an express queue for business class, but it might have been we didn’t notice it as we were in coach.
On average it seemed to take 2-3 minutes per passenger to process for immigration… may not seem like a long time, but it adds up if there are ten people in front of you.
The domestic flight was operated by an a350, being in economy we took a headset from the door during boarding. The IFE was surprisingly current, with new releases including the Downton Abbey movie. Not promoting the movie, but noting that it was available on Vietnam Airlines a month before it’s official release in Australia!
We were given a full lunch with tea and coffee on the domestic flight. Many trip reports only showed a snack for these domestic and regional flights, but this didn’t turn out to the case.
During online checkin we were able to secure exit rows for free on the SGN-SIN sector. A saving of AUD39 per person. It made for a comfortable ride. The aircraft being an a321 didn’t have individual screens, but the drop-downs didn’t come with audio, or any way to access the audio. Subtitles were in Vietnamese only.
It was on this flight we worked out the menu was identical to business class, save for the plating and presentation. And that the beverage service was the same as well. Business class on the a321 looked tight and was about the same as QF/VA/ZL domestic.
All up we paid AUD450 each for the tickets including the upgrade to business class on the BKK-HAN sector. I would have paid for the upgrade to SIN as well but the smaller aircraft meant they weren’t offered. If you can, stick to the a350s and 787s which offer plenty of seats up front. Interestingly the domestic flight never offered an upgrade, save for the full-price version at $770 for the two of us.
All flights left on time and arrived in time, although they were well ‘padded’ Block times for each sector were between 2 hours and 2hrs10mins, but flying time was 90 minutes on each.
Baggage was out quickly with priority bags out first every time. Even ‘economy lite’ fares offer 23kg baggage, and hand luggage didn’t seem to be weighed for ‘foreigners’. Vietnamese pax using their ID cards to travel all had their cabin bags weighed and tagged at checkin, but the same wasn’t applied to us.
While on the a350 from BKK I took a quick trip to look at premium economy. It was really comfortable! It had a generous recline similar to the old Qantas dreamtime seats. While PEY isn’t sold as a separate class on these short regional flights there didn’t seem to be any way to secure a seat in this cabin either at online checkin or by paying. I asked at the gate and they might have been able to do it there, but there were no seats together so we passed up.
One note is that VN operates two versions of the a350. One version has the super comfortable PEY seats in a 2-4-2 arrangement, the other is standard economy seating 3-3-3 with an inch or two more legroom. I’m guessing all the flights to australia and europe operate with the premium version and the standard seating is for domestic. But be aware an equipment swap could possibly see you with a downgrade in seating on a long haul.
VN is the premium and expensive option on short flights, their competitors being Bamboo Airways and VietJet Air. VN however is all inclusive and was still cheap by Aussie standards.
Oh… airports in Vietnam are barely air conditioned. Shorts and t-shirts are the order of the day.
Any other questions let me know.
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