HO CHI MINH CITY AIRPORT   Passenger Reviews and Traveller Reports

HO CHI MINH CITY AIRPORT customer review : 8 December 2009 : by B Ford

Customer Rating : 3/5

Very shiny and big and new - really much too big considering the number of passengers, and the new terminal seems a bit of a white elephant given that they're planning a brand new airport for HCMC in the medium term. I can't say anything about arrivals, but processing was pretty speedy for departures - I even got a smile and some friendly conversation from the guy at the immigration desk, which are rare in the typically glum and/or stern world of Vietnamese officialdom. As other travellers have commented, the duty-free and food in the airside section are pretty expensive - 3 USD for tiny little cakes at one of the cafes, for instance, and I paid 4 USD for a pretty but not incredibly remarkable fridge magnet. What it is really lacking is a newsagency - there's precious little to do if you have to wait there for a couple of hours (if you don't fancy paying through the nose to dine at one of the restaurants upstairs), and grabbing a decent magazine or book would be a good way to cope. At the moment all that seems to be available are the propagandist Vietnamese English-language papers - not exactly a substitute for The Economist. Overall, it's hardly going to compete with KLIA, Changi or Bangkok as a SE Asian hub, but it's clean and efficient enough not to be the complete nightmare you might expect in a communist country.

HO CHI MINH CITY AIRPORT customer review : 14 July 2009 : by Rob Boyce

Customer Rating : 3/5

Departing for London via Bangkok was quick and easy check in and passports also quick. Very pricey food (seven US dollars for a basic poor quality sandwich) and drink.

HO CHI MINH CITY AIRPORT review : 30 April 2009 : by Trish Walker

Customer Rating : 4/5

We recently returned from Saigon. Unfortunately we missed our connecting flight to Da Nang and had to stay in the airport 10 hours overnight. We found the staff very friendly and re- arranged our flight for us. Domestic airport closed at 1 am and our flight was 6 am so we could do nothing but lounge on the seats. We found the airport very clean and staff very friendly.

HO CHI MINH CITY AIRPORT customer review : 26 January 2009 : by S Pathirana

Customer Rating : 4/5

I found this airport (International terminal) excellent. Very impressive, big, clean. Don't expect much friendly service though; particular as you exit on arrival. I was ill leaving the airport, but had a very comfortable experience. Shops are expensive.

HO CHI MINH CITY AIRPORT customer review : 14 January 2009 : by P Bedson

Customer Rating : 4/5

Nice clean, very modern, airport with efficient check in & security for international flights. Catering airside is very pricey even by airport standards. Immigration was not exactly speedy but acceptable (but then I had a proper visa - the queue for "visa on arrival" looked horrendous) and the luggage beat us to the hall despite being one of teh first off the plane. Bit of a scrum outside arrivals - lots of taxi touts etc - but felt safe and secure (like the rest of Vietnam really). Note that if you need to change money you need to do it before you leave arrivals though USD seem to be equally accepted as local currency - the rates offered by some of the moneychangers varied fairly significantly - you could get 5% more by walking 20 yards down the hall!.

HO CHI MINH CITY AIRPORT customer review : 10 December 2008 : by S Devasahayam

Customer Rating : 4/5

The airport at first appearance looked spacious though the duty-free shopping areas were congested and very few seats were available in the check-in lounges. However, it was clean and modern in all aspects.

HO CHI MINH CITY AIRPORT customer review : 3 October 2008 : by Frank Winter

Customer Rating : 3/5

Modern airport, much better than last time I visited in May 2007, style reminds me of Hong Kong (bright/lots of steel/clean). Departure smooth, though 2 security checks right before and after immigration. Arrival is the same chaos at the 'visa-on-arrival', but as in Hanoi no clear signage and communication skills of staff non-existent. This is not a usual visa-on-arrival, you can only get it when you have the electronic approval letter (normally done by travel agency in vietnam). Best to bring your 2 passport pictures. Best if you can secure a proper visa before arrival. If not, budget at least 60 minutes for the 'visa-on-arrival'.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by M Gephart

26 November 2007   Customer Rating :

Used both the international and domestic terminals while traveling around Vietnam. The international airport is very modern and will certainly mature in its offerings as it becomes a major business center. The domestic terminal is showing its age and could use a deep cleaning and a little bit of a face lift. But, it is still efficient and semi-organized.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Quek Keng Guan

23 November 2007   Customer Rating :

Used Tan Son Nhat International Airport domestic airport for a VN flight from Saigon to Dalat. Domestic airport is old, yet clean and pleasant to use. Understood used to be an old military airport and upgraded to an international airport in Aug 2007. There are about 8 gates where one can view arriving and departing planes. There are 2-3 cafes selling Vietnamese and western food (cheaper than international airport but they don accept credit cards). Plenty of seats available in the departures hall. Toilets were clean, however they do not have handicap/baby changing facilities.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Quek Keng Guan

12 November 2007   Customer Rating :

Used Tan Son Nhat International Airport recently. It was bright, clean and pleasant to use. Arrivals has 6 belts, trolleys were FOC. Several immigration counters were opened, so passed through immigration was a breeze; took less than 15 mins! Dep hall has 8 counters from A - H. Dep hall has a post office, 2 cafes. Set up reminds me of HKLA of a smaller scale. Once passed the immigration, there is some DFS. Dinning is ex, and in US dollars. A sandwich cost US$7, pastry cost US$3! However dining was a pleasant experience where 1 can watch plans fly. Toilets were clean and pleasant to use. However there is no baby changing facilities found. Ample seats could be found in the dep hall. Overall a pleasant airport to use.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Richard Vine

12 November 2007   Customer Rating :

The new terminal at Saigon Airport has transformed things. There are virtually no queues at immigration any more and baggage handling seems to have improved.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Ron Merritt

26 February 2007   Customer Rating : n/a

I flew biz class ANA from SGN via NRT to HNL. SGN check-in was very quick, departure immigration relatively fast and I spent one hour in the F/J all-airline lounge before boarding. I stop at SGN twice a year and have found SGN Airport to be very efficient and the F/J departure lounge is really quite good with an excellent selection of food, internet terminals, etc.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Lin Hsu

26 January 2007

I arrived in SGN yesterday at 8 pm, and was off the plane, collected my landing visa, went through customs, exchanged money and was out the door by 8:30. This was surprisingly quick compared to last year's visit when it took hours. I think this was mostly due to arriving at a non-peak time, so the lines through immigration were short. The Landing Visa desk took a while to notice me, but otherwise processed my paperwork very quickly.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Dave Taylor

29 May 2006

I have used SGN 10 times over the past 2 years, most recently in April. While there is not much to do if one has an extended layover, this airport always seems to operate with a great deal of efficiency and courtesy. I have always had good experiences with check-in, security, baggage and immigration. Just be sure to bring a good book to read because it's definitely not a very interesting or exciting airport.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Ned Hopkins

10 February 2006

Arriving from CKS just before 1pm, there was virtually no wait getting through immigration (perhaps because I was one of the first off the plane) or in collecting my luggage. The pre-paid taxi stand was a deal: US$7 to central Saigon, with the clerk walking me to the cab. Check-in at EVA Air business class counter a breeze. I waited for long lines to disappear before heading to emigration and whisked through the two control points both times (SGN-PNH and SGN-CKS). The 1st/business lounge is comfortable, with a decent selection of snacks and drinks and an enclosed smoking section. SGN certainly beats the dickens out of SFO and most other US airports.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Colin Tan

28 July 2005

I travel frequently to HCMC and the airport has definitely improved from the days when you had to wait hours to get through immigration. The trick for us frequent flyers is to pick a flight that lands at about noon and you will be out of the airport in 15 minutes as there a few flight landing at that time.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Vuong Tuan Hao

21 October 2004

Tan Son Nhat airport has been upgraded but the immigration officers do not work very well. It took me over twenty minutes to go through immigration with just 4 people in front of me!! Waiting room is confined.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Kevin Dang

30 June 2004

Even though SaiGon airport is not as great and modern as Ha Noi airport, it's still at the international standard. The waiting room is spacious, bright, and cool. The services there are very good and people are extremely friendly. It took me only about 20 minutes to get thru immigrations. (Yes it could be worse, sometimes it could take up to 50 minutes, but it all depends on the time of the day and how many flights arrive at a specific time.- You can not really blame on the immigration officers.). I can assure that the immigration process at Saigon Airport is at least better than the immigration process at Singapore Airport- It took us at least 1 hour just to get thru immigration there).

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Elin Stuart

31 May 2004

I take on board all of the other comments regarding Saigon Airport but this is a developing country. The airport is in need of a major sorting-out but I found the facilities and service to be adequate and had no problems passing through on three different occasions recently. A definite plus is the very good air-con, which is lacking in other developing countries' airports.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Xuess Wee

1 January 2004

Technically, it's no longer Saigon, but Ho Chi Minh City. Live with it, folks. A weird fusion of old and new - old hangars, possibly relics from the South Vietnamese days and what I can see, efforts made to modernise the waiting areas. The aircon was all right and the waiting area was comfortable and bright. There were enough seats and there are 4 big screen TVs in the waiting area to amuse passengers. My main bone to pick was clearing customs entering HCMC. It took me close to 50 minutes to get through! Furthermore it was a counter managed by 2 officers! Frustrating. The service was cold and a tinge of suspicion thrown in - the officers never even broke into a smile or a greeting.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Vuong Tuan Hao

27 November 2003

Tan Son Nhat is too small to handle so many flights at a time. My flights back from Bangkok (10:20am) and Hong Kong (10:40am) - (2 times) were later than some earlier flights and thus we were at the back of the lengthy queues - a very amusing notice is that there were 2 immigration officers sitting at every counter but the two checked the same passport of the same only passenger... I wonder why they did not do their job separately as one officer checks one passenger's passport. It took nearly 90 minutes for my queue of 30 passenger to go through the immigration and I was 30th, being the last passenger of the queue!

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Nicole Marie

27 October 2003

Changing planes at Saigon on transit from Melbourne to Hanoi was a nightmare. The airport was hot and humid, with pedestal fans failing in their attempt to keep the heat at bay. The immigration officials did not speak and separated a mother and her 12 year old daughter and made them go through individually. The girl was terrified. There were no instructions as to how to get to our connecting flight. We had to collect our luggage which had been left in a pile in the middle of the entry way, re-check it, and then find our way through security and customs again, to get to our domestic flight. Fly to Hanoi instead.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport customer review by Jason Z Lee

25 September 2003

Saigon Airport is an outdated and undersized facility. The Immigration Hall is so small that it can barely handle one planeload of about 250 passengers. Officers in their smart Vietnamese Army uniforms are cold and indifferent. The airport only has about three jetways, and there are few seats available. There is only one large cafe selling overpriced food. The Check-In area is OK, at least compared to the horrendous Immigration hall.