Vietnam Airlines

Short 2-hours-flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Ha Noi. Seat comfort for this short flight was excellent with huge recliner business class seats. Even it was a sort flight VN offers a choice between three hot meals for dinner. The crew were attentive and always pleased to help you.

October 2015, Huế to Hainoi return trip with Vietnam Airlines. Bought a heavily discounted ticket and everything functioned okay, though the onboard service is nil apart from a bottle of water. Allowed plenty of luggage, that’s the only service where the airline differs from its LCC competitors. Flights on time.

Legroom in bulkhead seats was cramped. Boarding was quick and easy. Flight left on time and arrived ten minutes early. (Two other DAD-SGN flights, scheduled to leave before ours, had still not boarded when we did). FA's were friendly and helpful. A surprisingly good snack was served on this barely one hour flight.

Two long haul Vietnam Airlines flights and two internal flights, very pleased with the airline. Flights were all on time. Food was good for economy, and pleased to see that they don't charge extra for exit seats. Only drawback was online check in didn't work. But overall very happy with them.

The Vietnam Airlines planes on both legs were brand new, but cost cutting ruined the experience. Every flight was late, with no explanation or apology by ground crew, cabin crew or pilot. Bangkok to Hanoi leg there was no IFE system and it seemed to be old seats in a new plane. Hanoi to London Heathrow using the same seat configuration as Cathay Pacific but took the cheapest seat options: headphones were terrible, seat buttons already broken, movie selection was Vietnamese movies and 1960/1970 "classics" (there were only 4 recent hollywood movies). Food was good. Cabin crew service lacks the polish of better airlines, obviously lacked training. WiFi was available onboard for free, but in total I got one webpage to load briefly and that was it - perhaps it is still in testing. No priority lane immigration cards were given to biz passengers. Most worrying thing was a "technician" prodding a ceiling light back into place just before takeoff, which makes me question the maintenance on the planes (they are only 9 months old). Effectively you are getting lie-flat economy with a very limited movie selection.

Flight VN 7224 from HCMC to Hanoi. The plane was OK, but cabin crew didn't check all security controls, people using their phones etc. The food was horrible and I was happy I had some back up that I had bought before. Many staff barely speaks English. If you fly with them you either understand Vietnamese or should be prepared to go through it on your own.

This Vietnam Airlines flight and a return, Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City, left on time and arrived a few minutes early. Both were just an hour long. Even so drinks and a nice snack were served, as were cold towels before takeoff and hot towels after the snacks. FAs were attentive and friendly. Our only complaint was the lack of legroom in our business class bulkhead seats. On the Ho Chi Minh City to Hue flight we had more legroom than in first class on a United Airlines domestic flight. Both planes were new and clean, and announcements in English as well as Vietnamese were clear and loud.

Vietnam Airlines lounge at Ho Chi Minh City is reasonable, lounge at Hanoi cramped and ill-equipped, but as it was a relatively short stay it was quite adequate. Outbound check in a little chaotic; was issued with economy boarding card at the business desk, but the lady was very apologetic and rectified it immediately (whether it would have really mattered I don't know, as the seat number was correctly allocated), also directions were a little vague (not too bad for me as I have transited SGN several times, but may have been confusing for a first time visitor). Take off time was later than scheduled, but I had received email notification about a week previously, so it was easy to rearrange my plans to suit. Very comfortable seat outbound, friendly cabin crew who came around with the wine bottle a number of times during the short flight to Hanoi, more quickly than I could drink the stuff in fact! I can't comment on the food in either direction as I had already eaten at the hotel so didn't partake. Inbound on the new Boeing 787 was good and bad; the "pod" seat was a good size and 1-2-1 configuration. means everyone has easy aisle access. Service onboard was again satisfactory for a short trip, though nothing special. What I really disliked though was the air-bag equipped seat belt! Yes I know it may well do me a huge favour should something unpleasant happen, but it is horribly uncomfortable to wear. As the national carrier they were a lot closer to their advertised schedules than the low cost operators, and barring the initial hiccup, check-in and boarding was on the whole a lot less of a scramble too.

Flew four sectors with Vietnam Airlines at the end of August 2015, KUL-SGN return and SGN-HAN return. The KUL-SGN sectors were rather uneventful - the flights were on time and there were no problems retrieving checked in luggage. The inflight meals were tasty. Wine served to those who wanted it. The flight attendants worked hard but were rather robotic. Overall, it is not a bad flying experience on this international route. My main reason for flying the domestic SGN-HAN sector was to sample Vietnam Airlines new products on their Boeing 787-9 and A350-900 aircraft. I was on the Boeing 787-9 on the SGN-HAN sector and the aircraft was new. However, the IFE was not operational as it was a short domestic sector. The seats were a tad too narrow for my liking (3-3-3 in economy class) but legroom was sufficient. Cabin service is similar to Vietnam Airlines domestic flights - a light snack and nothing more. The flight ended on a sour note - my checked in luggage was contaminated by prawn/fish oil paste from other customer luggage. VN did not redeem itself too well and it was the airport workers who helped me clean up my bag. As it was close to midnight, I did not lodge any complaint with VN. The HAN-SGN sector was more disappointment. I did not manage to get on the A350 and was on a regular B777-200 ER flight. The aircraft was old and tired and some LCD screens onboard have seen better days. The original A350 flight that I was booked on was changed once already - the airline switched me to an earlier A330 flight. I wrote back and declined that flight and explained that I needed an A350 flight. They then switched me to an even earlier A350 flight. I thought that all was well and good at the time and looked forward to the flight. Unfortunately, the aircraft allocated to my flight was switched. All I can do was watch the A350 flight from my aircraft as it was on the next flight, 10 mins behind us. All in all, Vietnam Airlines is okay if you are on a budget. I do not think I will be flying them to Europe, based on the experience above.

Vietnam Airlines offers deluxe economy service for European routes only. For domestic routes, deluxe economy cabin is for economy class passengers. As I’m a Gold member I was upgraded to deluxe economy. The check-in procedure was quick with Sky Priority counter. The VN lounge at HAN is not too big and crowded sometimes. The food is so so and not impressive. The wifi was not too fast, not too slow, enough to surf. This lounge does not serve fresh noodles. The deluxe economy seats are arranged in 2-3-2 configuration with a seat pitch of 42 inches, foot rest and leg rest. Power and USB are provide. My feeling when seating in this seat was very comfortable. It’s almost the same with regional business class seat on Vietnam Airlines’ Airbus A321. The windows are impressive also. The inflight service started long take-off on this 1:40 hrs domestic flight, dinner was served. The meal tray came with hot meal, soft drink and tea/coffee. I love this new aircraft and its deluxe economy seats.