Vietnam Airlines

Relatively short hop. Efficient boarding, on time departure and arrival. Efficient inflight service by pleasant FA's. Not much more you could ask for.

I flew from Hanoi to Tokyo on my way to Washington DC. Vietnam Airlines new A321 with comfortable seats. The flight was smooth with on time departure/arrival. Their stewardesses were polite and attentive to passengers. They attended to my request (meals, water) for my kids. The food was better than the food I had on my long haul flight with Air Canada from Tokyo to Toronto.

We booked a direct flight on Vietnam Airlines about 2 months before our departure, from Siem Reap to Phu Quoc, a one hour flight. 2.5 days before our flight was to depart, we received an email from Vietnam Airlines informing us that our flight was cancelled, no reason provided. Our new itinerary required flying from Siem Reap to Saigon, laying over for 4 hours, and then flying from Saigon to Phu Quoc - an all-day affair. When we emailed asking about compensation we were ignored. When we called to get clarification on our new flights (they sent us 2 emails with 2 different itineraries) we were hung up on. Finally received an email that no compensation would be given (not even use of the lounge, or a drink voucher) since we were notified more than 24 hours before departure. When we arrived at the check in counter no one could check us in, because their system was down. After an hour we were finally able to check in and were informed that our bags would not be transferred to our connecting flight in Saigon, nor could they give us a boarding pass for our connecting flight. We would have to collect our bags, clear customs, re-check in to get our second boarding pass, check bags again, and then go through security again. Our flight out of Siem Reap was delayed for an hour. On our flight, we were not offered any soft (or hard) drinks or snacks, but they did give us a tiny bottle of water. There were several empty seats in business class. When we landed in Saigon, we all stood in the aisle for 20 minutes waiting to deplane, as I guess there was no jetway available. As we got off the plane, there was a sign for the passengers to Phu Quoc, so we stood by it. An employee of Vietnam Airlines came over and gave us a sticker that said “Transfer,” and then pointed toward the immigration counters. No idea what it was for, no info given. At baggage, another airline employee asked for our tickets (again, no idea why.) He said after we got our bags he would provide further instruction. But after we got our bags he was gone. Someone else motioned us toward another terminal. So we dragged our bags down the sidewalk for about 5-10 minutes until we arrived at the domestic terminal, still not sure if we were in the right place, why we were wearing stickers, where the guy from baggage claim went, or why we were in the wrong city. We finally made it to the check in counter, and again asked about an upgrade, just so we could at least relax in the lounge until our next flight left. We were informed that we could purchase an upgrade if we wanted. We approached the Vietnam Airlines customer service counter just to recount the handling of the situation and the manager at the customer service counter told us that unfortunately they had just had so many angry customers that day that they could not afford to offer any sort of compensation to all of them, not even a water. That's a review in itself right there. Our next plane also was an hour delayed. The delays were not the frustrating part though, how the airline continued to not care was the kicker, If there is another option for your travel, I recommend you take it even at 3x the price.

We booked this flight because of the Boeing Dreamliner 787-9, a week before take off they announced that they have changed the plane we are flying on to the most basic plane in the company. Got to the airport, delayed by 6 hours. We exclusively used Vietnam airlines, we had 8 flights with them in Vietnam and Cambodia. Only 2 of them were not delayed by more that 2 hours. 1 was cancelled, and the rest were awfully late. My father and partner both had business class tickets but at the check in desk the junior boy staff member decided my father was only allowed to check in 1 bag.

SGN-SYD on a night flight for which boarding procedures delayed our departure by 25 minutes. A330-200 was packed - not one vacant seat. The unsmiling cabin crew failed to take action when passengers ignored the seatbelts sign and wandered off to the toilets while it was illuminated. Only a cursory glance to check if seat belts were secured was made before take-off. Dinner was tasty, if a little dry in parts, possibly from slight overheating and I noted that 3 of the cabin attendants were smiling during the food and drinks serving. The 2 toilets I went to were clean, and well-stocked including toothbrush packs and razors. IFE worked okay with its limited menu and at least 4 times during the flight, drinks were offered to those awake in the darkened cabin. It seems the attendants were more attentive on this flight and as we were approching Sydney, the purser, wearing a yellow uniform, patrolled throughout the aircraft double-checking the shades, seat belts and seats upright. The captain made up time and we landed in SYD 8 minutes early.

This was my first time I went on vacation with the Vietnam Airlines and it was horrible! They don't know how to smile, very bad. At Heathrow they maked me missed the flight because of wrong information they gave me. So they send 3 times goes to British Airways to change my tickets, but the lady there said that it was Vietnam Airlines fault because they gave me the wrong information. I came back to them 3 times and everytime they just let me waiting like half an hour (the answers was always that is not our fault, go to British Airways again). I was really tired of walking with my luggage, I have been 7 hours walking at the airport to ask everyone to help because i'm not bringing alot of money to buy a tiket to get back to Amsterdam. So end up they were closed and said that someone will come to help me, but I was just waiting for 2-3 hours again. I had to stay at the airport 2 days to waiting my mom to booking another fight for me on the internet to go back home. So this is my first and last time going with the Vietnam airlines.

This is possibly the worst airline I have flown. Very hostile service especially with the ground staff at Da Nang. They only let us check-in at one specific counter with a long queue even though there were other 5 free counters. No one was smiling and the staff were acting like we were a burden to them! No entertainment on the flight. Food was just 2 pieces of ham and a bread roll. We took 4 legs of flights in total and all of them were delayed.

The flight was 30 minutes late on take off. the cabin crew English language skills were weak but they were helpful and friendly. The food was relatively good and seating was no worse than a typical Virgin or BA flight. The real complaint was that the IFE was very dated but as an overall package that avoids a stopover (you cannot fly to Vietnam from the UK directly with anyone else) it was excellent value for money.

HAN-HUI-HAN in July 2015 on award ticket in their Golden Lotus Plus Programme. Award tickets flexible and free and easy to change and valid for a year. Aircraft an A321. Check in smooth, flights punctual, and boarding and luggage handled fine. Cabin colours and interior design are very dull, dark, and conservative. No entertainment. A bottle of water and tissue were given to each passenger. Apart from that the 4 crewmembers had absolutely nothing to do - nothing to sell, nothing to provide.

SYD-SGN on Vietnam Airlines because of the 8 hour flying time compared to 13-15 hours travelling time for its competitors. Check in was terribly slow, mainly due to the high percentage of passengers who had 3 or 4 large cartons as excess baggage. It all has to be weighed and labelled and that takes time. On boarding, the cabin crew pointed us unsmilingly towards our seats. The A330-200 looked in good condition with the cabin clean and tidy. We asked for extra seats at check-in so we could stretch out and had 4 seats to ourselves. In the rear cabin section there were only about 30 passengers. With the seat-belt sign illuminated the crew made no attempt to check the passengers or items on seats. While the A330 was waiting to enter the runway, the woman sitting in front of us stood up and walked to the rear toilet. The two cabin crew looking at her frowned but said and did nothing to stop her. During the flight, the seat belt sign was illuminated and passengers told to belt up as there was turbulence ahead. The flight smoothed out but the sign stayed on for over an hour but some passengers took no notice and moved around the cabin without challenge. The PTV selection is limited but passable, however my unit locked up and none of the controls would fix it. After a frustrating ten minutes I reported it to the cabin crew who advised me to change seats. Okay, but later my wife’s PTV also locked, but later went into re-boot and after several minutes, the programs returned, but the screen was still locked. Food served during the flight was edible. The toilets used by us were in poor condition. Floors wet, dirty stains under the seats, damaged fascia around the mirror, toilet seat and cover broken away from its mountings and tissues on the floor. We didn't see cabin attendant refresh or tidy toilets. On the final approach to Saigon, with the seat belt sign illuminated, passengers still moved about the cabin uncontested by the crew. Of the attendants who worked our part of the cabin, only one was smiling, and she kept it up all the flight. All in all, a very deficient performance from a somewhat surly cabin crew and poor maintenance, particularly the toilets.