Vietnam Airlines

Flew from London Gatwick to Ho Chi Minh 24 January returned Hanoi to London Gatwick 9th February with 3 internal flights within that period. Long haul flights - planes dated with uncomfortable seats but attentive and polite crew. Internal flights - modern aircraft and again polite crew. If the quality of the 777's matched the staff this trip would have been good value hopefully the airline can afford to upgrade their planes soon.

First time to use Vietnam Airlines for a routine flight UK to Manila reason being a return flight of £475 against an average of £700 to £800 with other carriers. Also used "Optiontown" to bid on having the adjacent 2 seats empty two days before departure this was confirmed. Service on board was excellent friendly crew willing to go the extra mile unlike other carriers crew didn't disappear after the meal service they were always on hand. Having 3 seats to myself was a joy meaning I could lay down and get some shut eye (this for only £22" ). my only negative would be the dated entertainment system and lack of choice other than that this airline is up there will all the other carriers in this route. Would definitely use again.

Flew LGW-HAN on 20 Jan 2015 and HCM-LGW on 4 Feb 2015. The cabin is in need of a major refurb! Cabin was clean but looked dull old fashioned seats broken controls stuck up with sellotape. Missing reading lights IFE provided with pre loaded tablets choice of food was meat and fish normally most airlines have a choice of Veg option but that was missing beverages OK coffee was one of the best I've had at 40 thousand feet? Wash rooms had minimal products of non-descript origin for use but were clean. They do not have duty free goods on the plane. cabin staff were pleasant and helpful. The only advantage is this is a direct flight from LGW to Vietnam otherwise there are choices if you are willing to take a flight from an overseas hub adding another 4-6 hours to a 12+ hours flight.

Flew Jan 2015 LGW-SGN-MEL. This was the return journey (see earlier post). Enjoyed the very nice lounge facilities at London Gatwick's Number 1 Lounge for four hours longer than anticipated due to a mechanical issue (a malfunctioning de-icing valve had to be replaced). This had to be sourced from Heathrow which explains the four hours. Finally the board in the lounge told us to proceed to the gate. Got there in 10 minutes but no-one was boarding. The crew hadn't arrived. We were told by the British company on the gate that they were resting in a local hotel and were only 10 minutes away. Well that ten minutes turned into an hour. We finally got away four hours late which we never caught up. Flight in the pointy end was in the old B777 which definitely needs retiring. Food and service was good had a good sleep in the 160 odd degree seats. Woke up with an hour and half to landing and were fed an OK western breakfast. We were met again at the transfer desk by a tour company representative who obtained a one day visa for us and went with us to a nice city hotel. Those Ho Chi Minh City scooters are something else! After a shower and sleep the rep met us in the lobby and took us back to the airport where he took us through immigration. Spent an hour or so in the Vietnam Airlines Lounge where we enjoyed the alcohol and massage chair. The food was OK. Boarded our flight to Melbourne on time in a much newer A330. Can't remember what I ordered from the menu but the food and drinks as well as the service was good. Slept most of the way until landing. Summary: For the price we paid over Christmas this has to be the deal of the year. Only two negatives. The long layovers in both directions in SGN and the old B777s (SGN-LGW). P.S: For sheer convenience book a room the night before your departure at LGW's Premier Inn North Terminal or the more expensive Sofitel next door and walk 100 metres into departures.

BKK-Hanoi return Business. Lounges nothing to write about basic but as ever with Vietnamese people very friendly. All drinks some basic food but lounges look the 90/80's. On board hardwear good A321 clean fresh. Crew very friendly Food and beverage was above average and served with a smile. Landed on time no Biz class fast track for immigration so about an hour with visa. Return overall the same so would recommend!

19th Dec VN 772. 20th Dec VN 51. 3rd Jan VN 50. 4th Jan VN 773. I thought they were excellent! We flew from Sydney to London in Dec with our 9 month old baby. They are not completely flat beds but as we read a lot of reviews we expected that. The food was very good staff were lovely and very helpful. The plane from Sydney to Ho Chi Minh is nicer then from Ho Chi Minh to London but is still fine.

KUL to LGW (via SGN). First time I've used Vietnam Airlines and overall I was fairly impressed. On the short KUL to SGN leg we got a pretty substantial meal of decent quality - certainly much more than many other airlines seem to offer for a sub 2 hour flight or in some cases for longer journeys than that. The A321 aircraft for this leg was also clean comfortable and fairly new looking. For the longer SGN to LGW part it was a 777 and the state of its cabin was the one negative aspect of our Vietnam Airlines experience. It looked pretty worn and it was actually less comfortable in regards leg room and seat comfort than the A321. Personally I don't really care about how good or bad the IFE is but I could see what this 777 had probably wouldn't impress passengers who do care about the IFE. In spite of those negatives I thought the service provided was really good. Again good quality meals and I found the cabin crew to be pleasant and helpful. I would not agree with other reviewers criticisms of English abilities. Granted none I came across could pass themselves off as native English speakers but they were perfectly good enough to do the job. I with zero Vietnamese ability had no problems communicating with any of them at all. So a little unfortunate I thought that their staff's good work was somewhat undermined by the less impressive state of the cabin they were working in. I should mention another positive was the transfer at SGN. I'd been warned by a friend who used to live in Ho Chi Minh City that it was a terrible airport. Indeed it was rather dated if glitzy shopping mall but it ticked the boxes that matter for me. Toilets were plentiful and all were spotlessly clean. Transit process was fast and efficient and simple food and drinks seemed much less of a rip off than many other international airports I've transferred via. Overall the pluses outweighed the minuses and I'd fly Vietnam again.

Flew DAD-SGN on VN113. Two days prior to departure I received an email from the airline letting me know that the flight had been delayed 40 minutes. It was nice of them to let me know in advance as many airlines that I have previously traveled just wait to tell you at the airport. The flight itself was pleasant and comfortable. FA's just did their job and the service was okay nothing special. The only time I really saw them was during take off and landing and once to hand out complementary bottles of water. Overall the airline was better than I was expecting and got me to my destination on time yet the price was considerably higher than VietJet or Jetstar Pacific. I would still recommend Vietnam Airlines and would travel again if no cheaper alternatives.

After reading some of the reviews I came prepared with an inflatable cushion battery powered fan snacks and plenty of reading material! 12 pm flight from LGW. Seat was ok with enough room to stretch legs fully out managed to get some sleep so can't be too bad. Lunch/dinner served almost immediately food very average and not completely hot ordered Hake with rice got chewy Cod instead. Flight Attendants requested blinds be pulled down as they came around to collect the food trays lights went out soon after at about 3 pm. As noted before they seem to treat this as a night flight possibly for the crews benefit but judging by some chronic jetlag I suffered after arriving in Hanoi perhaps for passenger benefit too? My seatback monitor didn't work only occasionally randomly displaying flight info. Captain stated over PA they were re-booting the entertainment system made no difference I had my phone and a book so no problem. At one point I was standing at the back of the plane and could see about half of the screens were playing films. Crew were efficient if not particularly friendly makes a change from bland corporate insincere politeness! Plenty of passengers milling around at back of plane helping themselves to drinks and snacks. Toilets seemed to be all working and stocked with tissue paper and soap. Plane interior a little tired looking my armrest had gaffer tape on it. Person in front had a light that wouldn't turn off some paper was stuck over it by flight attendant. At one point I asked for a sandwich and was told they didn't have any was given a pot noodle instead which wasn't very nice later on I saw a tray of sandwiches in the galley! Surprisingly (ticket stated one meal only) we were served a hot breakfast again very average (an omelette and ham). Airline not as bad as I feared not great though would fly with them again.

HAN-SGN / SGN-HUI/ HUI-HAN on 17th 30th Dec. 2014 and Jan 4th 2015. All 3 flights were on Airbus 321. Good aircrafts but dull interior. First flight delayed almost 2 hours of which the second hour was just waiting on the runway prior to kickoff. Other passengers said that on this route SGN-HAN-SGN delays are normal while to/from the provinces the airline appear to be much more punctual. Service onboard is absolutely minimal. One small bottle of water handed out is not impressive while a lot of idle FA's have nothing to do. To the 2 hour flight Hanoi to Saigon a sandwich was added. Nothing can be purchased to add to food or drinks. Other flights on time a bit dull not much to report. If you provide a tea - or instant coffee sachet to the FAs they will prepare it for you and thus give you a hot paper mug of coffee/tea for free.