Ho Chi Minh City Airport

✅ Verified Review | Before arriving at this airport I read some of the reviews that picture it as a chaotic ancient airport. When I arrived there on 8th January, it was very quiet. It looks like our flight was the only flight at that time. Immigration was fast but baggage claim took more than one hour. Wifi did not connect and there were taxi touts outside. A week later I went to the airport again to depart. Check in was very slow and the staff had difficulty in understanding basic english. Immigration was OK but security clearance was very tight. They even force everyone to open their shoes to scan them. It makes the process slow and chaotic. After security, I headed directly to my gate which was gate 17. Weirdly, gate 17 is located near security while gate 16 is located at the end of the terminal. Shockingly, all the prices in the airport are quoted in USD. Fortunately, I still had some dollars in my pocket and was able to buy mediocre food. However there was some positive things about the airport. Firstly, it was very clean, queues were short, plenty of eats available and clear signs, For the standards of newly developing countries like Vietnam, it was acceptable and decent.

✅ Verified Review | Ho Chi Minh City Airport has acceptable facilities but staff who work at a snails' pace. No matter the airline, the line to checkin is always unbelievably long, taking around 1 hour. Then you go to the super long security line, and again at passport control. Again, no matter the airline or day, I've experienced this unbelievably slow service time and time again. In addition to the incompetent staff, they do construction on the gates during boarding so you can't hear the announcements and there's no free water. Your only option is to pay $2.50 for bottled water at one of the shops. Tan Son Nhat is never, never a good experience.

Used the domestic airport to fly to Hanoi. Totally confusing airport, without indications on schedules and gates once you passed the safety control, with constant announcements of changing of gates and confidential signposting. Rude people at Vietnam Airlines ticketing counters, and contradicting information given to passsengers on seat availabilities.

We had to spend a couple of hours in the international terminal of Ho Chi Minh City airport. We were not happy. We had decided to go to the airport a little early, so we could prepare for our long flight home in the Skyteam lounge. However, we couldn't check in more than 3 hours before departure for our flight. So we were stuck in the hot, empty and uncomfortable hall in front of customs and passport control. No restaurants to speak of, barely any seats, just a big, hot nothingness.

✅ Verified Review | First time we have been in and out of this airport - overall impressions are very good with only downside been lack of staff to process visa on arrival, we were the last passengers off plane and queue fairly long but very relaxed and organised. All areas very clean especially toilets with free wifi and drinking water - puts majority of UK airports to shame.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport is clean. The signage can get confusing at times, but you can always ask the employees for directions. It can also get very crowded outside, but at least the taxi queue is first-come-first serve basis. Be prepared to see crowded lines at check-in as well as security and passport checks. For the most part, the airport staff are nice, friendly, and helpful.

Please be aware that visa on arrival lines are long very long due to loosening of the rules to certain countries. Two hours seems to be the norm now. Too little staff to handle all the paperwork. Hardly any places to sit and wait. Impatient people pushing and shoving.

Ho Chi Minh City Airport Immigration staff are more friendly and professional compared to the last time I came. There are variety of food stores. Wifi is good, no need to verify my information to register. However, taxi fare is quite expensive .

Three months-on, at 06.30 in the morning, the situation hasn't changed (apart from layout). Hundreds in the security check queue, won't accept phone or home-printed boarding pass from web-checkin. Back to check-in and then rejoin the waiting hundreds. Woefully inadequate.

This visit to this airport was so different from 3 months ago. Seems like they have put in a lot of effort to make customer experience a good one. No longer do they have separate checks for customs and security. They have combined them and increased the number of X-ray machines. It took me less than 3 mins to clear. Same for immigration. Instead of choosing which is possibly the fastest queue, now they have a snake queue which makes it fairer and much easier. The queue was really long as it was the peak time but it took me only 20 mins to get my passport stamped. Hope they continue to do better.