The best thing about Vietnam Airlines?
You will always know what to expect.
Hi there, my name is Kevin.
This channel came from a love of traveling, a love of the full process and the journey
itself.
I feature airline trip reports and high end hotel reviews from all over the world.
My reviews aren’t sponsored by airlines or hotels so you can be sure to get my unbiased
honest opinion.
Am I an expert?
You can decide.
Am I fair?
Yea, I am.
Let’s get into it, welcome to Ho Chi Minh City.
If you’d like to know the exact fare that I paid for my flight or my next five videos
in queue, please check out the description below.
I may have had a few days in between, but this is the third of three flights that brought
me from Koh Samui in Thailand to Nha Trang- and it blows my mind a bit that this is my
65th trip report on the channel but only the first of a domestic flight in Vietnam.
I will very happily be using the Sky Priority counters and security becuase of SkyTeam Elite
Plus status which means check in and security combined will be completed in less than 5
minutes total.
One note from the get go about flying to Nha Trang from anywhere inside Vietnam.
You’re not actually flying to Nha Trang, but rather a smaller town to the south of
the city called Cam Ranh.
While your boarding pass may say Nha Trang, all signage in the airport will only say Cam
Ranh.
I was heading up to the SkyTeam Lotus Lounge which is at the far end of the domestic terminal
only to find out- or rather be reminded that Skyteam Elite Plus doesn’t grant you access
unless you have a connecting international flight.
So with my tail securely between my legs, I turned around and headed to the domestic
version of the Le Saigonaise Lounge.
Vietnam Airlines, colloquially known as VNA traces it’s roots back to 1956.
Their first international destinations, predictably for the time, were to Beijing and Vientiane
which launched in 1976.
It wasn’t until 1989 when they became the official flag carrier of Vietnam though and
even more importantly in 1994 when the Trade Embargo was lifted and relations with the
US began to normalize that they were able to begin modernizing their fleet.
In 1996 the government brought together 20 different existing companies to form the modern
Vietnam Airlines.
VNA owns 100% of Vietnam Air Service Company- also known as VASCO as well as 99% of Pacific
Airlines as well as a host of other airline and airport related companies across the country.
The lounge here is comfortable and well maintained with a host of food offerings but it does
tend to get really busy at times with Vietjet, Bamboo and Viettravel airlines all sending
passengers here along with the multitude of card based entry systems accepted.
With their 97 aircraft, they currently fly to a total of 64 destinations across 17 countries
but their domestic network is where the bulk of their operation lies.
They have a true dual hub system utilizing Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with smaller unofficial
focus cities in Da Nang, Cam Ranh and Da Lat.
The rest of their network made up of just about every third tier city in the country
stretching from north to south.
A massive part of their operation though lies in their frequent flights between their hubs,
which is one of the busiest routes on earth.
At the time of writing VNA currently has 31 flights per day between the cities, most of
those on wide body aircraft.
This number can rise to near 100 daily flights in each direction during peak periods around
Lunar New Year when it’s common to have three or four flights scheduled to take off
at exactly the same time to the same place throughout the day.
Today we are utilizing gate 26 which used for both international and domestic flights
which is why we need to technically walk over to the international terminal to access it.
The airline currently has an additional 11 aircraft on order, with around a third of
their total fleet being new A350 or 787 aircraft.
Currently, the government owns just over 86% of the airline with the 2nd largest shareholder
interestingly being ANA, the Japanese Carrier with a 5.6% holding.
Now that we’re in the international terminal, if you wanted to sneak out of Vietnam, you
could just run up those stairs.
That is a joke.
Please don’t do that.
Boarding began on time for our morning flight with separate queues for SkyPriority and Economy
passengers.
As for today’s flight stats, we would be pushing back a pleasant six minutes early
and heading up to just 27000 feet for our 39 minute flight to Cam Ranh where we would
land near 25 minutes early.
Will someone please call this number and buy an ad spot here.
These yellow banners have literally been up for ten years.
HSBC?
Our aircraft today is a 12 year old A321-200 series which is the backbone of the VNA fleet.
The layout is a very standard 2x2 and 3x3 with my seat being my trusty 18A, for some
reason the seat I choose on literally every VNA flight.
On VNA when it comes to narrowbody economy you have two choices.
Older and more comfortable or newer and less padding.
I always seem to get the former and I’m not complaining, though today the seat was
starting to show it’s age.
Legroom is better than it looks because of the loose fabric, likely around 31” of pitch.
While there are no seat back monitors, we do have our individual air vents.
As we pushed back and began our taxi, the clever safety video began to roll.
Today’s departure would be towards the west before pulling a uey to the south of the city.
The spool up, take off and airport stats are coming up next.
By the way, I simply haven’t had time to work on them recently, but I will begin posting
again on my Roam Above channel linked in the description below, hopefully this summer.
Over there you can see all of my full take off and landing clips as well as some full
flights.
There are already plenty of videos there now, but I’ve got probably 50 in my backlog to
post there as well.
By the way, if you’re new here, welcome and let me just remind you that Vietnam Airlines
didn’t invite me to fly today or compensate me in any way.
Not only were they unaware I’d be making a video, they have no idea who I am and that’s
how I like it.
Why?
Because content creators are recognized every day, on the street, on a flight, in a hotel
and instantly, the VVIP alarms start ringing in everyone’s ear pieces and suddenly their
experience is no longer typical.
When I’m making a review video, I don’t want special treatment, so I film anonymously.
That is more challenging than you’d think though- so that’s why every like, comment
and subscription really does mean a lot and helps the channel grow to keep this twice
weekly content flowing.
Thanks very much for watching today.
A delicious meal service included your choice of a room temperature Aquafina or an additional
wet wipe, or both, if you’d like.
It’s alright though, a lack of a meal gave me a reason to show you how detailed the seat
upholstery is.
Crossing over the central highlands, Dalat somewhere down there, we began our descent
into a soggy Cam Ranh, crossing directly over the airfield and making a series of turns
to land from the south.
They are currently replacing the full apron in front of the domestic terminal so boarding
and deplaning via stairs is guaranteed at the moment.
By the time we quickly got to the baggage belt, the bags were already coming out.
Quite the efficient operation.
And so, it was a standard Vietnam Airlines flights, the likes of which you have seen
on this channel before, but the more I fly, the more I just appreciate the consistency
of hotel and airline companies and for that, I really do enjoy flying VNA.
I really hope you enjoyed this trip report today.
If you did, please be sure to click the thumbs up button and subscribe with notifications
on so you don’t miss my next two videos coming from the An Lam Retreats and the L’alya
Resort.
Both videos are firsts in their own right, but also seconds…
I’ll explain in those videos.
Thanks for watching until the end.