Dublin to Hanoi - Air France / Vietname Airlines

Keedowah

Anyone ever taken this flight before? Most direct tickets I could find was with Air France - one stop in CDG and then onto Hanoi. I found it a little cheaper cheaper with Cathay Pacific but there were extra stops and my wife doesn't want that for the sake of €80 or so.

So has anyone flown this route before? Is it operated by Vietnam airlines or Air France? Good / bad experience? I flew with AF once before and it wasn't the worst flight I've had - but the jumbo we were on was quite old - would rather a more modern plane! I hear its all 777-200 on this route - so that should be better (??).

Mods - please feel free to move this to aviation if you think its more appropriate there.

Whitehawk

out of intrest how much was the over all cost? last time i did it was a few months ago and i went with qatar and bmi kick ass flight loved it! for me it was around 600e tho!

Stinicker

I've never flown the route before but I've only heard bad things about Cathay Pacific and the last person I knew who came back from Oz with them said he'd never again fly them after they charged him almost €350 for being a few kilos overweight with his cases.

killbillvol2

Air France operate the CDG-Hanoi flight (or they did 2 years ago). I've flown long haul with Air France a good few times and I wouldn't sing their praises but wouldn't find much fault either.

Cathay Pacific is an excellent airline so you can ignore the ill-informed comment above.

The deal breaker for me would be the same as your wife's - the fewer stops the better.

BuffyBot

The long haul segment is operated by Vietnam Airlines, on their 777-200's. Air France now codeshare on it, as they're in the same alliance.

Keedowah

Whitehawk wrote: »

out of intrest how much was the over all cost? last time i did it was a few months ago and i went with qatar and bmi kick ass flight loved it! for me it was around 600e tho!

Its costing about €850. That's with flights into Hanoi and out of Ho Chi Minh city. €600 is a great price! Did you have to make a few stops on the way?

Wouldn't touch Vietnam Airlines.. Friends with an aeronautical engineer here in Hanoi and he was telling me about the procedures in place.

The way he put it was that Jetstar get grounded more but there's a reason for that.. Safety over delays.

Whitehawk

Keedowah wrote: »

Its costing about €850. That's with flights into Hanoi and out of Ho Chi Minh city. €600 is a great price! Did you have to make a few stops on the way?

2 stops where we had to change plain, doha and london
there was one other stop but we stayed on the plain as it was just fuel stop or something

id recomend the flight was real nice top class airline and injoyed the hole flight, doha to london plain was about 1/4 full and staff let us lie out on the 4 seats and sleep v.nice!
i dont know mind you if i got the price on spical or anything like that i just was looking around and found it but be worth checking out to see how much it is now as they are a 5star airline!

Keedowah

Deleted User wrote: »

Wouldn't touch Vietnam Airlines.. Friends with an aeronautical engineer here in Hanoi and he was telling me about the procedures in place.

The way he put it was that Jetstar get grounded more but there's a reason for that.. Safety over delays.

Gulp....

killbillvol2

BuffyBot wrote: »

The long haul segment is operated by Vietnam Airlines, on their 777-200's. Air France now codeshare on it, as they're in the same alliance.

Deleted User wrote: »

Wouldn't touch Vietnam Airlines.. Friends with an aeronautical engineer here in Hanoi and he was telling me about the procedures in place.

The way he put it was that Jetstar get grounded more but there's a reason for that.. Safety over delays.

Interesting. I've flown with them a few times on short haul, mostly without incident. But the last time I flew (Hue to Hanoi) was on a real sh1tbucket and the cockpit door flew open when we hit the ground in Hanoi :eek:

Staff are lovely though!

Hehe wouldn't like to that too much! Ah I'm sure it's fine but this lad has worked for both Jetstar and Vietnam Airlines and definitely had his opinions on safety.

wallpaper12

I wouldnt worry too much about the safety of Vietnam Airlines, while I understand internal flights within countries in Asia mightnt be the safest as they arent overly concerned about health and safety yet, internationals flights should be fine.
I cannot imagine a country like France allowing a sub standard plane to ever leave the airport so it should be fine.
Probably safer to stick with trains for internal transport though...

Ah but Vietnam is too big for that... Over 2 days from north to south on a train.

Keedowah

We will be spending the guts of 3 weeks travelling from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city so would be travelling by train and bus.

Lollymcd

I've flown with Air France and Vietnamese Airlines and found both to be fine. Personally I'd pay the extra €80 for a more direct flight.

heiji262

I flew with Vietnam Airlines a couple of months ago and had a great flight.
Nice big new planes, good service.

dejopadu

hi, i've been to vietnam 3 times now, i love the place. i agree with lollymcd, 80euro to save all the hassle & waiting around isnt bad. i flew long haul with air france before, was ok, nothing special. i've also flown some short haul flights with vietnam airlines, hong kong - hanoi, & bangkok to hanoi - both flights were very comfortable, much more leg room compared to aer lingus/ryanair, & the food was nice too.

Keedowah

Got back a couple of weeks ago, Vietnam Airlines were grand - on the way over though there was an issue with the in-flight entertainment in my row and the one behind me. The row behind were not able to use their individual lights to read either so the lights were left on in our cabin for most of the flight.

We took a couple of internal flights with them too and they were nice.

On the way back we had an Air France plane and that was really nice, I felt that there was a bit more leg room and the in-flight entertainment was fantastic. It had tons of movies and tv shows.

Phoenix Park

I have flown VA too and thought they were fine. I've been on plenty worse.