Anyone flown with Vietnam Airlines?

Flightfinder1

Hi everyone,
Trying to book a flight from Melbourne to London/Dublin,getting the best prices for a return flight,August 2013 at about $1600, anyone flown with Vietnam Airlines long haul before?


I've no experiences flying with them &just wanted to get some advice before booking!

eagerv

Never flown with them, but I would have no worries if they are allowed into Europe where we have some of the toughest safety standards.
Also service is usually good on Asian Airlines.

Batgurl

Flightfinder1 wrote: »

Hi everyone,
Trying to book a flight from Melbourne to London/Dublin,getting the best prices for a return flight,August 2013 at about $1600, anyone flown with Vietnam Airlines long haul before?


I've no experiences flying with them &just wanted to get some advice before booking!

Never flown with them but know they are a three star airline.

Housemate flew with them business class (was the same price as emirates economy) and said planes were old but service was grand.

IMO cattle class is cattle class and if it gets you from a to b at the right price then go for it.

Amirani

I've flown with them a couple of time on internal flights in Vietnam, never had any problems. Also flew Bangkok to Hanoi with them. In-flight food was surprisingly good.

Flightfinder1

Cheers for the reply everyone! Really appreciate all the responses, seems to be a good airline&feedbacks been good,
Gonna check with a travel agent & a few more airline search airlines, ill post back when I book nd let u guys know!

amg-slurp

Flightfinder1 wrote: »

Cheers for the reply everyone! Really appreciate all the responses, seems to be a good airline&feedbacks been good,
Gonna check with a travel agent & a few more airline search airlines, ill post back when I book nd let u guys know!

Try Malaysia airlines. Cheap and 5 star airline

eagerv

amg-slurp wrote: »

Try Malaysia airlines. Cheap and 5 star airline

Agree. Have had some great flights with Malaysia.
They are very competitive at the moment, and Kuala Lumpur is a very good airport.
Also the Airbus A380 is as good as it gets..

Legend100

eagerv wrote: »

Agree. Have had some great flights with Malaysia.
They are very competitive at the moment, and Kuala Lumpur is a very good airport.
Also the Airbus A380 is as good as it gets..

Really?

Flew with them on the way home last christmas (the sydney KL leg) and honestly thought it was the worst long haul flight I was ever on....maybe I was just in a bad mood

eagerv

Legend100 wrote: »

Really?

Flew with them on the way home last christmas (the sydney KL leg) and honestly thought it was the worst long haul flight I was ever on....maybe I was just in a bad mood

I think they are still operating the old 777 on Sydney Kl leg. Even though, the 2+5+2 seating is much better than Emirates 777 or Etihad 777 who use 3+4+3 which feel very cramped. Leg room is also better than the others.

On the KL to London run they now use the A380 which is great. You can even get upstairs in economy where AFAIK children are not allowed.

Legend100

eagerv wrote: »

I think they are still operating the old 777 on Sydney Kl leg. Even though, the 2+5+2 seating is much better than Emirates 777 or Etihad 777 who use 3+4+3 which feel very cramped. Leg room is also better than the others.

On the KL to London run they now use the A380 which is great. You can even get upstairs in economy where AFAIK children are not allowed.

yeah it was the 2+5+2 on the one I was on....three screaming kids alongside me at 2am probably distorted my view a bit!

fleet

I found that Melbourne - Beijing. Beijing - Dublin. Booked via the Ethiad website directly (not skyscanner et al) was much cheaper. This was April though, and I stopped over in China for a bit.

Flightfinder1

fleet wrote: »

I found that Melbourne - Beijing. Beijing - Dublin. Booked via the Ethiad website directly (not skyscanner et al) was much cheaper. This was April though, and I stopped over in China for a bit.

The ethihad website is down at the moment but will have a look at that cheers

allic

I booked Dublin - London - kuala lumpar - Melbourne for august 2013, return, with Malaysia airlines for €810, seems quite competitive!

ifeelill

They don't seem that dissimilar to Aer Lingus in terms of incidents.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/operator/airline.php?var=6071

Flightfinder1

allic wrote: »

I booked Dublin - London - kuala lumpar - Melbourne for august 2013, return, with Malaysia airlines for €810, seems quite competitive!

That's really good!

Flightfinder1

ifeelill wrote: »

They don't seem that dissimilar to Aer Lingus in terms of incidents.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/operator/airline.php?var=6071

Thanks for the link ,
I guess I'm wondering in terms of reliability of the airline, like flight delays / customer service, bit nervy as I'm flying alone and just want a smooth journey ,

Flightfinder1

Just an update:booked through a travel agent with china southern airlines, she said vietnam airlines were certainly cheaper but had longer stopovers and times & for the extra couple of hundred i went with a pretty direct flight, 1 2hr stopovers & for the dates I wanted: $2100 happy with that, thanks for all yer advice

Batgurl

Flightfinder1 wrote: »

Just an update:booked through a travel agent with china southern airlines, she said vietnam airlines were certainly cheaper but had longer stopovers and times & for the extra couple of hundred i went with a pretty direct flight, 1 2hr stopovers & for the dates I wanted: $2100 happy with that, thanks for all yer advice

China Southern also operate their new A380 planes MEL-Guangzhou so at least that leg will be comfy. Is it CS all the way or is there a code share in there? $2100 isn't bad for peak season August travel.

Flightfinder1

Batgurl wrote: »

China Southern also operate their new A380 planes MEL-Guangzhou so at least that leg will be comfy. Is it CS all the way or is there a code share in there? $2100 isn't bad for peak season August travel.

Thanks hun! Yeah fly to Guangzhou, Think its CS all the way, I don't know what code share is lol, yeah it's not bad when I'm booking it only a couple of weeks in advance.

ifeelill

Flightfinder1 wrote: »

$2100

Is that business class ?

Flightfinder1

ifeelill wrote: »

Is that business class ?

Economy :-/

mandrake04

Batgurl wrote: »

China Southern also operate their new A380 planes MEL-Guangzhou so at least that leg will be comfy. Is it CS all the way or is there a code share in there? $2100 isn't bad for peak season August travel.

China Southern are a f**king joke, I flew business class from Melbourne to Shanghai in March and it was awful so much I complained to work that we should never use them again. Compared to China Eastern last September Syd to Shanghai they were as good as you get for BC and from what I seen cattle looked alright, big difference between the 2.

ifeelill

Dont think id be too keen on flying China "anything" airlines

Batgurl

ifeelill wrote: »

Dont think id be too keen on flying China "anything" airlines

Why?

Deise67

Flew internally with them danang to HCM no bother newish plane was grand, would fly with them again no hassle ! Enjoy !

mandrake04

ifeelill wrote: »

Dont think id be too keen on flying China "anything" airlines

China Eastern were great, some of the best 7 courses of airplane food I ever had and they poured Chivas Regal like it was going out of fashion.

China Southern the food was cold and limited, they hardly served any drinks even when I asked. The seats didn't go fully flat but at a 60 degree angle and because I was in the very front row at those bulkhead seats and people climbed over my legs to get to the toilet on the other side, I complained to the crew that no one was to enter my personal space and they didn't seem to care also connected through Guangzhou airport which is a dump nothing compared to Pudong or HK not what you expect from a $3700 fare. Plus I lost out on Qantas frequent flyer points which I would have got with China Eastern.

I'm flying economy Singapore airlines Syd-LHR- Dublin in September for $2200 about 6 weeks ago through HRG.

Batgurl

Flightfinder1 wrote: »

Think its CS all the way, I don't know what code share is lol, yeah it's not bad when I'm booking it only a couple of weeks in advance.

Code share means that while your ticket is with one airline, they share flights with another airline and part of or your whole journey is with them.

So for example, CS code share with Air France a lot. You will have to be on another airline for at least part of the trip as CS don't fly direct into Dublin. If your not sure, call the person you booked with and get them to confirm.

People mock the Chinese airlines but you'd need to drug me and bind me to get me on an Air France plane long haul...

Flightfinder1

Batgurl wrote: »

Code share means that while your ticket is with one airline, they share flights with another airline and part of or your whole journey is with them.

So for example, CS code share with Air France a lot. You will have to be on another airline for at least part of the trip as CS don't fly direct into Dublin. If your not sure, call the person you booked with and get them to confirm.

People mock the Chinese airlines but you'd need to drug me and bind me to get me on an Air France plane long haul...

It's direct flight with china airlines, so don't think there's a code share,

Batgurl

Flightfinder1 wrote: »

It's direct flight with china airlines, so don't think there's a code share,

By china airlines, do you mean China Southern. There is a lot of Chinese airlines out there and they are all very different to fly with.

But you will be flying a codeshare at some point as no Chinese carrier flies into Dublin. What is your route? Stopovers?

Flightfinder1

Flightfinder1 wrote: »

It's direct flight with china airlines, so don't think there's a code share,

Only flying as far as London hrw with china southern