laurieco

Every airline we have booked on has changed flight times, some between 5 and 7 hours later, or outright cancelled a flight and put us on a totally unacceptable flight. Vietnam Airlines, VietJet and Bamboo Airways have screwed up our schedules. Today was a completely wasted day. Our flight from Saigon to Hanoi was supposed to leave at 11:00 am. Last night we were told it was changed to 3:00 pm. Our hotel tried calling Vietnam Airlines but no one ever picked up the phone. We’re at the airport now and told there is a further delay. Total disorganization. The entire day has been wasted. Beware when flying a Vietnamese airline. Worse than any other country and I’ve flown some strange airlines.

crellston

" Is there not one reliable airline in Vietnam?" Possibly not! Sorry to hear of your problems but it is not uncommon in Vietnam and one of the reasons I choose to travel by overnight train wherever possible. Of course, part of the problem could be that Tet is just a few days away and everyone has already started travelling back home for the hols? Our nieces are in Saigon at present and have found that one or two places (like the Reunification Places )were closed.

Generally I have only flown into Vietnam and, where possible, I use Air Asia which are, IME very reliable but they don't operate domestic within Vietnam AFAIK.

Worse than any other country? Except perhaps Argentina...

laurieco

It’s 6:24 pm and we finally just got into a taxi to go to the hotel. The flight we booked should have had us here by about 12:45 pm. The check in agent in Saigon said they changed the flight time to switch to a much bigger plane. Inconvenience loads of people so the airline could make more money. I’m pretty livid. I’ve flown Lao Aviation and Cambodian airlines among others, all far superior to this.

mjs

Oh let’s not talk about Argentina

xyz99

Out of the 3 you mentioned, we're flying Vietnam Airlines in a few weeks. I hope they don't change our time...did they email you? Text you? Or did you check the day before the flight to find out?

laurieco

emailed me less than 24 hours before the flight. In my three trips to Vietnam, flights have always been changed and some outright cancelled. VietJet cancelled a flight last year and refused to refund my money. I had to dispute the charge with my credit card to get refunded. Most of the time tha changes are an hour or two, but not this time.

shelemm

Are these always domestic flights? I see there's a Vietnamese airline that offers flights from Hanoi to Siem Reap. Maybe those are risky as well?

laurieco

These are domestic flights. Hopefully our flight to Bangkok in a week will be on time. But it’s VietJet so I’m not hopeful.

crellston

I am afraid that around the Tet holidays, travel in Vietnam will usually be problematic, partly because people in the cities take extended holidays and partly because of the increased demand for transport (especially as more and more Vietnamese can afford to fly) . It is nowhere near as bad as it used to be when I first visited many years ago when most cities just shut down for a few weeks and everyone went back to their families in the country.

I think the official hols are for the 7 Feb to the 14 and hopefully things will get a lot better after that. Having said that , it seems from Laurieco's comments, Vietnam Airways are engaging in sharp practices to maximise revenues, easy enough in the domestic market where they likely have great influence over landing slots, harder with international flights where they don't have that control.

Good luck to all!

millie2112

I did lots of flights on Vietnam airlines back in October. We did 3 internal and all were good. Sometimes it is just bad luck.

laurieco

Just informed now that our flight tomorrow on VietJet from Hanoi to Phú Quoc has been changed yet again. This is the third change. It’s enough to put me off ever coming back here. I’ve never had so many changes in any country before. And I’ve been to dozens of countries.

crellston

Just had a FaceTime with our nieces who are travelling up from Saigon to Hanoi and they have had similar problems with buses being cancelled/rescheduled /over-booked (two cancellations in one day!). Seems like Tet is definitely causing problems either because of staffing or demand issues. No excuse though, they really need to get their act together.

laurieco

Got to the airport for our flight to Phú Quoc, which has been delayed twice since yesterday, and at the check in counter we were informed it has been delayed yet a third time.

hawaiiantraveler

too bad you're having so many travel problems. Hopefully when you get to Pho Quoc you can relax and chill out. Tell the Manager Ty Collins you are friends of Bob and Karen and also tell him Aloha from Linda and I. He has his home on Maui,

Aloha!

laurieco

The manager at the Regent is Stiram Kailasam. He came over and introduced himself. Is this where you stayed?

https://www.ihg.com/regent/hotels/gb...E-_-VN-_-PQCRR

hawaiiantraveler

We went with Bob and Karen so of course we stayed at The Marriott.

https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotel...7-a979c79310b0

Aloha!

Larsay

Well, I have taken Vietnam Airlines for now FIFTEEN years and NEVER experienced a delay, especially a 6-7 hours !!!! You must be the less lucky person on Earth !!!!!

laurieco

Hardly. Perhaps it is because of Tet but Bamboo outright cancelled a flight, our VietJet flight from Hanoi experienced THREE delays, and the Vietnam Airlines flight was delayed by over 5 hours. I don’t believe that you never experienced a delay. You are also the person who said that taxi drivers in Hanoi are honest. No, only if a hotel or restaurant calls them and insists on using the meter. Several taxi drivers in Hanoi tried to scam us. So forgive me for thinking that you are not quite being honest.

crellston

Just look at the reviews on https://www.airlinequality.com/airli...etnam-airlines and it would seem that it is the above poster who is the luckiest passenger of Vietnam Airlines!

The last time I flew with them was in late 2022 when our flights to Sydney with Ana via Tokyo were cancelled because Japan hadn't opened up post pandemic. We flew Premium Economy and it was not great. Nothing cancelled but some quite long delays and the on board service was pathetic.

The first time I flew Vietnam Airlines was 30 odd years ago from Hong Kong to Saigon. One of the worst flights I can recall. Sat in my seat and it tipped over backwards as it wasn't screwed to the floor! On that flight I was actually surprised we made it!

laurieco

Crellston, I’m sorry but I had to laugh about your seat not being screwed to the floor. It shouldn’t be funny as it’s outright dangerous. I don’t take anything Larsay says seriously. He’s always going on about how awful Bangkok is, despite it being many peoples’ favorite city, and tells people not to go there. As though his opinion is the only one that counts.