Service on Vietnam Airlines domestic flights varies widely depending on the route, and the service provided between Phu Quoc and Saigon is nothing to impress.
It’s time for me to go home, which means, first of all, getting to Saigon for my flight to Europe. I’ll be flying Vietnam Airlines from Phu Quoc, in business class.
For the record here is the air routing of this trip.
You’ll find a summary of articles about this vacation in Vietnam at the bottom of the page.
Check-in and ground course
I arrive at the airport in the pouring rain and make my way to the Vietnam Airlines business class check-in desks. There are many flights to Saigon and they are checking-in the previous one.
I’m always a little wary of this kind of situation: the suitcase is put aside while waiting for the “right” flight to check-in, and there’s always a risk that it will be forgotten. So I wait 20 minutes for this check-in to finish before returning to the now empty counters.
Check-in takes 3 minutes and I make my way through the security checkpoints, which are sparsely populated, especially as I have priority queuing.
A quick glance at the terminal before heading to the lounge.
Vietnam Airlines doesn’t have its own lounge at Phu Quoc, so it uses a contract lounge, the Hoa Sim lounge, which turns out to be rather mediocre.
Fortunately, the wait was short before I made it to the boarding lounge.
I wonder what “boarding before” means.
Boarding
My boarding gate is on the ground floor of the terminal, which leads me to guess that I’ll be boarding by bus. And so it will be.
It’s amazing how many bus boardings and disembarkations I would have had on Vietnam Airlines during this trip.
A first bus arrives for Business and Elite passengers.
Very comfortable.
Even if we can’t board via the jetway, at least we have our own bus.
On the other hand, it won’t save us from boarding soaking wet, since the rain hasn’t stopped.
A larger, more conventional bus will bring the rest of the passengers a little later.
The business class cabin of the Vietnam Airlines A321
I’m back in the same cabin as on my flight from Hanoi to Phu Quoc.
Configuration in 2-2.
A slightly dated but comfortable recliner seat.
Seat controls.
The legroom is comfortable.
Vietnam Airlines is one of the few airlines to have reintroduced paper magazines.
We are ready to go.
There will be only two passengers in business class.
The flight
We were given a welcome drink on the floor and a lukewarm, dry oshibori.
Outside, the weather is not getting any better.
We take off and break through the cloud cover. Goodbye Phu Quoc.
I make myself comfortable while waiting for the service to begin.
While the service was very good between Saigon and Hanoi, a premium route operated by A350, it was very, very light between Hanoi and Phu Quoc, so I wasn’t expecting much on this barely one-hour flight.
At least I wasn’t disappointed.
Tea or coffee?
And that’s it. A little light, though.
The descent is about to begin.
Landing and arrival
The descent provides an opportunity to take a few photos of Saigon.
We land and park at …. a remote stand once again. And once again, a bus will pick up business class passengers before the others.
And there we are…I collect my suitcase and find myself with 6h15 of connecting time to kill. But that’s another story…
The service
Very attentive and polite, but it can’t be said that the crew had much to do.
Bottom line
An uneventful flight, but even if it’s short, one would expect a little more in terms of service….and not systematic boarding and disembarking by bus.
The articles about this vacation in Vietnam
The articles about this vacation in Vietnam
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