[Travel] Experience Taking Vietnam Airlines to Seoul, Incheon Airport from Singapore, Changi International Airport

Hi all,

I'm back with travel reviews! This time round for my flight experience with Vietnam Airlines. I booked my tickets in May 2015 for my summer school in July 2015. I booked a return trip and paid SGD529.10. I agree that this is really cheap for an air ticket to South Korea, the land of Kpop and amazing Korean dishes. However, I was utterly disgusted at their sales tactics.

I booked the flight in the evening at 5pm on a Saturday over my laptop, extremely delighted to get my tickets at just SGD100 which was the Special deal tickets. However, after I attempted payment via VISA, the screen indicated an "Invalid action, payment unsuccessful", and then I refreshed the page as saw that the Special Deal tickets were sold out. I was worried I had to spent SGD1K on SQ kind of tickets so I reluctantly bought the SGD150 tickets, spending SGD100 more instead.

To my horror, the next day from morning to night, when I looked through the fares, the Special Deal tickets were back again at the price of 100SGD! Not only the next day, even in Mid July when I checked through the webpage, the SGD100 air tickets were still available. I WAS SO PISSED, because when I emailed the sales management team, they said strictly no refunds, but "you can choose to cancel your reservation and pay the administration fee for cancelation".

I was just too pissed to reply him, because it was totally stupid. I already had keyed in payment information and everything, but payment was rejected just because I was a few seconds late, but yet the sale tickets were continually available at the same price for 1 month?! Not too sure if I was just unlucky or what.

Remember, when choosing your flight timings, always make sure transit timing is as short as possible, as there are connecting flights that make you transit for 12 hours or even up to one whole day. Unless you intend to tour Vietnam then please see the date and time of transit arrival and departure carefully.

I took the 8.30pm flight and we reached Vietnam local time 10pm, it was a 1 hour plus flight. Note that the airplanes are not linked to a gate, so you basically need to climb down the stairs and enter the airport bus shutte to bring you to the terminal. The flight to Ho Chi Minh came with food and beverages plus wet wipes upon boarding the plane. It was a really small and old plane, but decent and worth for the price paid. After landing, there would be a long queue for transit because most of the passengers are transiting to Korea too. You just need to go through a customs check, and you can head to the gate. There's wifi at the Ho Chi Minh airport, which made the transit of 2h 25min bearable.

Dinner part 1

Amazing skyline of HCM

Upon arrival at HCM

 Similarly, to board the next Vietnam Airlines plane, you will need to board the gate which is at the ground floor for you to board the shuttle bus that brings you to the airplane itself. This was an old Boeing too, but it was an even older, smaller, more crammed and air conditioning which was equivalent to Sauna. It was really hot, so my plane buddy and I had a hard time falling asleep. Thank god I managed to sleep for 2 hours, but without any blanket on since it was really too warm. My buddy on the other hand, was fiddling with her MacBook the entire time, editing videos. Kudos to her for not sleeping. The food was good too, with beverages like alcoholic drinks served. For some tips on booking, you can check the plane model on the VN website to see if its a big or small plane. The big plane I took from Seoul back to HCM to SG was super luxurious and comfortable. So you can actually plan beforehand if you are very particular about space and comfort.

Dinner part 2 aka Supper

First sign upon waking up after a 2 hour nap

Upon landing, thank god the plane was connected to a gate although our gate was the extreme last gate of the terminal (which means a lot of walking). The travelators made it much better, thankfully.

 

All in all, it was a good experience. I find that it was worth the money to travel with VN, however, if you ever see the Special Deal tickets ever sold out, wait for the next day to check back. Chances are it will be available the next day. The transit was good as I got to experience climbing down the airplane, and being able to capture photos of yourself standing on the ground with the airplane in the background.

On my return flight from SG to HCM, I met this really cute baby who was fed milk every single time she cried. (Pardon my bare face without make up, my skin condition got really bad when I was in Korea)

Let me know if you need more info on the flight experience(:

Cheers,
Rachel

[Travel] Bangkok Scoot Flight 2014 Review and Tips

Hey readers!!

Decided to do some travel reviews. Will start with the most recent one, and if there are actually significant viewers and readers, I'll continue posting!(:

For this blog post, it will be purely for FLIGHT reviews and tips. Follow up on more blog posts regarding itineraries during my 5-day Bangkok Trip June 2014!

Headed to Bangkok (my favourite travel location ... for shopping) on the 14th June 2014. (SIN --> BKK)

It was a very last minute decision to fly as I was viewing through online that Scoot was having a promo fare to Bangkok. 

I paid $370-ish for the tickets for both my mother and I. That was the best flight deal I've ever gotten! The best part was that I booked the tickets about 3-4 days before I actually flew. (I loved that feeling. It was like a pack-and-go, YOLO decision- Makes me feel more enthusiastic about life. HAHA)

Forgot to mention earlier, the flight deal was the FlyBag option, which means checked-in luggage was included. This was so much cheaper than AirAsia which fares doesnt include checked baggage, Also, I was worried that my mother and I would not be able to get adjacent seats (plus I love window seats), so I opted to pay extra to choose my own seat. Can't really remember how much I paid for the seat selection. I think it was SGD8 per pax? (Yup, so actually my tickets were much much cheaper if I hadn't opted for such options). HOWEVER, do note that Scoot doesnt serve in-flight meals, nor do they have entertainment onboard. 

In-flight meals were available at additional costs while on the flight, and you can actually choose your preferred meal while purchasing your tickets. I felt it wasn't worth it to pay around SGD10 for an inflight meal, and especially since it was just a 2.5 hour flight. 

Although I was slightly worried when I read online reviews that the Scoot staff were very unfriendly and that the seats were not of acceptable comfort, I felt that it was totally worth it for the price I paid for it!

Look at the seats! They look great right? The plane looked quite new (although Scoot planes are supposedly refurbished SIA planes). The seats comfort level were the usual Economy class seats. 

As the saying goes "You get what you pay for", so definitely I wasn't expecting a soft cushiony type of seat nor a first class service from cabin crews,

The flight went rather smoothly with occasional turbulences which can't be avoided as it depends on weather conditions(: 

The picture below shows my in-flight meal. (Yes, I smuggled Burger King 6pcs nuggets- although it was against their rules but I didnt get caught)

\

I took the 5.35pm flight, so I reached there only at about 8pm (Singapore Time). 

Look at the pretty clouds in the sky which I managed to capture while the plane was during a right turn!

This was taken about 5 minutes before we landed in Bangkok.

 Yay! A safe landing in Bangkok! The flight left Singapore slightly late as they made the announcement that there was a long queue for the runway, however, we still arrived earlier than the expected arrival timing (applause for the pilot for choosing a shortcut route- Maybe?). After clearing customs, we went to collect our baggage which took forever to come.

I think it was because we landed earlier, therefore when we arrived at our baggage claim conveyor, it still had remains of some luggages from another flight. Everyone waited for about 10 minutes before the luggages appeared on the conveyor.

I'm too lazy to type for the return flight, but it was about the same experience and not that I noticed too much about the plane as I was dead tired after the 5 days worth of shopping. (aka I slept through the flight back to Singapore)

Rating for Flight Experience:

Cabin Crew: 8/10
Remarks: They were slightly late in response when I needed assistance to purchase their souvenirs from their on-air shopping catalogue. Other than that, I couldn't comment on as I didn't order in-flight meals or called them for any other purposes. Oh, I have to mention that they were not too polite when asking me to adjust my seat back to it's upright position.

Ambience on flight: 9/10
Remarks: The 1 point deducted was not because the flight wasn't very enjoyable, but rather due to occasional children screaming and shouting (which can't be prevented either way). They dimmed the light to allow some short power nap

Seat Comfort level: 9/10
Remarks: As mentioned above, but the seat recliners were not functioning at its best. Some seats were loose (and caused occasional squeaks as the passengers shuffled in their seats)


Tips for Scoot Flights:
- Always bring an empty water bottle as there are water coolers at the back of the plane for you to quench your thirst during the flight (and if you're as cheapo as me who doesn't want to pay for food or drinks). Not too sure if they provide plastic cups (as no one around me did so)

- Do not expect too much for Scoot flights as it is meant to be a budget carrier.

-If you and your travel partners are sharing one luggage (eg. 2 person 1 luggage), get the FlyBag option for 1 pax, and the Fly option for the other pax), it should be sufficient, unless you're worried your baggage weight might exceed (which shouldnt be the case as my average-sized luggage weighed only 18.3kg when I came back.

- Try to sneak small snacks on board especially if you have a long flight (and don't get caught, obviously)

- Bring your own source of entertainment (no inflight entertainment, games, movies, shows, music etc.) They do have a personal TV, but ... it doesnt work (duh, it's a budget carrier)

- Bring  a portable charger, especially if you plan to read ebooks or play games on your electronic devices.

OH AND YES,

I forgot to mention that Scoot no longer fly to the Survanabhumi Airport. They now fly to Don Mueang only. Don Mueang is quite close to Chaktuchak so if you intend to stay near Chaktuchak Weekend Market, it will be great!

I might try flying with NokScoot if I am flying to BKK this June.
Will post a review then!

Cheers,
Rachel