From Bangkok to Hanoi is one of those routes where you have quite a few airlines to choose from. There are of course the legacies like Thai Airways and Vietnam Airlines, a few LCC and more interesting some airlines from other parts of the world that fly the route as a tag-on.
So which Airline did i choose?
For this short trip i used all i learned here and went the Flyertalk-Way:
-> Take a middle-eastern Airline (Qatar)
-> For a flight within SouthEastAsia (BKK-HAN)
-> To collect miles with a US-Airlines (US)
-> Which i will use with a European Airline (Lufthansa)
-> for a flight to South America
Qatar flys BKK-HAN as a tag-on of its DOH-BKK flight.
Even bevore takeoff towels and little sweets were offered.
(as the sweets were in a basket it was really funny to watch the lady sitting beside me grab into it with both her hands and storing her catch in her purse)
Soon after takeoff a little hot wrap and a cookie were offered.
Qatars 777 have AVOD on every seat - and the good thing is it also runs while taxiing and on the ground. Flight time was almost two hours - so almost enough to watch a whole movie (has anybody seen Battlefield LA? I missed the last 5 minutes as i had to leave the plane then - but i guess they beat the Aliens?)
So now i`m in Vietnam - at least almost. Vietnam doesn`t offer Visa on Arrival so you have to arrange that before. For Germans (and most europeans i think) there are two ways: The obvious ist go with your passport to the vietnamese consulate in Berlin to get a visa. The other one (the cheaper and easier one) is to use a online Agency to get a Visa-Approval Letter - with this letter you can get your visa at the Airport.