Lets continue!
Sorry about cutting off halfway!
Here is the jet - the only peek I managed to get in SGN. Shes the 9000th Airbus delivery..not a bad achievement.
On board quickly and it was very clear to see how new the plane was, smelled clean and looked shiny. The crew were all pretty moody looking young people except the guy in the previous photo. I think they have to deal with a lot of problems on board and perhaps had been involved in this incident a couple of days prior in which a passenger had opened one of the fire escapes looking for the bathroom.
http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/27537/...ch-of-restroom
The result of that incident was clear with a large No Exit sign placed over the exit he had opened. I guess Vietjet utilize their aircraft so much that they haven't had the opportunity to fix it yet.
As a result the load of the plane was drastically lower than it should have been. With one exit door unusable there were about 50-60 empty seats in the middle of the jet and all exit row seats were deliberately unoccupied.
Pretty unfortunate incident on such a new plane!! But happens quite often in emerging aviation markets like Vietnam.
Settled into my aisle seat i requested to move to one of the empty rows after departure but they said no chance..luckily I had some friendly seat mates - a couple from Hanoi - who wanted to practice their English so I wasn't too upset about missing the sights outside (it was dark anyway).
looking back - plush leather - quite comfy.
Tight squeeze on the legroom - I think VJ managed to get the maximum 220 seats on the 321 and tall people like me suffer as a result, luckily the person in front didn't recline!
seat pocket contents
safety card
meals offered at $2.50, I didn't partake but my neighbours did
I had a beer for 30k ($1.50)
Note the curtain to separate the front section if they have enough "skybosses".
All in all the flight was as uneventful as I expected and I managed to watch a couple of episodes of Mad Men on my phone in flight. There was a constant queue for the bathroom so I didn't venture there this time. And when disembarking I asked one of the unfriendly looking flight attendants for a cockpit visit but was firmly denied..Maybe I need to hone my skills there a little. The captain today was Spanish (i think) with a Vietnamese co-pilot and the captain did his announcement in English and Spanish although there was very few foreigners on board.
Landing in Hanoi on time was smooth and we were greeted with humidity and higher temperatures than Saigon
Summer has officially arrived. Noi Bai Airport has a brand new International Terminal which was visible on the roll though it looked like only local jets were in. Later departures include Japanese and Korean red eyes and VN services to Europe. We parked at a remote stand and were bussed to the terminal. This irritate me a little when terminal 1 is totally underutilised with only VN domestic using the air-bridges since the new terminal opened. LCC's could be given a discounted rate to keep the building functioning!!
disembarking
Warning about rhino horns is the first thing you see entering HAN domestic arrivals.
Lots of SGN
My sweet ride to the city!
Well thats that. Overall an average experience on VJ. The cabin crew could be a lot better, their English overall is very good but their manner needs work. Smiles go a long way. Airports in HAN and SGN are functional, but they reserve the good quality terminals for international. VJ's network will continue to expand rapidly this year with hopefully more flight NE and SE Asia and the launch of Thai VJ (eventually).
My next trip will be much bigger involving 2 North Asian LCCs and Qatar to Europe..Hopefully have some better pictures by then!! Let me know your thoughts on things to add and improve
