Cambodia Angkor Air REP-SGN
Chalk one up for getting to add another small airline to the tally! I could have also flown out for added effect on one of their ATRs but it was in the morning and didn't feel like rushing and getting up early so the 1:55pm flight was on an A321 (I believe they lease from VN).
Leaving the hotel 2h before the flight is plenty of time to arrive and check in.
A few people trickling into the check in areas. My bag was 24kg but he didn't blink an eye with the 20kg weight limit. No OLCI or advance seat assignment. I forgot about that and didn't even ask at check in...I got my BP and looked down when walking to immigration control...row 35.
I seriously thought I would be at the last row of the plane but once I got on wifi saw I wasn't and figured it was all done for W+B so I didn't press the issue.
On arrival the airport seemed fresh and polished and it certainly was leaving. Very nice departure facilities and security making LGA look like a 3rd world dump.
I stopped at FCC who runs hotels in SR as well for one more lom lak before I took off for the hour I had to wait.
There's also a Plaza lounge.
I went to our assigned gate but it showed a flight to China and hour after ours. I walked around looking for a main display but saw nothing. The gates are grouped in pairs so on the way back I saw in the next set over it had our flight listed. No announcements were made. I think the staff finally realized they were swapped and walked over and announced to the people sitting there the gate change.
We boarded about 10 min behind schedule, but they have it listed as 40 min before the flight. We ended up leaving about 5 min early.
I was assigned an aisle. I figured that the sparse gate area meant most rows would be of just the groups traveling together. 2 Aussie girls sat next to me and the row in front and behind were also full of mixed group travelers. The 5 rows behind were sparsely populated and eventually once the door closed I moved 2 rows up to an empty row window seat for the nice 1h flight. Water was passed through and that's it.
We arrived...so close yet so far. We were parked at a gate position but still got a bus...
Immigration had fully staffed counters with about 10-12 people waiting in each line. Didn't take too long and by the time I got to the baggage claim my bag was already out. I made myself a millionaire at the currency exchange and noticed that every sim card place also offered taxis. I picked the one right in front of the door that seemed the biggest and for 22,000 VND ($10) they escorted me to a car waiting and sent me off to the scooter circus to take about 1:15m to get to the hotel. Could I have got one for $7-8? Probably but I'd rather not walk around find the normal queue or figure out what's going on to save a buck.
Again...sadly not my transport.
