Did a search and couldn't find any detailed review of Vietnam Airlines on the FlyerTalk thread. I could be wrong, but anyway, here is my contribution.

Turns out that in 2016, we ended up flying Vietnam Airlines in both Economy and Business. The Economy flight (Singapore to Hanoi and return) was on a whim. We wanted to go away for a long weekend and my wife found this Vietnam Airlines return flight Singapore to Hanoi for under SGD$1,000 for the 4 of us, or $250SGD per pax. (SGD$1,000 is about 700 USD). So why not. We haven't been to Hanoi before and we wanted to stay at the JW Marriott.

The Business class flight was to London Heathrow, and that was planned. More on that later, first on the Economy class flight.

Vietnam Airlines operates the Airbus A321 on the Hanoi to Singapore route. A check on flight aware indicates that the planes are not new, around 10 to 15 years old. They typically have 4 rows of Business class seats in a 2-2 configuration, followed by the Economy section in a 3-3 configuration (based on Seat Guru). No in-flight entertainment system. Given the price we paid, we weren't expecting too much. Singapore to Hanoi was 3 hours by plane, and we flew on VN 660.

So, the flight turned out better than expected. The seat pitch was surprisingly good. Plenty of legroom for economy. They even had a leg rest. The Food and Service was also enjoyable. We had a full meal service, no less than what you would normally get on a long-haul flight in Economy class. After the main meal was served, the stewardesses worked hard and went around serving additional wine, coffee and tea. They also had slices of fresh lemon to go with the tea. Very nice.

There were no menus handed out to passengers, but I noticed they had some pictures of the food printed on menu cards that they showed to some passengers who had questions about the food. The stewardesses offered us Fish or Beef with rice. I chose the Fish and rice. My wife had the Beef with rice. You can see the meals in the video below.

Hanoi Airport has a relatively new international terminal. When we arrived, we took a metered taxi to the JW Marriott. Similarly. at the end of our holiday, we took a taxi from the hotel to the Airport. Here are some scenes from the airport. We had a burger king meal and I found it to be rather expensive. Well, this is the airport after all.

The return flight was pretty good too. Very similar in service. This time, for the food, I had a chicken with noodles option. I also tried Halida Beer, which I believe is a local Vietnamese beer. Here is the video review.

The above, in brief, shows you the Vietnam Airlines regional experience, which definitely whetted our appetite for our 2016 year-end flight from Singapore to London Heathrow! This flight came about while planning a year end trip to the UK in early 2016 (ok, this was before Brexit). We chanced upon Vietnam Airlines flights to London Heathrow and noticed that they were operating new Boeing 787-9 on this leg. (They operate the Airbus A350 on the flights to Paris). Also, their new Boeing 787-9 had a 1-2-1 configuration in Business class. The price was very competitive, for a long-haul Business product, so we decided to go for it and bring the family along too!

Forgot to mention earlier that Vietnam Airlines operates from Singapore Changi Terminal 3. The day soon came for our flights to London Heathrow. Upfront, I have to say that because we were hunting for the cheapest tickets on Vietnam Airlines website, the flight schedule was such that we had a relatively long layover in Vietnam both ways. On the way to London, we flew via Ho Chi Minh. Coming back would be via Hanoi. The layover at Ho Chi Minh was almost 6 hours, and we spent all our time chilling in the Vietnam Airlines lounge. More of that later.

First, check in at Changi Airport Terminal 3 was very smooth and quick. There was some Christmas decorations at Changi and this crazily huge Pikachu near the departure gates. Things got a bit Pokemon crazy at Changi the past Christmas. This video shows you the crowds and all the photo-taking of Pikachu.

Another video on some Pikachu parade. Parade of the yellow monster Pokemons!

Back to our flight. Vietnam Airlines uses the SATS Premier Lounge at Terminal 3, which is located very near the KrisFlyer Gold Lounge. I think many airlines use this contract lounge. The food variety was reasonably good (self-serve Mee Siam, sufficient hot food), perhaps just a shade below the SilverKris. We had plenty of fun with the OSIM leg massagers as well as the OSIM massage chairs. They also had nice corners where you could work, and some large flat screens (I think Samsung). It wasn't too crowded at this time of the day (around 4pm) and we had plenty of space. Small USB ports by the seats made it easy to charge our mobile devices. Didn't eat too much since we had plenty of food ahead. Just nibble here and there. The lounge had showers which were unoccupied. Take note, no boarding calls, so you have to monitor the time carefully. I did recall a rather long walk to the gate (Gate A19). 15 minutes, maybe a bit more. But it was good to walk. After all we would be on the plane for many hours later on.

In my next post, I will start on the flights. Stay tuned!