Our flight, VN51, was a little delayed in boarding due to the late arrival of the plane. By the time we left the lounge, it was almost empty. I suspect the remaining pax in the lounge were on the same flight to LHR. A short walk brought us to Gate 19 and we were too early to board. A cursory look at the passengers waiting at the gate gave me the impression that this flight was quite full. Many passengers were foreigners (i.e. non-Vietnamese), perhaps not surprising since this plane was going to London Heathrow and I'd imagine it would be pretty hard for the average Vietnamese to afford to go to the UK, with Vietnam's GDP per capital only around USD $2,000. Of course, Vietnam has a fairly large population (about 90 million) so perhaps their elites are very rich, I don't know.

Once boarding started, we quickly got on board the plane and went to our seats. A very exciting time for the family, especially the kids. We have brought them on many long-haul flights but this is the first time we are flying long-haul business. Thank God for the opportunity and I certainly hope that the kids do not take such privileges for granted!

I chose to take 4 aisle window seats, so that we sat as a column, each kid on his/her own. I was confident that the kids were well behaved enough to do that and I was right. So it looked something like this. Kid, kid, followed by adult and adult.


Here is a screenshot of the Vietnam Airlines Dreamliner Seat map. The Business cabin has 7 rows of 4 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, for a total of 28 seats. We took rows 3,4,5,6 (all window). I noticed the cabin was full (almost all Caucasian) and I took pains to remind my kids that they were the only children in the Business cabin, and if they misbehaved, the cabin supervisor would kick them back to Economy because the other passengers would complain, and if that happened, Daddy couldn't do anything about it. (Scare tactic)


Thankfully kids were very well behaved. Sitting in this manner made them feel important and facilitated them walking up and down the aisle to come look for their parents. Most important for them (after playing with their amenity kits, which came in a very nice bag) was to decide on what to eat.

I had told them that the cabin crew would come around to take orders for their drinks, dinner and breakfast. Daddy would not order for them. They must communicate to the cabin crew on their own, and get what they want. My son asked cheekily whether he could get beer or wine. I told him the cabin crew would scold him, so he got scared.

Here was the menu. Supper.


And breakfast.


My first course - I chose the Marinated scallop, sauteed mussel, prawn in lemon grass. The crew came around with warm breads, and I chose the garlic bread. It looked like this. Sorry, the picture is a bit dark. Watch the video for a closer look. The food tasted good. Notice that the food was served on a tray, and the dessert was already served. The supper service was a bit quicker since this was a red-eye and the crew knew that passengers would want to sleep. Still, it was enjoyable.


After I was done with the first course, my main came. I chose the grilled pork loin with crab cake. The pork loin looked a bit dry, but it wasn't too bad. Gave me more excuse to try their signature drinks!


I broke up my video flight review on the Vietnam Airlines Dreamliner SIN-LHR into 2 parts. This first part shows you boarding, the seat, the amenity kit, supper.

This was a red-eye and we had nice flat beds. I faced an issue with the lie-flat bed, which turned out to be my own fault. At first, I couldn't deploy the bed to a completely flat position, even though I kept pressing the button. I went to check on my kids and both of them were fast asleep, their beds completely flat. After examining my seat again, I realised that my shoes and backpack were blocking the way! Yes, I had to rearrange them, and the seat could now be fully deployed. Wonderful.

All of us had pretty good sleeps. I had a good 5-6 hours of sleep and woke up naturally. Cabin crew walked around with some snacks and I got something light to eat, plus some tea. It was soon time for breakfast and cabin crew came around taking orders again. All of us chose the Vietnamese Pho for breakfast, and it suited our tastebuds perfectly.

Looking again at this picture, I noticed my kid got a Coke Light with her Pho for breakfast. LOL. Oh, doesn't matter. I told them they could ask for any drink they wanted since we were on holiday, other than alcohol of course.


The Pho was so good I ate up everything and drank up all the soup. This picture to prove it! In case you were wondering, I am not Vietnamese. We are from Singapore and my ancestors were from China. That said, the Chinese have a tradition of noodles soups, so the Vietnamese Pho dish suited our tastebuds. Thank God for good noodle soup on the plane!


As part of the breakfast tray, there was a bowl of yogurt. The Syrup art was fantastic!


I had to make a video of this Syrup Art.

As we approached London, we had to circle a bit so our landing was slightly delayed. No matter, we were not in that big a rush. Landing was smooth and it was 6 Deg C on the ground. Before landing, I asked the crew if there were fast track passes. I remembered I didn't get any even though they had handed out UK landing cards. I was told that we would be given those at the gate. True enough, when the aircraft gate opened, there was a ground staff waiting with a stack of Fast Track cards. I took four.


I can't usually claim any firsts, but I believe that this and the next video is the first detailed review of the Vietnam Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner long-haul flight. Making YouTube history perhaps?

Vietnam Airlines Ho Chi Minh to London Heathrow Dreamliner Part 1

Vietnam Airlines Ho Chi Minh to London Heathrow Dreamliner Part 2

Some final words. Was the experience on Vietnam Airlines a 5-star one? Well, no. If I wanted to be picky, I am sure I could find many areas to complain about. Definitely the crew is hampered by a relative lack of English proficiency. I assume if you had complicated requests, they would not be able to understand you. However, we have simple needs. Ordering off the menu was easy because we pointed at what we wanted. They understood common terms like red wine, white wine etc. How was the IFE? Well, the programming is a bit electic, but as I don't go to the movies often, I found some movies to watch. The seat was good. Most importantly, the price was good! Grateful for the ability to bring my family on this trip. Thank God for His bountiful blessings.

Enjoy!