I stayed only 2 days in Luang Prabang, and those 2 days went fast. By the time I thought about it, I was already in a Tuk-Tuk to get to the local airport…
Luang Prabang airport
Check-in area
The airport of Luang Prabang is pretty small and checking my luggage was a swift formality using the Business class counter. Exit immigration and security were also pretty fast to clear.
Unfortunately, VN does not have any agreement with any lounge in LPQ airport. The two main lounges of the airport were the Lao Airlines and Bangkok Airways lounges, and the latter is member of the Priority Pass network but unfortunately closed just at the moment I arrived since the last flight to Bangkok just departed.
So I was left with the few shops open inside the terminal (3 to 4 times more expensive than in town) and waited on a partly broken bench, until boarding began at 18:30.
VIP Lounge 1 ??? There are 4 in total in LPQ
The terminal area
Bangkok airways lounge. Unfortunately, it closed just when I arrived.
Lao Airlines lounge. Unfortunately, I did not have access to it.
Food court of LPQ airport
My own lounge...
Boarding soon...
A little massage before the flight ?
Being a Buddhist monk on Lao airlines beats every single Platinum card !
Please provide suggestions...
The ride to Hanoi...
Vietnam Airlines VN930, November 30th 2018
Luang Prabang LPQ - 19:15
Hanoi Noi bai Intl HAN - 20:15
Airbus A321 – VN-A602 – Seat 10B, Economy class, middle.
This flight was coming from Siem Reap (this was the same flight number as the one I took 2 days before) and the passengers coming from Siem Reap and continuing to Hanoi had to disembark the aircraft and wait inside the terminal. This is where I met a Spanish/British gentlemen traveling with his mother who appeared to have lost her passport, making the re-embarkation … complicated ! It appears she did not lose her passport but just left it in the seat pocket of the aircraft. We started to discuss and it appeared he was seated right next to me, in seat 10C.
Now comes the question… How come I ended up taking the middle seat ? Well, Vietnam Airlines online check-in system does not really give you many seating options, and you usually need to ask at the airport to get an emergency exit or first row seat. This is what I did, since I was quite happy of the legroom provided on my previous flight and the agent in LPQ gave me a first (economy) row seat… but in the middle. And I noticed that too late once I was already boarding. Fortunately this was only a short, one hour flight and the interesting discussion with my seat mate made the flight go very fast…
Row 10. Again.
Legroom on seat 10B
Interestingly, absolutely no service was provided on this flight. No drinks, no snacks. I noticed this only after landing in Hanoi.
We landed in Hanoi around 19:45, so 30 min early again, and I queued for immigration for about 15 minutes. As a French passport holder, I am eligible to a visa free entry for 15 days once a year into Vietnam. UK, German, Italian and Spanish passport holders can enjoy the same benefit but the rest of the EU passports require a visa on arrival, which can also be done online.
Immigration at HAN
All the benefit of the early landing got shadowed by the fact it took forever to collect our luggage. Eventually, by 20:45 we collected our luggage and reached the outside of the terminal.
Luggage took forever to arrive...