Transit at SGN Airport
 

I am on a ANA flight from NRT (Tokyo) to SGN (Saigon/Ho Chi Minh) that reaches SGN at 11:00 pm at night, connecting to a United flight to HKG the next morning at 6:15 am. Any ideas on spending the night? Is there a lounge at the airport that is open through the night that I can use? I am wondering if I should get a Vietnam Visa and get a hotel outside for the night. Please help with suggestions. Thanks.

I'm not sure if you're a US passport holder or not, but there no visa on arrival in Vietnam. (There is a 'sort of' visa on arrival' if you work it out in advance with a travel agent.)

Jesus. Is that only to burn miles or something? ANA should certainly fly you NRT-HKG for much less ..

Welcome to Flyertalk, sm123! Sounds like quite a routing! Unfortunately SGN airport isn't good at all, IMO, and I doubt you could stay inside in the sterile area, much less be remotely entertained.

What exactly do you mean? I needed a visa as a US passport holder last year to visit...

It is possible to do a transit in SGN. There is a transit counter at the left end of the immigration hall. They do check tickets and passports there and send you thru a shortcut into the departure hall.

There are two lounges there (one is the VN airlines, the other is a SASCO(?) lounge which is used by most star carriers. For this lounge you need an invitation (which you get at check in). Without invitation (even with a C or F boarding pass or a status card) you cannot get in.

There is one snack bar and a few (overpriced) shops, otherwise fairly boring. Also not sure if the departure hall stays open at night.

If you need a visa check the San Fransisco consulate. They dont need your passport, just a form, pictures and money and they will mail you the visa on a separate piece of paper.

Early in the morning and late at night it takes less than half an hour for a taxi to get into the center of town. Cost is around 5 US$. There is a hotel closer to the airport (Omni? not sure).

Typical time from touch down to hotel is 60 - 90 min. You need to leave around 120 min before your flight - so that does not leave much time to sleep

Folks,

Thanks for the feedback. No, this itinerary is not to use up miles or anything, just a low cost itinerary that came through UAL website and I need to take it to save costs for the company.

Doesn't look like I will have enough time to go out and get back. So, will spend the time in the transit lounge. Have to remember to get the invitation during checkin.

sm123,
i think you can get the lounge invitation only during check in in SGN - and that should not work for two reasons: first you cannot get to check in without going thru immigration (not sure if UA has a transit desk) and second check in typically opens around 2.5 hours before the flight.

I was able to use the lounge as a transit pax. However, SGN is not set up for transits - someone had to go landside to check me in (and I was unable to check in for flight remotely). So I doubt very much the OP can stay airside overnight.