jbar91

Intro (Skip this post for the TR)
In late November, the opportunity to meet my parents in Hanoi presented itself before me. The AvGeek in me was immediately excited by the potential for fun itineraries! First things first, we decided to append Seoul to the end of our time in Vietnam, and given it’s been 6 years since I have been to Tokyo I decided to go there for a weekend at the end. I decided to book the main legs I needed IAD-HAN and TYO-IAD in a way that would allow me flexibility in the future. United proved willing and able to do this basic first step with a good stock of saver economy tickets, so I booked IAD-ICN and HND-IAD for 38k Mileage Plus each, and grabbed a good Economy Plus seat. I looked into cash fares but they were all in excess of $2,000 so I decided to pursue points. All that was left to book would be a same day ICN-HAN, HAN-ICN, and GMP-HND.

Then, pretty much a day later I thought a miracle had occurred! Singapore Air released a ton of Aeroplan award space in J! Great availability from the West Coast and NYC to Hanoi in a fairly direct way! Being a responsible points connoisseur, I verified a ton of alternative routings were available before taking advantage of a Chase transfer promo to send 48k Ultimate Rewards points over for 62.4k Aeroplan points, planning to use cash plus points (which I know isn’t a great deal, but given the weak CAD/strong USD decided to conserve points). I was excited — 16 hours of SQ J from SFO-SIN — until disaster struck and it turned out all the award space was phantom space. Now I had points parked in Aeroplan, admittedly at a good conversion rate, and still a United economy ticket. I went to work with expertflyer, setting alerts for every conceivable NH or SQ routing and checking daily.

An Aeroplan Christmas Miracle
On Christmas morning I awoke as normal and did my ritual of checking a few routings for my trip. Suddenly, half awake my heart started racing: on the exact day I needed there was an ANA First Class seat available from ORD-HND! It was perfect. I booked IAD-ORD-HND-HAN from my phone in bed after transferring 18k miles from Capital One to reach the minimum for points and cash. My ticket booked successfully, unlike with SQ — or so it seemed. It turned out, my ticket got stuck in processing. I sat there staring endlessly, before realizing I should call Air Canada to confirm it. Unfortunately it being 9am on Christmas morning and there being weather across North America it was impossible to get through to an Aeroplan agent.

Dreams dashed, and more miles parked in Aeroplan I went on with my Christmas morning until around noon I got a push notification: my first ticket was cancelled. After mopping around dejectedly I sprinted to my laptop and tried again, this time from my laptop booking ORD-HND-HAN to simplify, with an overnight Tokyo connection and airport change. Miraculously this time it worked! In a moment of weakness I booked a fully flexible ticket, not fully trusting AC. So for 88,000 Aeroplan points and CAD 1200 my ANA adventure began. I booked a United positioning DCA-ORD flight for $250 and I was all set to get there.

As I write from the ORD Polaris lounge the some of my flights are in flux, but hoping to at least get J of some form back from Asia. I will provide an update in a later post once I decide.

Confirmed Itinerary
DCA-ORD United Y+
ORD Polaris Lounge
ORD-HND ANA F
Crowne Plaza NRT
NRT-HAN Bamboo Air Y
Hotel Melia Hanoi
HAN-ICN Vietnam Air Y
Four Points Seoul
GMP-HND ANA Y

TBD
Tokyo Hotel
TYO-WAS

jbar91

DCA-ORD
UA 1332
Depart: 10:44am
Arrive: 11:35am (-1)
Duration: 1:38
A319
A quick 20 min Uber with beautiful views from the parkway got me to DCA an hour before my flight,

Recently splurged on a new Tumi, this setup let me pack for 10 days!

DCA had no lines, but I used Clear anyways. Given I won’t have many opportunities to stretch my legs today, I walked through to see the new recently-ish opened terminal.

Entering the new wing

I stumbled back to the gate just in time for 1K boarding.

The bulkhead in the A319 is great! Since I could use the room below the seat to store things I busted out my Tumi’s dust bag, a habit I’m sure I will eventually get over.

A stropwaffle and ginger ale to save room for the Polaris Lounge. I also grabbed a recline snackbox to save for my flight to Hanoi. After the drink service the purser handed appreciation cards to 1ks from the captain which was a nice touch.

Classic Chicago January day

Decided to walk around ORD and stumbled upon this, thinking it was the new United club, however upon speaking to the Lounge agent I realized these balloons are just there randomly and the lounge will open next week. Knowing this, I decided to head to the Polaris lounge.

jbar91

ORD Polaris
I had used ANAs online check-in so I had a mobile boarding pass upon arrival in Chicago. A little skeptical it would work, I headed over to the Polaris lounge in the C concourse.

When I arrived around noon the lounge was remarkably empty.

I went straight to the dining room for a cocktail and lunch.

Today’s menu:

Nice to see a cocktail menu again!

Delicious Chicken Spatzle and a Polaris Star.

After dining I went to a chair and read for a bit.

Then, at 1 I decided to go for a walk and get some fresh air, deciding to leave the secure side to go get a physical boarding pass.


I was second in line when checkin opened at 1:25.

Back to the Polaris lounge to plane spot!

Quick snack to power this TR.



Now off to the gate for the flight of a lifetime!

Chaz_12

Was hoping The Chicago Cocktail would feature some Jeppson's Malört, but maybe that's a bit too punchy for the Polaris Lounge. Thanks for a great read, looking forward to the rest of your TR!

jbar91

ORD-HND
NH 111
Depart: 4:52pm
Arrive: 8:50pm (+15)
Duration: 12:58
B777-300ER
About 5 minutes before the scheduled boarding time I wandered over to the gate to see the 777-300ER taking me to Tokyo.

At the gate, it was a little chaotic exacerbated by the Lufthansa 747 boarding next door.
A sign was up announcing a 15ish minute delay in boarding.
At around the initially scheduled boarding time I was paged, so I went up to the podium to have my passport checked and was informed of the delay and asked if I wanted to go back to the lounge or stay at the gate. I chose to stay at the gate and was directed to a roped off first class only siting area, in the midsts of the chaos. I had about 20 minutes to kill here before the day I had been dreaming of! ANA was pretty strictly enforcing the boarding process and lanes people were waiting in. A few times people asked to see my boarding pass…I guess lululemon ABC pants are more business class than first.
Finally, I boarded through 1L and was greeted by two flight attendants who directed me to my seat.
Once I sat down the FA and Purser came by to introduce themselves. They brought over the supplementary amenity basket (didn’t take a picture of it) and asked how I would like to be addressed and I chose Mr. my First name. I heard a pop and was offered some champagne, I think it’s the same they serve in J as they only serve Krug after takeoff.

PDB
The amenities I selected from the basket, featuring the aforementioned lulus.


Inside of the Amenity Kit
We ended up having a 30ish min ground delay after boarding as they finished loading cargo, but I had plenty of things to pass the time with. The FAs brought over the menu for the flight and happily said I was the only passenger in F. There was also an automated messaging requesting people wear a mask. At this point, I hadn’t had one on so I asked the FA if I should wear one. Of course this is a mistake because it put the good service instinct to say what I wanted to hear with what they wanted to say into conflict. I danced around the awkward conversation and asked for one. They brought these special ANA ones that were really comfortable.
Also while on the ground I noticed they had individual air vents, a welcome discovery given most Asian airlines keep the cabin quite warm.
The food and beverage menu was delivered in a leather binder.
We had the ORD-required bumpy taxi and then were on our way to Tokyo. I loved using the onboard camera during takeoff and landing. The TV really is jaw dropping.

15 minutes after takeoff my Krug was served. For what it is worth they had half bottles catered which was for the best since I could try more of their drinks.

First came the Amuse which the FAs explained. At this point they took my order and I asked for the caviar then the Japanese menu.


The menu

Caviar and more Krug

First course with sparkling water (and Eat Pray Love)

Second course with my first Sake

The FAs insisted I try all the Sake, and who am I to say no?

Finally, the main course. I was stuffed at this point but made a decent dent into the food although definitely did not finish it.

Full spread.

After they cleared my plate they did a petit fours course and I passed on dessert otherwise.

First had an ANA caffeine free tea to make room for the Hibiki.

Having finished my tea, it was Hibiki 17 time. Absolutely sensational!

At this point I was in a full food coma and we were about 3 hours in so I went and changed and moved over the the bed the FA made me in the seat over.

I closed the door and got a good 5 hours of sleep!
The bed was a little firm but significantly better than anything else I’ve flown in.


To be continued… wrote this half in the taxi ride from Hanoi airport to my hotel, once I started typing the taxi driver stopped trying to scam me. Hope you enjoy!

injian

Curious to hear about the scam story!

jbar91

Sorry for the delay, I’ve been busy enjoying Hanoi!

NH 111 Continued

I realized I forgot to post two pictures of the bed.



After waking up from my sleep I was ready for a snack! I love Japanese style curry so I went with that and a fruit plate.

The curry was delicious and beautifully presented.

After I finished the fruit plate came and it all tasted fresh, impressive 8 hours in.

Then I had an espresso which came with two chocolates. The espresso was really good.

I then ordered a cup of roiboos tea. I had mentioned earlier to the flight attendants that this was my first ever first class flight, and so with my tea they surprised me with a cheesecake and ice cream and a written out note on the plate. I don’t usually eat cheesecake because I try to avoid dairy but to be polite I tried some and it was delicious! Will add a note at the end on the amazing service but will keep this picture focused for now (as someone who tends to read TRs by looking at pictures and skipping most text).

Decided to watch LOTR, having enjoyed Rings of Power, and ordered another Hibiki. The FAs also brought an entire box of chocolates as a gift.

I was also presented with a gift bag of snacks.

To stretch out I decided to go for a walk and check out J.

Looks pretty comfy.

I had mentioned to the FAs how I liked the ANA masks so they brought me some.

Decided to do a whisky tasting so ordered the George V which was served with some fried fish.

At this point I realized I hadn’t taken a complete set of pictures, so completed my work. The headphones were comfy and could sync with a device.

Ordered a corn soup and the Talisker 18. I enjoyed the whiskeys in the order I drank them — Hibiki 17 was the best by far then a George V then Talisker.

More context on how massive the tray table is.

Seat remote and controls. Note you can move the seat forward which is nice. Nice reflection of my elbow, oops.

One surprising thing was how beat up the seat is.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and I watched our arrival using the nose cam.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end. Connecting passengers departed first, then I was personally invited to deplane before the rest of the passengers.

I collected quite the gift bag, including extra pajamas for me and a set for my girlfriend.


Thanks for reading! Will write a summary of how great the service was and some concluding remarks in a separate post.

jbar91

NH 111 ConclusionThe service on this flight was sensational. The attention to detail and precision reminded me of going to Restaurant Gordon Ramsey. I noticed the FAs were really looking to tailor the experience to what I liked, and the more I talked to them the more they set out to spoil. For example, I had mentioned it was my first time in ANA first class and how I was really excited for it and they ended up bringing the decorated plate. Additionally, when I said how comfortable the pajamas were they offered for me to take more home. I spent about 20 min chatting in the galley with the crew towards the end of the flight and you could really tell how much pride they took in their job.

Simply put, ANA First Class is a phenomenal product and I doubt anything I take in the near future will live up to it. I can be clickbaity and scream to the void I FLEW A $20K TICKET FOR HOW MUCH???? But the truth of the matter is I think it is hard to justify paying that much for a flight in cash unless it is such a small % of your income or its paid for by a company.

My 88k Aeroplan points and $800 were worth every cent, but I do not think I would race back to pay that much to do ANA First again solely because the value I derive from it is the once-in-a-lifetime feel to the experience. That being said if someone wants to sponsor my first class travel, be my guest

13 Hours in Tokyo — Back to Reality
My ANA induced bliss was quickly brought back down by a 30 minute immigration line (in the Visit Japan Website section). It was so hot was starting to sweat and ended up delayering to a t-shirt, I could feel the luxury dripping away. When planning my layover, I had decided I would go to a Narita airport hotel and use the gm/shower before sleeping so I booked the ANA Crowne Plaza Narita for $110 a night.

The Keikyu line goes direct from Haneda to Narita so I figured it would be fine. However, having previously lived in Tokyo I overestimated the quality of the Tokyo public transit system and assumed there would be a train later than 9:45 pm. I was wrong, so when I made it to the train station at 9:50pm I was out of luck. This was purely dumb planning on my part so I was now scrambling to find a new routing to Narita. A 1hr30 min journey was turning into a 2 hour ordeal.


Initial routing

This is where my false confidence from my time spent in Tokyo bit me in the a$$. I thought I could outsmart google maps by taking an earlier train and getting off at Shinagawa and rejoining this routing. The reason I wanted to do this was to get some snacks from the Shinagawa kiosks. Here is where I screwed up. I got a little lost in Shinagawa and ended up missing the train. So I wandered around looking for Wi-Fi which I found to get another routing, this one getting me to Narita at 12:30am. Very annoyed at myself I begrudgingly treaded over to that platform and sprinted to board the soon to depart train. As soon as I got there I snuck on right before the doors closed — perfect! Then we sat there for a minute and they announced a 20 min delay, which would have caused me to miss the train I was changing to. At this point my time on ANA felt forever ago. I decided to cut my losses and book a cheap hotel a 10 min walk from Shinagawa to regroup and get to Narita in the morning. I booked the Miyako City Takanawa from the Wi-Fi at Shinagawa and walked over, stopping at a FamilyMart for Onigiri #1. I ended up paying $150 for this last minute room — ironically I had looked at booking this exact hotel before deciding to stay at Narita.
Miyako City Takanawa
The one good thing about this decision was I reached the lobby around 11pm.


The room was perfect for what I needed. A comfy bed, and nice bathroom. It took me about 45 minutes to re-optimize my packing to fit all my ANA goodies in my suitcase.



Terrible picture, but an evening snack and drink.

I slept for about 4 hours from 12am-4am, not bad all things told. I decided to get up and walk around, one thing thats so great about Tokyo is I had no qualms about safety during a morning stroll.

Onigiri #2 and a tea to wake up.

My Tokyo train misadventures continued from here. I was slow getting out of the shower and missed the nonstop cheaper Keikyu train, so ended up taking a JR to Ueno then the Keisei Skyliner to Narita.

My plastic bag of snacks killed my aesthetic, but I got to enjoy a beautiful sunrise.

I arrived at Narita at 7:15 am, right as I assumed the check-in counter would open for my flight to Hanoi.


Unfortunately, there was already a huge line. It took an hour to get to the front of the check-in line. Bamboo air has an asinine 7kg limit for carry ons so I had to check my bag. I asked the check-in agent, who had perfect English, how much an upgrade would cost and she went to ask her supervisor before saying $250. I was tempted given how miserable the last 10 hours had been, but as I was getting my credit card she offered up: “I have an emergency exit available for free.” I put my wallet away and decided to go with that and chose seater 10F. From there, I bid adieu to my bag and walked over to the long 30 min security line. 2 hrs after arriving at Narita I made it to the gate where I had Onigiri #3 and #4 as I waited for boarding.
Finally, 25 minutes before schedule departure there was the standard efficient Japanese boarding.

NRT-HAN
QH 413 (Bamboo Air)
Depart: 10:31am
Arrive: 2:19pm (-2)
Duration: 5:50
A321NEO
Once on board, I was thrilled with me legroom situation. Also funny lost in translation moment when the FA made me promise not to open the door while in flight. We were welcomed aboard on the PA in perfect English by our Mexican Captain which I found intriguing. We had a quick taxi with some great views of ANA A380s and then we were on our way to Hanoi.

Great view of Haneda and Tokyo on departure.

15ish min after takeoff the cabin crew came through with a drink cart and peanuts. I wasn’t sure if a meal would be served so I had grabbed snacks.

I enjoyed my snack while we had some phenomenal views.


Then 50 min after takeoff another drink cart came through and the crew offered a choice of spaghetti or chicken rice. I chose the chicken rice which was served with a warm roll, a salad I ignored, and a delicious lemon sponge cake thing.​​​​​​

At this point I forced myself to stay up by looking out the window until we reached the ocean. Then I took a two hour on-and-off nap before watching Slow Horses until it was time to descend. We landed and taxied to a remote stand.

I snapped a seat pick on arrival since I had neglected to do so before.

Pick from the bus to immigration.

Immigration was a complete mess. There were about 25 desks, but the width of the entrance to the area was only 10 desks wide. So once I followed some locals who pushed through the narrow part, I went wide to the left but lines were still very long. It took an hour to clear and was terribly inefficient. There are no separate lines for Vietnamese people or foreigners. It takes 10 seconds for them to process a Vietnamese passport, but a lot longer for a foreign one. So I got lucky the first 15 people in my line were locals, but it slowed down from there.

After making it through immigration I got to experience the most infuriating baggage claim experience ever. I had checked my AirTag while in immigration ands as my bag looked to be at the baggage claim, which was great! However, when I got there there were 3 flights using the same claim as mine, and the claim was packed and the surrounding area was stacked full of bags. For some reason, no one was removing bags from the claim, so new bags were not entering. It took another hour for my bag to finally make it out, at which point I was ready to go full-Karen.

Hanoi Taxi Scam
Once I finally got my bag I went to an ATM to get 1 million Dong ($40ish) to pay for a taxi. My parents had come through the day before and booked a black car for $25 from a stall at the airport. They paid upfront with card and had no issues. I decided to try a taxi, and after fending off all the classic off-license scams I made it to the taxi queue. There was a guy in a yellow jacket at the front of the queue so I said where I wanted to go and to my surprise he took off his jacket and put me in the first cab which he was driving. I guess it is how its supposed to work and above him there was a board with the fixed fee. So once I get in he says how much do you pay, so I pointed to the fixed fee board. He responded by saying “US 40”. I tried to sound outraged and said no no no 400,000 Dong (about $15). I figured he would say fine, since the fixed rate was 320,000 Dong but he got fake angry and tried to say thats not enough. So I pointed at the meter and insisted he used it, which he did. As we were leaving the airport there was a 10,000 Dong ticket fee, and as we went though he asked me to pay 50,000 Dong for it. However, I refused and he kept insisting but I just put headphones in and started working on my TR. The drive continued without incident and we made good time to my hotel, which took about an hour. When we got there, the meter said 550,000 Dong which I decided to begrudgingly fork over. Once I did he insisted on the 50,000 Dong scam fee. I was gesturing no and staring at the hotel bell hop hoping they would intervene but they did not get the memo. 50,000 Dong is $2 and since I was exhausted I gave up and relented and gave him the money. Finally, 3.5 hours after touchdown I was at my hotel. TLDR: book a black car when arriving Hanoi.
​​​​​​​To be continued….

stevie

Great TR so far, and wonderful picture of Mt. Fuji. Look forward to your Hanoi experience.

bj27

Amazing TR so far; keep it up.

I flew VietJet a few times last year and one of the jokes we have as friends is how often we were reminded to "please not open the emergency exit." Not sure if it it's a Vietnamese government regulation given your similar experience.

GodAtum

Who asked to look at your boarding pass at the gate, random passengers?

JayhawkCO

When I first flew NH F and SQ F back in 2009, I was a punk 27-year-old lifetime restaurant worker who flew in F to go on a backpacking trip through SE Asia. I had my boarding pass and such checked multiple times for the First Class Terminal, Private Room, etc. since I didn't fit the mold of the typical HVF. I didn't take offense to it; I found it actually kind of funny.

WXFlyer1957

Excellent trip report!

jbar91

Pretty much exactly what happened with me. Kinda funny, it is a little validating To prove the intuition wrong!

jbar91

Hotel Melia Hanoi
Going to apologize in advance for how poor my picture taking was in the hotel. I was sharing a 2.5 bedroom suite with my parents and neglected to take pictures.

Hotel Melia has seen better days…. But our room was spacious and the shower had great water pressure. The spa had gendered locker rooms with (at least in the men’s) a hot tub, sauna, and steam room. There was also a nice outdoor pool I decided to not use due to how polluted it was outside.

The breakfast buffet was huge and everything was delicious.





This might be the best hotel omelette I have had in years. It started out looking like a scramble until it was perfectly shaped.

Exploring Hanoi
Ho Chi Minh mausoleum

How polluted it was outside

Pagoda

Beautiful flowers for sale.

The packed streets of Hanoi,. Crossing a street was always an adventure.

First of many food pictures.

Classic Hanoi sidewalk aka motorbike parking.

Pho!


More Bun Cha




Obviously not an extremely extensive photo collection from Hanoi, but it was an enjoyable three days, although we probably would have been equally happy leaving after day 2. Hanoi has a very busy energy and it got kind of exhausting! That being said, it is a great juxtaposition to Seoul and Tokyo.

Vietnam Airlines Pre-Flight Experience
I had looked into upgrading for the HAN-ICN leg, but online it was $150 for a 3hr35min flight. I decided against it initially and checked in, but did go in and do it for my mom (my dad had a paid J ticket already). The Vietnam Airlines website was a bit clunky but I was able to get it done fairly easily.

Then out of curiosity, I walked over to a Vietnam Airlines office to see if I could get a better deal in person, but that wasn’t happening. I had paid about $15 to select seat 18A and when I checked ExperyFlyer I noticed the two seats next to me were blocked. Obviously it wasn’t business class but I figured that would be comfortable enough.



Our taxi to the airport took about an hour, and this time it did not appear we got scammed, but went by the meter without issue — although allegedly there is a fixed fee to the airport the meter and fixed fee were within a dollar of each other.

Business class check in desk. At this point, I decided to try to go for the upgrade one more time hoping it would be cheaper. I was directed to the ticket office where they quoted the same $150 price. In a moment of weakness I decided to pay for it. I only spent $200 on the flight for my economy ticket, so $350 total for J. I hoped if I paid in VND it would be cheaper, but alas there was no local currency discount.

The check-in agent said that upgraded fares do not come with lounge access, and implemented Vietnam Airs high-tech lounge access system of writing no lounge at the bottom of a boarding pass in English.

The lounge was next to a priority pass one so out of curiosity we tried our boarding passes at the Vietnam Airlines Lotus lounge and sure enough they let us in. So much for no lounge access!

Decent buffet spread.

Made to order noodle bar.

All the toppings

Quick snack #1, not sure I have enough drinks to go with it though……

Home of the drink selection which I overindulged at.

I tried the seafood fried rice and a sticky rice dish. The pho was really good but these two were pretty bland.

After about 30 minutes in the lounge we headed over to the gate at the scheduled boarding time, only to wait another 20 min or so before boarding started.


I will post a full report on Thursday, but for now all I can say is WOW. Vietnam Airlines medium-haul business class is sensational. Thanks for following along!