Vietnam Airlines moves to daily Heathrow flights

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• Paul says:

  29 Apr29 April 04:00

  Vietnam is a very good airline. I flew with them from Paris to Sydney last December. The lunch out of CDG was superb.

  Lounges in both Hanoi and Saigon are a notable weak spot as is the very long layovers when connecting to Australia.

  • Stu says:

    29 Apr29 April 07:24

    We found the lounge in Hanoi was ghastly … terrible food, limited drink options, and certainly no hint of ‘mood lighting’.

• Oliver says:

  29 Apr29 April 04:34

  Although Vietnam is Skyteam, it doesn’t yet seem they have updated their systems to allow you to add a Virgin Flying Club number to your booking. I have a flight in May (booked late March), and will try asking at check-in, but I’m expecting to have to do a missing points claim from Virgin afterwards.

  Not a big issue for me since I have no Virgin status, but something to keep in mind if you are counting on extra bags, lounge access, etc.

  • Chas says:

    29 Apr29 April 08:08

    I couldn’t agree more. I have two (internal) flights with them this summer, booked before Virgin joined Sky Team. There’s no way to update FF numbers online so after a few weeks to let things settle, I contacted Vietnam’s customer service team.

    They’ve basically denied that Virgin are a member of Sky Team…. Their initial response said that I could only update FF numbers for members of the alliance. When I sent them a link to the press release announcing Virgin Atlantic joining they replied that I couldn’t earn VA points flying with VN. When I told them that they needed to look at VS, not VA, that politely told me to stop bothering them as I couldn’t earn VS miles on VN. Was going to give it another try a few weeks before my flights…

    • VALittleRed says:

      29 Apr29 April 10:20

      Shocking customer service. Virgin management need to take it up with other skyteam airlines to get their systems up to date

    • Peter says:

      29 Apr29 April 11:33

      I was able to add my ITA status, but skyteam doesn’t let you use the lounge on domestic flights so it’s quite pointless.

      • Chas says:

        29 Apr29 April 16:10

        I wouldn’t get lounge access anyway, but I don’t want four handfuls of orphaned points in VN’s lotusmiles account when I can get a few in our Virgin accounts instead.

• zapato1060 says:

  29 Apr29 April 06:14

  If you can endure the 5h30m flight with Wizz. They have £50 return flight from Tirana to Abu Dhabi most of the year going into Mar ’24.

  • F says:

    29 Apr29 April 07:38

    I can’t

  • Londonsteve says:

    29 Apr29 April 11:19

    No need to start in Tirana. I’m not sure I’d want to transit anywhere via Albania to be honest. Wizz have a slew of flights to AD from all over central and eastern Europe. I’d seek to change planes in a nice airport like BUD which also offers plentiful affordable connections from the UK. It’s also their home base so any operational issues will be much more easily ironed out, re spare aircraft and crew and the route isn’t going to be cancelled; its been going for near enough a decade now, previously the destination was DWC.

  • Richard M says:

    29 Apr29 April 20:28

    And a whole lot extra for a bag?

• Matty says:

  29 Apr29 April 08:11

  Similarly, Etihad had fares Rome to Abu Dhabi for €50 one way. Abu Dhabi to Rome was €80.

• Greenpen says:

  29 Apr29 April 08:57

  On April 14th the check in at Hanoi Airport could not add a Virgin number. He told me Virgin was not eligible as they were not a partner and when I said they had now joined Sky Team he searched on his computer for a few minutes before telling me clearly they were not.

  I have put in a claim with Vietnam Airlines for the missing points but I don’t think it will happen.

  On a VN code share flight on Jet Star Pacific they had my booking but could not access VN information so I did not even try to get my VS number added.

  Good luck!

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    29 Apr29 April 18:24

    If you want to credit to VS then it’s them you need to make the missing points claim with not VN.

• Londonsteve says:

  29 Apr29 April 11:24

  398 Eur rtn to Dubai from Germany. Is that actually a good deal? How much are flights from the UK to Dubai generally, including those involving a change of plane somewhere like FRA or AMS? You’d have to self-fund a connecting flight to Germany, moreover, to book something with a solid margin for safety so as not to avoid missing the Germany-Dubai leg which might therefore involve overnighting in Germany. All for the luxury of Eurowings? I’d seek to fly Emirates on that route, long as they weren’t charging silly prices.

  • zapato1060 says:

    29 Apr29 April 14:34

    Thats what I found weird too and why I mentioned ex-Europe’s to UAE with Wizz for like £60-150eur return. If your paying 398 eur rtn from Germany you might as well fork out £100-200 going direct.

  • Matty says:

    30 Apr30 April 09:51

    Flights from the UK arrive at breakfast time or late evening / just before midnight. You’re at your hotel at 08:30 after an overnight flight, awaiting check-in or crashing out as soon as you get there.

    £17.50 and ~8k of points with BA to Rome + €50 on Etihad – full service airline, included checked luggage, meal service and a couple of drinks runs, inflight entertainment etc. 4 hours 45 minutes of economy is no hardship. Arrived at the E gates in Rome and departed the E gates in Rome. No need to re-clear security or queue for passport control. It was a short shuttle ride and we were boarded within 20 minutes. Arrived in Abu Dhabi around 17:30 and we were at the Conrad less than an hour later. Made it in good time for evening cocktails on Level 45.

    Other than a tight, but preferred, connection in Rome, it was a no-brainer.

• SGJNI says:

  29 Apr29 April 15:05

  Virgin memberships are the least of your worries. We also used the ITA Gold match to avail of priority checkin and security. This worked but as others have said, no lounges domestically but BEWARE, if your ticket does not contain ALL of the names on your passport, you will have problems! Never mattered anywhere else but boy are they strict ( VN)! Then CX wouldn’t allow online checkin for the same reason but no issue at the airport. Even rang the London office who confirmed no second Christian name required but they still couldn’t check me in!

• Kraut says:

  29 Apr29 April 18:49

  Cost me 90k Amex points to go LHR to SYD one way in business class booked via Delta SkyMiles – must be one of the best deals out there to get downunder

  • Rob says:

    29 Apr29 April 19:08

    Qatar is also 90k one way UK to Oz / Nz in Business, booking using BA Avios.

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