Flight: Jetstar Asia 3K 556
From: Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) To: Singapore (SIN)
I flew with Jetstar Asia from Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore.
There are plenty of flight options on this route, so I searched for flights with Skyscanner.com. In fact according to the Tan Son Nhat Wiki page, Singapore accounts for the most international flights from Ho Chi Minh City at 103 per week, compared with Bangkok (Don Mueang + Suvarnabhumi) at 102 per week (from 2018 data). In the end I went with Jetstar Asia for the combination of price and time of day.
The Jetstar brand is used by separate airlines in Australia, Singapore, and Vietnam. In Singapore it’s Jetstar Asia (3K), while in Vietnam it’s Jetstar Pacific (BL). I mention this because the Ho Chi Minh City – Singapore route has the distinction of being operated by two separate Jetstar brands. When you book directly on the Jetstar site you won’t see the difference, but on sites like Skyscanner they will indicate which airline is operating the flight. In this case Jetstar Pacific operates the 7.10 flight.
I ordered a checked bag for 330,000 VND ($14.25 USD).
The total price was 1,328,186 VND ($57.27 USD), so it was a great deal even with the bag included.
I’ve found that checking in at Tan Son Nhat is never too crazy, though I get there early to avoid queueing. I didn’t book a seat, but they were accommodation enough to get me an aisle seat.
The flight arrived on time so that was a good start to the trip.
Flight 3K 556 departs Ho Chi Minh City at 8.55 and arrives in Singapore at 11.55 (one hour ahead), for a scheduled flying time of 2 hours. Actual flying time is around 1 hour 45 minutes.
Jetstar Asia is a low cost airline, so leg room is at a bare minimum (about a fingers width between my knee and the front seat). I forgot that Jetstar have taken out the backseat pockets as well. This is a tactic used by Ryanair, which apparently makes cleaning the plane faster.
The magazines and safety cards are kept in a rack in the head rest.
I find it annoying to have no seat pocket as I have to nurse my bottle of water. At least the guy across from me found an inventive way to hold his devices.
Jetstar Magazine – the inflight magazine of Jetstar Asia.
The magazine shows proper route maps of all the Jetstar subsidiaries.
From Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City you can make out two lines, representing the two different Jetstars.
Food and drinks are available for purchase via the Cafe Menu magazine.
The meals are in Singapore dollars, with a hot meal at 12 SGD ($8.80 USD). If you travel on the Jetstar Pacific service you get a different menu with prices in VND, and the prices are much cheaper. A hot meal there is 110,000 VND ($4.75 USD). Not that I ordered a meal as I was dreaming of my first meal back at Changi Airport (a nasi lemak).
An instant coffee will set you back $4 SGD ($2.94 USD). Again, I would rather wait for a hipster coffee in Singapore for $5.
An Singapore immigration form is provided inflight.
The flight arrived pretty much on time, and once again I breezed through immigration at Singapore Changi.
Baggage claim is also an efficient experience.
After baggage claim I couldn’t resist taking another look at Changi Jewel.
Overall this was a good flight option to travel from Saigon to Singapore. By the time I had lunch and got the metro to my hotel it was time to check in.
