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Flight Review: Jetstar Asia – Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore

October 23, 2019 By James Clark

Flight Review: Jetstar Asia – Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore

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.

SGN-SIN flight options

I ordered a checked bag for 330,000 VND ($14.25 USD).

Checked baggage

The total price was 1,328,186 VND ($57.27 USD), so it was a great deal even with the bag included.

SGN-SIN fare

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.

Jetstar check-in

The flight arrived on time so that was a good start to the trip.

Jetstar Asia at SGN

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.

Boarding 3K 556

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.

No seat pocket

The magazines and safety cards are kept in a rack in the head rest.

Magazine rack

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.

Phone holders

Jetstar Magazine – the inflight magazine of Jetstar Asia.

Jetstar Magazine

The magazine shows proper route maps of all the Jetstar subsidiaries.

Route map

From Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City you can make out two lines, representing the two different Jetstars.

SGN to SIN

Food and drinks are available for purchase via the Cafe Menu magazine.

Cafe menu

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).

Hot meals

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.

Drinks

An Singapore immigration form is provided inflight.

Welcome to Singapore

The flight arrived pretty much on time, and once again I breezed through immigration at Singapore Changi.

Terminal 1 arrival

Baggage claim is also an efficient experience.

Baggage claim

After baggage claim I couldn’t resist taking another look at Changi Jewel.

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A post shared by James Clark ✈️ (@nomadicnotes) on Oct 21, 2019 at 10:04pm PDT

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.

Filed Under: Flight Review Tagged With: changi airport, jetstar, jetstar asia, sgn airport

About James Clark

James Clark is the founder of Nomadic Notes. He has been a digital nomad since 2003, and Nomadic Notes features trip reports, train travel articles, and where to stay guides. He writes about transport and urban development at Future Southeast Asia. Subscribe to the weekly travel newsletter.

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James Clark from Nomadic Notes

Hi, I’m James Clark, and I've been travelling the world since 2003 while running a location independent travel business. Nomadic Notes is a travel blog featuring travel guides and notes from my travels.

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