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Flight Review: Jetstar Pacific – Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City

October 12, 2018 By James Clark

Flight Review: Jetstar Pacific - Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City

Flight: Jetstar Pacific BL 585
From: Da Nang (DAD) To: Ho Chi Minh City (SGN)

I flew with Jetstar Pacific from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City. There are multiple flights a day between the two cities by Jetstar, Vietjet Air, and Vietnam Airlines. I don’t have a particular preference for an airline, so I usually just go by price and time of day. I flew up with Vietnam Airlines, and for this return flight Jetstar had the most suitable time and price combo. I used Skyscanner to compare price and flight times.

Skyscanner

Jetstar offer different packages when booking the ticket. For this flight I was travelling carry-on, so I went the starter page with no checked bags.

Fare options

I usually check a bag but this was only a short trip, otherwise it would have been an additional 160,000 VND ($6.80 USD) for 15 KG.

Checked bag fees

I didn’t check in online so I waited until I was at the airport.

Check-in

I used the check-in kiosk, which was an easy process with no queue.

Jetstar Pacific kiosk

Interesting to see that the English language option shows the Australian and New Zealand flags instead of the UK/USA flags. Jetstar is part Australian owned, and there are more travellers from AUS/NZ in Vietnam, but this was the first time I’ve seen this anywhere in my travels.

Vietnamese or English

I went cheap and didn’t select my seat, so it’s always an anxious moment when my seat is selected to see if I got assigned a middle seat. Today I lucked out and got my preferred isle seat.

Boarding pass

Domestic departures from Da Nang – lots of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City flights.

Domestic departures

There is no free meal service on Jetstar so I loaded up with a pre-flight pho.

Pho with a view

The domestic departure lounge at Da Nang. There were advertisements for one of the big construction projects in Saigon.

Departures

Like Tan Son Nhat Airport in ho Chi Minh City, there are lower gates here which means boarding by a bus.

Down to gates 9-11

Flight delayed by 30 minutes – a not uncommon scenario in Vietnam.

BL585 delayed

I don’t usually travel by carry-on only because I tend to have over 7kg of stuff, and I would rather have what I need than go without. Even on this trip of 3 nights I was struggling to fit everything into my bag. I often see backpackers with large bags bringing bags way over the limit onboard. Today they were checking bags to make sure they were under 7kgs, and they caught a number of people.

7kg carry-on

My bag was under the limit, and was tagged accordingly.

Cabin bag

A bus to the plane.

Bus at DAD

Onboard the A320.

Seats

Not as roomy as my Vietnam Airlines flight, but at least my knees aren’t touching the seat in front of me.

Leg room

Jetstar Pacific inflight magazine.

Inflight magazine - 9/10 2018

The route map for Jetstar Pacific.

Route map

There are hot meals available onboard for a very reasonable 60,000 VND ($2.56 USD).

Meals

A soft drink is 20,000 VND ($0.85c USD).

Drinks

And a domestic beer is just 30,000 VND ($1.29 USD).

Beer price

The scheduled flight time was 13.00 to 14.25, which flying time of 1H, 25M. Actual flying time is closer to 1 hour. Our flight arrived slightly late, and as with Da Nang we were offloaded onto a bus at the chronically overloaded Tan Son Nhat.

Bus at SGN

Overall this was a good flight option for Danang – Ho Chi Minh City. If you are planning to make a connecting flight then I would pick a flight with plenty of time for connections in case of delays.

Filed Under: Flight Review Tagged With: dad airport, jetstar pacific, sgn airport

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About Nomadic Notes

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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