Flight: VietJet Air VJ 137
From: Hanoi (HAN) To: Ho Chi Minh City (SGN)
I flew with VietJet Air from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. I looked for the cheapest flight via Skyscanner, and settled with VietJet Air for the combination of price and time of day.
The Hanoi – Ho Chi Minh City city pair is one of the world’s busiest domestic flight routes. In addition to VietJet Air, there are also flights with Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific, and Bamboo Airways. There is a plan for a new railway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, but that is years away from reality. For the time being the airlines have the competitive advantage of the current railway service.
To get an idea of flight options, these are the flights available on one day with VietJet Air – 30 flights.
My selected flight was 399,000 VND ($17.22 USD), and then begins the added extras process. I booked a checked bag for 155,000 VND.
Other extras like prepaid meals and insurance are also offered.
The final price was 1,092.400 VND ($47.13 USD), so a great deal for a 2-hour flight.
It takes about 45 minutes to get to Noi Bai International Airport, and a Grab taxi cost 270,000 VND ($11.65 USD).
Vietjet Air has a massive presence at Noi Bai, and there are ample check-in kiosks. There wasn’t much of a queue at the counter check-in so I used that instead. I didn’t pay to select a seat, and if you use the kiosk check-in you will be randomly selected a seat. At least with the counter check-in, you can ask for a window or aisle seat, and most of the time they will oblige.
I took this flight when Vietnam was inside a domestic travel bubble during the global pandemic of 2020. Even though domestic flights had got back to normal (as that flight list showed), international flights had ground to a halt. It was sad seeing these old advertisements for international flights aren’t currently available. I have flown Hanoi – Seoul with VietJet before, and I was looking at making a trip to Delhi at some point. The Delhi flight was added in 2019 during what was a boom year for Vietnam aviation. Who knows when those international flights will return again.
Since my last visit to the Hanoi domestic terminal, a Starbucks has opened.
While international travel had stopped, the domestic terminal was still busy and we were bussed to the aircraft.
VietJet Air flight VJ137 departs Hanoi (HAN) at 09:45 and arrives at Ho Chi Minh (SGN) at 11:55, for a scheduled flying time of 2 hours and 10 minutes.
The flight departed on time and it was almost completely full.
I had a bit more legroom than usual. Normally my knees are touching the back seat on VietJet Air flights.
If you want to guarantee extra legroom you can book an emergency exit row seat for an additional fee. Today’s flight was full of cheapskates like me, as no one had taken up the offer. I have been allocated the emergency row when the flight is full and I check in early.
One-2-fly – the inflight magazine of VietJet Air.
A menu is provided for inflight food and drinks.
Hot meals are a very reasonable 55,000 VND ($2.37 USD).
Drinks start at 25,000 VND ($1.08 USD), and an inflight beer is 40,000 VND ($1.72 USD)
The coffee is just a 3-in-1 satchel, but at 1 dollar I will take my additional caffeine hit.
The flight arrived on time, and to my surprise, we had an airbridge to disembark.
Tan Son Nhat Airport is running above capacity and there is a plan for a new airport. Despite the capacity issues, I’ve always found claiming bags here to be a quick process.
At the airport there were reminders everywhere to wear a mask and wash your hands.
Overall this was a good flight option for travel between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
