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Flight Review: Vietnam Airlines – Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney

October 21, 2018 By James Clark

Flight Review: Vietnam Airlines - Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney

Flight: Vietnam Airlines VN 773
From: Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) To: Sydney (SYD)

I flew with Vietnam Airlines from Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney. My eventual destination was Brisbane, which has no direct flights to Vietnam. I had a number of other flight options, including flights via Hong Kong and Singapore, but this flight worked out best for me. The flight was provided by a tourism office I was working on behalf of.

As I’m currently based in Vietnam I’ve been flying Vietnam Airlines more regularly, and I had just flown with them earlier in the month to Da Nang. Vietnam Airlines flies to Sydney and Melbourne, and this was my first time flying with them to Australia.

Vietnam Airlines have online check-in available 24 hours before departure. I checked in online to make sure I got an aisle seat (my preferred option for long haul flights).

Seat selection

It’s worth checking in online as the queue is much smaller than the airport check in queue. Maybe I shouldn’t be telling everyone this as eventually it will be the other way around.

Online check-in queue

Vietnam Airlines is a member of the Skyteam Alliance. They have their own frequent flyer program (Lotusmiles), but I used my Delta account to collect frequent flyer points for this flight.

Gate 15

Not airline related, but one of the weird things about flying to Australia is they don’t allow any liquid in your carry on. I encountered this when flying from Bali last year. At least here the nearby shops won’t sell drinks.

No drinks on Australian flights

The flight departs at 20:00 and arrives in Sydney at 9:15, for a scheduled flight time of 8H, 15M. The flight was on time, which was good as I had a connecting flight in Sydney.

VN 773 to SYD

Complimentary Vietnamese and Australian newspapers.

Newspapers

Todays flight was on a B787, which is still a novelty for me to fly on. The seats are comfortable but they are in a 3-3-3 confuguation, while Boeing had intended the 787 to be 2-4-2.

Economy seats

At least the legroom is generous for an economy seat.

Economy legroom

I still marvel at the size of the 787 windows.

787 windows

Each seat has its own inflight entertainment unit.

Inflight entertainment unit

When I’m not watching a movie I have it set to show the flight path.

Flight path

Heritage Magazine – the inflight magazine of Vietnam Airlines.

Heritage magazine

Checking out the route map is compulsory reading.

Route map

Not long after take off dinner is served. I got the Vietnamese-style pork and rice, with a side salad and a cake.

Dinner

Before dinner is served I go through the inflight entertainment guide and pick out what movies I want to watch. I can’t seem to sleep on overnight flights, so I find it less stressful to resign myself to a movie marathon rather than trying to sleep.

Inflight entertainment

I ended up watching three movies (though I didn’t watch this Bitcoin movie).

Bitcoin movie

Two hours before arrival and breakfast is served. I got the western-style eggs and sausage.

Breakfast

Our flight arrived in Sydney on time, and then I was on to my next flight.

Vietnam Airlines at Sydney

Overall this was a good flight option to travel from Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney.

Filed Under: Flight Review Tagged With: sgn airport, syd airport, vietnam airlines

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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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