Review of Vietnam Airlines flight from Hanoi to Bangkok in Economy

Introduction

Hey all,

Last January my wife provided me with wonderful news about her being pregnant and that we can expect a new family member. She however made a request to me whether there was a possibility for us to head to Thailand prior to giving birth to visit and surprise her parents in Thailand too. This of course was no issue at all as I always love to head over to Southeast Asia and need no reason to not go.

My wife had preferences for going in late June, but knowing that travel becomes much more restrictive for her given the strict airline policies regarding pregnancy, I decided to look for tickets in late May instead. To my surprise it was quite expensive to travel in the last week of May to the first week of June 2025 with direct flights selling for up to 1.500 EUR per person.

In the end I did manage to find a very reasonable itinerary with Vietnam Airlines for about 750 USD per person return. The first leg to Thailand would be via Frankfurt and Hanoi, while the return leg would head via Hanoi and Paris. In the end we decided to drop our return leg in favour for a more reasonable and better leg back to the Netherlands, but more on that in the actual report of that flight.

Also the first leg of this itinerary with KLM on their E175 will not be reported as I lost the majority of photos and I'm unable to determine how and where the photos went to, but expect the service to be similar to the last report I made on the leg from Amsterdam to Brussels.

Noi Bai International Airport

After an uneventful and pleasant flight coming from Frankfurt am Main, it was now time for us to transit through Hanoi for our final third leg towards Bangkok, Thailand with about two hours to kill here. Connecting through Hanoi was definitely a breeze with proper signage leading us to security, which we cleared in about 20 minutes or so.

As we had about two hours to kill prior to our next flight to Thailand, we decided to head to the Song Hong Premium Lounge in the vicinity of Gate 28. A lounge we've previously visitied (about two years ago) and we thoroughly enjoyed due to the great views you have over Hanoi's apron. Access was gained through my Priority Pass.

Window seats are definitely the prefered seats in this lounge and we were lucky enough to snatch the last window seats available and they definitely come with some beautiful views over the apron as shown in the next few photos. Also managed to spot a few rare birds like this COMAC ARJ21-700 of Chengdu Airlines (an aircraft I would love to try out) or a Boeing 737-800 from Central Airlines.

The lounge itself offers a variety of drinks ranging from water to fizzy drinks. Coffee and Tea is also available and one could order some alcoholic beverages at the bar in the far aft corner, which I did not opt nor did I take a photo of it.

Food on offer is reasonable, though not extensive and was ranging from Asian to International cuisine. The lounge also has a manned noodle station, but decided not to take a photo of it as I didn't want to impose my camera in the worker's face.

Next to our table one could find three massage chairs too which were free of charge. I did try them out for like fifteen minutes, but I can't say that I thoroughly enjoyed the massage as the chair was a bit too short for me and the massage functions were quite hard. The touchpad was also fully in Vietnamese and I did not know how to change language, so eventually gave up and returned to my seat.

As my wife wanted to look at a few souvernir shops for potential presents for her family other than the ones we bought from home, we decided to leave the lounge around 15 minutes prior to our scheduled boarding time. Luckily enough the gate used for our flight today was the gate right in front of the entry of the lounge and the gate section as of now wasn't overly crowded.

But that meant that the aircraft parked in front of us at the lounge (the Vietnam A321 in the Lounge gallery) was also the aircraft that was  going to bring us over to Bangkok and this aircraft turned out to be VN-A612.

VN-A612 is a 10.6 year old (at time of flying) Airbus A321 that has solely been flying for Vietnam Airlines and was newly delivered to them in November 2014.

VN-A612

Serial number 6344
Type 321-231
First flight date 28/10/2014
Test registration D-AVXI
Plane age 10.7 years
Seat configuration C16 Y162 Seat
Hex code 8880D5
Engines 2 x IAE V2533-A5

The aircraft was also parked next to this Boeing 787-9 that brought us over from Frankfurt and was now preparing for a domestic flight back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Boarding was called ahead of time and went via zones and the shenanigans began again with our boarding pass as it told that we were rejected entry when we scanned our boarding pass for the last leg of today's trip.

The shenanigans began in Amsterdam where we were able to drop our luggage to Bangkok, yet KLM was unable to check us as a person in for that flight. They kindly told us to contact Vietnam Airlines' ground staff in Frankfurt to sort this issue.

Once we arrived to Frankfurt, we met with one of the ground attendants over there who told us that there were two pending items on our ticket to be paid and whether we still wanted them or not. I tried order two bubble tea's as a surprise to my wife, but Vietnam's website didn't want them to be ordered and gave me multiple errors every time I clicked on ''to pay''. Given that the surprise was now spoiled, I simply told the lady to cancel it, which she did and thereafter she was able to check us in for that last flight.

Now again scanning our boarding pass, they told us that there were two pending items to be paid and me and my wife told me to cancel it as we didn't want it anymore. Staff was however unable to check us in through our boarding pass and told us to enter the plane, while one of the staff members did some magic in the computer to bypass the warning.

Upon embarking the plane, we were kindly greeted by all the flight attendants we came across and found our seat, which offered us plenty of legroom and it actually felt like we had more legroom than on the previous flight from Frankfurt.

The view from our row isn't too shabby either with a 787 of Qatar Airways parked next to us.

The literature you can find in the seat pocket in front of  you contained of a WiFi card, Vietnam's magazine, a safety card and a litter bag.

Table was also clean.

A view of the cabin when boarding was still in process.

Once boarding was completed and the doors were sealed, flight attendants came by to hand us a wet wipe.

Pushback was about three minutes ahead of our scheduled departure time.

Second in line for our departure to Bangkok behind this A321 of Vietravel Airlines. An airline I was suppose to fly two years ago from Hanoi to Bangkok, but never happened as they canceled my flight about two days prior to the actual flight happening and therefore forcing me to buy a new ticket with THAI that was three times as expensive as to what I paid for that flight. Vietravel did return the fare I paid to them within three days though after requesting the refund, so props to that.

Ten minutes later and 7 minutes behind our scheduled departure we are rolling down Runway 11R.

Remember that I said to cancel these bubble teas? Well about 20 minutes into the flight, the flight attendants came to our seat to deliver them while we never paid for them. Once delivered, the flight attendants started the complimentary meal and beverage service which both me and my wife opted out off as we were still full from the food in the lounge and we needed the sleep more.

After taking a nap for a solid hour, we were already flying in Thai airspace.

The aircraft is also equipped with individual air vents, a reading light and a call button. I must say that the aircraft is properly maintained by Vietnam Airlines over the past 10 years with little to no sign of wear and tear.

While there isn't any personal IFE available, Vietnam Airlines does offer some sort of IFE through their WiFi with a few options of movies, series and podcasts.

And about 90 minutes into the flight, we were already descending into Bangkok.

On short final and the weather doesn't look promising though.

After landing with a taxi of about ten minutes or so we were arriving to our stand about eight minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival time.

Parked at one of the most distant gates of the terminal, it took about fifteen minutes to reach the first immigration station which was sealed off by the time I reached it, yet the moment I wanted to continue to the next one, the ground staff opened it and I managed to be one of the first to get through.

Immigration took quite a while as the chaps in front of me had some struggle understanding the immigration procedure here, but let's say that it took another ten minutes or so and by the time I arrived to my belt with my wife, the luggage was already there.

As I normally would order a taxi to our hotel from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, I opted out this time and took the airport rail link as the hotel I booked for a single day (as we continue tomorrow to our next destination) was in close proximity of Phaya Thai BTS Station, which was the final station of this specific line and for this instance, the train would be faster and cheaper.

Thanks for stopping by!