Review of Vietnam Airlines flight Seoul Hanoi in Business

Airline Vietnam Airlines
Flight VN 937
Class Business
Seat 2A
Aircraft Boeing 777-200ER
Flight time 04:30
Take-off 16 Oct 11, 10:05
Arrival at 16 Oct 11, 12:35
VN   #37 out of 95 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 229 reviews
manureva744
By 6552
Published on 21st October 2011
I had just arrived from Busan and after picking up my bags I went to the Vietnam Airlines check-in counters. There are 2 flights that leave at the same time, the one to Hanoi and the one to Ho Chi Minh City. The line for check-in in Economy is very long, but the Business Class one is short.
I did my check-in online the night before and had noticed that there weren't that many people in Business Class.

Korean Air is in charge of the check-in. The agent confirms my choice, 2A and I ask her if there is someone next to me and she replies that as the flight is full in Economy, they will have to upgrade people, lucky buggers !
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My suitcase is tagged all the way to Bangkok and I am given my boarding cards and my invitation to the Korean Air Lounge.

I don't lose a single second and go to the lounge. A glance at the screens and notice that ICN is very busy in the morning !
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I get in the queue, nothing for Premium passengers but it will go fast !
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After the security and immigration formalities, tons of shops !

I jump on the train that will get me to the satellite terminal.
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The train is packed, it is peak time at Incheon !

When we get in the satellite terminal, everyone gets off and I take the first escalator, than a second, and a third… Is it over yet ?!
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The lounges are at the top of a 4th escalator !
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The entrance is not amazing, very subtle.
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The lounge is not so big, it is the satellite one, the biggest one is in the main terminal.
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The newspapers.
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The small business center.
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The food and drink area.
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Today's selection !
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After an hour spent in the lounge, I go to the boarding gate. The business class lane is seperated from the main lane but families with small children can also use it which is a nice gesture towards passengers travelling with children.
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On the other side the economy class lane.
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Another escalator takes us to our aircraft, Boeing 777-200ER VN-A151
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The boarding gates !
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The jetway that leads us to our plane.
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I am welcomed by the chief purser and a cabin attendant that will indicate which aisle I should take and where my seat is located. My neighbor is already seated in 2B.
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Welcome on Board !
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The cabin with the new Business Class seats.
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The controls of the seat.
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Between the seats you can find the amenity kit as well as the Vietnam Airlines reading material.
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A very charming female cabin attendant will offer a welcome drink. The choice is between Champagne, water, orange or apple juice.
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The chief purser will start the safety demonstration shortly after, we haven't left the parking area yet.
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Back to the Welcome screen.
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I have a look at the Airshow.
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Next to us an A330 flying for Malaysia Airlines to Kuala Lumpur.
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We do our push-back on time, we're on our way to Hanoi.
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Our gate 111
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We leave ICN at the same time as the flight to SGN.
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Good Bye ICN !
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Another SkyTEAM partner also departing.
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Our twin is taking off for SGN.
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An Asiana Airlines A320, a Star Alliance aircraft lost in a sea of SkyTEAM.
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And we are taking off towards VietNam !

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I start to look at the IFE and it is a huge mess, nothing is similar to what is on the welcome screens, not a single movie coincides with the explanations.
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So I will look at what movies we have or look at the clouds…
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Slippers are available on demand.
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We are getting the menus and the chief purser will take the order on our side.
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The chief purser will put all the table linens.
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The drinks service precedes the meal with a choice of drink and canapés.
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I will order a glass of Champagne that is served from a quart bottle.
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After the drinks the cabin attendants will remove the empty plates and the glasses.

The female cabin attendant will come and serve the meal. There is a small confusion on our row, my seat mate ordered the korean meal and I ordered the asian-western meal. The cabin attendant start to serve me and then my seat mate when the chief purser tell her it is the contrary. She tries to remove my tray ad I tell her that this was my choice and my neighbor will tell her the same. With a lot of kindness she tries to tell me that I ordered the korean meal and my neighbor ordered the asian-western meal and that the chief purser indicated our order as such ! Both my seat mate and I had to tell her that the chief purser made a mistake and we ordered the asian western meal for me and the korean meal for him. We tell her that the stickers are in the wrong order and all is good !
She will offer us some bread and the chief purser will offer either tomato cream soup or korean consommé.
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For the main course, same problem, the cabin attendant wants to give me the korean meal, and she realizes her error again and decides to remove the stickers from our seat backs !

I choose the filet of sole.
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After the main course service, she will have time to go back to the galley and come back to clear our trays.

The cheese and dessert service will start in the other aisle and then ours.

For the cheese there are only cheddar types of cheese. On the table there also desserts and ice cream.
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The hot drinks are served at the same time.

After clearing all the crockery and linen, the cabin crew will switch off the lights and allow passengers some rest time.
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During the meal I will manage to stop the videos in the whole plane twice ! Yes I know it's me because each time that I pause the movie to talk to the cabin attendant, my video is stuck and… nothing, and after that all the screens around me go black and the system reboots with the Linux screen everywhere ! I managed to do it twice ! After that I preferred not to pause the movies anymore.

We are getting closer to VietNam
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I look at the Vietnam Airlines inflight magazine, Heritage to check the regional and Asia Pacific network.
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And the airline's fleet.
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And regional recipes like tuna's eyes…
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We are starting our descent and we will soon go through the clouds
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Hanoi Airport
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And under us the vietnam countryside !
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The airshow is indicating that we are in the air for a couple more minutes.
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On short final, rice fields and very colorful villages
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We land a little bit abea of time at Hanoi Noibai international airport.
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VietNam Airlines is at home with a few airplanes bearing the golden lotus !
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There's also a Singapore Airlines 777 that will depart for Singapore just after our arrival.
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Good Bye or shall I say see you soon Vietnam Airlines !
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I disembark amongst the first and go to the transit counter that will check my passport and stamp it before sending me back upstairs to security and on to the Vietnam Airlines lounge.
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Verdict

Vietnam Airlines

7.1/10
Cabin7.5
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering8.0

Seoul - ICN

7.8/10
Efficiency9.0
Access5.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness9.0

Hanoi - HAN

6.5/10
Efficiency7.5
Access5.0
Services6.5
Cleanliness7.0

Conclusion

Vietnam Airlines is a nice airline

Service is attentive and the catering is good. The cabin attendant are very kind and worry about your comfort.

A few glitches with the meal orders.

Drinks on board should be improved and champagne should be served in full bottles.

Otherwise I was impressed by the good service and the product on VIetnam Airlines.

Information on the route Seoul (ICN) Hanoi (HAN)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 3 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne Seoul (ICN) → Hanoi (HAN).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Vietnam Airlines avec 7.0/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 4 heures et 51 minutes.

  More information

16 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 7901 by
    Ageha 41 Comments
    Merci pour ce fr

    La vieille GameBoy de 1989 :)
  • Comment 7902 by
    Hcl75 1538 Comments
    Super FR, merci beaucoup !! Marrant de voir que chaque contributeur a un peu \'sa patte\', Manureva744 c\'est les démos de sécurité.

    2 petites questions : le sièges non full-flat a-t-il un angle supportable ? Et quelle est la configuration de la classe éco ?

    En tout cas vivement la suite de ce tour d\'Asie ! Quelle est la prochaine étape :D ?
  • Comment 7903 by
    lagentsecret 12186 Comments
    Merci pour ce FR. Ce tronçon fait-il partie d\'un billet global ou s\'agit-il d\'un billet uniquement sur VN ?
    Dans ce cas les prix de VN sont-ils attractifs ?
  • Comment 7904 by
    marathon GOLD 10113 Comments
    China Airlines ne fait pas encore partie de Skyteam à l\'entrée du salon :)
    L\'IFE n\'est pas mon critère principal de confort (à part la géovision), mais quand même, ces menus brouillons et ces plantages, c\'est un mauvais point. A propos de géovision, vous avez remarqué combien l\'espace aérien chinois est contraint par les zones militaires.
    Merci pour ce FR !
  • Comment 7905 by
    TheLuc 1616 Comments
    Merci pour ce FR ;)
    Le repas a l\'air appétissant
    Sympa le grand écran sur la cloison a l\'avant de la cabine
  • Comment 7906 by
    manureva744 AUTHOR 251 Comments
    @Ageha ! Oui j\'ai bien aimé aussi, pour cela que j\'ai pris la photo !!!

    @Hcl75 : L\'angle n\'est pas très confortable et le repose pied non plus. Pour la configuration en Economique je ne sais pas, le vol n\'étant pas très long, je n\'ai pas eu le temps d\'aller me promener.
    Prochaine FR HAN-BKK puis BKK-CNX

    @lagentsecret : le troncon ICN-BKK est un billet prime.
  • Comment 7908 by
    A380B77W 4295 Comments
    Très bon FR ! Vietnam est effectivement une excellente compagnie ! Très belles couleurs !!
  • Comment 7915 by
    indianocean SILVER 7572 Comments
    J\'adore le coup de \pause\ qui fait rebooter l\'écran individuel de chaque passager.
  • Comment 7917 by
    jam 2001 Comments
    Merci pour ce FR , jolies photos et trafic sympa .
  • Comment 7919 by
    Hcl75 1538 Comments
    J\'ai vu que les 772 de VN sont configurés en 3-3-3 en Y.

    @lagentsecret: je ne sais pas le prix payé par manureva mais j\'ai vu qu\'un AR ICN-HAN en J en semaine au mois de mars coûtait autour de 1 000e. Pour un vol de 5h je trouve cela plus qu\'abordable !!
  • Comment 7923 by
    Leadership TEAM BRONZE 5460 Comments
    Merci manureva de donner un peu d\'activité à FR, qui est très calme en ce mois d\'Octobre!

    Très bon FR, comme d\'habitude j\'ai envie de dire, salon à la décoration médicale mais je prèfere ça à un style trop chargé.

    Déjà vous avez eu de la chance d\'avoir un 772 avec les nouveaux sièges car ils sont déployés en priorités sur les liasons europe, c\'est certe du lie-flat tobogan mais le pitch semble généreux.

    Le trafic est assez charbé à ICN, j\'aime ça.

    Repas plutot bon, alcool par contre un peu cheap, bizare en effet une petite bouteille sur ce type de vol et dans un widebody!

    Un peu moyen au niveau du service avec ces loupés et l\'IFE bien sur, c\'est vraiment quelque chose d\'instable dans les avions ce truc là.

    Jolie approche.

    Merci!

  • Comment 7928 by
    Flysim 517 Comments
    Prestation générale bonne, VN s\'améliore bel et bien, et ça fait plaisir.
    Très bon TR comme à l\'habitude, un vrai nid à photos !

    Merci
  • Comment 7951 by
    Planet Earth 881 Comments
    Merci pour ce FR bien détaillé.
  • Comment 8162 by
    02022001 GOLD 4375 Comments
    Merci pour ce FR. Le vol n\'a pas l\'air trop mal. Juste l\'IFE à améliorer!
    Sinon, j\'aime assez bien les livrés de vietnam
  • Comment 559014 by
    COAirmag76 2 Comments
    question: i saw a Delta 757, i though the 757 could not do tran-pacific, is it because of the Narita hub or what

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