Review of Vietnam Airlines flight from Seoul to Hanoi in Business

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 !

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 !

I get in the queue, nothing for Premium passengers but it will go fast !

After the security and immigration formalities, tons of shops !
I jump on the train that will get me to the satellite terminal.

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 ?!

The lounges are at the top of a 4th escalator !

The entrance is not amazing, very subtle.

The lounge is not so big, it is the satellite one, the biggest one is in the main terminal.

The newspapers.

The small business center.

The food and drink area.

Today's selection !

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.

On the other side the economy class lane.

Another escalator takes us to our aircraft, Boeing 777-200ER VN-A151

The boarding gates !

The jetway that leads us to our plane.

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.

Welcome on Board !

The cabin with the new Business Class seats.

The controls of the seat.

Between the seats you can find the amenity kit as well as the Vietnam Airlines reading material.

A very charming female cabin attendant will offer a welcome drink. The choice is between Champagne, water, orange or apple juice.

The chief purser will start the safety demonstration shortly after, we haven't left the parking area yet.

Back to the Welcome screen.

I have a look at the Airshow.

Next to us an A330 flying for Malaysia Airlines to Kuala Lumpur.

We do our push-back on time, we're on our way to Hanoi.

Our gate 111

We leave ICN at the same time as the flight to SGN.

Good Bye ICN !

Another SkyTEAM partner also departing.

Our twin is taking off for SGN.

An Asiana Airlines A320, a Star Alliance aircraft lost in a sea of SkyTEAM.

And we are taking off towards VietNam !

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.

So I will look at what movies we have or look at the clouds…

Slippers are available on demand.

We are getting the menus and the chief purser will take the order on our side.

The chief purser will put all the table linens.

The drinks service precedes the meal with a choice of drink and canapés.

I will order a glass of Champagne that is served from a quart bottle.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I look at the Vietnam Airlines inflight magazine, Heritage to check the regional and Asia Pacific network.

And the airline's fleet.

And regional recipes like tuna's eyes…

We are starting our descent and we will soon go through the clouds

Hanoi Airport

And under us the vietnam countryside !

The airshow is indicating that we are in the air for a couple more minutes.

On short final, rice fields and very colorful villages

We land a little bit abea of time at Hanoi Noibai international airport.

VietNam Airlines is at home with a few airplanes bearing the golden lotus !

There's also a Singapore Airlines 777 that will depart for Singapore just after our arrival.

Good Bye or shall I say see you soon Vietnam Airlines !

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.