This trip report covers my recent adventure to Vietnam, with a short stopover in Korea, on a combination of Asiana Airlines (OZ) and Vietnam Airlines (VN). All in all, the trip was too short at only 8 days, but we made the most of it. I took a few pics, but generally don’t as I find it uncomfortable taking pictures of everything and everyone while flying  .

As some background, a friend living in Korea wanted to see Vietnam before he moves home. I did some searching and found a great fare of $945 round-trip from Seattle with Asiana Airlines. I’ve flown NW and CX to Asia before, but never OZ so I was looking forward to trying them out. We wanted to visit Hoi An while in Vietnam, so we bought tickets on Vietnam Airlines from HAN-DAD roundtrip ($140). And with the flights and visas out of the way, we were off!

Flight #1: SEA-ICN (OZ #271)
Boeing 777-200, Seat 26H
Load Factor: 100% Y, 100% C

A few days before my flight I called Asiana to request a seat assignment and was given an Aisle seat for all legs. Unfortunately, they don’t allow you to pick a seat online. In fact, their website is actually quite poor as the translation isn’t great and there’s very limited functionality (you can’t view your reservation or print an itinerary, for example). Regardless, on the phone I was told that the flights weren’t full. Additionally, when booking my ticket the travel agent said this was the low season for travel to Asia so the flight would probably be somewhat empty. I was looking forward to a relaxing flight!

I arrived at SEA about 2 hours prior to departure and there was a decent line at check-in (about 30 people). There were several agents checking people in so it moved quite quickly. The line was about 90% Asian passengers, with each person seemingly having at least 3 bags and some cases a trolley full of boxes. You could tell right away that this flight catered to the VFR crowd! I also noticed that a large number appeared to be headed to SGN by overhearing conversations and seeing people showing the agents their Vietnamese visa. There are large Korean and Vietnamese populations in the SEA area and this flight seemed to have large numbers of each. Anyways, I was checked in after approx. 15 minutes of waiting by a very warm lady who seemed to be the supervisor. She was pleasant and confirmed my aisle seat. Off to a great start.

Went through security in no time and headed to the S Satellite. It was quickly apparent how many international flights SEA has added lately. OZ, AF, LH, and KE were all there, in addition to the NW flights to AMS and NRT. With all this activity, the airport needs to consider renovating the concourse or building a new terminal all together for international traffic. Not only is there a shortage of seats, but the whole place just seems shabby, the food options are terrible, and the duty-free is embarrassing.

Anyways, boarding started on time and was quite chaotic. There was boarding by zone, but for some reason the order was C, B, A, so lots of confusion (which wasn’t helped by the extremely limited English skills of the Asiana agents). They tried to organize each zone into its own line, with limited success. When my zone (B) was called, I was one of the first to board.

I boarded the plane and was slightly disappointed with what I saw. OZ apparently has refurbished some of their 777s with newer seats and AVOD (with large screens) but today we were on an un-refurbished plane. That meant no AVOD, small screens, and no winged headrests. All little touches but they make a difference on an 11-hour flight! I had an aisle on the right-hand side of the plane. I prefer the middle section because there’s less chance of having to get up and let people out, but oh well.

The plane was filling up quickly and ended up being 100% full! So much for my hopes of an empty flight! The plane was full, but we ended up sitting for a bit and ended up leaving about 30 minutes late (no real explanation why). Upon beginning the safety announcements, all the FAs stood in the aisles and gave the pax a bow. I thought that was a classy touch. One of OZ’s strengths are the FAs… they are amazingly beautiful and well-kempt. Not a single hair out of place, and all were extremely beautiful. A nice change from the frumpy and um … elderly FAs I seem to usually get in the US. My only comment is on their uniform … yuck. They look like prison wardens in those things (grey). OZ should really change the uniforms to fit their new image.

We took off towards the South and the seat-belt light went off immediately at 10,000 feet. It seems that every single foreign airline does this. Why do US-based carriers always wait until 35,000 feet? So annoying! Shortly thereafter, menus were handed out. I always appreciate a menu on a longer flight as it’s nice to see your choices with a little more detail than “chicken or pasta”. Shortly after, hot towels were handed out and subsequently collected. This was followed by a beverage service. The selections were rather limited, but included free alcohol (as to be expected on a foreign carrier!). About an hour into the flight, a meal service began. The meal selection was as follows:

Western Style: Beef Tenderloin Steak with Mushroom demiglaze, potato, broccoli, and carrot, Pasta Salad, Mixed Garden Salad, Strawberry Cheesecake

Korean Style: Bi-Bim-Bap, Steamed Rice, Assorted Vegetables, Soup, and Kimchi, Steamed Sweet Pumpkin, Fresh Fruit

The Korean meal sounded absolutely disgusting to me, so I was concerned about getting a western meal. Luckily I got it as just about everyone I saw around me got the Korean meal. I saw a sign on the trolley stating that they had loaded 60% Korean, 40% Western meals. The meal wasn’t too bad – I’ve certainly had better but this was decent. The complimentary wine, real silverware, and real dishes were a nice touch.

After the meal, I attempted to sleep but with no avail. During this time, the duty-free sale commenced and many passengers appeared to partake. We were now about 2.5 hours into the flight. Once duty-free was over, most pax shut the blinds and attempted to sleep. It’s always tough to sleep on Westbound Asia flights because you’re in the daylight the entire flight. I read my book for a couple of hours, then fiddled with the PTV. The move selection was actually quite terrible – I watched some movie about nerds who hired Owen Wilson to protect them from bullies. Not good at all but helped pass the time. Then I dozed off and on for the next couple hours. During this time, the FAs came through several times with OJ/Water. I slept for about 2 hours, and awoke to a snack service. The snack consisted of a hamburger bun with two slices of ham, a pickle slice, and mustard. It was pretty terrible but I was starving so it was better than nothing. I then dozed off for a bit more, waking to read some magazines and watch the air show. I always like the moving map feature, but at the same time it can make things seem like you’re going VERY slowly. As usual, our routing was north to Alaska, and west over the Kamchatka? Peninsula. Our routing seemed somewhat strange as we headed directly for NRT and then turned due left. Our plane appeared to entirely avoid Russian airspace, so I’m assuming that this routing is to avoid Russian and especially North Korean airspace. However, it appears to add some distance to the routing.

About 2 hours before landing was the second meal service, and the FAs pretty much turned on the lights and made an announcement to wake everyone up. I didn’t really mind it but it would be annoying if I was trying to sleep and couldn’t care less about the meal. According to the menu this technically wasn’t a meal, but a snack. The offerings were as follows:

Grilled Salmon with herb & garlic butter, steamed rice
Or
Grilled Chicken Breast, mushroom sauce, pasta

Shrimp and Lettuce Appetizer
Fresh Fruit

More mushrooms (I hate them)! I went with the chicken as I’m not a fan of seafood. It was decent but nothing amazing. I was hungry though so it was good at the time.
After the meal we were above Korea and soon started descending into ICN. The cabin was quickly prepared for landing, after a collection of loose change for charity. We headed Northeast towards ICN and landed on time at around 5:45pm local time, despite the 40-minute departure delay. We taxied for awhile to the main terminal.

Overall the flight was above average in terms of service from the crew, as they were always attentive, promptly came if you rang the call button, served meals quickly and efficiently, and made frequent drink runs. I was happy to arrive on time into ICN. The meals were below average and the plane was a bit tired compared to some of the competition. It was immaculate, but just a bit dated.

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ICN is a beautiful airport – my second favorite in the world (I only rate HKG better because it’s much faster to get into the city from HKG; ICN still has a way to go in terms of ground transportation into Seoul). I walked around for awhile before I met up with my friends who would be joining me for the second leg to HAN. This airport is sparkling clean, modern, spacious, and lots of quiet places to relax. Also lots of great food options, including traditional Korean, or your typical American fast food (I saw Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, KFC, Subway, Quiznos, and McDonalds). I met up with my friends, and we went to the traditional Korean restaurant. It was a bit of a letdown, but at least I tried it! Soon enough we were boarding the next flight to HAN.

Flight #2: ICN-HAN (OZ #733)
Boeing 767-300ER, Seat 14B
Load Factor: 65% Y, 75% J

Boarding for the flight commenced around 7:15pm, right on time. Consistent with what I usually see when boarding flights in Asia, they announced boarding and all the pax just started trying to board regardless of class, status, zone, etc. In this instance, the gate agents were actually enforcing the zone boarding so that was refreshing. My friend and I boarded with our zone and took our seats (separate seats). As luck would have it, I was sitting by myself in a row of 2 seats until a large person came down the aisle and took the seat next to me. Once the door was closed, I quickly moved 2 rows ahead and took the empty two seats there. Got a couple dirty looks but I’d been travelling 13 hours already – I honestly couldn’t care less. As before, the FAs gave us a bow and performed the safety demo.

We took off towards the North and immediately pulled a u-turn (gotta avoid that North Korean airspace!). Shortly after takeoff, hot towels were handed out followed by a drink service. Shortly after the drink service a meal service took place. No menu this time – the options were beef or seafood. Given my distaste for seafood I took the beef, which was actual the famous Korean-style Kalbi beef spareribs over rice. Quite good actually! I don’t remember the rest of the meal, other than distinctly remembering that it was better than the options coming from SEA.

Before the trays were even picked up, I put on a sleeping mask (from a BA Club World amenity pack – I have about 6 at home) and dozed off. Slept until they announced that we would be landing shortly. I woke up and noticed that I had the sleeping mask on, and somehow the reading lights for both seats I was sitting in were turned on. I felt like an idiot!
Decent began into Hanoi and I was surprised at how dark it was – I’m used to seeing lights for miles when landing in a major city. Landing was smooth in a light rain. We taxied to the gate, and de-boarded promptly. Walking into the terminal, I noticed the humidity and poor air conditioning!

This flight was good – smooth with good food and service. As with the previous flight, the plane looked a little tired but was clean and well-maintained. My only complaint would be that legroom seemed worse than the 772 (which has 34” pitch), and the seatbacks were really low. I’d prefer higher seats with headrest wings. Those are really my only complaints.

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Went through immigration rather quickly; the only sore spot being that they didn’t stamp my passport! How am I supposed to prove that I was there   ?

Our next flight to Danang was scheduled for 6:00am the next morning (after arrival around 10:15pm). Given that the Hanoi airport is about a 45-minute drive from the city, and given the unknowns around immigration, etc., we decided to just camp out at the airport rather than go through all the hassle for maybe 4 hours at a hotel. So after clearing immigration/customs around 10:45, we headed to get some food. The airport was absolutely insane at this hour – all the flights seem to leave just before midnight which meant that this was peak time. Found the “Lucky Café” on the upper floor and had some food there until it shut down around midnight. Next we found some cozy couches outside the Lucky Café and thought this would be a good place for sleeping. Wrong! It was right by a food court area that was in serious need of some janitors. Shortly after things were closing up, a bunch of rats started coming out of who-knows-where to scavenge! That made us move down to the baggage level pretty quickly! Being away from the food areas, we were in a rat-free zone.

The airport was pretty much shutting down now, while we were setting up camp for the night. Noi Bai airport isn’t a busy place and it actually shuts down at night. Luckily the guards just laughed at us and let us stay, but it was so eerie being the only ones there with all the lights off and just a couple guards about 100 meters away watching TV! Walking 50 yards to the bathroom in a completely deserted airport with the lights mostly off was quite interesting!

We looked at the monitors for the next day and for some reason our flight was showing and 8:30 departure, but didn’t say anything about a delay, so we were confused. At around 4:30, we headed upstairs to the Vietnam Airlines ticket counter to check in for our flight …

Flight #3: HAN-DAD (VN#3331)
Boeing 777-200ER, Seat 37C
Load Factor: 100% Y, 100% J

Upon check-in, there was a posted notice that our flight would be delayed until 10:55am “for ensure operational condition of aircraft”! Wonderful news after already spending 6 hours in this airport – now we get 6 more! We went ahead and checked in our luggage, as we were told that a free breakfast would be provided at the gate. At this point, the long night was catching up with us and we just wanted to get to Danang.

I should mention that check-in was absolutely terrible. 5 out of the 6 agents had name badges stating that they were “trainees” and there was only one trainer. It took me literally 5 minutes to check in, but my two companions were at the counter for 20 MINUTES!! I’m not kidding! Apparently the computer had to be rebooted 3 times, and the agent was the slowest person on earth. Welcome to the service provided by a state-run carrier! After the 30-minute check-in (despite no lines), the three of us headed through security to the gate area – no wait for security.

We waited at the clean and spacious gate area, shopped around a bit, and just waited. I forgot to mention that the Hanoi Airport doesn’t have the world’s strongest air conditioning. It was rather warm and unpleasant in the terminal, especially as it began to fill up. However, the departures area was spacious and much cleaner than the un-secured area. Around 8:30am, breakfast was served, which meant you lined up at the gate and got an airline meal of beef. It actually was quite good given the circumstances, but I was wondering if it came straight from the catering truck as it was clearly airline food (e.g. airline trays, etc.)

The funny thing about the delay is that they kept repeating the following automated message over and over on the loudspeaker, in a British accent “Ladies and Gentlemen … we regret to inform you that flight VN 3331 is delayed due to for ensure operational condition of aircraft. We will serve breakfast at 8:30. Thank you.” You’d think that whoever recorded the message could at least use proper English!

Around 10:30 boarding finally started. To my surprise we were boarding a 777-200ER as opposed to the A321 that was listed in my itinerary! I have a sneaking suspicion that they simply decided to merge 2 flights into one on a larger aircraft, as this plane was 100% full in all classes. The other strange thing is that not many others showed up at 6am for the flight, but the other pax began showing up much later. What did they know that we didn’t? We boarded via the jetbridge.

My first impression upon entering the plane is that the FAs weren’t nearly as welcoming as those on OZ. No smiles or directing you to your seat, just kind of standing there observing the boarding. The second thing I noticed was that this 777 was a little beat up on the inside. Despite having the newest technology Recaro seats with winged headrests, AVOD PTVs, cupholders, legrests, etc., the plane looked shabby. Threads hanging out of the seats everywhere, armrests missing covers and exposing metal underneath, etc. It looked as if this aircraft hadn’t been well kept-up on the inside.

Regardless, a safety demo was done on the PTVs and we were taxiing shortly – boarding was actually quite quick. We took off towards the North and quickly did a U-turn towards Danang. During takeoff, there was a takeoff camera displayed on the PTVs, which was quite cool (have never seen it before). Shortly after, the PTVs were set to display the airshow, which remained on for the entire duration of this 1-hour flight. It was actually quite a cool airshow – the most sophisticated I’ve ever seen in terms of the detail and stats. As with OZ, the fasten seatbelt sign went off immediately at 10,000ft (US airlines – take notice!).

No meal service on this short flight, but there was a drink service. The choices were limited to Coke, Sprite, Water, Coffee, and Juice, and was served from 2L bottles. Quick and efficient service, if not as friendly as OZ.

Not much else to describe as this was a short flight. We soon began our decent into Danang and the cabin was prepared for landing. Landing was smooth at the Danang airport, which was a major US Air Force base during the Vietnam war. The first view of the airport was that it still looked like an airbase with ancient hangars, and a square military-looking terminal. There are no jetbridges at this airport so we deplaned via stairs and were bused the short distance to the terminal. Luckily the bags were already coming out and we retrieved them quite quickly at this very small airport. The baggage claim was very tiny but efficient. The Danang airport was quick and efficient for our purpose, but it’s now starting to receive international flights and I’m not sure I’d want to go through customs there – seems like it would be a hassle. Luckily our hotel shuttle was waiting despite the 5-hour delay – what a relief after a 25-hour ordeal getting there! Now we could finally kick back at the beach for a few days before moving on.

Vietnam Airlines was certainly disappointing from the timeliness standpoint, but we were just happy to get to Hoi An. It was cool flying the 777 on such a short flight, but overall the flight was about as special as a one-hour flight can be.

Hoi An was an absolutely wonderful place; we loved the quaint old town and the AMAZING beaches. We stayed at a 5-star resort for dirt cheap and lived like kings. I want to go back now!!

After three days in Hoi An it was time to return to Hanoi. We asked the hotel to check the status of our flight and it was on time. We headed to the Danang airport in the afternoon, about 90 minutes before departure.

Flight #4: DAD-HAN (VN#316)
Airbus A312, Seat 23D
Load Factor: 100% Y, 100% J

Check in was prompt – a refreshing change from Hanoi – I was in and out in 30 seconds. The Danang Airport is quite small; apparently this is Vietnam’s third largest airport (and one of only three international airports, after SGN and HAN), but you certainly wouldn’t know it. The place seemed more like a small commuter airport in the US … but I appreciated the ease! In fact, right across the street (maybe 50 feet from check-in) was a few small cafes.

We spent about 45 minutes relaxing under the trees and enjoying a few beers before we started hearing announcements for our flight telling us to begin going through security. We walked back over to the airport and went through security (no lines again). The departures area felt more like a “holding pen” – basically a square room with 200 chairs in the middle and little shops around the perimeter (all selling the same stuff). My friend and I took notice of the liquor shop and took advantage of the $3 fifths of “Hanoi Vodka”. The area got crowded quickly as there were flights to both HAN and SGN leaving around the same time. Boarding was announced, and we were soon boarding our bus to the plane. There are no jetways at DAD – all pax must ride a shuttle directly to the plane.

We arrived at the plane and it was an A321 rather than the A333 in my itinerary. I was actually happy as the 321 is a new aircraft type for me. I boarded through the rear doors and noticed that the plane felt like … a longer A320. Not too exciting but can cross it off my list! The plane boarded quickly, although the front/back boarding caused some chaos towards the middle of the plane where people had to get past each other to continue to their seats. The FAs were trying to assist but weren’t too effective. As before, they did their jobs but weren’t what I would consider helpful or super friendly.

We quickly took off towards the South China Sea and quickly turned North. This flight was uneventful – again approximately one hour. A drink service was again offered, with only a few choices on offer. Before I knew it, we were descending into Hanoi. My previous attempt to remove all memory of the airport from my mind failed as all the wonderful memories came back. This time, the airport had quite a few foreign aircraft present, including Thai Airways and Air France. We taxied to a remote stand and were shuttled to baggage claim. Bags came out almost immediately, and our hotel shuttle picked us up promptly.

This flight was nothing memorable, but was on time and the service was efficient. Vietnam Airlines partially redeemed themselves with their 180-degree turn from the first flight.
We enjoyed 3 full days in Hanoi, followed by an overnight Halong Bay cruise. All I can say is wow – Hanoi is a chaotic but wonderful place. Different from anywhere else I’ve ever been, but simply amazing. It doesn’t hurt that you live like a king with the $0.15 beers, cheap food, cheap massages, and so many new sights, sounds, and smells to take in at every turn. Halong Bay was also beautiful and a great respite from the chaos of Hanoi, but was a bit of a letdown as it rained the whole time, but I was also taken aback a bit by the pollution and horrific amount of tourist boats. We made our way back to Hanoi for the long journey home, starting with a nice, short red-eye to ICN.

Flight #5: HAN-ICN (VN#734)
Boeing 767-300ER, Seat 20F
Load Factor: 85% Y,??? J

This flight was at 11:15pm, at the end of a very long day which started with kayaking in Halong Bay, a 3-hour drive back to Hanoi, and a few hours walking around Hanoi to kill time. Thus, we just wanted to sleep! Check-in was handled by Vietnam Airlines, and in typical VN fashion, came with some conditions. Despite the 11:15 departure, check-in did not start until 9:45pm. So what you had is dozens of people standing around waiting to check in. Not fun. However, once check-in opened up my friend and I checked in promptly and were given seats together. I had a 12-hour layover in ICN, so I would have to recheck at ICN for a new boarding pass. Luckily though, I was able to check my luggage all the way through to SEA. This was important because I was going to nap at my buddy’s place in Seoul during the layover and didn’t want to deal with the luggage too. Our BPs were printed on VN ticket stock.

Went through passport control, and my visa was taken and kept by the officer. I asked them to stamp my passport but no avail! Thus, the only proof I have that I’ve been to Vietnam is a stamped landing card … sad. Anyway, immigration was painless and security was just as painless. We were now in the international departures area, which didn’t have a lot going on. There were the same souvenir shops that we’d seen before, and in Danang, so I looked yet again and finally broke down to buy a few things. Looked at duty free, but the prices weren’t great and in any event I wouldn’t have been able to get any liquids through security at ICN.

The boarding area filled up with Koreans. I thought they were all on our flight, but I realized that there are no less than 3 flights from HAN-ICN at the same time! In addition to OZ, KE and VN also had flights all leaving within 30 mins of each other. Luckily OZ left first, which would help with the immigration lines at ICN.

Boarding commenced on time, and my buddy and I quickly took our seats. We just wanted to sleep. I put on my BA sleeping mask and fell asleep before we even took off. I woke up during takeoff and fell right back asleep. I also woke up when the FAs did the meal service, but drifted right off to sleep again.

About 30 mins before landing, the FAs made an announcement which woke me up. On the back of the seat in front of me was a sticker that said “We hope you had a nice rest. If you would like a meal, please notify the flight attendants”. I thought that was a nice touch. Even though it was obviously too late now, and the meal was probably some sort of disgusting seafood concoction, at least they had made the effort. We landed soon at ICN towards the North, and taxied for only a short time to the gate.

Deboarding was swift and the immigration line was short. The officer asked how long I’d be there, and I said 10 hours, but was given 30 days. We waited for my friend’s bag and bought tickets for the “KAL limousine” bus. I’d taken the limousine bus before; it’s a fast and good option. We had some time to waste before the bus would come so we ate at a café in the airport.

This was my second time going to Seoul, and I find it a fascinating city. My biggest pet peeve is the airport ride – something like 45 miles and it feels like forever! I was just thrilled to get to my buddy’s place and take a 3 hour nap. Then we went to a traditional Korean restaurant and walked around Itaewon a bit, before starting the arduous drive back to ICN.

Flight #6: ICN-SEA (VN#272)
Boeing 777-200ER, Seat 16G
Load Factor: 100% Y,100% J

Went to the check-in lines at OZ, waited for 5 minutes, and got my boarding pass. I asked for two seats together but unfortunately the flight was again 100% full. I then said goodbye to my friend, wished him a good move back to the US (in a little over a week), and went through security. Very fast and efficient as before. Asia really has the whole security thing down – TSA could learn a few things.

It never ceases to amaze me how nice of an airport ICN actually is. Man I wish SEA was like this! I shopped for a bit and bought some stuff at the duty free. I ate some pastries and chilled out in some empty gate areas for a bit, then headed over to the gate just in time for boarding. Boarding was announced and the usual mob formed, but this time they were enforcing the zone boarding. Got on board, and again realized that we were on a non-reconfigured plane… guess luck just wasn’t on my side this trip! I settled into my seat, which this time was an aisle seat in the middle 3-seats of the row. These are my preferred seats as you don’t have get up as often to let people out. The plane was indeed 100% full, with what seemed mostly like Asians with American citizenship. As before, maybe 15% white on this plane.

We took off, and shortly hot towels and menus were distributed. Shortly thereafter was a drink service followed by a meal service. The meal options for dinner were as follows:

Beef Tenderloin Steak with Demiglaze Sauce, Potato, Carrot, and Sugar Snap Peas, Smoked Duck and Pumpkin Appetizer, Mixed Salad, and Apple Cheese Cake

Or

Bi-Bim-Bap, Egg Roll, Hard-boiled Burdock & Peanut, Steamed Pumpkin, Fresh Fruit

Given that I don’t care for Bi-Bim-Bap, I went with the western option again. It was actually quite good, if not my favorite type of food. The portion size was good and again was served with real silverwear and plates, etc. The bi-bim-bap looked just like it was on the first flight over from SEA. They also brought out a full liquor cart with dinner; you could pretty much have any alcoholic drink you wanted. That was a nice touch.

After the meal, I fiddled with the PTV. It wasn’t AVOD, but I realized that it was a touch screen and you could still play games, etc. The movies were just as crappy as the way over, so I didn’t even bother this time. I read my book for a couple of hours and then dozed off. I was actually able to sleep for about 4 hours, which was really nice.

I awoke and read my book some more, and walked around a bit. Most people were sleeping. Flying to Asia is the opposite of flying to Europe – the flight to Asia is daylight, and the flight home is a redeye that arrives in the morning. I tried to get as much sleep as possible because the day I get home from Asia is usually pretty miserable.

Approx. 90 minutes before landing, a “snack” service was offered. The choices were as follows:

Fresh Fruit, fresh yogurt, and choice of:

Hot Spicy Seafod w/ steamed rice, or

Spinach Quiche, Tomato Sauce, Potato and Vegetables

Given that I don’t do seafood, I tried my luck with the quiche. All I can say is, YUCK! Probably one of the worst airline meals I’ve ever seen. Basically just a big spinach cake with a few eggs mixed in. My question for OZ was, why not simply offer a typical western-style breakfast? Surely that would be preferred by most! I ate the fruit/yogurt, and gave the rest right back to the FAs.

As we were getting closer to SEA, the “minutes to landing” on the airshow kept getting longer and longer. As I later figured out, headwinds were heavier than usual today and this delayed our arrival by about 30 minutes. We had to hold a bit before landing in SEA, including a loop around the Olympic Peninsula. We soon arrived in SEA and disembarked. As usual, the SEA immigration line was quick but the bags took forever. SEA has the world’s slowest baggage handling as far as I’m concerned, and it doesn’t matter what airline, or if it’s international or domestic.

This was an amazing trip. Vietnam is now one of my favorite places on Earth. I will be going back someday, and I will go back again and again. The people are amazing, the beaches beautiful, the countryside beautiful, and you live like a king. I can’t recommend it enough.

Asiana Airlines was certainly very good, and all complaints were minor. However, they love to tout their “Skytax 5-star” ranking, which I don’t feel tells the whole story. Asiana’s website is very basic and is not up to the standards of other airlines like CX, BA, etc. Information for non-Korean speakers is quite limited, and there’s no way to do basic things like view your itinerary or change seats unless you’re part of their mileage plan. Then on board, I was a little underwhelmed by the hard product. The legroom was good, but I missed the winged-headrests on the seats and the AVOD. The food was terrible on the two long-haul flights. But, the service was awesome and certainly better than other carriers I’ve taken across the Pacific (e.g. NW). I did feel that the soft product was superior to NW, if not quite at the level of CX. Overall, I thought OZ was very good, but nothing super special. I’d probably choose NW as my first choice given the nicer interiors of their A332s and their better food, which is more suited to westerners. However, if NW wasn’t an option I’d maybe go with KE or give OZ another try.

Vietnam Airlines was nothing special, and the delays weren’t appreciated. They’re obviously a state-run airline and have a LONG ways to go if they want to join a major alliance anytime soon. The biggest annoyance was just buying a ticket – there’s still no way to buy VN tickets online. Even if you buy through Expedia you still have to get paper tickets through the mail. They really need to improve their technology if they want to improve their profile.

Thanks for reading my report – this report is 11 pages in MS Word. Any comments or questions appreciated!

Next flights:
SEA-MCO-SEA with AS (November)
SEA-ATL-AUA-ATL-SEA with DL (November)
PDX-IAH-SJO-IAH-PDX with CO.

[Edited 2008-10-05 22:46:33]