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Business Class

Posted on August 14, 2007

After a week, we decided to leave bustling Hanoi for more peaceful environs. Our destination was Hue, Vietnam’s capital and imperial city during 18th through early 20th centuries. We had planned to take the train (”The Reunification Express”) from Hanoi to Hue since the overnight journey is supposed to be one of the travel highlights of Vietnam. However, a Typhoon hit the central coast and flooded the train tracks, forcing the railways to cancel all trains. We happened to be in the Hanoi train station when the announcement was made to this effect, and the ensuing chaos was something else! Luckily we had other travel avenues open in the form of Vietnam Airways.

Air travel is a great option in Vietnam. Because of the length of the country and the state of the roads, overland travel takes forever. The bus journey between Hanoi and Hue lasts 18 hours! The train journey is similarly long at 14 hours, but is tempered by the fact that you can reserve a soft sleeper berth and snooze your way down the line. Alternatively, the airline is fast, efficient, and cheap for western budgets - most one way flights are between $30 and $70 each for economy. Also, there are lots of small regional airports in Vietnam so you can really get where you want to go by flying. Needless to say, after hearing about the flooded train tracks it was kind of a no-brainer when deciding between the 18 hour bus ride and the 1 hour flight!

Walking back from the scene at the train station, we popped into a travel agency and booked two tickets on the next day’s flight to Hue. Economy class was sold out so we had to book business class. The price difference in tickets was about $17 ($70 each instead of $53 each) but the service difference was insane! When we checked in to our flight we were given two invitations to the business class lounge. There we found all kinds of items to eat and drink at no charge. There were ladies behind the counter who would cut up a plate of exotic fruit or fix you a ramen soup (SE Asia ramen or dried pre-prepared noodle soup is a revelation after a lifetime of cup o’ noodles - but that is for another post!). Beer and all kinds of soft drinks were available as well as reading materials and about 10 computers with free internet. We whiled away a good hour and half eating and drinking different snacks and reading Vietnamese newspapers before we had to board our plane.

On the plane we suspected that our business class seats would be no more than the first few rows of a uniformly designed plane (our experience on VA from Vientiane, Laos to Hanoi had been that all seats were the same). However, after we rode a special air conditioned bus with seats from the terminal to our plane (the plebes had no a/c and had to stand) and boarded, we found huge e-z lounger type seats in a luxurious private cabin - the only other cabin, which meant business class equalled first class on VA. We then proceeded to have the general first class experience of before flight drinks, in-flight meal beautifully presented and actually edible, and free alcohol (G was in heaven. I don’t drink and fly so I had mango juice!). Pretty much everyone in the first class cabin was there because like us, they’d been to late to get economy class seats. So all were pretty chuffed and we giggled about it throughout the flight. Many also decided that we wouldn’t be at all averse to flying business class on Vietnam Airways again!

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