Flying the Golden Lotus in Business to Danang

[ycp81]

The Lion, also bound for Singapore and continuing to Jakarta.




FIDS. Didn't knew that Emirates also codeshared on Jetstar!





04 May 2014
Vietnam Airlines
VN 655
Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) - Singapore (SIN)
A321
VN-A353
Business Class

About half hour before departure, we proceeded to the gate for our flight.




Our plane today had a weird looking nose....




Only about 15min before STD did boarding started. We boarded through the priority queue and settled into our seats at 2A/C. Business cabin ended up totally full and I guessed economy was full as well.

View from my seat. Tiger beside, also bound for Singapore shortly after us.




Due to the constant streaming of passengers boarding, the crew could not perform any service till most pax had boarded. A female chief purser and a male purser would be attending to us in Business on this short flight. When the boarding pax slowed to a trickle, cold towels were handed out, which was perfect for the warm weather. Newspapers were also offered, even though they were also available at the door during boarding.




Followed by a choice of welcome drinks, where I chose a champagne. Not sure of the brand, but it was of decent quality.




Doors were closed 5min late and we started our pushback. Flying time was announced as 1h35m. A PR A321 with sharklets had arrived beside us.




Safety video played with the crew preparing the cabin for departure.




We only had a very short taxi to the runway and even held on the runway as the safety video was still playing.




Started our takeoff shortly after the safety video ended. Our crew even rushed to collect some drink glasses from the couple seated across just before the engines roared.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTi9IysLxec


Climbing out of Ho Chi Minh City.






Seatbelt signs switched off and service announcement was made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPbEPCfYwI0

[ycp81]

Inflight entertainment was restricted to only the flight map. At least it was working properly on this flight.




The very friendly and nice chief purser came down the aisle to take orders for our meals. On this sector, no menus were distributed and we were verbally given our meal choices. Today, the choices were Chicken with noodles, Pork with rice and Fish with potatoes. We chose the chicken and pork mains and the chief purser would paste the respective colour stickers corresponding to each meal choice on our seats.




After meal orders were taken, she began to lay our tray tables with napkins. Instead of just handing out the table napkins, she insisted to lay the table napkins for us.




The male purser then rolled out the meal cart to distribute our meal trays and offered beverages as well.




Meal tray, which consisted of a starter salad with dressing, main course, bread and fruits. For the breads, I chose a sesame roll and garlic bread among the 4 to 5 choices. Also had orange juice and white wine to go with the meal.




Just a simple salad to start and a selection of fresh fruits as dessert.




My choice of Chicken with noodles. The taste of spices used for the chicken was a bit overpowering of me, but it was a decent dishl.




My partner's choice was Braised pork with rice. This dish was absolutely delicious!




White wine and orange juice.




Ended with a Vietnamese green tea. I loved the green tea! It was very fragrant!




We were more than halfway there after the meal service ended. The chief purser then went down to assist in Economy cabin, where the 3 crew in economy seemed to be overwhelmed with the full load.




Visited the lavatory, which was decorated with stalks of flowers.

[ycp81]

My seat at 2A.




Hot towels were given out after all meal trays were cleared. Call me slow but I just realised that the towels had the VN insignia!




Cruising.




We started our descent slightly less than half hour away from Singapore.




An arrival video of Singapore was played, which came dubbed in Mandarin and Vietnamese, with both languages broadcasted concurrently and overlapping each other throughout the cabin. Weird and kind of annoying....




Descending over Malaysia.




Overflying Bintan and Batam Islands.






Islands off Batam while turning back towards Singapore.




The famous Singapore city skyline seen during the Rwys 02 approaches.




And landing on Rwy02L, 5 minutes behind schedule.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIlYhyzog8k


Short taxi to Terminal 3 and parked at gate B7.




Last view of our seats during disembarkation.




It was another pleasant flight on Vietnam Airlines Business Class. Service was not too personal due to the full flight but still good and efficient, especially the female chief purser who delivered great service with smiles despite the heavy workload. Thanks to Optiontown, it was great to be able to fly VN Business Class at very affordable fares.

Thanks for reading this very long report. Your comments are most welcomed!

[Kyo]

Comprehensive review, thank you

[SQueeze]

I share the same opinion: VN J class is very value-for-money. Even on domestic routes, the full revenue fares are not expensive either.

And as for Vietnam, still a country I very much love with its amazing gastronomy, and vintage charm in many parts. Even in fast-changing Saigon, there are always those nooks and corners remnants of the French empire: courtyards and villas converted to quaint restaurants and bars. And it's very cosmopolitan too these days which make it liveable too at the same time. And it's indeed a relatively undiscovered beach destination, one that I forever hope will remain relatively a secret. If only they have better control of the skyline along the beaches. I don't like many of the newer architecture.

[Kyo]

3hrs transit is definitely more than enough. In fact, it can still be comfortably done with a 2hr transit.

I've pulled off 95 mins

[Powerpoke]

I share the same opinion: VN J class is very value-for-money. Even on domestic routes, the full revenue fares are not expensive either.

And as for Vietnam, still a country I very much love with its amazing gastronomy, and vintage charm in many parts. Even in fast-changing Saigon, there are always those nooks and corners remnants of the French empire: courtyards and villas converted to quaint restaurants and bars. And it's very cosmopolitan too these days which make it liveable too at the same time. And it's indeed a relatively undiscovered beach destination, one that I forever hope will remain relatively a secret. If only they have better control of the skyline along the beaches. I don't like many of the newer architecture.

I believe they are developing the beaches in da nang area and i guess in 5 to 10 years time it ll be commercialised like phuket koh samui