VietJet Air India Phu Quoc experience

Recently flew on VietJet Air for the first time. This Vietnam based airline rose to popularity when their cabin crew posed in Bikini for a photoshoot, earning the nickname Bikini airline.

Booking Experience

When I saw their Mumbai Vietnam return ticket for around 15k in May 2022, I decided to resume my international travel after covid season and booked a ticket. Below are some basics you should know about VietJet Air

 

VietJet is a budget airline. One cabin bag (8kg) is free with cheapest ticket. For checked bag and other facilities you will have to either pay extra or buy a more expensive ticket class.

 

Select INR as currency and your ticket will be bit cheaper. I selected USD and paid a bit more due to unfavorable conversion rate, bank charges etc

 

VietJet is now flying from Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi in India to various cities in Vietnam- Phu Quoc, Hanoi, Da Nang, HCMC etc.  They are also offering some limited one stop flights to- Bali, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur etc via Saigon.

 

VietJet later ran some promo offer of like 9 INR ticket (followed by 6329 INR in taxes). Vietnam return ticket could be had at 10600 onwards- 5k cheaper than what I paid. I will use this amount as benchmark before booking another trip with them.

 

Onward Journey:

The flight was only half full on our Mumbai-Phu Quoc flight. I could sleep across 3 empty seats. During check-in the staff were not very strict about baggage weight and other rules. My guess is since airline is new, flights are empty they don’t want to be very strict. Once flights get filled up they may start enforcing all the rules to make more money. My request for window seat was  granted without any fuss. Person ahead of me asked for exit row which was denied.

 

On India route they have a special India Menu, which is nice. But I didn’t try any food on board.

Exit row seat you’ve to pay some 1200 INR onboard. Seats are black in colour and have a red arm rest. No overhead branding/marketing like in Air Asia. Aircraft was apparently A320 SR- first time I am seeing SR variant. 

Inflight magazine was good. Made some notes for future trips

 

Indian passengers as usual were rude and disobedient- not taking seats despite being asked and other usual behaviors. VietJet Air crew did their best to manage the crowd.

 

The 5 hour flight between Mumbai and Phu Quoc was uneventful and on time. Got good sleep. They played some nice Indian music while aircraft was in India- Alisha Chinaai Made in India!

 

Return flight was little more full, but still managed to get 3 empty seats to sleep across. Both flights were on time so that was a wonderful thing. 

 

VietJet Air current Vietnam return ticket is around 15000-20000 INR. Will wait for their next sale and planning to book a trip to Da Nang if I get return ticket for under 11000 INR. 

 

Overall great experience with VietJet Air. If they increase their frequency and provide more destinations in Asia, they can give good competition to Air Asia.

Also read: 20+ places to visit in Phu Quoc