Best Airlines for Traveling to Vietnam

[Mr. 2000 0]

Planning to go to Vietnam to meet my fiance and get married, staying there about a month. I've checked the prices for airfare on sites like Orbitz and Travelocity and the flights all require 2-3 connections and cost over $2,000, even if the flight is more than 2 weeks in the future. I heard that there are direct flights between the USA and HCM City, at least from San Diego to HCM, but I live on the east coast of the USA and I could not find any flights that go: Home -> San Diego | San Diego -> HCM City.

If I'm already going to be paying more than $2K for a ticket I'd like to minimize the layover times and not have to connect in multiple airports. I really want to go direct from the USA to HCM City and avoid having to layover in Hong Kong. Hoping some people can give me some tips on planning my trip to Vietnam. When I get there I will be staying with my girl and her family at their house. I was originally going to get a hotel but then I heard there is some weird law that says I cannot bring a VN national into my hotel room. Anyway, her family wants to meet me so it's all good. Just need help planning the actual flights.

Edited August 4, 2010 by Mr. 2000

[tcTTct 37]

You need to contact a Vietnamese Travel Agency. They buy blocks of tickets and sells them to the Vietnamese community here in the US. I paid $950 for a return ticket on Cathay from LAX back in March and that included the VN visa. I bought my ticket from US Tours in Garden Grove, you can just Google them for the number.

I got the exorbitant prices from Expedia etc when I was trying to buy my own ticket too.

Edited August 4, 2010 by tcTTct

[ScottThuy 140]

When are you wanting to go? are the dates flexible?

Korean Air is a nice airline, but not cheap and the layovers in Seoul are not short... JAL or American are not in my fav list because the layover can be far longer than KA and it sucks to have a layover and everything be closed.... Delta blows, but they do code share with KA and that is a decent way to get a cheaper fare... I usually fly Delta on KA planes and call them directly to see what the best price is... They have hubs in MN and GA... unless you are flying from Houston, WA or CA you are not likely to find a direct flight.... by changing the day of the week you leave and return.. you can change the price by as much as 30 or 40%... or more

There are a few topics on the VN regional about flights...

[tcTTct 37]

By the way, if you fly Cathay, only the seat bottom slides, the back does not tilt, so it's not a very comfortable flight at all. My layover in HK was 1.5 hours.

[ScottThuy 140]

BTW KA includes unlimited beverages throughout the flight.. no extra $....

[BurningFinger 5]

You can try a Vietnamese travel agency. I never tried one so I don't know what their pricing is. I have used cheapair.com and their pricing is reasonable. One word of caution about layover times.....which comes from personal experience since I travel ALOT for business. Try to get layover times for at least 2 hours. I know it sounds crazy to recommend waiting longer but this really covers your rear end in the event any of your connecting flights gets delayed. It has happened to me before where there was a 1 hr and 35 minute layover between my connecting flights. My first flight was delayed by over an hour and I ended up missing my connecting flight. Anybody that travels alot knows that flights can be delayed. Best to cover your behind...

[Tuanv 2]

For some reason, it is always more expensive to buy ticket to Vietnam online. I tried ANA's website and I received a quote for more than $2000. I ended up paying $1250 to Vietnam from BWI in Maryland with ANA.

[Kevin and 10]

for using a travel agency. Last year I got a flight with a 2 week notice in Jan for $1100.00. I looked online for flights and they were going for about $2000.00 due to it being so close to Tet.

[Mr. 2000 0]

Just checked out "cheapair.com" and found a ticket for $1,400 and change, but it's still not going directly from USA to HCM City as I want. Are the VN Travel Agencies the best place to go to get direct US-VN flights?

[ScottThuy 140]

You are not likely to find a direct flight from the east coast... None that I know of...

[BurningFinger 5]

I may be wrong on this, but no airline in the world flies non-stop, further then Singapore Airlines. In fact, Singapore Airlines flies from New Wark, NJ to Singapore, non-stop. There is no airline that flies non stop from the east coast of the US to Vietnam so you are gonna have to do it with at least 1 stop, but probably 2.

Travis

[hniHnitsuJ 8]

Planning to go to Vietnam to meet my fiance and get married, staying there about a month. I've checked the prices for airfare on sites like Orbitz and Travelocity and the flights all require 2-3 connections and cost over $2,000, even if the flight is more than 2 weeks in the future. I heard that there are direct flights between the USA and HCM City, at least from San Diego to HCM, but I live on the east coast of the USA and I could not find any flights that go: Home -> San Diego | San Diego -> HCM City.

These are the MAIN reasons why we love to live in CALIFORNIA, OC, and Bay Area.

- Only flights going direct to HCM is from San Francisco. American Airline. Cost $1100 (depend on the season). Not sure if AA still flight in VN??? Anh Chim please confirms.

- Don't check online. Go to Vnese travels agency from Cali. The cost is much cheaper. We have thousand of travels agency in the OC, and Bay Area.

- Best airline to flight are EVA, Cathy, Japan, Korea, Singaphor, and etc.

[Dai. 7]

This topic should be pinned on top. There will always be week after week of people asking what is the cheapest and best flight to Vietnam.

[ttp 0]

When do you plan on traveling? Try cheapair, orbitz, priceline, all those and more. Change the dates by a day or two and the rates change drastically. I highly doubt you'll find a relatively cheap non-stop flight.

FYI, we got tickets (2 weeks ago) for this September for around $1200. If we'd bought 2-3 weeks earlier, it would have been about $1000.

Also, check towards the last days of each month...for some reason the prices are hundreds of dollars lower on the 30th/31st than on the 1st of the following month.

[What's next 1]

There are no non-stop flights from anywhere in the US to SGN. There may be flights that the categorized as "non-stop", but they still stop over somewhere. Almost positive about that.

As far as airlines, they are all pretty much the same. Asian carriers give you a hot towel, American carriers don't. Asian carrier serve asian food, American carriers serve american food. As far as comfort, 12 hours of torture on any plane. If you are ####### about seats, seatguru.com can help. The trans-pacific flight will have video and music on demand which is great; movies, tv shows, etc. Go with the cheapest flight. If you're not in a rush, wait for the slow season. Save the extra money for your wedding/honeymoon.

Also factor in the VN visa as well. Asian travel agency, will take care of this for you. Or you can apply yourself though the embassy is San Fran or DC. The third option is getting the visa on arival in VN. I prefer the visa on arrival option. Basically, you have a company to apply for a visa for you, their fee is like 15-25 bucks. They send you the approved visa application. At the airport in VN, you pay like 20 bucks for the actual visa. It's the cheaspest way to go.

If you want an open ticket, meaning you want to leave your return date open, get it through a travel agency.

Have fun