Houston, we have an appointment.

[astrlsrfr 1]

Sooo... I found out thru calling the DoS that my fiance's appointment is now set for late June. I am having her go to manually pick up the appointment letter from the Consulate ("info window") when she goes to HCMC to get her vaccinations started, prior to the "medical", as VN snail mail has proven unreliable (at best) for us. Its really kind of dorky in this day and age to cause all this running around.. why don't they just 86 the snail mail & use email'd PDFs? Oh wait.. forgot it takes them *4 WEEKS* to respond to an email!

Anyway.. I am planning to be there with her for the interview & if she passes I will naturally be bringing her back the the dear ole USofA. I am thinking of doing a one-way ticket there, then getting 2 one-ways back if/when she gets her pink slip. If she gets a blue.. I will need to do a single one-way back & then repeat this process again. Has anyone else used this strategy & if so, what ticketing vendor / method did you use? For my previous round trips I have just used expedia & its been running just over $1k.

Also, I read somewhere on these forums that they now are allowing the USC to be there in the building for the interviews, rather than making them stand outside accross the street like a bunch of hobos. What a concept! Hope that's going to be the case when I am there, as well. I have a crapload of "evidence", per their requirements, and I don't intend to make my 46kg fiance carry around 20kg worth of documents.

TIA

[Gosia & Tito 199]

Sooo... I found out thru calling the DoS that my fiance's appointment is now set for late June. I am having her go to manually pick up the appointment letter from the Consulate ("info window") when she goes to HCMC to get her vaccinations started, prior to the "medical", as VN snail mail has proven unreliable (at best) for us. Its really kind of dorky in this day and age to cause all this running around.. why don't they just 86 the snail mail & use email'd PDFs? Oh wait.. forgot it takes them *4 WEEKS* to respond to an email!

Anyway.. I am planning to be there with her for the interview & if she passes I will naturally be bringing her back the the dear ole USofA. I am thinking of doing a one-way ticket there, then getting 2 one-ways back if/when she gets her pink slip. If she gets a blue.. I will need to do a single one-way back & then repeat this process again. Has anyone else used this strategy & if so, what ticketing vendor / method did you use? For my previous round trips I have just used expedia & its been running just over $1k.

Also, I read somewhere on these forums that they now are allowing the USC to be there in the building for the interviews, rather than making them stand outside accross the street like a bunch of hobos. What a concept! Hope that's going to be the case when I am there, as well. I have a crapload of "evidence", per their requirements, and I don't intend to make my 46kg fiance carry around 20kg worth of documents.

TIA

For the traveling, one way tickets are highway robbery, as you have found or will shortly. It's a lot cheaper to get round trips. My thoughts on that are that it is probably worth to have an open ticket on the return side (that you/her can use at a later time for a visit). Check with airlines on the issuance of one ways; some do not sell them for a non-immigrant visa. My particular situation is that I have a ton of miles in about every airline there is and I will use that to get a one way. If you have miles, use them. If you do not, check the airlines sites, most have a deal if you get and use their sponsored credit card. It might even be possible that you get their card, take the deal (often is 20-30k miles and then double miles if you book a fare with the card) then book your flight RT. There might be enough miles there for a one way. If not, there might be a possibility to purchase miles for the difference and still cheaper than a regular fare. As I said, do the numbers and see what seem most convenient.

One other tip, local sites (where she is) might be cheaper than US sites. Who knows why, but in my case (fiancee in Europe), fares are normally 2-3 hundred less if I purchase it in a European travel site (and if you do purchase in her country, watch out for CC fees for international transactions; there are several cards that charge only 1%, most do 4-5%). In some cases, there are fees within the site, for using a CC; and a debit card is no fee. You can easily save upwards of 500 just by doing some research.

Good luck in the interview!

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

For the traveling, one way tickets are highway robbery, as you have found or will shortly. It's a lot cheaper to get round trips. My thoughts on that are that it is probably worth to have an open ticket on the return side (that you/her can use at a later time for a visit). Check with airlines on the issuance of one ways; some do not sell them for a non-immigrant visa. My particular situation is that I have a ton of miles in about every airline there is and I will use that to get a one way. If you have miles, use them. If you do not, check the airlines sites, most have a deal if you get and use their sponsored credit card. It might even be possible that you get their card, take the deal (often is 20-30k miles and then double miles if you book a fare with the card) then book your flight RT. There might be enough miles there for a one way. If not, there might be a possibility to purchase miles for the difference and still cheaper than a regular fare. As I said, do the numbers and see what seem most convenient.

One other tip, local sites (where she is) might be cheaper than US sites. Who knows why, but in my case (fiancee in Europe), fares are normally 2-3 hundred less if I purchase it in a European travel site (and if you do purchase in her country, watch out for CC fees for international transactions; there are several cards that charge only 1%, most do 4-5%). In some cases, there are fees within the site, for using a CC; and a debit card is no fee. You can easily save upwards of 500 just by doing some research.

Good luck in the interview!

Not always true about round-trip vs. one-way. I checked all of the airlines that fly between Vietnam and the US. One-way was cheaper at all of them, by a pretty wide margin. China Airlines was the cheapest, but I ended up booking with Eva because I had an open ended return ticket with them. What I saved using my own return ticket more than made up for the extra expense of the other three one-way tickets I bought. It also scares me a little to fly China Airlines. They haven't upgraded their 747's since the 1980's. They've got still VHS projectors showing one movie on a bulkhead screen in the front of each cabin. If they haven't upgraded their passenger cabins, it makes you wonder how long it's been since they overhauled their engines.

[BPham 0]

if you fly asiana, you can just over-estimate your return date. They let you change the return date one-time for free. I've done that numerous times, to extend my stay or leave earlier. The main office for Asiana can be found in Saigon at Kumho plaza, right next to Diamond plaza and the embassy area.

[Julian_Hien 0]

we just got hien oneway ticket, i checked all the us sites cheapest we found to vegas was around 880usd, so we did the footwork and went to a couple airlines, ended up at eva payed 715usd oneway, so i would certainly call the airlines when your in ho chi minh,ive come to think buying airline tickets online was always the cheapest way to go,not always true.as for us citizens allowed to consulate, seems this is the norm now, i accompanied hien,they never asked for my passport,we just showed them the appointment letter,and walked in, saw many couples,i made a point to take our bags and bags of evidence up to the window, placed it on the shelf said good morning sir to CO,and goodmorning to interepreter,then sat back down,i did this for two reasons, obviously cos the bags were heavy, but to show co i was with my wife at the consulate, also when we submitted our additional evidence before the interview hien made sure the lady took our timeline and both our 10 year residency, the lady wanted to hand them back, but hien asked please keep for co,at the time of the interview hien saw co look quickly at timeline,it seems every case is treated a little differrent, but as im sure you have read on this forum there are certain things the co seems request time and time again, anyhow good luck make sure all docs are easy accessble for co, and practice for every question scenario that may come up.

[quann 26]

i flew china roundtrip...seats are smaller and they allow you to change flights within 2 months...and they've upgraded to individual lcds the last couple times i've flown. eva of course is the best.

imo it own't matter which airline you're flying...if ur SO is by your side i imagine you're on cloud 9 the whole time anyways.

[astrlsrfr 1]

Great feedback gang, thanks very much.

I agree on the China Airlines analysis, but I never actually flew them so I can't really judge.

In the past, I found Asiana was pretty nice and had comfortable seats.. so I will check with them about the flexible round-trip option. The goal obviously is to have us both on the same planes when returning. If they are flexible on the return, that would make it much easier to find flights with enough available seats so we can not only end up on the same plane, but hopefully even sit adjacently. I'm assuming that arrangement has to be made thru Asiana directly, and not using a ticket broker like expedia, etc?

Thanks for the tips on the interview too... I will plan to haul in the comical amounts of documentation... hell I already will be hauling them 1/2 way around the world.. might as well go the last few meters.

[Gosia & Tito 199]

Not always true about round-trip vs. one-way. I checked all of the airlines that fly between Vietnam and the US. One-way was cheaper at all of them, by a pretty wide margin. China Airlines was the cheapest, but I ended up booking with Eva because I had an open ended return ticket with them. What I saved using my own return ticket more than made up for the extra expense of the other three one-way tickets I bought. It also scares me a little to fly China Airlines. They haven't upgraded their 747's since the 1980's. They've got still VHS projectors showing one movie on a bulkhead screen in the front of each cabin. If they haven't upgraded their passenger cabins, it makes you wonder how long it's been since they overhauled their engines.

Almost feels like the time I flew Aeroflot (russian airline). No offense to our russian friends here but on a flight take off, my sit literally started to bounce...the bolts had come off...we discovered after the plane was in the air.

[astrlsrfr 1]

Just to follow up...

I ended up getting 1 round trip for myself directly thru Korean Air (KA). Asiana has a similar deal but it was harder to get hold of someone & they had less flights to choose from. Since I went direct thru them and not Expedia or another discounter... I paid a couple hundred bones more. Plus, ticket prices are higher than they were a few months ago I will tell u that. About 20-30% more. (Thanks Uncle Ben for debasing my hard-earned dollars and making everything cost more! )

Anyway... ...KA told me you can change the return date/time once for no charge & then $100 for each change afterwards. So I set a return date that is 2 weeks beyond the interview with the hopes of reeling that in. One complication tho was that, because I live in SD & there is a little leg from SD to LAX which KA doesn't cover with their own planes, AND since they don't have the ability to change their partner carrier's flight as well, I am having to drive to LAX & fly in/out of that hellhole to make this work.. its about 2hrs drive. But its not a huge deal and it is one less flight leg to have to hustle around for and deal with connecting on etc...

So.. the plan will be to consult with KA's office in SGN for matching up my return & my SO's one-way if & when my honey gets her visa.

Thanks again for the input.

[ScottThuy 140]

always try to buy the tickets on Tuesday.. the best day of the week as the difference between Tuesday and Friday can be 15 - 30%% and up... The price of flight is up for this time of year due to students going home for the summer... they gouge them again at the holidays as well... flights where I live to VN are up 60-70% in the last few months.. so the savings on Tuesdays can be significant...

I always call the carrier and have them beat the expedia price... so there is a little extra cash and many carriers have a policy that if you find the flight cheaper after you book it, they will give you the difference plus an extra hundred or so in credit..

Edited May 20, 2011 by ScottThuy