After 5 nights at the JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi, it is time for us to fly to another destination with a domestic flight: Hue and Hoï An. It will be on Vietnam Airlines, using Flying Blue miles!
Flying Blue is the Air France – KLM frequent flyer program. Since I am French, I have had a Flying Blue account for a long time.
Problem? In Canada, it is almost impossible to collect Flying Blue miles easily. Indeed, much to our regret:
So sure, you can still earn “some miles” by crediting your flights on Skyteam (or Westjet) airlines, but it’s going to be a long process before you can earn an airline award!
What’s up? What are the options for earning Flying Blue miles?
We can’t say it enough: Marriott Bonvoy starpoints are very valuable. There’s a reason we’ve dubbed the Marriott Bonvoy program the “Swiss Army knife” of travelers!
Starpoints can be transferred into miles from over 35 airline loyalty programs, including… Flying Blue.
The transfer rate is 1:1. And for every 20,000 starpoints transferred, SPG adds 5,000 miles.
So the bonus offered by each American Express Marriott Bonvoy card can give you 25,000 Flying Blue miles (or Aeroplan, Avios…).
No way to find a flight on the Delta website. I also called, Skymiles was unable to see the award tickets I was seeing with Flying Blue.
In Vietnam, the only airline to be part of an airline alliance, in this case Skyteam, is Vietnam Airlines. There are other low cost airlines such as Vietjet or Jet Airways, which often have very low prices… to which you have to add other fees, especially for luggage.
Domestic flights on Vietnam Airlines cost 10,000 Flying Blue miles and a few dollars in taxes (around $5). Availability is quite good on all destinations served by Vietnam Airlines.
You will still have to compare with the public fare, but for us, traveling on Vietnam Airlines represented several advantages:
On our dates, the ticket cost about $170 per person for 10,000 Flying Blue miles and $5. This gives you an idea of the small savings.
However, I must admit that the booking was not easy for our baby, I wrote it in a previous article: Flying Blue, Air France and Vietnam Airlines kept on passing the buck. In the end, it was Flying Blue that had to issue the ticket.
After a 30-minute drive from the JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi to Hanoi Airport, we arrived at the check-in counters of the domestic flight terminal.
As you can see on the clock at the top left: it is 07:35, a little less than an hour before the flight departure.
The check-in is done quickly at Vietnam Airlines.
We had optimized each of our suitcases to the best of our ability in order not to exceed the weight limit of 20 kgs. The proof:
Vietnam Airlines is however tolerant to within 2 kgs.
After a short passage through security…
… we are now at our boarding gate. Unfortunately, this section of the terminal was under construction at the time of our visit: no playground for children. No lounge for Priority Pass holders either. We will be satisfied with the “food court” and a Vietnamese coffee.
Boarding will be on time and passengers travelling with children will be invited to board first. The Vietnamese coffee was so good… that we missed out on priority boarding. We will still pass through the “business” line without any problem.
We pass the business class.
Then the first rows of the economy class.
The seats offer reasonable comfort with good legroom.
No individual screens though. But the flight is short (1h). A blanket, in the company’s colors, will be donated by the crew.
The flight will take off on time after a final cabin tour by the flight attendant. As you can see, the weather is gloomy.
Shortly after takeoff, the crew will give only… water bottles and refreshing towels. No coffee service.
The screens will be deployed above our heads during the whole flight to allow us to follow our progress. A little thought at this time of the morning in Vietnam for Canada which has just entered the night!
We will land in Hue… under the rain, for a change.
Like most of our flights in Vietnam, we will land on the tarmac with a very short bus transfer.
Last view on the aircraft: I like the blue and gold livery of Vietnam Airlines!
The airport is very small: the luggage will arrive in a few minutes.
A smooth flight with Vietnam Airlines: take-off and landing on time. The seats are comfortable. A little disappointed with the service on board (a coffee would have been appreciated…).
Savings are here:
