Vietnam Airlines Reviews 

DO NOT FLY WITH VIETNAM AIRLINES

I travelled from Australia to Europe in July 2024 and the experience was acceptable

I chose to fly from Australia to Europe again in February 2025 for my ski trip to Austria

I was advised that i could only take one check in bag. I have skis and poles!

The standard suitcase is 90 x 60 x 30 (162 cubic)

My ski bag is 180 x 36 x 18 (116 cubic)

I was told that i would have to pay $600USD to take my skis

I've been argueing for a month with these clowns that my ski bag is smaller than a suitcase but they just do not listen!!!

Avoid

Customer service is the worst I've experienced

Avoid! Do not book Vietnam airlines to or from Australia! They bumped us (and others) from premium economy to economy with no compensation from vietnam to Sydney and have now done the same on the return flight. They oversell the premium economy seats and refuse to refund. If you try and contact them they just ghost you. Avoid! I travel to Paris and back twice yearly and am a platinum member but I will never book with them again.

Absolutely terrible experience. They delayed our flight by 3 hours with only a few hours notice to combine with another one of their flights to save them money (and this flight was cheaper than what we paid!). No compensation or apology. This would have completely messed up our Vietnam holiday plans.

When asking for a refund they charged a fee and excluded taxes so we will lose about 40%. No confirmation yet of refund despite asking multiple times.

Just fly one of the low cost, at least you know what you get. Vietjet got us there fine in the end.

As a former Travel Manager I am critical but I was very surprised by this airline. It is not bad.
2 international flights ex London in Premium Economy
5 internal flights in economy.

Pre flight:
Lufthansa cancelled my connection.Vietnam Airlines rebooked me and rang to check.

Airport - staff were friendly and efficient
Aircraft B787 & A321
Good flights , but interiors need a refurb, seat on return did not work properly.

Service - not brilliant but acceptable.
Food - it is,airline food, avoid
Entertainment - not great but ok

Compared to BA they get my vote

The only airlines where I starved!!! 15hrs flight with only 2 meals. We were asking for noodles in the middle and were advised that they wouldn't serve noodles if the fasten seat belt sign is on. It never turned off for 10hrs more until we were served the 2nd meal. Horrible service. Snack provided was a small pack of biscuit. What a joke! Will never fly this again.

I've flown Vietnam Airlines in the past, nothing special but no issues.
I am registered with their Airmiles programme which has my date of birth, which is also taken when purchasing tickets and checking in, which I've done 3 times this year.
Being tall, I always pay extra for legroom seats.
On 1st January, I flew from Pnomh Penh to HCMC no problem.
As always the airline checks that you are able to open the emergency exit door in the event of an emergency - completely understandably.
I then went to board the HCMC to Hanoi flight 2 hours later and was told 'you cannot have this seat because you're over 60'.
There was no other explanation and they agreed that at 63 I presented as strong, fit and healthy but insisted I sit in another seat.
God knows if I will ever chisel a refund out of them for the seat I paid extra for, but I will never fly with them again.

Probably like others, I was a little apprehensive about using this airline. Returning from Sydney to LHR, their flights are routed via their hub in Hanoi. Using my KLM airmiles, I travelled business class, Vietnam Airways being much cheaper than KLM itself. The flight was very pleasant. In fact the politeness of the flight attendants reminded me of how Thai Airways used to be like back in the '90s (take careful note Thai Airways). The quality of seats were as expected as was the dining. Transiting through Hanoi airport was a pleasure. Full marks to Vietnam Airways. IMHO you have taken over the no.1 SE Asia spot leaving the likes of Thai Airways to squander their reputation in a futile attempt to make profit at the expense of their customers.

Still waiting for a refund. Years.

Unrealistic standards for transporting dogs on planes. The carrier they ask for is extremely small and cannot be purchased anywhere.

It seems that they do this on purpose to force the customer to send the animal along with their luggage.

It is very sad to see this kind of thing.

I bought a ticket to Istanbul with transit in Kochin /India/ from Vietnam Airways. One hour before departure, Vietnam Airways explained that it was not a transit, you need a visa. Anyone without an Indian visa would not be able to fly. The Vietnam Airways employee immediately suggested "a good solution": you should buy a new ticket for 800 euros from the same company, the old one will of course not be refunded.

awful awful website. No concept of an actual website. Only built to take money but any changes or updates, you HAVE TO CALL a number in Vietnam. And Chat Bot is a JOKE!!! Unfortunately I have to use this airline for internal flights

Staff very friendly and polite, food average.
Problem returning my screen did not work, also others had problems, crew said oh its an old plane, did not move me.

I thought they were a great airline until my bag came off a flight broken. It now has three wheel when it had four going onto the flight. When asking staff about compensation they said there is nothing they can do. My bag now falls over and is very hard to move. It was new thing trip.

This is, without a doubt, the WORST airline I’ve ever dealt with! My flight was delayed 15 HOURS with no proper communication. Then, to make matters worse, THEY LOST MY LUGGAGE! When I finally got it back, ALL MY VALUABLE BELONGINGS WERE GONE!

Trying to contact them is a JOKE! They don't answer their phones, they ignore emails or send useless automated responses, and take absolutely NO RESPONSIBILITY for their actions.

No refund, no help, and no customer service. They leave you completely in the dark. It’s ABSURD how they operate! I’m taking legal action because this is beyond unacceptable. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON VIETNAM AIRLINES—unless you want your trip ruined and your belongings stolen!

A complete shambles from start to finish. Having booked our flights from Hanoi to Phu Quoc for November I have received numerous changes to our flight schedule (I only booked Vietnam Airlines over Air Asia due to schedule) making the flights less convenient, Vietnam Airlines have now changed our seat selection (which I had paid for) from adjacent aisle seats to middle seats in different rows. To confuse matters further they also changed our reservation code.
I tried to change this in manage bookings, but seat selection was not available and advised to contact their call centre in Vietnam, which would clearly be at great expense to myself.
I did find a UK number for Vietnam customer services which I rang but sat on hold for 45 minutes before giving up.
And I thought Vietnam Airlines would be a step up from Air Asia - big mistake.

Extremely rude and abusive staff!

I was boarding a flight from Bangkok to HCMC for business meetings (which I've done probably 50 or more times over the past 7 years without any issue) and on this occasion was met with an extremely hostile person at check-in who refused to issue the ticket without a return ticket saying policies had changed and signing a waiver wasn't possible.

Then he started demanding to know how much money I had / net worth and how much I had available to spend in Vietnam? I've been travelling on business for over 20 years and never once encountered anything like this an airline check-in.

He was clearly in a bad mood and loving the power trip. Anyway after he refused to escale to a manger saying he was the final authority I went and booked a return trip to Singapore; and needless to say when I returned he was no where to be found and the lady who replaced him didn't ask about the return flight.

So Vietnam Airlines, please get your rouge BKK staff under control and please tell them to have some manners, and when they're having a bad day don't use your customers as punching bags to take their frustrations out on us.

If I could give this airline zero stars for customer service I would. They have no concept of even basic courtesy. Flying on VN56 - London to Hanoi - which is late. Zero information on screens. My request for an update on the tannoy was met with withering sarcasm as I had been sent an email the previous day. My attempt to upgrade my ticket online didn’t work and they have a “policy” of not selling upgrades at the airport. Could they bump me up? No chance. Covid rules! Avoid this airline if alternatives are available.

So many issues in their customer service, which is too bad because the in flight experience was ok. But they tried to overcharge me 200% for a flight change until I send them a screenshot of their own terms & conditions, booked us on a partner flight (Air France) with no option to ever chose a seat & in a lower category than what we paid, and then there was no more seat available at check in. Made us wait 3hrs for everyone else to board to see if we could sit together (which we couldn't) on a 13hr flight and then acted as if they'd done us a favor. Made our whole booking code invalid when a flight was changed / delayed 8 hrs so we couldn't get any miles & xp (Flying Blue) for any of our flights (4 in total), then refused to help us with this issue & with requesting the compensation required by EU law. Their customer service answers weeks/ months later and just plain refuses to help you.
I was stuck in conversation between Air France & them who just don't ever seem to talk to each other, and eventually just gave up. Not worth wasting your time. Would only ever very reluctantly choose them again for a local flight.

Was denied boarding for a flight from Bangkok to Vietnam because my passport was slightly ripped. That part is understandable, the rest is terrible. Once I resolved the passport situation I took a different flight two days later and flew a different airline to Vietnam. On the return trip things were basically hellish. I checked online and it said I still had my return trip. I only was able to check it online because it was impossible to talk to someone when I tried calling in. Flight showed that the ticket was still valid for the return and that it was marked as if I had flown the first leg, I suspect it was because I was on the same ticket as my friend who had flown. On the way back I got to the airport and was denied boarding because they said I hadn't taken the first leg. I tried to show them the website where all looked good but it seems they had cancelled my flight when I was trying to check in. So the booking confirmation that I had seen just a few hours earlier was no longer available as proof. Then they tried charging me 370$ for a ticket I had a booking for that normally costs 100$. I have flown maybe 3000 flights in my life and have never had such a bad experience. My friend who was with me said the flight was not full, the manager said there was nothing they could, but I believe that's just a lie. Either the company doesn't empower their managers to make these decisions or the manager didn't care. Both are very bad for the airline which is supposed to be the national carrier. There is nothing I could have done differently as I couldn't call them and their website showed all was fine.

Absolutely crap airline tried for 6 months to get a service. God knows what would happen if you needed help. No one can. Forget them not worth providing wealth to a company who has no respect.