My Vietnam Airlines Rant

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I spent most of my first day in Hanoi dealing with a flight glitch. And by "glitch", I mean that Vietnam Air never booked my flight to Australia. A very kind and generous woman at the hotel was helping me get to the bottom of what happened, but she was only able to do so much by phone (which is baffling to me). She put me in taxi and sent me over to the Vietnam Airlines office. $6 later (which is a lot for a taxi here), the taxi drops me off at what appears to be the Vietnam Airlines corporate office. It is sort of like going to Bentonville Arkansas Wal-Mart office and expecting to buy housewares. I attempt to walk through the gate and I don't make it far. Security comes chasing after me and I end up sitting in the security office trying to explain to them that I need help dealing with a ticket problem. Of course, the language barrier precludes us from actually communicating (note to self: must learn Vietnamese before returning to Vietnam) and we end up sitting there staring at each other blankly.

Finally, I give them a business card for the hotel and even have to pantomime calling the hotel so they can speak directly to the woman there. They do. I am hopeful for a moment, the guy hangs up the phone and then makes a few other calls. He hands the phone to me and I speak to someone who tells me that the ticket wasn't issued because my bank rejected the charge (note to self: tell Wells-Fargo when traveling Internationally). I seem to have an answer, although it would have been nice to know this news immediately after ticket-purchase-attempt, and it also would have been nice to have been able to make this phone call from the hotel, at least I now know what's going on.

I go back to the hotel and now have to buy a ticket to Australia, 4 days out. I am terrified that it's going to be thousands of dollars (or millions of Dong) and I am playing out all different scenarios in my head. To my delight, the cost was only $150 more than what I'd originally paid, so I bought the ticket (I hope) and am set to fly tonight. Actually, I still need to find a Vietnam Airlines office today and make sure the flight is confirmed.

While this is an extreme example, this is what Vietnam is like. You're sure that there's a better way to do thing, but helpless to figure out what that is.

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