An aeroplan adventure (ft. Bamboo airways to Vietnam plus more)

[aaa99]

Hello,

Just thought we will share our trip on Bamboo airways now that some of you might be considering them as an alternative option to South East Asia.
This trip to South East Asia took place during Christmas/NY break.
We found some SQ reward seats of BKK for 1/1 back in May and locked it. So we decided to make a trip out of it and visit Cambodia which we haven't been to before, but had always been on our bucket list.

While looking for our options to get there, we realised we had left it a bit too late (and was one stage just looking to Scoot it as prices were starting to rise). Round about then, Air Canada signed up Bamboo as their partner and we found some last minute reward seats on SYD-SGN with a tag VA flight from MEL-SYD.

So, in this report, will cover Bamboo airways (QH) flight in detail and will add some photos of the VA, K6 and SQ flights that we took in between. We are also putting together a few videos here and there and will share those here.

Firstly, I will mention the annoying things.
1. QH wouldnt let us pre-select seats on Aeroplan bookings. I notice the option when booking a flight on their website, but once we booked ours through Aeroplan it was not possible.
2. It is not possible to do internet checking (and select seats) for international bookings.
3. QH has only 3 787-9s in their fleet and they fly long haul to several cities, so it is a bit of a tight operation and our flight was delayed by 2.5 hours due to late arrival of the aircraft from FRA.

Anyway, here was the plan for the trip:
MEL-SYD (VA)
SYD-SGN (QH) and SGN-PNH (K6) on the same day
REP-BKK (FD)
BKK-SIN-MEL (SQ)

 

[aaa99]

VA MEL-SYD
Wont go into too much detail on this one as everyone is familiar with this already.
Although the crew were excellent on this flight. I have always had good experiences with VA since the reboot.

Here is the aircraft:


Pre departure drink service:


The meal (Thai chicken curry) - which is apparently standard these days? Found it pretty good actually.


After landing, the crew saw us filming and invited us to have a look inside the 737 coughpit. Obviously, this was the highlight of this flight.


Here is the link to the full video of that flight:

 

[aaa99]

Overnight at SYD

We stayed overnight at the Rydges Sydney airport. Main objective was to get the runway view room for some spotting. And also be close to the check in counter so we can hopefully get seat selection ASAP at checkin counter.

Initially, they gave us a 5th floor room, but after a polite request, they gave us one on the top floor. Obviously, when we got there (10pm), the airport was quiet due to SYD curfew, but next morning was bliss <3

The calmness as the sun rises over SYD and the gates are still empty.


The first heavy from London/Singapore (QF2)
This was coincidentally the day after the QF1 incident over Baku.


EK morning departure from SYD


The "ONEWORLD" gang


Vietnam airlines, doing the same route as us but on an A350 (Bamboo uses the 787)


When exs meet? Latam and AA


QF 787 from Dallas


JL777


I guess I am getting carried away with the avgeeking, but it was definitely worth staying at the Rydges SYD for planespotting.

Anyway, it is time to go the airport early to lock in a window seat hopefully.

 

[RooFlyer]

Love the coughpit visit and some great pics at SYD . Can’t wait for more.

 

[craven morehead]

Following

 

[aaa99]

At this point we got an alert on CMT saying our flight was delayed by 2 hours. FR24 also had the incoming aircraft delayed by 2 hours. This was a bit concerning as it would eat into our 4 hour gap we left for the Cambodia Angkor air (K6) flight. We tried to contact K6 by various means, but funnily their call center dont work on weekends . And, they (after 3 weeks) still haven't responded to my email asking them if I can move the flight to the next day.

Anyway, I get to the check in counter 3 hours before the scheduled time (5 hours before the departure time) to try and get seat selection done. To my surprise, no one seems to know about the flight delay and have turned up to checkin 3 hours before. I still dont understand why airlines do this. When flights are delayed by significant amount like 2 hours, why dont they advice customers the same.

Some decorations at SYD for Christmas


QH has a separate priority line for business and their elite guests, which was good and enforced.


The flight was full as expected and the system assigned us to random middle seats. We preferred having windows, so I politely asked the check in agent if see comes across anyone else who would like to sit together, please let us know.

Now, it is time to go back to the Rydges to enjoy the planespotting a bit more before the second checkin visit . Btw, some of the above shots of the aiport were taken between the first check in trip and the second check in trip while frantically trying to reach out to K6.

The second check in trip was quieter. By now, everyone has checked in even though there is still 2 hours to boarding. The check in agent is super nice and is excited to have found a couple who wants to sit together. Who would, right? Anyway, we are happy to swap!

Bamboo gives a generous 65kg!!! of checked baggage each in business class to/from Australia and Europe. We however, have a grand total of about 15kg for our 10 day trip.

Next up, it is time to visit the lounge. We get these lounge vouchers to present. The lounge used in Sydney in Plaza premium which doesn't sound as exciting until we get there.

 

[aaa99]

Turns out that the Plaza premium lounge in SYD is actually the Skyteam lounge and it was pretty cool. The amount of blue was amazing

Skyteam 787 at the entrance


The members of the Skyteam and "Welcome" in their languages. MEA is missing here.


Blue is the sky"theme"


The lounge food was not that great. They were about to change from breakfast to lunch, so quite the ideal time to visit. I was hungry for more plane spotting however and this lounge is pretty good for that.

Bar with a view


VN in matching blue themes. There is something about the A350. It really is a beautiful aircraft to look at.


Quick look back at the Rydges.
"One minute you are on the road looking at scenery, next thing you are in the scenery looking back at the road"


Next up is boarding time and here is a look at the Bamboo 787. It is their first 787 and name "Halong Bay". Reminded us of the beautiful place that we visited a few years ago.
Our aircraft for the day:


From the memories (Halong Bay viewpoint, from Bai Tho mountain. We got up here that time after climbing up a 5 meter gate with barbed wires and scampering up a mountain and it was totally worth it!)

 

[aaa99]

Out of the 3 787s that Bamboo has, two are ex-Hainan.
This is also one of them.

Seat is a reverse herringbone configuration.
Actually, the couple that wanted to sit together no longer wanted to. I wonder what happened there . Anyway, we are in 19D and 19G (the last row).


Smaller storage on the left with the essential ports and TV remote


Bigger storage on the right (also serves as arm rest)


More storage overhead, the cabin has overhead storage in middle seats.

Seat controls


Good leg room


Amenity kit

There was a hot towel and non-alcoholic drink service before takeoff

"More than just a flight"


"The airline of hospitality"

 

[aaa99]

Take off is 2.5 hours late leaving us maybe 90 minutes (max) at SGN to catch our separate flight to Cambodia.

Upon take off, they give all passengers (atleast all J passengers) one of these envelopes.


And inside there is a christmas tree/paper plan. A nice touch. Is it common for other airlines to do something similar? Even the minions seem to be fascinated.


Entertainment screen is decent and touch screen or control via remote.
But content is very limited. You might want to bring you own.
The headphones provided were poor, no NC.
No WIFI on this aircraft either. I dont think actually any of their aircraft has WIFI


Next, it is time for the 1st meal of this flight.

 

[aaa99]

This was the menu for Meal 1.
No paper menus on the flight, instead it was shown by the crew on a tablet.
Not big on alcohol, but I realised they only had 2 whites and 2 reds.


Watch out for all the Bamboo branding about to hit you!
Some cashews to start


The tuna and prawn entree with garlic bread and soup. The bread was really good!


The salt and pepper shakers were cute.


The fish main, not the greatest marks for presentation, but it tasted better for sure.



The other mains: Turkey and potatoes


Fruit and cheese tray came around


Dessert (an assortment of cakes)


Overall, the meal wasn't the most fanciest, but it was quite substantial and satisfactory.

 

[aaa99]

One of the annoying things with the 787 is when the crew control the window shades. They were kept in this state during the entire flight despite it being day time.


Time to look at the amenities kit
No fancy brands, but lots of stuff. I was surprised that they gave a razor.


Toilet was standard, except for the orchid


The bed was fine. There is no turn down service as such, but maybe because it was just a day flight?


Look - The inflight magazine


I obviously start from the back to read more about Bamboo. They talk about the AC partnership here.


Had a section about status match, although this is being discussed on another thread on AFF.

 

[aaa99]

Shortly before landing, we had the second meal. The crew were quite friendly and the manager showed me his tablet with all the menus and how it rotates with various routes.

Anyway, here is the full menu for the pre-arrival meal.








Went for the vermicelli option and this is how it was plated.
Once again the branding. Even the mixer had the Bamboo logo



The drink was the "Saigon by night" mocktail.


And that is a wrap from Bamboo airways. We landed 2.5 hours late leaving us around 80 minutes to pass immigration, pick up bags and check in for our next flight. Basically impossible (basically Bamboo-zled ). Anyway, we will see how we go.

Feel free to ask if you have any followup questions on the flight if you have any.
If you want to check out more details, you can also refer to our video here:

 

[Ade]

Amazing TR @aaa99 absolutely loved it

 

[aaa99]

Carrying on, we arrived in SGN to chaos. Landing at 17:20 (2 hours late), we had about 80 minutes to catch our K6 flight.


And ofcourse, immigration rows were very busy. There was atleast 30 people in each of the 10+ rows leaving us with little hope of making our next flight. We already had a Vietnam visa and I was resigned to looking at a night stay at SGN or an alternative flight via DMK or BKK.

At this point, my partner had the idea to check with the VN transfer counter to see if they could do anything. I was very pessimistic and almost dismissed that idea entirely as they dont have any obligation to help us as we booked 2 separate tickets. Anyway, I thought it wont hurt as I decided to wait in the long immigration queue while they went to the transfer counter.

Turned out VN codeshare with K6 which gave me 2% (more than 0 ) more optimism. Then after a few mad dashes between the transfer counter and the immigration queue to get my passport etc, my partner successfully managed to get VN to issue boarding passes atleast for our next flight . This was interesting as we could potentially skip immigration. They were obviously very clear that they wouldnt do it again for us, but will make an exception in this case. I fully understand this and was already grateful for them trying to help us in this way.

There was one small detail, the checked baggage ? VN transfer desk took a photo of our Bamboo tags and our luggage and promised us they will transfer it on our behalf. They said if they cant make out the luggage for this flight, they will put it on the next flight. No luggage reciept tags however, which will make our ability to claim insurance, etc very unlikely. Again, I was very skeptical, but considering that the bag itself was the most valuable item we had in our checked luggage and the added cost of changing flights and accomodation, we decided to risk it. They were infact so worried about us missing our flight and were very eager to get us to the gate ASAP. We will always remember this customer service experience fondly although more a self reminder to leave even more time than the 3.5 hours we left when booking self transfers.

 

[aaa99]

K6 along with Vietjet and the various low cost carriers operating to SGN use remote gates. And there are several of these as you see to the left on google maps.



This meant a nice little bus trip to the aircraft with some more planespotting to take our anxiety away from the last hour's events. Oh, one thing to note, Vietnam and Cambodia still enforced masks on aircraft which meant we had to buy one prior to taking the bus.

Here are some more screencaps from the bus trip.
Apologies for the reflection. I probably could have gotten closer to the glass.


Turkish - I assume this is one of the Aeroflot ones?


The Bamboo we just took


And finally, after a 10minute trip (not complaining at all), we get to our A320. K6 has 2 A320s in their fleet along with an A321.

 

[aaa99]

K6 cabin is the standard 3-3 A320 layout. Nothing fancy. They are reasonably full service and the base fare included a 20kg checkin bag. Do note for some reason booking the same K6 flight as a VN flight number is almost double the price.
Today's flight time to PNH is only 35 minutes, probably the shortest international flight I have taken.


Flight was pretty empty, even managed to score a window seat.


Not the greatest leg room, but ok. No small seat pockets for smaller items


Bye bye again to Bamboo


Take off from Vietnam, the pixel is starting to struggle in low light.


Inflight magazine - only about 8 months old


The entire fleet


To say that they rely on VN a lot is an understatement


Some water provided as complimentary


Landed in PNH well ahead of time


Now, it is time to find out if our luggage made it!

 

[Eija]

Following & enjoying

 

[Ade]

standard 3-3 A320 layout. Nothing fancy

The blue scheme reminds me of Indigo (6E)

No small seat pockets for smaller items

Yea ... this sucks for me ... With some many pieces of gadgets (laptop, phone, airpods, head-ache roll-on (yea, you read it right -I use Dragon Headache roll-on a semi-regular basis), gum, water bottle etc), it would have been good to have the seatback pockets, unless, the seat next to you was empty and you could plonk your stuff on there.

 

[RooFlyer]

That Bamboo wine list is no slouch!! Torbreck . Ok, the GSM but still a $40 bottle.

No 19 Crimes here!