bpcmemorial
Junior Member
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2021
- Posts
- 35
Vietnam Airlines have great deals on PE from France, so I booked a one-way ticket today from Toulouse to Sydney via Paris for $2,153.71, Premium Economy Classic.
This does involve a long stopover in Vietnam.
Two options, flying via Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, same price. 13 hour layover if going via Ho Chi Minh City, 17 hours if going via Hanoi.
But they offer extremely good Vietnam Transit Tours which was part of the attraction, a day in either of those cities with personal tour, hotel, lunch & dinner.
I went for the Ho Chi Minh City itinerary as I preferred 13 hours to 17, and the CDG-SGN flight is a codeshare operated by Air France. I've flown Air France PE once before and it was excellent, on a par with turn-of-the-century business class.
After booking, went to do my seat selection. For the AF operated flights this is done via Air France with the booking reference.
On doing so, saw that my CDG-SGN flight was shown on my booking on the Air France site as Economy not Premium Economy, even though there is a premium economy cabin on this flight. So I contacted AF, and they confirmed that yes, my booking for this leg was normal Economy not PE, and I'd need to contact Vietnam Airlines.
As it's a weekend this involved calling their customer service hotline in Vietnam. They have branch offices in Australia but they're not open at the weekend.
The guy I spoke to was as confused as me, but spent a long time looking into it, and eventually confirmed that yes, the AF leg is Economy not PE.
But nowhere in the booking process, in the booking confirmation, on the ticket, under the fare conditions, or anywhere else is this stated.
And had I chosen the itinerary via Hanoi instead - same price, with the leg from France operated by Vietnam Airlines not AF - then that would indeed be Premium Economy.
And now if I want to change to the Hanoi itinerary instead, it's subject to a change fee, somewhere between 100USD or 100EUR or maybe 248AUD, had conflicting information on that.
So why not cancel and just buy a new ticket? Well aside from the two to three week refund timeframe, apparently although it's within 24 hours of booking, I can't cancel without paying the cancellation fee of about AUD 350. Some places on the Vietnam Airlines site it says that cancellation within 24 hours is free, but apparently not with this ticket. Yes, I'm aware I'm using a lot of apparently.
In the meantime the Hanoi itinerary for my original flight date is now full in PE, so he reserved me on the next day instead, but he couldn't help me further, have to do the rest via email because I paid via Paypal (which I always when it's available to protect my card details). Advised me to send all the details and screenshots etc., and request waiving the change fee due to the circumstances, which I did. Had a brief reply saying "You will be required to pay a fee according to the fare conditions. Please consider if you still wish to proceed with a fee-based ticket change", didn't say how much, I've replied back asking.
Aaargh.
This does involve a long stopover in Vietnam.
Two options, flying via Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, same price. 13 hour layover if going via Ho Chi Minh City, 17 hours if going via Hanoi.
But they offer extremely good Vietnam Transit Tours which was part of the attraction, a day in either of those cities with personal tour, hotel, lunch & dinner.
I went for the Ho Chi Minh City itinerary as I preferred 13 hours to 17, and the CDG-SGN flight is a codeshare operated by Air France. I've flown Air France PE once before and it was excellent, on a par with turn-of-the-century business class.
After booking, went to do my seat selection. For the AF operated flights this is done via Air France with the booking reference.
On doing so, saw that my CDG-SGN flight was shown on my booking on the Air France site as Economy not Premium Economy, even though there is a premium economy cabin on this flight. So I contacted AF, and they confirmed that yes, my booking for this leg was normal Economy not PE, and I'd need to contact Vietnam Airlines.
As it's a weekend this involved calling their customer service hotline in Vietnam. They have branch offices in Australia but they're not open at the weekend.
The guy I spoke to was as confused as me, but spent a long time looking into it, and eventually confirmed that yes, the AF leg is Economy not PE.
But nowhere in the booking process, in the booking confirmation, on the ticket, under the fare conditions, or anywhere else is this stated.
And had I chosen the itinerary via Hanoi instead - same price, with the leg from France operated by Vietnam Airlines not AF - then that would indeed be Premium Economy.
And now if I want to change to the Hanoi itinerary instead, it's subject to a change fee, somewhere between 100USD or 100EUR or maybe 248AUD, had conflicting information on that.
So why not cancel and just buy a new ticket? Well aside from the two to three week refund timeframe, apparently although it's within 24 hours of booking, I can't cancel without paying the cancellation fee of about AUD 350. Some places on the Vietnam Airlines site it says that cancellation within 24 hours is free, but apparently not with this ticket. Yes, I'm aware I'm using a lot of apparently.
In the meantime the Hanoi itinerary for my original flight date is now full in PE, so he reserved me on the next day instead, but he couldn't help me further, have to do the rest via email because I paid via Paypal (which I always when it's available to protect my card details). Advised me to send all the details and screenshots etc., and request waiving the change fee due to the circumstances, which I did. Had a brief reply saying "You will be required to pay a fee according to the fare conditions. Please consider if you still wish to proceed with a fee-based ticket change", didn't say how much, I've replied back asking.
Aaargh.
