VietJetAir suspends BLR and HYD operations

Update: I am given to understand that cancellations were due to permission issues. India and Vietnam do not seem to have bilateral agreement to offer direct flight between Hyd, BLR and Vietnam. It was VietJetAir's mistake to start accepting bookings without required permissions in place. Few of my friends who were affected have managed to reschedule via Mumbai or get refund. The airline seem to be fine otherwise.

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VietJet Air, with whom I flew to Phu Quoc in September for INR 15300, had expanded India operation to Hyderabad, Bengaluru etc, offering direct flights to Phu Quoc, Da Nang, Hanoi, HCMC etc.

I was thinking of one more trip to Vietnam (Da Nang) in 2023 if I can get a 10600-11000 INR return ticket from BLR. I had seen tickets for as low as 13000 for November 2022, but was waiting for similar deal in 2023.

Suddenly the airline has decided to cancel all scheduled flights from Bengaluru and Hyd. Website is not showing any flights

Flights are still available from Mumbai and Delhi. Not sure if they also will be cancelled.

VietJet Air has also announced flights from Ahmedabad but AMD airport is still not showing up on their website.

I am not sure why VietJetAir did this. Thousands of Indians have started visiting Vietnam now thanks to VietJet Air's cheap tickets and easy eVisa process. I am sure they had decent bookings. If occupancy is a problem they could have reduced frequency- like only 1 flight per week instead of 3- a bit of inconvenience but better than cancelling entire trip. Financially they seem to be doing well. Only reason I could think of is they found some other destination to fly to and make more money than they are able to make in India's Hyd and BLR.

Many people who had booked from Hyderabad and Bengaluru have got emails stating their flight is cancelled. Their option now is to take a full refund or credit shell (which is useless if airline is not committed to India operations). VietJetAir doesn't have a call center in India- so for Indians it is only email support or make an expensive international call without knowing if call center staff there can speak English or not.

This will cause trust issues with VietJetAir as airline has not explained any reason for suddenly suspending Hyd and Blr flights. There is a 12000 INR return ticket from Mumbai but I am not sure if they will cancel some flights from Mumbai in coming months

My September Mumbai Phu Quoc VietjetAir experience here

Do share your thoughts.

ANA "Sale" India to Japan for 97500 INR return is 4x pre covid price!

 Japan is opening up to tourists and ANA Japan is resuming India operations. But what is surprising is the 4x increase in price. ANA was selling India-Japan ticket for as low as 22-25k when they launched India operation before covid - read my 2019 post here on this.

But now the flights cost 4x more, almost 1 lakh INR per passenger.

Not sure what made ANA think people will pay this much. Of course Japan is a beautiful country worth exploring. Japan Visa process is simple, but at 1 lakh ticket price, Indians will think several times.

Europe tickets are available for 40000-50000 INR [Details]

We can go to Canada & USA for 1 Lakh rupees

Instead of spending 1 lakh on flight ticket alone, we can go to some other destination like Mauritius, Seychelles or other destinations within 40-50k flight and spend the rest on luxury stay/local activities.

I had visited Japan in 2016 on Air Asia sale 16k INR. Under current situation, any ticket up to 40-45k is good deal. While ANA will take you from Delhi to Tokyo non stop in 7-8 hours, one stop journey via Singapore or Malaysia are available for 46000-60000 INR range on Malaysian, SQ etc. One stop journey may take twice the time (15-16 hours) but you can relax a bit at transit airport. So would it be worth spending 40k more on ANA for a direct flight?

Let us see if ANA sustains this pricing or reduce it if no one is buying.

What are your thoughts?

Read all my Japan posts here.

Phu Quoc International Airport: Review & Observations

Phu Quoc International airport isn’t fully geared up for international passengers. Below are my observations

 

1. There is no proper forex counter. I saw a small desk outside the airport with Forex written, but no one was there at 9 AM (our flight landed at 8 AM)- Looks like someone set up a forest counter fto operate their personal pocket

2. There is an information desk at arrival- didnt ask them for forex but they sell sim cards

3. There are no forex counters inside the airport during departure

4. There are hardly any power outlets inside Phu Quoc airport for passengers to charge their device. I found one socket after long difficulty, but again I didn’t have proper adapter. (The hotel power sockets were better at accepting my two pin adapter, one at airport needed 3 pin local design plugs)

5. Apart from these shortcomings, Phu Quoc international airport is just good enough for budget airlines. 

 

Learnt about Bamboo airways for the first time. Need to explore more on this airline.

Bottomline: go with minimum expectations. Hopefully PQC airport will add more features as VietJetAir is bringing more and more passengers to the island.

Scotch prices for reference- if you want to check if alcohol is cheap or not.

Also read: VietJetAir India Phu Quoc experience *