I’m live-blogging my SAS EuroBonus SkyTeam Million Mile challenge this week. Click here for background and route information.
Any hopes that stamping out of Vietnam would be less cumbersome than stamping in were quickly dashed when I saw the huge lines waiting to leave at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport.
I had a bit of a dilemma on my hands. I had a 9:05 am flight, but I wanted to maximize every minute of sleep and breakfast at the Park Hyatt Saigon.
Yes, I wanted to have my cake and eat it too.
But I also knew that if we cut it too close and missed our flight, I could end up losing the value of my Vietnam Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, China Eastern, and Korean Air tickets. So by 6:50 am we left the hotel. Traffic was light at that time and we made it to the airport in 20 minutes…whew.
But stepping inside, I saw the lines…yikes.
We checked in for the flight, hoping for some sort of priority boarding due to my SkyTeam Elite Plus status, but nope…everyone goes through the same line in SGN.
While the lines were just as bad, thankfully they moved faster…in fact, we even had a few minutes to visit the Vietnam Airlines Lounge before boarding our flight to Singapore.
But give yourself time! You don’t want to miss your flight because it took too long to stamp out of the country.
Next: Vietnam Airlines Lounge Review
Those complaining about the soup get two laddles.
I’ve only flown in and out of Hanoi and have not had any issues with long immigration lines. With your latest experience I have even less desire to fly into SGN.
When is the last chopper leaving?
As soon as White Christmas plays.
Omg I recently missed my flight from GIG and the immigration line did not help (thankfully it was only 15 ppl). The main culprit was uber secondary to weather (so god). It took me 2 hr 45 min to go from hyatt to airport!
I just left Saigon after my first visit there. the airport experience is absolutely horrible not from overcapacity but from sheer incompetence and complacency even hinting at bribes to move to a faster line. joke of a place. never visiting again
Did I hear bribes?
The Park Hyatt can set you up with expedited entry and exit which cuts the time in line by 95%.
There’s a fee associated, but worth every penny.
Yes, I was chatting with the hotel about that during check-in.
Never again! Now I know.
We flew into Da Nang no problem
Do these guys think they have nothing to learn from the likes of SIN? Country exit – all automated!
I know everyone gets mad at comparisons to US entry immigration (and they aren’t wrong, assuming one doesn’t have global entry), but I do think the lack of exit immigration is one thing the USA and UK do very well and I don’t really understand why that isn’t the dominant approach – other countries presumably get passenger manifests in the same way.