While I’ve probably flown with almost every budget airline based in Europe, our five-week trip to East Asia meant hopping around on some different Asian airlines for the first time. Between five different one-way flights, we booked five different airlines. (Not on purpose, it just worked out that way for our destinations and dates.) But this meant that we have a great chance to compare the different airlines and see how they stack up.

First up, we traveled from Osaka, Japan, to Taipei, Taiwan, on VietJet Air. Here’s what you need to know about flying with VietJet Air and my overall VietJet Air review.

Booking Your VietJet Air Tickets

VietJet Air, also sometimes known as Thai VietJet Air, is a Vietnamese airline based in Hanoi. While you should be able to book flights with them through most booking platforms, such as Booking.com, we booked our tickets through the CapitalOne portal, knowing that it would earn us 10x points with our purchase.

We traveled in September, but we’d booked our flights back in January, and it cost about $100 USD per person direct to Taipei from Osaka, which I thought was very reasonable. I didn’t notice any details about what bags were included or not included with my ticket at that point, and I figured I’d deal with it when the time came. From what I remembered during my few budget flights around Southeast Asia back in 2018, I remembered carry-on bags being included — not nickeled and dimed like they are in Europe.

Note: I am reading now that there may be different fare classes available, each of which comes with its own baggage allowance, though I did not see that as an option at the time we were booking.

VietJet Air Check-in Logistics

The day before our flight, I attempted to check-in online. I was met with a message stating that my flight was “not supported” which meant we’d need to arrive at the airport even earlier than originally planned so we could check in at the desk.

Again, it had been a while since I’d flown around in Asia, and I guess I’m just used to checking in online and getting my boarding pass on my phone when I’m traveling between U.S. states or the Schengen zone. Luckily, when we got to the airport in Osaka, there was almost no line at the VietJet desk so we were able to walk right up.

Here’s where it got a little tricky. The workers — one guy was in training, so I think that’s why this whole ordeal took like 20 minutes — told us that we were only allowed to carry 7 kg (15.4 lbs) of baggage per person onboard. It would have been fine to have one carry-on and personal item per person, as long as it was less than 7 kg total, but that wasn’t the case for us. Matt and I both travel with two backpacks, a smaller bag and a larger carry-on sized backpack, and our total weight per person was closer to 20-25 kg. 🙃

I wasn’t really surprised, so I said: Ok, we’ll just pay for the extra weight and check our carry-ons. Instead of weighing just our two too-heavy bags, they made us put all four bags on the scale to see the total (it was like 44 kg) and then we had to pay the difference above our allotted 14 kg (I’m guessing). They wrote us a little receipt and we held out our credit card… only to be told that you have to pay in cash.

We had very expertly used up the rest of our Japanese yen before arriving at the airport to leave, so Matt stepped away to find an ATM while I stayed at the desk with our bags. I had noticed that while my personal item backpack was under the 7 kg limit, Matt’s was not. As I waited for him, the workers asked me to weigh my backpack so they could give me the red cabin-bag tag. When mine was finished, I expected them to ask me to weigh Matt’s too, so I started saying he might want to rearrange some things — instead, they absentmindedly handed me a tag for his bag too. 🤫

When he came back, they handed us a receipt to take over to the cashier desk, where we paid for checking our bags. It only cost about the equivalent of $50 USD per person, which I really didn’t think was bad — RyanAir, for example, will charge you about $95 USD if they make you check your bag on the day of your flight!

Security at Osaka Airport

Getting through security probably took less than 5 minutes, and that included the walk from the check-in desks. It was actually kind of nice to only have our small bags on us, especially because all my liquids had been in the bigger bag that was now checked. My favorite thing was the fact that we didn’t have to take out our electronics!

Also, in case you didn’t know, you can take food through security. I feel like Matt always thinks we can’t, but you definitely can. As long as it’s not liquid! For example, we had a 7-Eleven bag full of gluten-free snacks for me that we carried on to the plane as like an extra bag, but I feel like no one is really going to stop you. Even the people at the check-in desk didn’t care about it or make us weigh it or anything like that.

VietJet Air Experience

One thing that I loved about flying with VietJet Air is that it seems like they boarded the plane from the back!! Honestly, why doesn’t every airline do that? Our seats were pretty close to the back, and as we got on, it was sooo much faster getting to our seats when there weren’t a bunch of people in the aisle ahead of us stopping to put their bags in the overhead bins.

I also really appreciated that they were PUMPING the air conditioning while we were still on the ground — I feel like most of the time you just sweat to death until takeoff when they finally decide to start the A/C.

The plane’s seats were pretty plush and comfortable, especially compared to some of the planes I’ve taken, so I can’t complain about that. I will say that the legroom was definitely below average. But it was only a 2.5 hour flight, and we arrived on time, so again, really can’t complain.

VietJet Air Value

Overall, I felt like flying with VietJet Air provided good value. The tickets were a decent price, and even having to check our bags at the last minute wasn’t too expensive.

I would definitely fly with them again, but there’s one thing that could make me choose another airline over VietJet — if other airlines either don’t weigh your bags, or allow a higher weight limit on board for roughly the same ticket price. From what I’ve researched, some of the other airlines we’ll be flying with on this trip may fall into that category, so we’ll have to see how the experience stacks up.

Key Takeaways: VietJet Air Review

VietJet Air baggage allowance: 7 kg per person (Eco/basic level fare)

Paying for overweight bags: Must be paid in cash

 

Anyway, those are my thoughts about my experience with VietJet Air! Of course, your experience may vary and I can’t promise you’ll have a decent experience like we did.

Have you ever flown with VietJet Air, or are you thinking about it? Let me know in the comments.

-Cathy

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