On to Hanoi

Our initial plan was to take the train from Saigon to Hanoi, but the train ride from Saigon to Hoi An changed that. While in Hoi An we purchased two tickets on Vietnam Airlines from Hue to Hanoi in hope the flight would be more comfortable than the train.

The day after looking around Hue, we packed up early and went to the airport for a 07:30 flight to Hanoi. When we got there we found out that we only had one reservation. We asked about later flights that day, they were all full until the 10:00 PM flight. What happened? The reservation document we had looked official and it said two tickets. Somehow, there was only one reservation in the airline's computer.

After much discussion we decided to stay at the airport waiting for possible standby seats on the midday flight. Would we get lucky? I was told there were a lot of free seats on the 10 PM flight, we decided to not purchase the 10 PM tickets and try for standby seats on the midday flight. The mid day flight boarded, no seats for us!

After the flight took off, I asked about the 10 PM flight, I was told there are NO seats on it. WHAT, earlier I was told there was a lot of space. By this time we knew where the Vietnam Airlines management office was, I went there and asked what to do. After a long discussion, two seats opened up. One in coach and one in business class, I said we would take them. That meant that one of us would go business and the other coach. At least we would get there.

We called our hotel in Hanoi and revised our arrival time for the second time. This time we would arrive at 11:20 PM.

We were the first people in line for the flight. We hated to leave our airport home for the day NOT!!

At check in we asked if we could upgraded the coach ticket to business class, no problem, there's lots of space. We quickly upgrade and were finally on our way.