A funny thing happened on the way out of Vietnam
When you travel abroad, you expect something substantial to go wrong - so you just deal with it when it happens. We hadn't had any major issues while we were in-country, and considered ourselves fortunate. Perhaps it also lulled us into thinking we had gotten away from the travel gremlins altogether. Not so much.
Turns out, the pilots for our carrier (Korean Air Lines) staged a walk-out starting the day before we left, which caused our flight from Seoul to Seattle to be canceled. Later, we learned that over 1/2 their flights were scrubbed, so we considered ourselves just part of the collateral damage. We were notified when we arrived in the Hanoi airport (we flew from HCMC to Hanoi prior to flying on to Seoul) by the KAL rep who just approached us out of the blue and asked for our tickets as we were standing in line waiting to check in for our KAL flight.
He took us over to another airline counter - and we got excited because it was Japan Air Lines (JAL) and we had instant visions of delicious sushi and gracious service for the in-flight meal. Our hopes were dashed, however, when the JAL people shuffled us off to the Vietnam Airlines desk. Yes - back on Vietnam Airlines again, which meant a notch below for the service level - and even though it was a 777, we didn't get to use a jetway (we're convinced VAL just doesn't pay the higher fees to use gates that actually have jetways). But now we were routed from Hanoi to Narita/Tokyo instead of Seoul - and on United Air Lines from Narita/Tokyo to Seattle.
So, all in all, it was a pretty minor change - and the net result was that we had a shorter layover and actually arrived into Seattle a few hours earlier than originally planned. Unfortunately, Vietnam Air Lines was not able to check us in all the way through, so we knew we'd have to check in again at the United counter in Narita.
Turns out, the pilots for our carrier (Korean Air Lines) staged a walk-out starting the day before we left, which caused our flight from Seoul to Seattle to be canceled. Later, we learned that over 1/2 their flights were scrubbed, so we considered ourselves just part of the collateral damage. We were notified when we arrived in the Hanoi airport (we flew from HCMC to Hanoi prior to flying on to Seoul) by the KAL rep who just approached us out of the blue and asked for our tickets as we were standing in line waiting to check in for our KAL flight.
He took us over to another airline counter - and we got excited because it was Japan Air Lines (JAL) and we had instant visions of delicious sushi and gracious service for the in-flight meal. Our hopes were dashed, however, when the JAL people shuffled us off to the Vietnam Airlines desk. Yes - back on Vietnam Airlines again, which meant a notch below for the service level - and even though it was a 777, we didn't get to use a jetway (we're convinced VAL just doesn't pay the higher fees to use gates that actually have jetways). But now we were routed from Hanoi to Narita/Tokyo instead of Seoul - and on United Air Lines from Narita/Tokyo to Seattle.
So, all in all, it was a pretty minor change - and the net result was that we had a shorter layover and actually arrived into Seattle a few hours earlier than originally planned. Unfortunately, Vietnam Air Lines was not able to check us in all the way through, so we knew we'd have to check in again at the United counter in Narita.
posted by ToddV at
2:12 AM
