I don't get out of town very often mostly because of the fact that I have a dog and I suffer from rather severe anxiety being away from her for even a day. In the past year though I have met a delightful couple that are ex-dog-trainers and they are basically the only people that I know that treat her as well as, if not better than I do. Therefore I can leave town with relative confidence that she is going to be well looked after.
This is a long vacation for me, and also the first time that I have traveled anywhere in Vietnam for tourism purposes. The only other times I have flown domestically was when I was trying to do the hair transplant surgery (and failed) and also when had to do something with visas with travel that I would have preferred to not do it at all.
Something amazing happened on this trip though and the business class option for the flight was only $14 more than an economy class ticket. Normally these flight options are more than 3x as much and I don't even bother to look at them.
I normally will spend at least $14 on food and drinks while in an airport so this was actually a cheaper option for me.
I would have loved to take pictures of the check-in process but they don't appreciate you taking pictures of that and will get on your case about it so I refrained from doing so. Just imagine what a normal check in counter looks like with the very long lines for everyone flying economy and then there is a practically non-existent line for all the rich people that can afford business and first class. There was probably an hour wait for the people in economy class and there was almost no wait at all for us.
Another thing happens in the business class line and that is that they are actually nice to you.
The next big part that you definitely can't take pictures of is the security checkpoints and yes, business class passengers also get the "expressway" for this process. While all the other customers were lining up for their long wait to go through the scanners we had zero wait and again, they were also very nice in this line. Normally they treat you like a criminal if you do something like forget to take your sunglasses of your head but in the business class line they just laugh and help you. You are also through there in just a few minutes instead of half an hour.
Then we got to experience something I haven't gone though in decades: The lounge experience.
While this isn't the fanciest lounge I have ever seen as I used to travel business class all the time when I was working in USA, it was still a lot better than the people who were down a floor below us waiting in line at Burger King. They scan your ticket on the way in and will actually not allow you to miss your flight. There is also a buffet and unlimited drinks including booze. Anyone that has ever had an alcoholic beverage in an airport can tell you that this is where they get ya!
It was the morning time and I don't normally drink alcohol in the morning but this time around I was going to take full advantage of the value.
After our cappuccinos we decided to make some "spritzers" with our rather average food options. We still had an hour or so before we had to get on the plane and well, this got a bit out of control.
We had 2 bottles of wine during our wait and then had them open another one so that we could transfer them into cans of soda water for the plane just in case the plane didn't have booze on it. This is not at all classy but nobody that worked there batted an eye. You are basically allowed to do whatever you want in business class and above.
When it came time to actually board the plane we were one of the last people to actually get on the plane. In Da Nang, they don't always have jetway access to planes so we had to get on a bus. This is where I kind of felt a little bit bad about our "premiere" access because even though I was enjoying our premium experience, I don't like inconveniencing other people so I didn't like that we were holding up EVERYONE while they waited for us to board our special bus that apparently must enter the plane first.
Once our luxury bus departed for the plane, all the people on the economy stand-up bus were allowed to finally head towards the plane as well.
I had so much leg room that this was not an issue for me at all even though I am 6 feet tall and normally will be knocking my knees on the seat in front of me. I also intentionally did NOT put my carry-on bag under the seat in front of me to see if the flight attendants would harass me about this like they would if you were in economy: They said NOTHING to me about the bag. You truly can do whatever you want up there.
They also had a separating curtain between us and the plebs in economy that they closed during the flight and even though there were only a grand total of 8 seats in business class we had 2 flight attendants that were there just for us.
When we arrived we were as expected, let off the plane first. They don't even open the curtain for those behind us until all of us are fully off the plane.
Overall, I would say that this flight was absolutely awesome and a rather delightful experience. The only problem is that now I have tasted what is on the "other side of the fence" and it is going to be tough for me to return to what it is that I would normally purchase. I will NEVER pay 3x the price for a business class seat on any flight but we are now in our first destination in Da Lat, which is a cold and mountainous part of Vietnam that I have heard of but never actually been to. Trust me, there will be plenty of pictures of that coming up.
We have already booked our flights to our next destination which is on an island in the south of Vietnam where we will spend Christmas. I regret to say that based on our business class experience thus far, we have booked business class seats for the next leg of the trip as well. It wasn't 3x the price but it was substantially more expensive than economy. We figured that since neither of us ever go on vacation that we would suffer the extra cost for a bit of comfort. This is something that I think both of us will regret once our credit card statements come in January.
In the meantime I am getting daily updates on Nadi and am happy to say that she is chilling out with this couple that I referenced before quite well. They have two dogs as well and if you follow me at all you already know that Nadi doesn't get along with other dogs very well. Thankfully, their dogs are friendly and Nadi, being considerably older than their two dogs, has taken a leadership role of sorts and everyone is getting along just fine.
Let's just hope it stays that way. In the meantime, I am absolutely freezing here in Da Lat even though it is only around 17 degrees C. I guess you could say that I have kind of gotten used to being hot all the time.