SpanglishMama flew with her family for a long weekend getaway to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, as an invited guest with the Vietjet VIP Skyboss service. A chance to skip the queues and relax before the journey. What could be better?
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When I said: “If I can’t get an upgrade every time I fly, I never want to experience the VIP treatment!”, I was clearly lying. When the lovely people in charge at HappyGoKL were looking for someone to experience firsthand and then review the Vietjets’ Skyboss service on a flight to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, I jumped at the chance. After all, occasionally you need to take one for the team.
The flight that takes off from KLIA to Ho Chi Minh, formerly known as Saigon, was a quick one. At just under 2 hours, it’s ideal for a long weekend jaunt, on one of Malaysia’s many public holidays.
The Vietjet VIP Skyboss service
By choosing to upgrade to the Skyboss package, your luggage allowance becomes a nice and weighty 30kg. Which, despite what my husband thinks, even I can’t hit that weight limit for a short weekend away. But it might come in handy if you’re planning to spend more time in Vietnam, or are just physically incapable of travelling light.
The departure time of 1:10pm meant that we didn’t have to get up ridiculously early to make the flight. It also meant that once we had beaten the queue by checking in at the special priority Vietjet VIP Skyboss counter, we could go and take advantage of access to the business lounge, as it’s included in the price of the ticket.
KLIA Plaza Premium Lounge
This was the first time for myself and the children in the KLIA Plaza Premium lounge. For the benefit of those that have also never been, you get access to a comfortable seating area, unlimited soft drinks and hot beverages as well as a selection of food such as noodles and pizza. Because it was lunchtime, the lounge was quite busy, but that didn’t prevent my children from eating their body weight in croissants and cakes. There was also a small area to keep the really little ones entertained, so if you are travelling solo with the kids, this could be handy.
Also worth noting is that if you want to avoid your family or just want to freshen up, there is a shower available.
Having spent a relaxing hour in the lounge, we headed off to catch the plane. As Skyboss customers, we didn’t have to queue up and were escorted on to the plane first, so no need to fight over space for our cases in the overhead lockers. We were also seated in the larger chairs at the front and unlike with the economy plane ticket, the cost of our meals, snacks and drinks were already included in the price.
The best part of this experience and when we really felt like VIPs, was when we were ushered off the plane first and lead to the waiting minibus, that took just us to the terminal. This meant that we arrived at the terminal ahead of the other passengers and were able to join the immigration queue first, saving valuable time at Ho Chi Minh’s busy airport.
And the return journey…?
We were even gladder to be able to skip the queues on our return journey. You know the feeling when you see a massive tour party following someone with a flag and they are just ahead of you and heading for the same queue. This time we didn’t need to speed up and try and get in front of them, we just headed for priority check in and then saved ourselves from another queue by going through the business class lane at passport control.
This meant that we had ample time to use our vouchers and enjoy a leisurely breakfast in the Rose VIP Lounge. In the interest of research, I sacrificed myself for the HappyGoKL readers and tried as much of the fresh fruit, pastries and other breakfast items that I could manage in this quiet haven, before we had to leave to catch our 9:30am flight back to KL. That might sound early for those of you that aren’t morning people, but with the hour time difference in Vietnam, it’s perfectly doable.
Warning:
I feel it is only fair to warn you of two dangers with the Skyboss experience. The first is that it was so relaxing in the Rose Lounge (even with my children there), that you could easily miss your flight. The second is that now that my children have experienced the VIP treatment, they want it every time we fly!
Prices for a one way flight to Ho Chi Minh start at MYR84 for an economy ticket or MYR750 for a Skyboss ticket. For more information about the Vietjet VIP Skyboss experience or to book a flight, please visit Vietjet’s website here.
There’s more to come: Spanglishmama’s article about where to go and what to do in Ho Chi Minh is coming up soon. Keep an eye out for it! For more articles on Vietnam read here.
We flew by invitation with Vietjet. As always, our opinion is honest and our own!
