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Vast Open: Vietnam Airways Enterprise Awards To & From USA


While perhaps not the world’s most aspirational airline, there’s a good opportunity to redeem miles for nonstop travel between the United States and Southeast Asia…

Vietnam Airlines business class awards between SFO & SGN

Vietnam Airlines operates a single route to the United States, which is a 4x weekly service between Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) and San Francisco (SFO). The flight operates with the following schedule:

VN98 Ho Chi Minh City to San Francisco departing 6:30PM arriving 6:40PM
VN99 San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh City departing 10:50PM arriving 4:30AM (+2 days)

The 7,838-mile flight is operated by an Airbus A350-900, and is blocked at 14hr10min eastbound and 15hr40min westbound, so it’s quite a long trip.

Historically award availability on this flight hasn’t been great, but as flagged by @findflightsforme, award seats in business class are readily available at the moment (if you’re not following this account, I’d highly recommend doing so, as they share all kinds of great award opportunities).

Between now and the end of the schedule, there’s pretty consistent availability in both directions, including for multiple people. There are two best ways to book this this in business class (and in both cases there are around $240 in total taxes and carrier imposed surcharges per person per direction):

Both Flying Blue and Flying Club partner with most major transferable points currencies. Furthermore, at the moment, Citi ThankYou is even offering a 25% transfer bonus to Air France-KLM, so you could book this for just 81,000 Citi ThankYou points.

The best way to search award availability is through the Virgin Atlantic website, since there’s a calendar view that shows you availability for a month at a time. If you see the award availability for 140,000 points, that means this flight is available.

Vietnam Airlines award availability calendar through Flying Club

However, I’d then of course recommend booking through Air France-KLM, and you can do so directly through the Air France-KLM website. As a reminder, Flying Blue charges €70 to cancel an award and redeposit the points.

Vietnam Airlines award availability through Flying Blue

Is this award space worth taking advantage of?

Vietnam Airlines is hardly the most exciting Asian carrier. I’ve reviewed Vietnam Airlines’ A350 business class, and it’s perfectly pleasant. So this isn’t Singapore Airlines, or EVA Air, or Starlux Airlines.

Vietnam Airlines A350 business class

However, there’s of course a huge convenience to being able to fly nonstop to Southeast Asia. Vietnam Airlines operates the only nonstop flight between the United States and Vietnam, so if that’s convenient, I absolutely wouldn’t hesitate to book with the airline.

Now, I probably wouldn’t position too far out of my way to take advantage of this, but if you’re flying from the West Coast and your final destination is somewhere in Vietnam, I think this is an exciting opportunity. The fact that there’s availability throughout the year and for multiple people makes this even better.

Vietnam is a great country to visit, with delicious food, bustling cities, and some great beach resorts, including some popular luxury points properties.

InterContinental Danang, Vietnam

Bottom line

At the moment, there’s a large amount of business class award availability between San Francisco and Ho Chi Minh City on Vietnam Airlines. If this fits your travel plans, this can be a great opportunity. I’d recommend booking through Air France-KLM Flying Blue, since it has the best pricing, and the points are easy to come by.

Do you plan on taking advantage of this Vietnam Airlines business class award space?





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