Three domestic carriers are offering tickets at almost throwaway prices, but passengers say it is not easy to buy them.
Low-cost carrier VietJet Air (VJA) kicked off the race by announcing a promotional campaign in which 300,000 tickets for international and domestic services from now to the end of 2014 are available at only VND3,000 each, excluding taxes and fees.
Jetstar Pacific (JPA), another budget carrier, also launched a program that sells tickets for Hanoi – Ho Chi Minh City flights from August to October at VND660,000 per turn.
Meanwhile, national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines (VNA) is offering promotional tickets for 31 services that connect Hanoi, HCMC, Da Nang, and Nha Trang and 28 overseas destinations.
Tickets under this program range from US$9 to $399, depending on the destination. Airfares for domestic services meanwhile start from VND350,000 per ticket.
Difficult to purchase
Many passengers said they were unable to buy these promotional tickets despite repeated attempts, especially during weekends.
Ticket agents meanwhile said it is tough to buy cheap tickets for flights during the holidays, or near their desired departure time.
Nguyen Phan Viet, from Hanoi, said he immediately logged on to the VJA website on the first day of its campaign, but was able to buy only one single ticket to travel to Da Nang on October 19, 2014.
Tran Thanh Tan, the head of a VNA booking office, said he failed to book cheap tickets with the desired departure time for many of his customers.
A JPA booking office said in order to buy the VND199,000 ticket from the airline, passengers should book months before their departure time and avoid flying during weekends or holidays.
VNA spokesperson Le Truong Giang admitted that the airliners’ booking systems tend to be overloaded whenever there are promotional campaigns due to the unexpectedly high traffic.
VJA, meanwhile, said during the first day of its campaign, some 9,385 passengers were able to buy the tickets.
Both VJA and JPA will soon increase their transport capacity by 25 to 40 percent thanks to the purchase of two new aircraft each.
“This will create harsh competition in terms of airfares, and passengers will greatly benefit from this race,” said JPA CEO Le Hong Ha.
Đăng ký: VietNam News
