Kate Taylor/Business Insider
A Vietjet Air flight at Seoul's Incheon International Airport.
- Vietjet Air is a Vietnamese ultra-low-cost airline, known for its racy advertising featuring flight attendants in bikinis.
- I flew three Vietjet flights in less than a week on a recent trip to Vietnam.
- Hidden fees for add-ons like checked bags and drinks help drive up costs, and one of my three flights was significantly delayed. Also, flight attendants on most Vietjet flights do not actually wear bikinis.
- However, I would book Vietjet in the future if I had a flexible schedule and was seeking an inexpensive, quirky option.
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HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - When investigating which airline I should take from Seoul, South Korea to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, I stumbled upon something I had never seen on a flight before: bikini-clad flight attendants, working for a budget Vietnamese airline called Vietjet Air.
Vietjet has been known for its racy advertising since soon after it launched in 2011. The airline's YouTube page has a number of videos of flight attendants dancing in bikinis on flights. In 2019, the airline released Vietjet Bikini Calendar - a calendar that features a woman in bikinis for every month of the year.
A little digging revealed that Vietjet was more than just an airline with bikini-clad flight attendants. Vietjet Air was named "Asia Pacific Low-Cost Airline of the Year" by Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) in 2019. Airlinerating.com named it the "Best Ultra Low-Cost Airline" last year. And, a quick perusal of flights to and within Vietnam revealed it was often the least expensive option when booking tickets.
Seeking cheap flights in Vietnam, I flew Vietjet three times in five days over the last week. My experiences fell short of any awards. And there was not a bikini in sight.
Here is what it is actually like to fly on Vietnam's up-and-coming budget airline.