Struggling to buy tickets to go home for Tet!
Although there are still more than two months until the Lunar New Year of the Year of the Snake, many people have been racing against time for months to secure a ticket to return home.
According to reporters, it's already too late to start inquiring about buying train or plane tickets for the upcoming Tet holiday, even though the official ticket sales haven't opened yet. And, the Ho Chi Minh City-Hanoi route is considered the most sought-after.
Train tickets: sold out before they even went on sale?
This year, Tet holiday train tickets will officially go on sale online starting December 1st. However, according to reports from the public, even before the official launch, it is already very difficult to buy a ticket departing from Ho Chi Minh City.
As in previous years, lacking confidence in her ability to register for repatriation tickets for her family during Tet, Ms. Yen (Ho Chi Minh City) said she had to rely on an acquaintance working in the industry to "keep an eye" on tickets for her. However, she was disappointed to learn that her acquaintance had replied that "all tickets are sold out."
The phenomenon of tickets selling out before sales even officially open has led many to lose faith in purchasing tickets through legitimate channels (online booking, in-person purchases). In previous years, registering for tickets online was also extremely difficult. Most customers reported being unable to log in or experiencing network errors. Even if they did manage to buy tickets, they were often only able to get unregistered tickets or two tickets for different flights.
Therefore, many people have tried to book tickets in advance through familiar ticket touts from previous years. As in previous years, booking through touts can sometimes cost customers an extra 500,000 VND per ticket. However, this year, it's unclear whether or not there's an artificial surge in demand from touts who are all shouting "tickets are sold out"?
When a reporter inquired about purchasing round-trip tickets for the Ho Chi Minh City-Binh Dinh route on February 5th and 17th from an acquaintance in the railway industry, the official stated that it might be possible to book a few days in advance, but it's very difficult now. Most routes departing from Ho Chi Minh City are in high demand, while return routes are "free to enter," the official added.
To be able to go home for Tet (Lunar New Year), many people have to struggle for months trying to "keep an eye" on tickets.
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According to our research, December 1st is the official date for individuals to register to buy Tet holiday train tickets, but even calling official or unofficial numbers, it's difficult to get tickets departing from Ho Chi Minh City.
When asked why it was difficult to buy tickets even though registration hadn't started, the official explained that many employees in the industry had already purchased tickets for "family members."
On the morning of November 24th, Deputy Head of Saigon Railway Station, Thai Van Truyen, stated that there is no comprehensive information yet on the percentage of empty seats remaining after receiving registrations from groups and priority individuals departing from Saigon Railway Station. Furthermore, this information cannot be publicly released to the press at this time.
If you want to travel by plane, you have to accept being a "businessman."
Unlike train tickets, Tet holiday plane tickets go on sale earlier, but buying a ticket that fits one's budget is incredibly difficult. At this point, economy class tickets from Ho Chi Minh City on the three peak days of February 6th, 7th, and 8th (26th, 27th, and 28th of the Lunar calendar) are almost completely sold out.
A travel agency on Tran Quoc Toan Street (Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi) stated that all budget and economy class tickets for flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi on peak days are currently sold out. Only business class tickets remain, priced at around 5 million VND per one-way trip. If any are available, they are only for flights in "inconvenient" time zones.
Despite the first phase of ticket sales opening on November 1st, passengers wishing to purchase Vietnam Airlines tickets were unable to secure economy class tickets.
It is known that on November 1st, Vietnam Airlines began selling tickets in the first phase. Mr. Dung (Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) tried his best to "keep an eye" on the tickets, but when they went on sale, he was shocked to find that there were no economy class tickets available, only business class tickets at exorbitant prices, almost 5 million VND per person per leg.
Similarly, Ms. Hang (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) said that although she had inquired about Tet holiday flight tickets from Vietnam Airlines quite early, the airline staff said that only business class tickets were available, priced at over 5 million VND per flight.
Ms. Hang's feedback is similar to that of many other customers. As in previous years, right from the start of ticket sales, passengers wanting a plane ticket had to accept paying significantly more for business class. Many people expressed suspicion about the airline hoarding economy class tickets until the last minute to wait for price increases, while only selling "premium" tickets to those who couldn't afford the higher prices.
Starting sales earlier, private airline AirMekong was the first to open ticket sales for Tet (Lunar New Year), beginning on September 20th, with the announcement that this was only the first phase. Following suit, two other low-cost airlines, VietJetAir (VJA) and Jetstar Pacific Airlines (JPA), also announced Tet ticket sales. However, at this point, customers no longer have many choices in terms of ticket classes from these airlines. VJA, despite receiving new aircraft, has already sold out all Tet tickets for flights with convenient departure times. The price for this airline on the Ho Chi Minh City – Hanoi route is 2.948 million VND/ticket/one-way...
Besides the difficulty and scarcity of tickets, airfares for Tet (Lunar New Year) this year are also more expensive than before. For the Saigon-Hanoi route, the average one-way ticket is currently over 3 million VND, compared to around 2.85 million VND last year. Passengers flying between February 5th and 15th, 2012 (from the 25th of the 12th lunar month to the 6th day of Tet) will face relatively high prices. Even with budget airlines like JPA or VJA, the common price for a one-way ticket from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi is around 2.6 million VND (excluding VAT and airport fees), while Air Mekong only offers tickets at 3 million VND.
According to Tintuc-M
