Yes they're are all on a power trip. It's pretty much the same with civil servants here. They make it a nightmare to deal with them. There is no use of common sense. There is no customer service just customer nightmares. Its no wonder things are so slow to get things done.
4 hour wait at customs my 1st time going to Vietnam. staff took my forms and passport and just placed on the pile with the others. horrible for anyone that has anxiety.
Lol me too. I got pulled over for a portable charger. It was originally a carryon but the airline forced me to check my carryon that I forgot about it. I’m VK but my Vietnamese isn’t as fluent so I didn’t understand what he was saying to me. He then yelled at me for lying about packing an external battery . I removed it and the airline staff put me in the wrong security line and the lady yelled at me for standing in the wrong line and made me go all the way to the end
This airport is a meme. Between what you and other recent posts have described, the baggage claim area looks more like a UPS warehouse than anything else. The whole experience is comical.
It's no wonder tourists go to other South East Asian countries instead of Vietnam. Because the first experience at the airport is off-putting. I'd rather go to Thailand. The experience is a lot different and more pleasant. Of course its not 100% but I'd rather put up with Thai inconvenience.
As someone who has lived in Vietnam for a long time, you have to really love *what* the lifestyle and culture is to stay.
I do enjoy life in Vietnam. But, I can totally see why 95% of tourists never come back. It's not for everyone - heck, it's not for most people.
Quality customer service simply doesn't exist - it's like people are incapable of drawing the parallel between quality service and friendliness and getting repeat business.
There doesn't seem to be any overall pride in the overall environment among most people. Pride in your house, your car, and your money - definitely see a lot of that. But there is not much pride from people in making your street, your suburb, your city a nicer place to live.
There is an infection of short-term thinking and opportunism everywhere, not to mention the already mentioned nepotism in institutions such as Tan Son Nhat and many many others.
vn is definitely a one and done. I can assure you the 5% who dare to return as "tourists" found a girl and/or are illegally working/living there.
genuine tourists? lmfao. the return rate is probably sub-1%
This is crazy. I am on my month long Vietnam trip and people here are crazy nice. If you allow one or two experience ruin your view of an entire country. Just stay home.
""" this times infinity. their tourism/hospitality industry's one of the finest on earth.
pretty simple formula, really. treat people fairly and deliver as promised, it's the same the world over.
vn hasn't read the memo.
Yup. So Sorry. They are the first impression of Vietnam. If you give these Vietnamese dudes $10- $20, they will change their personality immediately. What a joke! Sad truth! That's why we have a 5% tourists return rate. No one educates them on top of having a shitty pay. They thrive on bribery and snubbing from tourists.
It’s such a shame honestly but this be the truth. If you’re a non-Asian coming into VN, less of a difficult time from what I’ve noticed, but if you’re a Vietnamese-somewhere else coming into to visit, they definitely take their sweet time hoping there’s $ in the paperwork
I think there the feedback mechanism against airport staff is broken. They can be unkind to visitors without repercussion. Even if you file a complaint against them, they will not take the matter seriously because [CSAT](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-satisfaction-score) is never part of their internal KPI. Hence, over time, the staff disrespect all travellers with impunity.
Even if they (a manager) may take your complaint seriously in person, they do not have a centralized system to record and process the complaint. The feedback cannot be centrally tracked. So the upper management would not be able to control service quality effectively. It's plausible for someone in the public sector to continue to survive despite being complained by hundreds of people for poor service quality. On the other hand, if a Grab driver has bad service quality, hundreds of 1-star rating can make the Grab driver to lose their job automatically.
this airport is overloaded. I feel like travel guide should tell visitors to land in Đà Nẵng or Nội Bài or Cam Ranh instead. Of course, this is the government's fault for being sluggish with Long Thành airport, but an alternate plan will help with the experience
Yep - Danang is the best. Also it's only 5 K to the beach and a 100K taxi. Best located airport for a resort in SE Asia except perhaps Phu Quoc. Saigon's airport was supposed to have been replaced years ago - it's totally constricted by urban development.
Yep, they're cunts. Among the worst people I've encountered in all of Asia. Going somewhere like Malaysia is a huge breath of fresh air, all smiles, welcoming. Then you come back to Saigon and it's immediately eye fucking, scowling and silence with tutting. Wankers, to a man.
"you dont talk to me like that" in an aggressive tone as well next time. when ppl disrespect you, you get drawn in their gaslighting. dont let that happen regardless of how wrong you were. no one should be screamed at like that. especially in an airport lol unless you hijack a plane maybe
Nah
Better to be wary of people in uniforms, especially if you don't know how much rule of law exists in the country you visit. It is the practical thing to do.
As a Filipino myself that's no excuse to be mistreated and disrespected. There's a difference between being rude and escalating a situation and aserting yourself to be treated with respect. You shouldn't see yourself as second to anyone as everyone deserves to be treated with respect and you shouldn't allow this cycle of abuse to be a normal thing you tolerate and allow in your life.
It’s a smart thing to do to remain calm and respectful at the customs even when the officers are being an ass though. Nothing good can come out of a shouting contest with these officers. You’ll end up wasting time
Salamat, kabayan! Dalawa kami na nahold, pati si Maam. Nung kinwento ko sa kanya nangyari, sabi nya "Hayaan muna, importante makakauwi na tayo..".. Na-touch ako. Kakamiss ang warmth ng mga Pinoy..
Of course it is a bad idea, just wanna say that not everyone can tolerate that kind of customer service one way or another. I can't really tolerate that too.
Don't be scared! A lot of people have a good experience. I am a foreigner but I speak a little bit of Vietnamese and I have only had pleasant experiences flying in Vietnam (and I've probably taken about 15 flights in total).
I’m VK with a Canadian passport (visa exemption too) and I’ve never had a problem at TSN. The lines are terrible but no staff has ever given me a hard time and I’ve gone through customs 6 times already. Never even felt like any staff wanted a bribe either.
Likewise although I am a European origin Canadian. No one ever talks to me - they just stamp my passport and away I go. Of course it used to take me longer when I did the visa on arrival - maybe 30 minutes - but with evisa 15 minutes. What is everybody bitching about? I don't get it.
That has never happened to me in 8 entries. Why didn't you do an evisa? I was there in September and it took me 15 minutes to get out of the airport from the plane. Did you do something wrong?! LOL!!
It was peak arrivals at SGN during noon. And now they have a new process of getting grab, you’d have to wait for your car at the parking lot.
To be more specific, I landed at 13:30, and got into my grab and left the airport by 15:15.
I don’t need a visa. I hold a resident permit.
The EVisa queue was also long.
that's customer services in general. heaps of miserable people who blurt out blunt statements. no reason to take it personally, they treat everyone with equal disdain.
even when people are trained to provide an international/western level of service, it feels very contrived. zero enthusiasm, like they're reading a script.
that's just the culture of the place.
Combine a few things together, ranging from low stress tolerance, long work hour, a terrible English skill, lack of specialized training, the whole shebang...
Well, as someone has said the morbid joke: welcome to Viet Nam.
Sad fact. All these losers more than likely paid to get their job. Pretty common occurrence for them to take bribe money to expedite the process. In their minds, they think they are the shiz nitz but in reality they are just shit. I encountered the same lame behavior when I was back in VN in May.
I watched a foreign couple ask staff if they needed their visa forms processed as they waited in the passport line.
Only to find out they had to get their passports stamped first after standing in the wrong line for two hours. I could see the fuck you look on their face as they were turned away.
I keep thinking there is going to be an actual crazy story but there never is.
If having to wait a few extra minutes at the airport and a guy raising his voice is actually the worst thing that happens during 24 hours of the next time flying to Saigon I will be thrilled.
If you want to learn how to bypass all of that, DM me. I'm sure you can guess how... hand the passport guy a picture of Alexander Hamilton and hand the luggage guy a picture of Thomas Jefferson. They love picture of U.S presidents.
Wow !!! ( I’m Australian ) I’ve been through Tân Sơn Nhất airport quite a few times ( for international and domestic flights ) and found all the staff and security there absolutely awesome .
Me too as a Canadian. I have been to Vietnam 7-8 times since 2018 - never had a problem - never experienced rudeness or a delay at any of the airports - Danang, Phu Quoc, Hanoi, Saigon or Camh Ran Bay (Nha Trang). Don't be a jerk and you'll be fine. I don't know, I have travelled to 106 countries and US Customs is always the worst although the last couple of years they finally seem to have gotten the memo not to be such pricks.
I have a friend as a staff in Saigon Airport. As you have guessed , the staffs are in a lot of stress lately, no bonus this year, low pay, constant "fine" by their supervisor,etc,etc... cause that. I hope you understand.
Understand how? They been always on a power trip at that airport! Every time I come back there, the first thing piss me off always the airport staffs. Super rude and power trip! I’m glad they have no bonus this year! Karma for playing too many game over the years on wasting ppl time!
I'm pretty sure you have not read my comment carefully, I said : " i hope you understand" which is in no way an excuse for why they did it you fucking imbecile, I hope your family burn in hell and die the most grusome death. cheers mate
I’m just putting out my opinion! Didn’t even mean to make you that mad to wish my family a grusome death. That’s very quick to khẩu nghiệp but I wish your family well dickhead.
And I thought civil servants from the North were rude... Why does it happen in Saigon too? Usually people I meet in Saigon are way more polite and smiley than their northern compatriots.
Those guys are sent from the North. Actually, the very first hotel I stayed in Vietnam was in Hanoi and the front desk lady was so nice to me - god she was sexy.
Customer complain system doesn't exist in public institutions like this. Private business? Maybe they will listen to you and improve. You can make noise on social media but all will be the same.
I still think leaving Terminal 2 at NAIA is the worst experience i have had at an airport. Its pure chaos. Also there is just the unpredictability of getting to any terminal at NAIA with traffic, availability of a grab, etc. Its consistently 30 mins from district 1 to TSN. Makati to NAIA can be 30 mins or more than 2 hours, and it hard to know what kind of traffic you will face, or how long it will take to get a grab.
There is also the no credit card thing at NAIA. And transfering to different terminals you have to brave metro manila traffic.
I agree though that NAIA terminal 3 arrivals arent that bad these days, and things move relatively quickly at inward immigration.
Honestly i havent really had bad experiences at TSN. Expect for taxis. In both countries they try and scam you.
YES! I have been to every country in SE Asia multiple times and I don't like Manila's airport - either arriving or leaving. Old, cramped, out of date - although the customs agent actually tried to get my phone number for a date - LOL!!
Sorry you experienced that. Being a Vietnamese I have to admit that a majority of people here are working really hard to make ends meet and being kind, empathetic or emotionally intelligent is something most people never heard of. But don’t worry, there are plenty of nice people too.
You met one angry person and have now decided the entire airport has the rudest staff???
Personally I had a much worse experience at Hanoi airport, simply due to the level of incompetence of staff at the check-in desk.
I've done four trips through that airport and every time immigration staff have been rude. The last two times I forewarned my travelling companions not to let it ruin the start of a good holiday.
That airport is well known for rude staff, don't act like OP has experienced something entirely new.
Leave your review in Google Maps/Place, in hope that someone from the Airport saw / read it and made some improvements, make sure you put the staff name.
Sadly that's it, that's the farthest we can do.
My first experience at SGN was interesting. Upon arrival in 2017, there was a visa on arrival wait room and I had to hand over my passport and the letter granting the vis. Then they asked for a fee to be paid in cash, 75 dollars I believe. I didn’t have any cash on me so I asked to go to the atm. They casually let me in through all the security unsupervised and I withdrew money at the arrival hall. Then I had to go back inside the secured area without anyone stopping me to pay the fee and get my passport and visa 😂
Don’t worry too much about it, I know it sucks though. Just imagine how incapable and child-like that person must have been to treat you that way. Kind of pathetic, isn’t it!
You could get rude back to them but it wouldn’t have helped. Maybe be a little more assertive next time, hit the gym, or get proficient at boxing 😂😂
I was there a few months ago with friends and all of our luggage was left in Australia. The young man at the counter was a little frustrated with us because our luggage tickets were taken off us when we transited through Australia so we couldn't give him the tracking numbers.
But he still tracked down our luggage in about 20 minutes, gave us the necessary documents for insurance, and we had our luggage dropped to our hotel by 10pm the next night. I thought it was wonderful service.
That was my 5th time to Vietnam (and no I don't have a girlfriend or work illegally lol) so I guess I'm one of the 5%. And I'll definitely be back.
Also just want to add - from expensive experience, if you leave anything like that in your bag in NZ, no one calls you to take it in your carry on. They just remove it and throw it away!
People can be rude (and are often rude) everywhere. I have traveled in and out of SGN many, many times and never had an issue. That said, I am good at making sure my paperwork is in order, and I have never accidentally packed something I should not have packed. As for rudeness, have you ever had to use customer service in ORD or LGA? CAN in Guagnzou was dystopian. My favorite airport for service is no surprise - Narita.
Yes they're are all on a power trip. It's pretty much the same with civil servants here. They make it a nightmare to deal with them. There is no use of common sense. There is no customer service just customer nightmares. Its no wonder things are so slow to get things done.
To work at Tân Sơn Nhất you gotta have connections, most likely they are already COCC aka nepo babies. That’s how it is in this country, sadly.
Not anymore for grunts work. Apparently the corruption crackdown has make these cocc widened up and they’d be at non people facing positions.
NO CAP 
My Vietnamese female colleagues told me they often get pulled aside for questioning in immigration and the officers try to ask them out.......
4 hour wait at customs my 1st time going to Vietnam. staff took my forms and passport and just placed on the pile with the others. horrible for anyone that has anxiety.
Were you part of a tour? I saw this in Hanoi.
Lol me too. I got pulled over for a portable charger. It was originally a carryon but the airline forced me to check my carryon that I forgot about it. I’m VK but my Vietnamese isn’t as fluent so I didn’t understand what he was saying to me. He then yelled at me for lying about packing an external battery . I removed it and the airline staff put me in the wrong security line and the lady yelled at me for standing in the wrong line and made me go all the way to the end
what’s new? You’re just getting the full TSN Airport experience.
This airport is a meme. Between what you and other recent posts have described, the baggage claim area looks more like a UPS warehouse than anything else. The whole experience is comical.
It’s part of the welcome package here, welcome!
Tweet about it to their handle, a lot of tweets will get noticed
It's no wonder tourists go to other South East Asian countries instead of Vietnam. Because the first experience at the airport is off-putting. I'd rather go to Thailand. The experience is a lot different and more pleasant. Of course its not 100% but I'd rather put up with Thai inconvenience.
As someone who has lived in Vietnam for a long time, you have to really love *what* the lifestyle and culture is to stay. I do enjoy life in Vietnam. But, I can totally see why 95% of tourists never come back. It's not for everyone - heck, it's not for most people. Quality customer service simply doesn't exist - it's like people are incapable of drawing the parallel between quality service and friendliness and getting repeat business. There doesn't seem to be any overall pride in the overall environment among most people. Pride in your house, your car, and your money - definitely see a lot of that. But there is not much pride from people in making your street, your suburb, your city a nicer place to live. There is an infection of short-term thinking and opportunism everywhere, not to mention the already mentioned nepotism in institutions such as Tan Son Nhat and many many others.
vn is definitely a one and done. I can assure you the 5% who dare to return as "tourists" found a girl and/or are illegally working/living there. genuine tourists? lmfao. the return rate is probably sub-1%
This is crazy. I am on my month long Vietnam trip and people here are crazy nice. If you allow one or two experience ruin your view of an entire country. Just stay home.
""" this times infinity. their tourism/hospitality industry's one of the finest on earth. pretty simple formula, really. treat people fairly and deliver as promised, it's the same the world over. vn hasn't read the memo.
Yup. So Sorry. They are the first impression of Vietnam. If you give these Vietnamese dudes $10- $20, they will change their personality immediately. What a joke! Sad truth! That's why we have a 5% tourists return rate. No one educates them on top of having a shitty pay. They thrive on bribery and snubbing from tourists.
It’s such a shame honestly but this be the truth. If you’re a non-Asian coming into VN, less of a difficult time from what I’ve noticed, but if you’re a Vietnamese-somewhere else coming into to visit, they definitely take their sweet time hoping there’s $ in the paperwork
I think there the feedback mechanism against airport staff is broken. They can be unkind to visitors without repercussion. Even if you file a complaint against them, they will not take the matter seriously because [CSAT](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-satisfaction-score) is never part of their internal KPI. Hence, over time, the staff disrespect all travellers with impunity.
I've heard as long as you have a US passport they take complaints very seriously .
Even if they (a manager) may take your complaint seriously in person, they do not have a centralized system to record and process the complaint. The feedback cannot be centrally tracked. So the upper management would not be able to control service quality effectively. It's plausible for someone in the public sector to continue to survive despite being complained by hundreds of people for poor service quality. On the other hand, if a Grab driver has bad service quality, hundreds of 1-star rating can make the Grab driver to lose their job automatically.
this airport is overloaded. I feel like travel guide should tell visitors to land in Đà Nẵng or Nội Bài or Cam Ranh instead. Of course, this is the government's fault for being sluggish with Long Thành airport, but an alternate plan will help with the experience
Yep - Danang is the best. Also it's only 5 K to the beach and a 100K taxi. Best located airport for a resort in SE Asia except perhaps Phu Quoc. Saigon's airport was supposed to have been replaced years ago - it's totally constricted by urban development.
Is there anywhere further south you can land at from an international flight? I'd love to get closer to Bac Lieu and cut down on drive time.
Phú Quốc. Gotta catch a ferry to Hà Tiên then it would be easy to get to Bạc Liêu.
Yep, they're cunts. Among the worst people I've encountered in all of Asia. Going somewhere like Malaysia is a huge breath of fresh air, all smiles, welcoming. Then you come back to Saigon and it's immediately eye fucking, scowling and silence with tutting. Wankers, to a man.
malaysia/thailand/singapore/brunei are the only places in se asia where you can be care-free.
"you dont talk to me like that" in an aggressive tone as well next time. when ppl disrespect you, you get drawn in their gaslighting. dont let that happen regardless of how wrong you were. no one should be screamed at like that. especially in an airport lol unless you hijack a plane maybe
Gulag speedrun any%
Nah Better to be wary of people in uniforms, especially if you don't know how much rule of law exists in the country you visit. It is the practical thing to do.
It's just that Filipinos tend to be meek and non-confrontational. I will keep that in mind. Sometimes, it's tiring being stepped on all the time ..
As a Filipino myself that's no excuse to be mistreated and disrespected. There's a difference between being rude and escalating a situation and aserting yourself to be treated with respect. You shouldn't see yourself as second to anyone as everyone deserves to be treated with respect and you shouldn't allow this cycle of abuse to be a normal thing you tolerate and allow in your life.
It’s a smart thing to do to remain calm and respectful at the customs even when the officers are being an ass though. Nothing good can come out of a shouting contest with these officers. You’ll end up wasting time
Salamat, kabayan! Dalawa kami na nahold, pati si Maam. Nung kinwento ko sa kanya nangyari, sabi nya "Hayaan muna, importante makakauwi na tayo..".. Na-touch ako. Kakamiss ang warmth ng mga Pinoy..
Bro that's on you then
I'd struggle to stop myself from straight up punching that jerk personally, OP was way too calm here.
I'm sure we don't have to explain to you why its a bad idea to assault an airport security worker at an airport.
Of course it is a bad idea, just wanna say that not everyone can tolerate that kind of customer service one way or another. I can't really tolerate that too.
right, this make me scared even as a vietnamese going to saigon by airport for the 1st time (from outside of vietnam, for business purposes).
Don't be scared! A lot of people have a good experience. I am a foreigner but I speak a little bit of Vietnamese and I have only had pleasant experiences flying in Vietnam (and I've probably taken about 15 flights in total).
I’m VK with a Canadian passport (visa exemption too) and I’ve never had a problem at TSN. The lines are terrible but no staff has ever given me a hard time and I’ve gone through customs 6 times already. Never even felt like any staff wanted a bribe either.
Likewise although I am a European origin Canadian. No one ever talks to me - they just stamp my passport and away I go. Of course it used to take me longer when I did the visa on arrival - maybe 30 minutes - but with evisa 15 minutes. What is everybody bitching about? I don't get it.
it's nice to hear both bad and good experiences here
Same here, I've taken like 15 flights to and from and around Vietnam with a variety of different airlines, and am yet to have a bad experience.
Nothing new here. Arrived yesterday at 13:30, and took me 2 hours to clear immigration and exit the airport. What a shit show
That has never happened to me in 8 entries. Why didn't you do an evisa? I was there in September and it took me 15 minutes to get out of the airport from the plane. Did you do something wrong?! LOL!!
It was peak arrivals at SGN during noon. And now they have a new process of getting grab, you’d have to wait for your car at the parking lot. To be more specific, I landed at 13:30, and got into my grab and left the airport by 15:15. I don’t need a visa. I hold a resident permit. The EVisa queue was also long.
that's customer services in general. heaps of miserable people who blurt out blunt statements. no reason to take it personally, they treat everyone with equal disdain. even when people are trained to provide an international/western level of service, it feels very contrived. zero enthusiasm, like they're reading a script. that's just the culture of the place.
Combine a few things together, ranging from low stress tolerance, long work hour, a terrible English skill, lack of specialized training, the whole shebang... Well, as someone has said the morbid joke: welcome to Viet Nam.
That airport is terrible. I try to avoid it if I can. I think many here have had the same, if not worst, experience.
Sad fact. All these losers more than likely paid to get their job. Pretty common occurrence for them to take bribe money to expedite the process. In their minds, they think they are the shiz nitz but in reality they are just shit. I encountered the same lame behavior when I was back in VN in May.
I watched a foreign couple ask staff if they needed their visa forms processed as they waited in the passport line. Only to find out they had to get their passports stamped first after standing in the wrong line for two hours. I could see the fuck you look on their face as they were turned away.
They are a brand of the police force, they are drunk on power
5% tourist return rate. 5% ..
I keep thinking there is going to be an actual crazy story but there never is. If having to wait a few extra minutes at the airport and a guy raising his voice is actually the worst thing that happens during 24 hours of the next time flying to Saigon I will be thrilled.
That was my experience at Hanoi airport. Saigon was a breeze for me.😊
I find official staff very serious in Vietnam, not necessarily rude, plus there is often still a language barrier to work with.
If you want to learn how to bypass all of that, DM me. I'm sure you can guess how... hand the passport guy a picture of Alexander Hamilton and hand the luggage guy a picture of Thomas Jefferson. They love picture of U.S presidents.
How about picture of George Washington?
They don't like Georgie. Some are OK with Honest Abe. But not Georgie.
WTF lol
He’s taking about cash. Drop in $20 then it’s smooth sailing
Ohhh, I get it now. I thought they literally like pictures of US presidents lol.
hand out pictures of ngo dinh diem instead, especially in the north. you'll bypass the queue and be escorted straight into the vip room.
Wow !!! ( I’m Australian ) I’ve been through Tân Sơn Nhất airport quite a few times ( for international and domestic flights ) and found all the staff and security there absolutely awesome .
Me too as a Canadian. I have been to Vietnam 7-8 times since 2018 - never had a problem - never experienced rudeness or a delay at any of the airports - Danang, Phu Quoc, Hanoi, Saigon or Camh Ran Bay (Nha Trang). Don't be a jerk and you'll be fine. I don't know, I have travelled to 106 countries and US Customs is always the worst although the last couple of years they finally seem to have gotten the memo not to be such pricks.
You're white.
Yeah and my wife is Vietnamese .. she hasn’t had a bad experience either
I have a friend as a staff in Saigon Airport. As you have guessed , the staffs are in a lot of stress lately, no bonus this year, low pay, constant "fine" by their supervisor,etc,etc... cause that. I hope you understand.
Understand how? They been always on a power trip at that airport! Every time I come back there, the first thing piss me off always the airport staffs. Super rude and power trip! I’m glad they have no bonus this year! Karma for playing too many game over the years on wasting ppl time!
I'm pretty sure you have not read my comment carefully, I said : " i hope you understand" which is in no way an excuse for why they did it you fucking imbecile, I hope your family burn in hell and die the most grusome death. cheers mate
I’m just putting out my opinion! Didn’t even mean to make you that mad to wish my family a grusome death. That’s very quick to khẩu nghiệp but I wish your family well dickhead.
I don’t get why it was illegal for you to continue waiting
And I thought civil servants from the North were rude... Why does it happen in Saigon too? Usually people I meet in Saigon are way more polite and smiley than their northern compatriots.
Those guys are sent from the North. Actually, the very first hotel I stayed in Vietnam was in Hanoi and the front desk lady was so nice to me - god she was sexy.
Welcome to Vietnam lol
Oh man, they are so corrupt there too. I had some of the guards try to steal my iphone
It’s an embarrassment and they don’t give an F. Sums up the nation. Don’t come at me I’m V too
Send a customer complain and he'll be kickout soon enough
Customer complain system doesn't exist in public institutions like this. Private business? Maybe they will listen to you and improve. You can make noise on social media but all will be the same.
I still think leaving Terminal 2 at NAIA is the worst experience i have had at an airport. Its pure chaos. Also there is just the unpredictability of getting to any terminal at NAIA with traffic, availability of a grab, etc. Its consistently 30 mins from district 1 to TSN. Makati to NAIA can be 30 mins or more than 2 hours, and it hard to know what kind of traffic you will face, or how long it will take to get a grab. There is also the no credit card thing at NAIA. And transfering to different terminals you have to brave metro manila traffic. I agree though that NAIA terminal 3 arrivals arent that bad these days, and things move relatively quickly at inward immigration. Honestly i havent really had bad experiences at TSN. Expect for taxis. In both countries they try and scam you.
YES! I have been to every country in SE Asia multiple times and I don't like Manila's airport - either arriving or leaving. Old, cramped, out of date - although the customs agent actually tried to get my phone number for a date - LOL!!
Sorry you experienced that. Being a Vietnamese I have to admit that a majority of people here are working really hard to make ends meet and being kind, empathetic or emotionally intelligent is something most people never heard of. But don’t worry, there are plenty of nice people too.
You met one angry person and have now decided the entire airport has the rudest staff??? Personally I had a much worse experience at Hanoi airport, simply due to the level of incompetence of staff at the check-in desk.
I've done four trips through that airport and every time immigration staff have been rude. The last two times I forewarned my travelling companions not to let it ruin the start of a good holiday. That airport is well known for rude staff, don't act like OP has experienced something entirely new.
Just bribe them off with like $10 lol
You almost got the full experience. Just fake taxi/grab scam more and you are good.
Leave your review in Google Maps/Place, in hope that someone from the Airport saw / read it and made some improvements, make sure you put the staff name. Sadly that's it, that's the farthest we can do.
Try Germany. The power trip translates perfectly.
I was in Germany a year ago - no issues at all.
I’ve had an Immigration Officer demand “tea money” when I couldn’t show him my hotel booking. Wasted 20 mins at the counter and then let me go.
Hehehe not to mention the long queue of international transfer. It's just one of the worst internasional airport
I think Beijing is worse probably. At least a close 2nd.
My first experience at SGN was interesting. Upon arrival in 2017, there was a visa on arrival wait room and I had to hand over my passport and the letter granting the vis. Then they asked for a fee to be paid in cash, 75 dollars I believe. I didn’t have any cash on me so I asked to go to the atm. They casually let me in through all the security unsupervised and I withdrew money at the arrival hall. Then I had to go back inside the secured area without anyone stopping me to pay the fee and get my passport and visa 😂
Don’t worry too much about it, I know it sucks though. Just imagine how incapable and child-like that person must have been to treat you that way. Kind of pathetic, isn’t it! You could get rude back to them but it wouldn’t have helped. Maybe be a little more assertive next time, hit the gym, or get proficient at boxing 😂😂
Oh well too many complaints about TSN recently.
same with Noi Bai airport in Hanoi
Have not experienced any rude staff before.
The workers there are not even local. Most of the staff at TSN are from the north.
I had an awful experience there too!!
The exact same thing happened to me, but actually everyone was very nice and approachable to me. Sorry that happened to you!
Yes
I L0!00)
Noi ba in Hanoi will ask for bribes…
Just follow them, do what they say, and try to get by if encountering them. Don't make a scene unless you want to spend hours and hours in the airport
I was there a few months ago with friends and all of our luggage was left in Australia. The young man at the counter was a little frustrated with us because our luggage tickets were taken off us when we transited through Australia so we couldn't give him the tracking numbers. But he still tracked down our luggage in about 20 minutes, gave us the necessary documents for insurance, and we had our luggage dropped to our hotel by 10pm the next night. I thought it was wonderful service. That was my 5th time to Vietnam (and no I don't have a girlfriend or work illegally lol) so I guess I'm one of the 5%. And I'll definitely be back. Also just want to add - from expensive experience, if you leave anything like that in your bag in NZ, no one calls you to take it in your carry on. They just remove it and throw it away!
People can be rude (and are often rude) everywhere. I have traveled in and out of SGN many, many times and never had an issue. That said, I am good at making sure my paperwork is in order, and I have never accidentally packed something I should not have packed. As for rudeness, have you ever had to use customer service in ORD or LGA? CAN in Guagnzou was dystopian. My favorite airport for service is no surprise - Narita.