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Although tickets for the Lunar New Year 2024 have only recently been on sale, many economy class tickets have already sold out. To get tickets early, many people have to choose business class with prices 3-4 times higher than economy class or accept flying multiple routes.
Sky-high ticket prices
Ms. Nguyen Thuy Duong, residing in Binh Thanh District, said that when airlines just opened ticket sales for the 2024 Lunar New Year, she went to the airlines' websites to "hunt" for tickets for her whole family to return to Hanoi during this Tet holiday. "I surveyed prices on ticket sales sites of airlines such as Vietjet, Bamboo Airways, Vietravel Airlines... although there were still tickets from December 26 to 29, the prices were quite high, ranging from more than 3 million VND to 9.5 million VND/way. Looking at the airfare, I hesitated to book to recalculate," Ms. Thuy Duong said.
Not only are flights before Tet extremely expensive and difficult to buy, flights from the Central and Northern provinces to Ho Chi Minh City after Tet are also equally expensive. These days, Mr. Le Hung (living in Tan Binh District) has asked major agents to "watch" to buy tickets for the Tuy Hoa (Phu Yen) - Ho Chi Minh City route for his family of 6 from February 14 to 20, 2024 (ie January 6 to 10), but so far no agent has responded.
According to Tin Tuc Newspaper reporters, for the route from Da Nang, Quy Nhon, Chu Lai to Ho Chi Minh City after Tet, most airlines have sold out of economy class tickets and only have business class tickets left. As for the route from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi before and after Tet, there are still quite a lot of seats but ticket prices are 3-4 times higher than usual. Specifically, one-way ticket prices departing from the Central provinces to Ho Chi Minh City after Tet 2024 range from 2.4 - 5.7 million VND/ticket; ticket prices from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City after Tet range from 3.2 million VND to 9.8 million VND/ticket.
According to airlines, the reason for high airfares and sold-out flights is that the authorities base their decisions on a number of criteria, including on-time flight rates, airport service capacity, etc., so it is quite difficult to request an increase in slots (take-off and landing times) during Tet.
Airlines also explained that the situation of tickets quickly running out on the website as soon as they opened a flight was due to a sudden increase in purchases; at the same time, individual customers find it difficult to compare with the purchasing speed of agents, not to mention that many families buy tickets in large numbers, so it is more difficult to buy tickets than buying tickets for 1-2 seats for individual customers. Meanwhile, with large agents using automatic ticket booking systems, when the airline increases flights, the system automatically books tickets in a flash thanks to pre-programmed customer information, flight routes, and flight times. However, the ability to buy last-minute tickets at the airport is still available, but it is quite difficult for customers to wait and watch the time to buy tickets.
"Take a detour" to get cheap tickets
Faced with scarcity and high prices, to get plane tickets to return home for Tet, some people choose to fly around neighboring countries such as Laos, Cambodia or fly to other provinces and cities to travel for a few days, then book tickets to return home.
Ms. Ngo Thu Huong (from Hanoi) after looking at the price of a flight ticket from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi at over 4 million VND/way decided to buy a plane ticket to Da Lat for 860,000 VND/ticket, then she bought a flight ticket from Da Lat to Hanoi for 1.7 million VND/ticket. In total, Ms. Huong saved more than 1.4 million VND/ticket when she agreed to fly two legs to Hanoi. "I just watched for cheap air tickets to Da Lat, rested for 3 days and then flew to Hanoi. I went out and bought a good price ticket, although it took a bit of time, but it solved the problem of having difficulty buying tickets," Ms. Thu Huong added.
Similarly, Mr. Nguyen Van Hau (living in Thu Duc City) said that because it was difficult to buy tickets from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang, his family decided to fly to Phu Quoc for 3 days of Tet, then fly back to Da Nang from Phu Quoc airport. "The airfare from Ho Chi Minh City to Phu Quoc on January 15 (December 27) is less than 800,000 VND/ticket (including taxes and fees). After resting and having fun in Phu Quoc for 3 days, on January 18, 2024, the whole family flew from Phu Quoc to Da Nang for only over 2 million VND/ticket. Thus, if calculated, the total cost of airfare is only 2.9 million VND/person, a reduction of 2 million VND/person when booking a direct flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang. Although going around to Phu Quoc, the whole family had the opportunity to travel early for Tet and also bought Tet tickets for the whole family," Mr. Hau shared.
According to airline statistics, the most popular and in-demand routes during the 2024 Lunar New Year are Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi during the peak period from February 3 to February 15, 2024 (December 24 to January 6) with ticket prices of about VND 3.4 million/ticket including taxes and fees. Accordingly, Vietnam Airlines opens sales for the Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi route during the 2024 Lunar New Year peak period with prices starting from VND 3.25 million/ticket. Outside of peak periods, this airline's ticket prices are around VND 2.6 million/ticket.
Meanwhile, this busiest route is operated by Vietjet with a ticket price of 3.4 million VND/ticket. This is also the common price of Bamboo Airways and Vietravel Airlines during Tet 2024. As for the Ho Chi Minh City - Vinh, Hai Phong, Thanh Hoa routes, airlines are selling the lowest airfare of about 3.3 - 3.4 million VND/ticket. This price is considered to be equivalent to previous years, not cheaper, even though the airline opened sales 5 months in advance. Therefore, many people are not in a hurry to book tickets but have a waiting mentality.
According to representatives of some airlines, to buy cheap air tickets and get tickets, passengers should buy offset tickets and some airlines encourage buying individual tickets for each passenger and booking the same flight... A representative of Vietnam Airlines said that the unit is having an early promotion program for passengers buying offset tickets on flights to Ho Chi Minh City before Tet and flights from Ho Chi Minh City after Tet to help customers proactively choose and arrange their Tet holiday plans.
According to Tin Tuc newspaper
