Vietnam Airlines Celebrates Three Years of Nonstop Service Between San Francisco and Saigon

Map of Vietnam Airlines nonstop route from Saigon to San Francisco over the Pacific. The nonstop route takes 13-and-a-half hours eastbound and 16-and-a-half hours westbound.
Vietnam Airlines VN 99 VN 98
Route SFO-SGN SGN-SFO
Departs 9:10pm PST 6:30pm ICT
Arrives 4:40am ICT +2 7:00pm PST
Duration 16h30 13h30
Equipment A350-900 A350-900
Frequency Wed, Thurs, Sat, Sun Wed, Thurs, Sat, Sun
Season Year-Round Year-Round
Inaugural Flight Nov 28, 2021 Nov 28, 2021

November 28, 2024 marks the three-year anniversary of the only nonstop commercial passenger flight between the United States and Vietnam. SkyTeam member Vietnam Airlines launched its Ho Chi Minh City-San Francisco route on Nov 28, 2021, when airlines were still suffering from pandemic restrictions.

This 7,838-mile route is also the only current nonstop route between North America and Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos).

The timing of the flight is convenient in both directions — the nighttime departure from San Francisco allows passengers to enjoy a late dinner on board and then sleep and adjust to the new timezone before touching down 16-and-a-half hours later in Ho Chi Minh City. The eastbound flight from Ho Chi Minh City to San Francisco departs in the early evening and crosses through the night, arriving San Francisco 13-and-a-half hours later in the early evening Pacific time.

Vietnam Airlines Flies the Airbus A350-900 on SFO-SGN

Vietnam Airlines Airbus A350-900 new lotus livery in flight

Vietnam Airlines’ A350-900 offers three classes of service on its nonstop flight between San Francisco and Saigon

Vietnam Airlines employs its three-cabin Airbus A350-900 on SGN-SFO-SGN, with 29 seats in Business Class, 45 seats in Premium Economy and 231 seats in Economy.

Upon VN 99’s arrival in Saigon at 4:40am, the A350 aircraft continues on to Hanoi (VN 206), departing at 6:00am. Vietnam Airlines frequently uses the A350-900 on flights between SGN-HAN as well as on flights to Paris, Sydney, Melbourne, Osaka and Tokyo.

Connecting Flights from the West Coast to Vietnam

While Asian gateway cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle have one-stop options to Ho Chi Minh City via Tokyo or Seoul, the comfort of settling into a long-haul flight to Vietnam that departs in the late evening from the West Coast is a definite plus. Vietnam Airlines offers through fare tickets from West Coast cities using Alaska Airlines (oneworld) or United Airlines (Star Alliance) for the segment to/from San Francisco.

Examples of through fare connections to VN 99 offered on vietnamairlines.com include:

Origin Route Flight Departs Arrives
Los Angeles LAX-SFO AS 3477 5:00pm 6:27pm
Portland PDX-SFO AS 3389 5:00pm 6:49pm
San Diego SAN-SFO AS 3357 3:20pm 5:01pm
Seattle SEA-SFO UA 1914 4:35pm 6:52pm

Onward Connections from VN 99 to Other Cities in Vietnam

While Vietnam Airlines operates flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh and Bangkok, the current schedule makes connection times from VN 99 far from ideal. However, plenty of onward flights within Vietnam connect well to the arrival from San Francisco:

Dest. Route Flight Departs Arrives
Da Lat SGN-DLI VN 1380 6:50am 7:40am
Da Nang SGN-DAD VN 110 7:00am 8:20am
Hanoi SGN-HAN VN 242 6:30am 8:35am
Nha Trang SGN-CXR VN 1340 6:50am 8:00am
Phu Quoc Island SGN-PQC VN 6103 8:30am 9:30am

How Many Delta SkyMiles Does It Take to Fly Nonstop from San Francisco-Ho Chi Minh City?

SkyTeam partner Delta Air Lines offers SkyMiles redemption for Vietnam Airlines' nonstop flight from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh City, with redemption starting at 52,000 miles.

Delta SkyMiles award availability for SFO-SGN was found for 52,000 miles one way in Economy

Vietnam Airlines is a SkyTeam member so it’s possible to use Delta SkyMiles to redeem flight awards on this nonstop route from SFO-SGN. However, demand on this route is strong, and SkyMiles award availability was quite limited at the time of posting.

The lowest roundtrip Economy award redemption was found for 104,000 miles +$46.

Premium Economy availability was more limited, with the lowest roundtrip redemption found for 192,000 miles +$46.

Business class was the most limited and could only be found on isolated dates 6 months out for 695,000 miles +$46 roundtrip.

—Tim Haig

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