Shorex

Thank you 2Fltravelers! You have already provided us with a wealth of information. Your review was amazing and will be a guide for our planning.

For the Hanoi-Siem Reap flight were you on a regularly scheduled Vietnam Airlines flight or a charter? Were you limited to one checked bag per person?

From your account, it seems that the checked bags weren't weighed. Would a couple of pounds over the published limit matter? Or you were advised to be very careful about the weight?

thanks so much

Get ready for a trip of a lifetime.

So happy to read that:) We talked two other couples into joining us for this trip next December.

We will be doing this land/cruise tour next December and I appreciate all the information shared by those who have already completed the trip.

The luggage limits for Vietnam Airlines flights within Asia are here: checked baggage and hand baggage. My assumption is that those are the true limitations for the Hanoi-Siem Reap flight.

For those who have taken the flight: were your carry-on bags weighed by the airline at check-in?

This is just a data point on processing times. I sent in our passports for additional visa pages before the price increase took effect. The passports were received at the passport agency in DC on Monday the 12th, (just before the price increase on the 13th) and the passports arrived back on the west coast today, Friday the 16th. We had paid for expedited processing because of an international trip coming up early in August.

Factors to keep in mind:

This service was merely for extra visa pages, not for a new or renewed passport

The checks cleared our bank account on Tuesday

We could track the processing progress on the passport bureau website on Tuesday

We paid for expedited processing and overnight mail return

Even so, I am impressed by the quick turnaround time

YMMV

Middle seat, coach, between two sumo wrestlers each holding a screaming baby and the air conditioning doesn't work while on a ground hold for hours....oh, you meant long as in "distance"??? ;)

I am not sure when that was discontinued (probably around 2003), but name amendments are no longer done that way, now State just issues completely new passports.

Thank you for letting me know that -- now I won't be giving incorrect information to other folks who have a name change issue.:)

Admittedly, I have not read the full 16 pages of this thread, so please forgive me if this information has already been posted.

In 1998 I got a new passport. In 1999 I married and changed my name. In order to have my passport match my new name, I sent it in for a name change. The same passport was returned to me with an amendment that my name had changed. The amendment was printed on the last page of the passport.

Some TSA's and airline employees were reluctant to acknowledge that yes, the amended passport does match my air tickets. I had to explain numerous times that the amendment was valid. Often these employees were not properly trained in how passports can be amended.

It was a relief this year when I got an entirely new passport and that the amendment was no longer necessary.

Please, moderators, sticky this thread. Greatam has pulled away the curtain to reveal how the great and powerful wizard of cruise air actually functions.