Vietnam Airlines begins e-ticketing on three routes
HA NOI — Vietnam Airlines yesterday announced its offices in Ha Noi, HCM City and Da Nang will begin issuing electronic tickets to the public in early February on a trial basis.
E-tickets will initially be used on the Ha Noi-HCM City, Ha Noi-Da Nang and HCM City-Da Nang routes. Other branch offices will be able to book e-tickets on these routes starting in March.
By April, the airline hopes to include flights to Phu Quoc and Da Lat.
As for international services, the carrier hopes to issue e-tickets for flights to Japan, Korea, Germany and France some time in the second quarter.
Vietnam Airlines began testing e-ticketing last month but only offered the paperless system to passengers working in the aviation business.
About 2,000 passengers have received e-tickets. The airline has not reported any problems.
Officials want to introduce the new system gradually and will soon decide how to broaden e-ticketing after the February pilot period.
E-ticketing is much safer, says airline representative Duong Quy, because passengers do not have to worry too much about losing their stubs. In addition, electronic ticketing saves people time at the check-in counters and helps operators manage flight information.
Thai Airways
In efforts to improve its own ticketing procedures, Thai Airways International has employed Amadeurs, the world’s leading processor of travel bookings, to provide service in Viet Nam.
With Amadeurs’ Nego Fare, which automates ticket pricing and delivery, Thailand’s national carrier expects passenger service will improve, especially for those travelling to multiple destinations using many price frames.
The service will provide passengers with information related to their flights, ranging from itineraries to prices and taxes.
Nguyen Hai, chairman of Transviet, which represents Amadeurs domestically, said passengers will be the main beneficiaries of the service.
Thai Airways, which operates the largest number of flights to Viet Nam, said it has so far updated nearly 5,000 prices through Amadeurs system.
Entering Viet Nam in mid-2005, Amadeurs has so far trained more than 200 travel agents nationwide as part of efforts to popularise its services. About 150 airlines around the world use Amadeurs to administer their flights.
Vietnam News Agency - January 19, 2007.
E-tickets will be sold as of March 1
In February, Vietnam Airlines will begin selling e-tickets at its three offices in Hanoi, Da Nang and HCM City on a trial basis. The official selling of e-tickets will be implemented as of March 1.
By 2008, all members of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), including Vietnam Airlines, will have to use e-tickets. E-tickets will be more convenient for passengers. Passengers will be able to check-in for flights themselves, which will help them save time.
As of March 1, 2007, e-tickets will be sold throughout the country for flights on the Hanoi – HCM City, Hanoi – Da Nang and HCM City – Da Nang routes. With these main air routes, which always see big volumes of passengers, e-tickets will be applied to all flights, including additional and night flights.
As of April 2007, e-tickets will be sold for flights to destinations that serve many tourists, like Hue, Nha Trang, Da Lat and Phu Quoc. The selling of e-tickets will be implemented for international flights in the second quarter of the year. At first, Vietnam Airlines will focus on flights to and from main markets like Japan, the Republic of Korea, the EU (Germany and France), Australia, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.
A problem still exists with the issuing of e-tickets. The e-tickets cannot be used as the lawful voucher for accounting records as paper tickets can. Two temporary solutions have been suggested by Vietnam Airlines in order to help solve the problem.
In the first solution, passengers would keep the boarding card and use it as proof of travelling and get paid by their offices. However, the keeping of the boarding cards would be inconvenient because customers would have to keep them for a long time and might lose them.
In the second solution, Vietnam Airlines, when issuing an e-ticket, would issue a receipt with the stamp of Vietnam Airlines, which would be as lawful as the red bill. However, this solution would also be inconvenient, because customers would have to go to booking agents to get receipts even though they booked tickets via the Internet.
Tien Phong - January 19, 2007.
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