Airline review: Vanilla Air / Peach Aviation

Whenever in Asia, I often end up flying whatever is cheap and gets me where I’m going. I flew Vanilla Air from Tokyo to Seoul some time back.  Vanilla Air is a low-cost airline owned by Al Nippon Airways. Before, the airline used to go by name Air Asia Japan but has since then been newly branded. Nowadays Vanilla Air has routes from Japan to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Vanilla Air uses A320-200 aircraft models, which they have 8 of. AirlineRatings.com has given the airline 5/7 in safety and 2/5 in service product. Vanilla Air has only Economy class.

The crew on the flight were really young and friendly in that brilliant Japanese way. Somehow the crew didn’t seem as professional as I would expect – for example the window shields were not open during landing and they didn’t ask passengers to put their seats into upright position(?). I didn’t have a meal on the flight, but that could have been purchased in advance.

The seats on the plane were spacious with 3-3 seating. The aircraft seemed a bit outdated from inside and there was no entertainment – which was not an issue as the flight was so short.

I guess Norwegian ends up being the only low-cost which I really do fancy flying with. Vanilla Air’s customer service was good and it got me on time from A to B. But, like said, I did worry a little bit about the qualification of the crew.