Without purchasing round-trip tickets in advance, or because airfares are too high, many families and workers returning to celebrate Tet in the Central and Northern provinces are still having to consider which day they will return to work in Ho Chi Minh City.
Crowded, high airfares and other travel costs make many workers hesitant to return to Ho Chi Minh City to work on schedule - Illustration: TRIEU VAN
"Astronomical" ticket prices, nearly 250km to get to the airport
Dang Khoa (31 years old, from Quang Tri) shared that because he had not yet set a date to return to Ho Chi Minh City, he did not book a ticket until the evening of January 30 (the second day of Tet). When he decided to fly on January 9, he searched for a long time but there were no tickets for the route from Phu Bai Airport - Hue to Ho Chi Minh City.
To make ends meet, the whole family had to take a bus from their hometown to Da Nang, a distance of nearly 250km. Each ticket for the flight that Khoa chose was the cheapest but cost more than 4 million VND/ticket. The whole family of 3 spent more than 12 million VND on airfare for the return flight.
"If you buy a ticket a week in advance, the price is still the same. If you buy it close to the date, it will probably be even higher. The problem is that you have to travel far, taking a bus during Tet is like torture," Khoa confided.
On the evening of the 29th of Tet, we decided on the date to return to Ho Chi Minh City (January 7th). Knowing that tickets were very scarce, Mr. Bac (from Hanoi) hurriedly searched for and booked tickets.
Mr. Bac shared: "My family of 5 people, after seeing the ticket prices, I was shocked. The cheapest ticket and only one trip is more than 5 million VND/person, now flying is very difficult. The other 2-3 trips are about 8 million VND".
Many people are afraid of returning to Ho Chi Minh City to work on schedule, which is from January 6 - Photo: TRIEU VAN
Take your time online to avoid traffic jams and sky-high ticket prices.
Thuy Nhi (from Quang Binh), currently working as a marketing content developer in Ho Chi Minh City, said she will only return to work in the city after January 15 because the airfare is too high (over 8 million VND/ticket).
Last year, Thuy Nhi and two others drove back to Ho Chi Minh City by car. However, due to constant traffic jams, the plan was delayed by nearly a day. Thuy Nhi went to work a week later than the company's general schedule, which helped her save nearly 5 million VND, about 2/3 of her monthly salary.
Coming to work late, Thuy Nhi still had to ensure the progress of her work at the company. "Apart from not using fingerprint attendance which was approved by her boss, I just did the rest of my work remotely, held online meetings, and discussed via group chat," Thuy Nhi said.
Also a "content person", Thanh Nam (from Quang Ngai) decided to take Tet holiday until after the 10th of January before returning to Ho Chi Minh City to work. Saying that Tet holiday until the 10th sounds fancy and enjoyable, but in fact, from the 4th of Tet, Nam had to hug the computer to work. He only changed his seat at home instead of at the company.
To convince his "boss", Mr. Nam set himself a higher KPI than everyone else. "My company calculates by product, KPI is based on views, so I just registered to be about 20% higher than everyone else, in return I get to work remotely. Whether the work is far or near, whether I have to go to the company is not that important," Mr. Nam said.
As of February 5 (January 8), Trung Duc (28 years old) also said he was only planning to return to Ho Chi Minh City to work, the date and time largely depended on when he could buy cheap tickets.
“What about work in the city?”, we asked.
"My monthly salary as a sales employee is not enough to buy a one-way ticket, when the ticket price is currently over 6 million VND/ticket. There are many people in the company like me, if they don't run at the beginning of the year, they will make up for it later," Duc said.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/chat-vat-quay-lai-tp-hcm-vi-gia-ve-may-bay-tren-troi-hon-ca-thang-luong-20250205084939958.htm
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