“… If someone could let us know that this letter has arrived at the right places, we would greatly appreciate it!…..“

This is last sentence in an email from an Australian passenger to VNA hoping its headmen recognize how good their services and amazing their people are. There would be a great miss were this story not to spread widely. Thus, I assigned myself the responsibility to retell the story on Spirit – Vietnam Airlines through my lenses.

The incident was described in great details by the wife, counting from the moment the husband was hospitalized during the transit of the Australian couple at Tan Son Nhat on their journey from London to Sydney, and the difficulties having been encountered in 9-day stay in Vietnam until their return to Sydney.

Specifically, in the morning of August 15th, 2019, passenger R.E.J (born in 1943, of Australian nationality) on flight VN773 SGN-SYD suffered a heart attack while in the transit at Tan Son Nhat airport. He was then quickly transferred to Central Military Hospital 175 for emergency treatment. Immediately, a TOC representative was sent to the hospital to stay on duty and support the customers. Thankfully, after the emergency operation, the client was no longer in critical condition.  

During the days when passenger R.E.J received treatment at the hospital, TOC representatives kept visiting and supporting the passengers enthusiastically, from monitoring the health status, communicating with the doctors to arrange accommodation for the accompanying passenger…

Ms. Ha, a team member and Mr. Tien Manh (TOC Passenger Service Department) visited the Australian passengers. (Photo: TOC).

In the email to VNA after the trip, the wife kept repeating  the name Pham Ly. Ly is a TOC employee, a duty staff on August 15th, 2019 who supported the two Australian passengers from their arrival until their departure. I have never met Pham Ly, I am not even sure if I got her full name correctly. After the incident, I decided to contact  Ly for information verification. As for what I received, I think there is no word to describe the whole heart that Ly gave to the passengers despite the fact that the wife has spent many beautiful words to praised her, “Everything seems to have collapsed until you came, then I could see the sky.”

Ms. Pham Ly who directly supported the Australian passengers. (Photo: TOC).

When receiving the complimentary letter Ly said: “… I feel very happy and reassured to read Catherine’s letter. I have received a lot of thanks from them, from the time Mr. Robert was in the hospital until he took off to fly back to Sydney…. Feeling nervous, I continued to pray during the flight time, hoping he would make it home. I knew my prayers were answered when getting informed by Catherine that they had arrived safely in a warm welcome of their son. To me, that was the biggest happiness….”

But Ly is just one of the many amazing staffs at TOC. I used to work directly with TOC in a very small division namely the Transit Tour service, the service for passengers under the sixth Freedoms of the Air in transit at Tan Son Nhat. Transit Tour is neither too complicated nor pressure, but, it would be a great challenge to adhere with regulations, achieve reasonable flexibility, ensure service quality control and not to make mistakes in the whole service chain. This requires employees to be professional and especially devoted to the job doing. I know such a person, that is Thu Thuy, who is in charge of the Transit Tour service at TOC. It can be said that Thuy is the activator of Transit Tour service and Ly is the person who finishes it in a closed chain. It would be incomplete if we do not mention other silent people, such as Ms. Ha, a staff member of TOC Passenger Service Department, who timely came to the hospital to visit and encourage passengers along with Mr. Tien Manh (Passenger Service Department) or Ms. Kim Anh and Mr. Phuong (Administrative and Accounting Department).

That is my view of the TOC Transit Tour and I would like to conclude with a phrase “Dedicated and Professional”. Below are the reviews of the Australian passengers on VNA through the TOC lens.

Do Khoi Nguyen-MSD DGM