French woman detained after assaulting Vietnamese Airport Staff

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam: A 31-year old French woman was detained at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City after ruthlessly beating two airport ticket agents, police said on Friday. The woman, whose name is being withheld until her family is notified, attacked two Tiger Airways airport ticket agents after it took them 90 minutes to issue two tickets.

Police say the detainee and her husband were attempting to travel from Hue, Vietnam to Singapore via Ho Chi Minh City. They had already traveled from Hue to Ho Chi Minh City on Vietnam Airlines earlier that day.

Tiger Airways, a Singapore-based low cost carrier owned by Singapore Airlines, routinely offers the lowest fare on the Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore segment. However, the travelers claim (later verified by Flyertalk.com) their website does not accept western credit cards. The couple then called the local Tiger Airways reservation line, whose agent claimed they could not pay by phone, and were instructed to either:
- send their credit card information via unencrypted e-mail to a shady e-mail address (sales@apt.vn); or
- hang up, call the same number, and leave a voicemail with the credit card number and all relevant information.

The reservations agent also advised the travelers they were no Tiger Airways affiliated travel agents in Hue, and that they could not purchase a ticket at the airport. "So, if I understand you correctly, there are seats available, but we can't pay via Internet, can't pay by phone, and can't pay at the airport." , said the disgruntled French woman.

Three other airlines fly the Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore route: JetStar Asia (a subsidiary of Australia's Qantas), Vietnam Airlines, Garuda Indonesian, and Singapore Airlines.
- JetStar and Vietnam weren't options, as the flights left before they would arrive in Ho Chi Minh City;
- Garuda does not meet International Aviation Safety standards; in fact, the US-based Federal Aviation Administration and Australian Government recommends avoiding all Indonesian based carriers.
- Singapore Airlines, considered amongst the finest airlines in the world, is triple the price of its low cost subsidiary.

The travelers, thinking the telephone reservations agent was an idiot, decided to fly to Ho Chi Minh City and purchase two Tiger Airways ticket at the airport. If that wasn't feasible, they would simply purchase tickets on Singapore Airlines. "How can an airline not allow people to purchase tickets at the airport?", said the detainee's husband.

Tiger Airways Ho Chi Minh City airport ticketing booth opens 2.5 hours before flight departure. So, the travelers waited until the booth opened. Once open, 2 ticket agents spent about 90 minutes issuing the tickets, which included numerous calls to the Tiger Airways reservations center in Singapore. In fact, rather than providing proper tickets, they simply wrote a cryptic message on a torn piece of paper, and told the travelers to hand this to the check-in agent. The French woman, claiming to endured incompetent and ineffective customer service for the majority of her time in Vietnam, lost control and began senseless beating the two ticket agents. The detainee's husband claims this type of irrational overreaction is not unusual for his wife.

Vietnamese government officials say she is being transfered to the "Hanoi Hilton", where "she will be treated with care".