United Airlines’ New Flights to Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City Now on Sale

United Airlines recently announced a major expansion in the Pacific, adding new flights to Adelaide, Australia, and boosting its flight offerings to Manila, Philippines. That announcement also included the addition of 2 new routes to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Bangkok, Thailand.

Now, the flights to these new destinations in Vietnam and Thailand are on sale, with service starting on October 26, 2025.

Here’s how you can book these flights — either with cash or by redeeming your miles.

United’s New Flights to Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh

United announced these new routes at the beginning of April. When these flights start on October 26, United will be the first U.S.-based carrier to serve Bangkok (BKK) and Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) nonstop.

Interestingly, these flights will not start in the U.S. but will fly to and from Hong Kong (HKG). Service to both BKK and SGN from HKG will operate daily with a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft.

Flights will operate according to the following schedules:

Since these flights operate out of Hong Kong, you’ll need to get there first. United provides nonstop service to HKG from both San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angeles (LAX).

Best Ways To Book

It’s possible to book these flights with cash or miles from the United Airlines MileagePlus program.

For the flights between Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh, tickets in the first week after service begins are noticeably more expensive (at $344 to $513 one-way in economy) than flights later in November, dropping to $240 in economy and $721 in business class.

Using miles for these flights, expect to pay 18,100 miles per person in economy or a whopping 75,000 miles in business class for the 2hr 40min flight. All redemptions on this flight provide relatively poor value for your United miles, compared to our average valuation of United miles at 1.2 cents apiece.

Passengers on the 2hr 50min flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok will see the same prices in premium economy (50k) and business (75k) but will save a bit in economy (paying 17,900 miles each).

These flights cost $241 in economy on most dates, barring the more expensive first date of service (costing $335). Business class is available starting at $671.

If you’re paying cash for these flights, make sure to use one of the best credit cards for airfare purchases to get a good return on spending.

Final Thoughts

United Airlines will become the first U.S. airline to fly to both Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok this fall, and those flights are now on sale. You can book these relatively short flights using cash or miles. Given the crazy number of miles required for business-class seats on these awards, those bookings don’t make sense. However, cash prices for a full-service carrier aren’t too bad for any seat on these flights.