Wow what a rush! Let me tell you, I have never in my life, had to cut this close to catch a plane. And its all thanks to the slow check-in counter & tedious tax refund process!!!
We started our day on schedule. Although we had 5 luggages, my helpful sister was sending us off so she helped us with one luggage and we could take train from Seoul Station all the way to the Incheon Airport. This convenient train journey only took about 45 minutes and we were at airport by 8:30am, almost 2.5 hours before departure time.
Oh dear, the Vietnam Airlines check-in counter was extremely slow and inefficient, that we had to wait 1 hour to check in. Arghhh
Anyway, if you purchase more than 30,000 Won in one single receipt, you can request for tax refund receipt, be it from cosmetic shops or shopping centre or even supermarkets. Thus, its advisable to combine your purchases with your friends' to hit that minimum 30,000 Won value. However, there were different tax service providers so not all the businesses will be partners with the same company. The most common were Global Blue Tax Free (Blue), Global Tax Free (Orange) and KT Tourist Reward (Red).
