Flying with Golf Clubs to Vietnam 2026: Baggage Fees by Airline (Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet & 10 More)

Last updated: July 2026

Flying with golf clubs to Vietnam means checking 13 different airline policies before you land in Da Nang, and Vietnam Airlines’ own website contradicts itself on whether your golf bag flies free. Vietjet and Scoot skip the “free golf bag” idea entirely and just charge for whatever checked weight you book.

Quick answer: Most full-service carriers (Vietnam Airlines, Bamboo, Korean Air, Asiana) allow one golf set up to 23kg free of charge on eligible fares, on top of your normal luggage. Budget carriers flying into Da Nang — Vietjet, Scoot, AirAsia, Jetstar — treat golf clubs as ordinary checked baggage, so you simply need to pre-book enough weight, and doing that online is consistently cheaper than paying at the airport counter.

How These Airlines Compare at a Glance

Policies get updated without much notice, so treat the table below as a starting point and re-check the fare rules for your specific ticket before you pack.

Figures above are as of July 2026, sourced from each airline’s official baggage or sports-equipment pages where available (see the source notes at the end of this article). Airline baggage policies change — always confirm current terms when you book.

Does Vietnam Airlines Really Give You a Free Golf Bag?

This is the question that sends most golfers down a TripAdvisor rabbit hole, and honestly, the airline’s own website doesn’t make it easy.

One Vietnam Airlines page — the golf bag promo page — states plainly that passengers get a luggage allowance of one standard golf bag on international routes, in all booking classes except G. A separate page, buried under Baggage > Special Baggage > Sports Equipment, lays out the real mechanics: one golf set of 23kg or less travels free of charge on eligible domestic fares (excluding classes A, P, G) and international fares (excluding class G), or if you hold Titanium-tier Lotusmiles status — but that same page also states golf sets “are not included in the free baggage allowance.”

Read together, the fee page is telling you the golf set ships free and separately from your normal checked bag weight — it’s a bonus allowance, not a deduction from your existing quota. But taken in isolation, that one sentence reads like the opposite, and it’s exactly the kind of wording that generates confused TripAdvisor threads every golf season.

Our advice: don’t rely on either page alone. Call the Vietnam Airlines contact center (1900 1100 within Vietnam, +84 24 38320320 from abroad) or email Telesales@vietnamairlines.com and ask for written confirmation of your golf bag allowance against your specific booking class before you fly. It takes five minutes and avoids an argument at the check-in counter.

What About Vietjet and Bamboo Airways?

Vietjet takes a simpler, if less generous, approach: there’s no free golf allowance at all. Golf equipment with total dimensions (length + width + height) under 203cm is simply treated as standard checked baggage, capped at 32kg per piece. That means the only thing that matters is whether you’ve pre-purchased enough checked weight to cover your clubs plus everything else in your bag. As of July 2026, a 20kg checked baggage tier on Vietjet runs around 200,000 VND (about $8) for domestic routes and around 480,000 VND (about $18) for international Southeast Asia routes when booked online within 24 hours of reservation — buying the same tier at the airport counter costs noticeably more, per Vietjet’s own baggage service terms.

Bamboo Airways sits closer to Vietnam Airlines’ model: in addition to your normal checked baggage allowance, you’re entitled to check one golf set free of charge, provided it meets the standard 23kg weight limit. Go over that, or check a set without the accompanying free allowance, and Bamboo’s special baggage fees apply — roughly 780,000 VND (about $30) per 32kg piece on domestic routes, or USD45 (booked more than 3 hours before departure) to USD55 (within 3 hours) on the Vietnam-Thailand international route, based on Bamboo’s published special baggage fee table.

Which International Airlines Fly Golfers Into Da Nang?

Da Nang International Airport (DAD) receives direct and connecting flights from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Hong Kong, and increasingly Australia, so golfers usually transit through one of a handful of hub carriers before reaching Central Vietnam.

Singapore Airlines and its budget arm Scoot both count golf clubs toward your existing checked baggage allowance rather than offering a separate free set — Singapore Airlines requires a hard case and applies excess baggage rates once you’re over your fare’s normal weight limit, while Scoot simply treats golf clubs as part of whatever baggage tier you’ve pre-purchased (Economy has no baggage included by default, so you’ll need to add 20-40kg at booking). AirAsia follows the same pre-book-and-pay logic — sports equipment, golf included, needs to be added to your booking in advance, and doing that online is consistently cheaper than paying at the check-in desk.

Malaysia Airlines only waives the fee for Enrich Platinum elite members, who get one golf set up to 15kg free; everyone else pays fare-class-dependent charges confirmed at check-in — worth a call ahead if you’re not status-carrying. Jetstar and Qantas both treat a golf bag as part of your normal checked weight, with Jetstar adding a flat oversized-item handling fee (around $25 AUD/NZD) if the bag’s longest side exceeds 1 metre, and Qantas only charging extra if the clubs become an additional piece beyond your ticket’s allowance.

Korean Air, Asiana, Cathay Pacific, and the Taiwan carriers EVA Air and China Airlines all extend a version of the same courtesy: golf bags get a larger size allowance than standard luggage (Korean Air up to 292cm, Asiana up to 277cm, Cathay Pacific up to 203cm) without triggering an oversize fee, as long as the weight stays within your normal allowance — typically 23kg before an overweight charge kicks in. Cathay Pacific is the outlier worth flagging: exceed 158cm in total dimensions and a flat USD 200 oversize fee applies regardless of weight, on top of any standard excess baggage charge.

How Should You Pack Golf Clubs for the Flight?

A hard travel case protects clubs far better than a padded soft cover, and it’s the only option a few carriers (Singapore Airlines, EVA Air) explicitly require. The trade-off is weight — hard cases typically add 3-5kg before you’ve packed a single club, which matters when you’re already close to a 23kg cutoff.

A few packing habits cut damage risk regardless of which case you use:

• Detach the driver head if your case allows it, or at minimum wrap the clubhead separately — drivers take the worst impact damage in transit.
• Pack a towel or pool noodle down each side of the bag to stop clubs shifting and clacking against each other.
• Remove balls from a sleeve and pack them loose in gaps — a full sleeve of a dozen balls adds unnecessary weight right where you’re trying to save it.
• Tag the case with your name, phone number and Da Nang hotel address inside and outside, in case an external tag is torn off in handling.

What If Your Clubs Are Delayed or Damaged at Da Nang Airport?

Go straight to the airline’s Lost & Found or baggage service desk in the DAD arrivals hall before you leave the terminal — once you’ve walked out, filing a claim gets considerably harder. Ask staff to file a Property Irregularity Report (PIR), which is the document that formally starts tracing and any compensation process.

If your round is booked for the next morning and your clubs are still in transit, renting a set locally is the practical fix rather than rescheduling — our where to rent golf clubs in Da Nang covers current rental rates and where to pick up a set near the main courses on short notice.

Booking Sports Baggage on Budget Airlines from Singapore or Kuala Lumpur

Golfers flying Scoot or AirAsia from Singapore or Kuala Lumpur are usually looking at a 2-2.5 hour flight — short enough that bringing your own clubs is generally worth the baggage fee rather than relying on rental for a multi-round trip. The one habit that saves real money: add your sports/golf baggage allowance at the same time you book the flight. Every LCC in this article prices baggage in tiers that get progressively more expensive closer to departure, and airport counter rates are the most expensive tier of all.

Our team at GoGolfVietnam, a Da Nang-based golf tour operator, fields this exact question from Singapore and Malaysia-based golfers most weeks during peak booking season — the short answer we give is almost always to lock in the baggage add-on the same day you buy the ticket, then confirm it shows on your booking confirmation before you leave for the airport.

For golfers connecting through a second Vietnamese city before reaching Da Nang, whether you need to recollect your clubs depends entirely on whether the full journey is on one ticket — see the FAQ below for how that plays out with a Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City connection.

If flying with your own clubs across two or three connections sounds like more hassle than it’s worth, it’s worth weighing that against a longer stay — golfers doing a full 8-day golf trip covering three Da Nang-area courses get more rounds out of the baggage fee than someone flying in for a quick 2-round weekend, where renting locally might genuinely be cheaper once you add up both legs of the flight.

Once your flights and baggage are sorted, the next practical question is usually tee time availability — our guide to booking tee times in Da Nang covers how far ahead to book during peak season.

Browse current Da Nang golf packages if you’d rather have tee times, transfers and hotel stays arranged in advance instead of piecing together flights and rounds separately.

FAQ – Flying with Golf Clubs to Vietnam

Every airline in this list treats a golf bag slightly differently, and the fee gap between booking online and paying at the counter is usually bigger than the gap between airlines — get your baggage sorted at the same time you book the flight and the rest of this list becomes background reading rather than a last-minute scramble.