Korean Air Trip Report

[skywalkerLAX]

Thanks for the TR !

Food looks pretty good overall, the aircraft interior however seems to be a bit dated. Such a long journey and no 180 degree lie flat would be tough on me. But hey, better than riding in Y !

Looking forward to the A380 once it's in the fleet.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Well done!

Not sure about the FO swanning about greeting people. Must be Korean custom........

 

[TiredOldFlyer]

Well done!

Not sure about the FO swanning about greeting people. Must be Korean custom........

I was impressed that the pilot, in our case the Captain, with a great deal of Asian sincerity, taking the time to come to talk to us. "Hello Mr TOF, Hello
Mrs TOF". "Thanks for flying with us tonight - hope you have enjoyed our service." "Anything we can do to make your flight more enjoyable - just ask."

I little bit of old fashioned courtesy - goes a long way. Perhaps some other airlines should take note !

(Of course I am Old and Tired and remember when a tie and jacket were required when flying)

 

[dajop]

Great TR. Recently had my first KE experience, and whilst it wasn't quite SYD-ICN-YVR in J it was pretty good for what it was, and echo your sentiments around the service. A much shorter segment TAO-ICN in Y ... 1:25 only. Plane was a new looking A330 with seatback AVOD. I was in the front three rows (probably thanks to AF status match that has me as gold in skyteam and served me well this year). Heaps of legroom for this short flight, certainly more than on SQ and QF A330s, and with empty seat beside me the flight was very comfortable. Was greeted personally (in seat) before take off by cabin manager, a nice touch. Chose a TV show to watch for entertainment, selection OK, and was served a light meal - which consisted of a very fresh roll with a meat (ham IIRC) and salad filling, accompanied by a salad of cherry tomatoes and bocconcini in olive oil, a bowl of (hot) miso soup and fresh pineapple. I chose some OJ ( Original Juice branded from Australia) from the drink trolley. All in all a very pleasant short flight, up there with the best for this length sector.

 

[MarkD]

Man those prawns looked mighty good on the 777 flight

 

[anchew]

So, I wasn't intending to doing a TR for the return trip, but after Vinny's post

Thanks for the report. Looking forward for the return journey.

and the The Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community - Korean Air Trip Report article, which also quoted Vinny's post, I felt that I couldn't let my fellow AFF community down .

Here's the first leg.

 

[anchew]

KE72 YVR–ICN
Departure time 1300
Arrival time: 1740

We arrived at the airport at around 10:30am. KE had four separate lanes for checkin – First, Prestige (aka Business), Morning Calm members (equivalent to QFF Silver) and everyone else (i.e economy pax). When we arrived, there was no one in any of the three premium checkin lanes so we were served immediately.

With two boarding passes, a lounge invitation and baggage receipt in hand, we headed for airside. At the security checkpoint, we were able to use the ‘fast lane’ by showing the airport staff managing the line our boarding pass (it has a small round sticker on it to show eligibility). After passing through security, with the mandatory shoes off, we headed directly to the lounge. Like the US outbound immigration process, it was non-existent here too. All they did was scan our boarding passes as we entered the security line, then once again at the x-ray machines.

At Vancouver Airport, KE uses the Plaza Premium Lounge, which is located just behind duty free, a short stroll from security. It seems that this lounge predominantly caters for the Asian airlines, such as Korean Air, JAL, Air China, China Southern, China Eastern etc. We were advised upon entry into the lounge that there’s a special area reserved for Korean Air pax so that’s where we plonked ourselves (even though the sign says otherwise), but we were also welcome to relax in any area of the lounge. The food in the lounge was predominately Asian (rice porridge, red bean soup, sui mai) but they also had spaghetti and meatballs.



View of the KE/JL reserved area from the rear left:


This time from the rear right:

 

[anchew]

The food area in the main part of the lounge:






There were also some food in the reserved area:

 

[anchew]

We headed for the boarding gate as soon as they announced boarding and when we arrived, they were boarding Y pax from rows 38 to 53. How did I know? There was a guy holding a sign up high stating so. We found the premium boarding line to the left of the long Y queue. We were the only ones there so were processed straight way.

On board, it was obvious that they called for premium boarding before inviting Y pax because it seemed like we were the last J pax to board. Our mini-cabin was just over half full with 9 seats out of 14 occupied. On this flight, I was in the bulkhead just behind F.

View of the F cabin from my seat:


Obligatory leg room shots:




Screen in the bulkhead:


Power points in the armrest:


As we entered the J cabin, a swam of F/As (well… probably more like 3) surrounded us and eagerly assisted us stow our baggage in the overhead lockers. I thought that that was funny because I’ve never had that reception on board before. Once we were settled into our seats, we were offered pre-flight drinks, nuts and newspapers. Not long afterwards, the CSM (they were called pursers on KE) came around to welcome us (kind of glad it wasn’t the FO this time), then amenity kits were handed out and slippers were already in the pocket in front.

One thing I didn’t notice on my flights to YVR is that just prior to pushing back when the CSM made an announcement welcoming the passengers on board, during the Korean spiel, the F/As would stand at the front of the cabin and bow to the pax. For some reason, it made me slightly uncomfortable. But not long afterwards, the safety video was screened (with no F/A involvement at all), we were pushing back and the AVOD inflight entertainment system started so I was watching some previews to decide what movies to watch on this 11 hours or so flight.

One thing that does let KE down is that they don’t issue J with noise cancelling headphones, just the normal ones that you find in Y. But not to worry, I always travel with my own Sennheiser in-ear earphones. The plug for the entertainment unit on KE is the usual 3.5mm plugs so it can fit the common headphone/earphone jack.

 

[anchew]

Ife:

 

[anchew]

More IFE:

 

[anchew]

As soon as the seatbelt sign was extinguished, the F/As handed out menus then almost immediately, took our orders so we had to decide fast what we wanted for lunch and dinner.

Wine list:


Menu:

 

[anchew]

Lunch service started around an hour into the flight. One excellent aspect of the service that I noticed on this flight was that the F/As would bring out your next course as soon as you had finished with the previous. The main reason I noticed this was because I was eating quite slowly and when the pax next to me finished his entre, they quickly cleared it away and brought his mains out. I was quite impressed. Is this usual of other airlines? I recall having to wait between courses on other airlines.

Seared scallop with yellow pepper coulis:


Crabmeat salad with prosciutto rose and melon:


Carrot cream soup:


Pan seared Chilean sea bass with arabiatta sause served with red skin potato and vegetables:


Passion fruit ice-cream


At the end of the meal service, bottles of water were handed out, then the cabin dimmed while I went about my movie marathon.

 

[anchew]

Around half way through the flight, the F/As brought around freshly baked cookies, and were these cookies to die for. My colleagues sitting in seats behind me wanted some more so the F/As brought them another round, which apparently took 20mins to bake. I wanted some tea to go with the cookies so I pressed the call button and a F/A was there within seconds to take my order and made my tea within a couple of minutes. One thing about KE F/As is that they seemed enthusiastic to ensure that our flight was comfortable.

 

[anchew]

At around 4 hours prior to arrival (remember it’s a day flight), the lights came on, hot towels handed out, and water/juice offered. Shortly after, diner service commenced. A selection of wine was brought out in a basket so you could see what was on offer and point to your selection.

Seasonal salad with tomato and cucumber serviced with lemon and olive oil dressing:


Korean style roast beef 'Dduck-galbi' served with steamed rice and mushroom:


Fresh fruit:


Around 40 minutes prior to landing, water and juice was offered again. A F/A then came around to all the pax that had connecting KE flights to personally inform them of the flight’s departure gate – a very nice touch, I thought.

 

[Vinny]

Thanks so much for the trip on the return journey. It looks very good and well worth a try. The food looks excellent and the FAs seem to be trained to look after their pax. Very impressive. Just when I'm searching for a new airline to get me to and from Europe.

I'll definately check prices and schedules for my future trips to CDG. A bonus would be that as I have never been to Seoul it would give me a chance to spend a few days there. It would make a change from SIN, as well as BKK and HKG, both of which I enjoy a great deal.

 

[anchew]

KE121 ICN–SYD
Departure time 1910
Arrival time 0710

Transferring between our flights was once again very smooth. Being one of the first ones off the plane, we encountered an empty transfer area and cleared security in no time at all. Once we were on the departures level, we headed straight for the Prestige Lounge near gate 11. By that time, we had around 30 minutes before boarding so I decided to have a quick shower. The procedure here is that you ask at the front desk, hand over your boarding pass, and they’ll give you a key to one of the shower rooms. At the time I enquired, all the shower rooms were occupied so they gave me a buzzer, similar to the ones you get in food courts. But I didn’t have to wait long. Around 5 minutes later, the buzzer went off and I had keys to shower room 1 in my hot little hands. It was obvious that they clean the showers after every use as it was clean and tidy. They had all the amenity a man would want, all in large containers rather than hotel style little containers. There were the usual shampoo, conditioner and bath gel, but they also had lotion, after shave, shaving cream, moose and hair spray. In the cupboard they had towels wrapped in plastic with a razor, toothbrush and toothpaste. The amenities in this bathroom seem to just cater for the flying businessman. They must have separate shower rooms for females with female amenities I would imagine, but cannot confirm that.

View of the KE Prestige Lounge at ICN:


Food area:


Grog:


Amenities in the shower room:

 

[anchew]

Like many other airports, boarding calls are not made over the PA in ICN so at 1840 on the dot, we headed down to our boarding gate. When we got there, there was quite a long Y line, but thankfully, the priority lane to the right was empty so we were able to bypass all the Y pax in order to join the queue for the liquids check just before the entrance to the aerobridge. There were like10 airport staff doing the search so the line moved quite quickly, we were on board for our final flight back to Australia.

I was in the bulk head again, but this time in the middle section:


Much smaller IFE screen on the 747 compared with the 777:

 

[anchew]

Travelling on KE this much in such a short period of time, you start to experience a sense of deja vu J. The service is quite methodical and you start to familiarise yourself with the service and you know what to expect.

Pre-flight drinks (water, O/J and sparkling – though my colleague took a glass of water AND sparkling – didn’t know you could do that!), nuts, newspapers, personal CSM welcome (this time with flight time information), public CSM welcome over the PA, the bow by other F/As, safety video presentation then pushback.

For this flight though, the captain announced that departure would be delayed due to a baggage issue. The F/As then came around to each J pax to personally inform us of the delay, which happened twice, seemed a bit of an overkill. We did hear the announcement from the Captain over the PA – must be a cultural thing. After pushing back and taxing for 20 minutes, there was another wait for clearance before taking off. The captain naturally kept us informed and, like before, the F/As came around go give each J pax a personal apology for the delay.

Once we took off and the seatbelt sign went out, it was menus handed out, orders taken, hot towels given (which I forgot to mention on the previous leg), cloth placed on tray then dinner.

Wine list:


Menu:

 

[anchew]

Smoked salmon with red onion and caperberry (didn't take a pic of the bruschetta unfortunately)


Ramen (under the refreshment section)


Champignon cream soup (my colleague's dinner choice):


Grilled beef steak with thyme sauce served with gratinated penne with mixed cheese, roast courgette, eggplant and roasted garlic with balsamic vinegar (also my colleague's dinner choice):


Pecan tart: