Korean Air Trip Report

[anchew]

I couldn't find a trip report for Korean Air before my trip so here's a brief one with lots of pretty pictures. We flew Korean Air from SYD to YVR via ICN in Prestige Class (aka J). Why? Because of (a) BFOD policy; and (b) its half the price of AC.

 

[anchew]

KE 122 SYD-ICN
747-400
Dep 0900
Arr 1730

At the airport

Check-in was easy with priority check-in. Actually, at T-2 hrs it was strangely deserted. Then with two boarding passes in hand (I was surprised to see the gate number printed on the ICN-YVR boarding pass rather than blank) we headed through immigration, security and into the NZ lounge. Boarding was called at 0840 and we headed down to the gate to find that it wasn't even opened yet. There was already a small line in the priority lane and a long one in the general lane. But we didn't have to wait long before they started boarding the priority lane - they held the general boarding lane while they processed the priority lane.

The seat

The seat on this flight was a Prestige Plus seat (similar to QF Mark I) that lies flat but on an angle.
The entertainment system is touch screen AVOD

 

[anchew]

View of the cabin

Very light load on the flight - only 6 people in this mini-cabin of 16 seats




Amenities

Slippers left in the seat pocket.


Amenity kits handed out prior to departure. There were also shavers, shaving cream, after shave, perfume and body lotion in the toilets.

- toothbrush and toothpaste
- hair brush
- eye cream
- lip balm
- face cream

 

[ozmille]

Great pics. Seems comfortable enough. It does take about 6 hours longer on KE but opens up some stopover possibilities.

 

[docjames]

Great to have a TR on a new route/carrier (new to the TR part of the forum!).

Please keep going and complete the report - lots of great pics too.

 

[anchew]

Service

Honey roasted peanuts and orange juice or water were offered prior to take-off, as were a selection of Korean & English newspapers.



The First Officer also came around to welcome all those in J which was a little concerning - shouldn't he be in the coughpit? I also noticed that all announcements were made in Korean, English, then Chinese. Also forgot to mention in the previous post that the AVOD system was gate to gate so I was able to start playing with it as the plane was preparing for takeoff. It included a great selection of Hollywood, European, Chinese and Korean movies and short features.

Soon after take-off, menus were given out, order for breakfast and lunch taken, hot towels offered then drink service began.

Breakfast

As one of my colleague was sitting next to me on this segment, I was able to also take pictures of her meal selections.

Korean style porridge served with savory Korean side dishes (mine):


Then bread/pastries were offered - I chose the danish:


Ramen with side dishes (colleague's):


Fruit salad served after breakfast:

 

[anchew]

Snack

Around half way through the flight, they brought around warm cookies for those who were awake - they were absolutely delicious.


Lunch

Served around 3 hours prior to landing.

Pre-drink service - Juice and seared prawn with mango coulis:


Appetizer - Tuna loin tartare with mixed salad:


Soup - Potato and leek cream soup:


Main - Stir fried chicken with black bean sauce served with egg noodle and Chinese vegetables:

 

[anchew]

My colleague had the Korean 'Bibimbap' offered with mince beef and seasonal vegetables, accompanied by sesame oil and 'Gochujang' (Korean hot pepper paste)


Dessert - Maggie Beer ice-cream, cheese and crackers, and cheese cake (we were able to have two desserts each due to the light load. I had the cheese cake with ice-cream while my colleague had cheese and crackers with ice-cream):


Overall, the I found the cabin crew to be absolutely lovely. They were very polite, courteous and attentive. One of the best service I have experienced.

 

[anchew]

We only had 50 minutes to transit in ICN. Our flight from SYD arrived at the gate spot on 17:30. Transiting was very easy with not much of a line in the transfer security clearing area. Unfortunately, we didn't get to experience the lounge here though. One the return trip, our transit time is 90 minutes so will certainly pop in for a squiz.

KE 71 ICN-YVR
777-200
Dep 18:20
Arr 11:00 (same day)

One thing about KE is that they are quite consistent with their service and it felt like a repeat of the previous flight (hello QF).

The seats were pretty much the same as the previous flight - lie-flat on an angle. The load in our cabin was around 2/3 full.


The entertainment system was the same as the previous flight - (almost) gate-to-gate, touch screen AVOD. However, the screen on the 777 was much larger than the 747.


Amenity kit was included the same products as the previous flight except for the different colour.

 

[anchew]

Pre-flight drinks of orange juice, water, or sparkling wine were offered before take-off and the CSM came around to welcome us on board. After take-off, menus handed out, orders taken and hot towels offered. Similar to the flight before, all announcements were repeated in 3 languages - English, Korean and Chinese.

Dinner

Pre-drink service - Plum in pomegranate vinegar and a glass of ice wine:


Appetizer - Feta Cheese with sliced fig and parma ham:
Bread - garlic mini baguette (also offered were olive oil roll & steamed Chinese bao):


Soup - lentil cream soup:


Main course - Sauteed prawn with Chinese chilli sause served with egg fried rice and mixed Chinese vegetables:


Dessert - Haagen-Dazs ice-cream


Coffee and tea were offered after desserts.
Then lights out for a snooze.

 

[anchew]

Lights were turned on and breakfast served around 90 minutes prior to landing which gave us a good 5 hours of rest.

Breakfast

Vegetable sweet potato frittata served with grilled tomato, roasted pork sausage, mushroom and broccoli and a croissant. Yoghurt was also offered.


Then fruit salad was offered afterwards.


When the cabin crew were preparing for landing, the CSM came around again to thank us for flying Korean Air, which was nice. We then arrived into YVR around 30 minutes early and was out of the airport on our way to downtown Vancouver by 11am.

And there you go - a brief TR on Korean Air.

 

[RB]

Thanks for the report. Food certainly looks good

 

[Timtammi]

Thanks for the TR, I may have the opportunity to fly KE soon so its good to see what it is like.

Cheers

Timmi

 

[trooper]

Food looks quite similar to OZ... and that IS meant as a compliment..:mrgreen:

Except that the pepper sauce with the Bibimbap was in a little plastic tube.. Shock, horror..shock::shock

On OZ it is in a little bowl (in J).... A very minor point admittedly... but perhaps a sign of attention to detail?

No surprise about the cabin crew of course...

Nice report.. thanks!

 

[kpc]

Thanks...enjoyed the report

 

[Carlous Moochous]

Hey mate looks like you guys had a great trip over.. Look forward to hearing how the trip itself is going when you get back. I just posted my review of CZ - at first I thought I might have been a little harsh but after seeing what you got I think I was kind. Enjoy the trip back - hopefully the bit in between flights goes smoothly.

 

[Vinny]

Thanks for the report. Looking forward for the return journey. Have flown OZ to Europe and really enjoyed it. Might consider KE in the future. The price certainly is good.

 

[Nate1001]

I recently flew SYD-ICN-CDG-LHR-ICN-SYD in Y and I must say that I was very impressed with Korean Air. On the SYD-ICN-CDG we had an overnight stop over in Seoul and Korean air organised everything and put us up in a 5* hotel, I was very impressed!

 

[TiredOldFlyer]

I recently flew SYD-ICN-CDG-LHR-ICN-SYD in Y and I must say that I was very impressed with Korean Air. On the SYD-ICN-CDG we had an overnight stop over in Seoul and Korean air organised everything and put us up in a 5* hotel, I was very impressed!

Have to agree - flew to Europe a a year or so ago with Korean in J. Older metal but condition excellent. Food great - service as only the Asians seem able
to provide.

 

[UP4014]

Great trip report, always good to see some photos with them.
Thanks

Matt