K-Pop Fans Mob A 747-8 To Get Wanna One Autographs, Delay Flight By An Hour

December 17, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

Korea culture has its fair share of attention in Hong Kong – our city singlehandedly has such a large part of the entire genre’s fanbase that Mnet’s annual K-Pop awards have been hosted in Hong Kong for the past four years. I don’t listen to K-Pop (unless I’m jamming to it as part of a band), but I sure do notice the extent of our fanbase. I figured I’d share an aviation-related example, which I found rather ridiculous, but isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things (well, unless someone missed their connection).

On Saturday, boy band Wanna One flew home on Korean Air after performing for the Mnet awards. A few fans managed to track down their inbound flight, and booked refundable tickets in first class, business class, as well as economy.

Korean Air Boeing 747-8 Hong Kong Airport

Continue reading “K-Pop Fans Mob A 747-8 To Get Wanna One Autographs, Delay Flight By An Hour” →

Save 15% Off Your Next Korean Air Premium Ticket With AmEx (HK$18,500 RT Business Class to Vancouver For Christmas)

August 18, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Korean Air is offering 15% off all premium cabin tickets to all AmEx Hong Kong cardholders from Hong Kong to Korea, the Americas, and Japan before February 28, 2019.

This is in addition to the 10% discount that they are offering to all economy tickets within the same time period.

Korean Air features one of my favourite business class products, with Apex Suites in business class. These are fully flat seats that are especially private, if you can snag a window seat. I flew Korean Air’s business class from Hong Kong to Seoul and back, and was pleased with the experience.

Fly one of the world’s best business class hard products longhaul for 15% off

While Korean Air currently hasn’t scheduled any aircraft with this business class configuration to fly between Seoul and Hong Kong after October 28 (you can learn which product your flight will feature using this post), many of Korean Air’s longhaul flights to the U.S. and Canada currently feature their newest business class seat.

Here’s how to get 15% off your next Korean Air flight in a premium cabin.

Continue reading “Save 15% Off Your Next Korean Air Premium Ticket With AmEx (HK$18,500 RT Business Class to Vancouver For Christmas)” →

How To Know Which First/Business Class Product You’re Getting On Korean Air

August 17, 2018August 17, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

This should be particularly useful for those of us in Hong Kong flying to Seoul in a Korean Air premium cabin, as I’m sure Korean Air has a “never fly the same aircraft type with the same flight number twice” policy on each of their four daily flights between these two cities. 😉

Korean Air has one of the most poorly designed airline websites I’ve had the pleasure of using. It’s easy to actually (dummy) book and access flights, though there’s a buffer time upon selecting each seat upon seat selection (you have to wait 8-10 seconds after you select each seat, so you better not misclick), you can’t “cross-reference” cabins (pull up economy and business class fares at the same time), a lot of the time you can’t check-in online because of issues with Korean Air’s website with verifying non-Korean credit cards, and mobile boarding passes rarely work during check-in.

It’s a shame, because the onboard experience is exceedingly pleasant, and in quite a few cases, competitive – especially in economy.

However, there’s one benefit to Korean Air’s website – it’s very easy to identify which product you’ll be getting (provided there isn’t an equipment swap). The issue is that no one seems to know – I’ve seen so many complaints, even from so-called “travel experts”, when flying Korean Air that they had no idea which product they were getting. I decided I’d write about that in a separate post.

So, here’s how you know which premium product you’re going to be flying on a Korean Air flight:

Continue reading “How To Know Which First/Business Class Product You’re Getting On Korean Air” →

Review: Korean Air 777 Business Class Seoul to Hong Kong

August 15, 2018August 20, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Introduction: A Wandering Seoul
SkyTeam Lounge Hong Kong
Korean Air 747-8 Business Class Hong Kong To Seoul (First Class Seat)
Park Hyatt Seoul Park Suite Twin
Korean Air Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Terminal 2 (East)
Korean Air Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Terminal 2 (West)
Korean Air 777 Business Class Seoul to Hong Kong

After visiting both of Korean Air’s dismal new lounges at Incheon Airport, it was time to head home to Hong Kong. I got to gate 252 and enquired to the gate agent if I could be assigned a first class seat, since they were selling them as business class seats on our flight (I did something similar on our outbound flight on the 747-8, and got lucky). Unfortunately I got a firm no from the gate agent – while he was cold, the gate agent showed me the system on his computer screen to prove that those seats were reserved for full-fare business class passengers (we were booked into the lowest fare bucket), which I thought was a very responsible thing to do.

While the majority of “our” gate area faced parked at the gate next to us, from the corner of the gate area I spotted the 777-300ER that would be flying us home.

Korean Air Boeing 777 Seoul Incheon Airport

I was “gate lice” for around 10-15 minutes since I wanted to get better cabin pictures, and soon they started up boarding for the infirm, followed by business class passengers. There was a rather old man in a wheelchair that had brought his family of around nine people, and they were all seated in business class, which I found rather interesting (and was happy about, since I always feel terrible when an infirm passenger is seated in economy).

Continue reading “Review: Korean Air 777 Business Class Seoul to Hong Kong” →

Review: Korean Air Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Terminal 2 (West)

August 13, 2018August 15, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

After briefly visiting the East business class lounge that Korean Air operates at Incheon’s new Terminal 2, I headed over to the West lounge so I could check it out. I planned on spending more time there, since it was marginally closer to our gate, and it was larger.

The lounge directly overlooks gate 249, and is reachable via an escalator right next to gate 249. I went up the escalator and across a footbridge to get to the lounge. The footbridge afforded very nice views of the airport terminal.

Incheon Terminal 2 Airside Concourse

Past the footbridge to the left was an entrance to the Korean Air West lounge. I joined the short queue to get my boarding pass scanned before making my way into the lounge.

Continue reading “Review: Korean Air Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Terminal 2 (West)” →

Review: Korean Air Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Terminal 2 (East)

August 11, 2018August 15, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

While we had a great time in Seoul (which I’ll talk about in an upcoming post, though obviously I don’t specialise in maximising my time in cities – yet), it was time to get home on our 7:45 PM flight. We got to the airport at 4:30 PM – we weren’t actually intending to get to the airport so early, but we’d spent the morning at Alpacaworld and got back to civilisation earlier than expected.

Korean Air Terminal 2 Seoul Incheon

Seeing some Korean Air signage colours we headed towards the left side of the airport terminal, but after walking a fair distance we came across a sign saying that premium check-in was all the way on the very right of the check-in hall, by aisle A. I would’ve appreciated more signage indicating where to check in, and didn’t appreciate that Korean Air’s check-in at their hub airport for premium passengers and economy passengers were at opposite ends of the check-in hall. This would be a nuisance especially for families and groups traveling across different cabin classes (can you imagine how much trouble an unprepared large tour group would have if some of their members were flying in business class/had frequent flyer status?).

Anyway, Korean Air “encloses” their premium check-in desk for first and business class passengers.

Continue reading “Review: Korean Air Business Class Lounge Seoul Incheon Terminal 2 (East)” →

Review: Korean Air 747-8 Business Class Hong Kong To Seoul (First Class Seat)

August 8, 2018August 19, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

While I had booked myself in business class on the Korean Air 747-8, as I detailed in a separate post, Korean Air opened up their first class seats for business class passengers to select two days before departure. That’s quite standard for a few airlines on shorthaul flights, though this was the first time I’d flown a three-cabin flight with a two-class service. At the check-in desk I was denied a seat in the first class cabin (the plan was actually to get the rest of my family seats in the empty first class cabin, as I still wanted to review the Apex Suite), as the seats “weren’t for sale”.

I left the SkyTeam lounge at 1:15 PM and made it to gate 60 by around 1:30 PM for our 1:35 PM boarding time. Going to the gate desk, I decided to slip in a sneaky question if I could have a seat swap. To my surprise, without even giving her my boarding pass, she recognised that I was traveling in a group of four, and gave me a new boarding pass for seat 2A.

I believe the check-in desk decided to contact a higher-up after we expressed discontent, as we were misinformed by the call center that we’d “definitely” get the first class seats if they were available. The higher-ups then confirmed to them that we were indeed allowed to assign seats in first class, so they paged the gate agents to make the change for us. At least that’s what I believe ended up happening.

I was going to seat the rest of my family in the first class cabin and stay in business myself so I could review the Apex Suite, but what was I to do? Complain? At that point, people had already started lining up to get on the Korean Air 747-8, so I followed suit.

The gate agents, while friendly, were not very helpful in suppressing my excitement by stating that the last row of first class was also empty.

Korean Air Boeing 747-8 Hong Kong Airport

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Introduction: A Wandering Seoul

August 6, 2018August 15, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

This trip report will consist of comprehensive reviews of the flights, lounges, and hotels that I visited during a quick family trip to Seoul, including a roundtrip booked on Korean Air business class.

Needing to be in Seoul with my family, I immediately had a look at Korean Air and Asiana’s business class prices on the route, since I know that Korean Air and Asiana consistently offer low prices on regional flights (the same can’t be said about their longhaul flights, though). I was able to pull up fares of HK$5,200 roundtrip on both airlines, which I don’t consider to be astronomical for intra-Asian business class (Cathay Pacific charges thrice as much). I would also be able to earn Korean Air SkyPass miles had I flown Korean Air, and Singapore KrisFlyer miles had I flown Asiana. I had also flown Korean Air many times before, but I’ve never flown Asiana.

One deciding factor made the choice very easy for me. Korean Air was flying some of their new aircraft with Apex Suites between Hong Kong and Seoul, which we’d be able to book ourselves onto on the outbound flight, despite not being able to on the return flight. Meanwhile, Asiana was flying A330s and 747s between the two cities, both of which feature angled flat seats that wouldn’t make as exciting of a review.

Korean Air Boeing 747-8 Business Class

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Incheon’s Disappointing Brand New Terminal 2

August 2, 2018August 2, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday I flew Korean Air from Seoul Incheon to Hong Kong, and I detailed my initial thoughts in a “preview” post as usual (the review will come next week). To get to my flight I had to use Seoul Incheon’s brand new Terminal 2, which Korean Air started using in January this year. I’ve heard very good things about the terminal, and was excited to check it out.

Korean Air Terminal 2 Seoul Incheon

Incheon’s Terminal 2 is a really nice terminal. The terminal is airy, the waiting lines are way shorter than in Terminal 1, and everything is pretty new, which I like. However, I was left disappointed and don’t think the terminal has anything on some of the best in the world, such as Singapore Changi or even Hong Kong Airport.

Why, might you ask? What’s not to love?

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What Is Korean Air’s Old 777 Business Class Like?

August 2, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

I’ve spent some time with friends and family in Seoul over the past week, and just last Friday I detailed my (unexpected, given the circumstances) reseating in Korean Air 747-8 first class on the way to Incheon Airport. On the same ticket I had to get back home, and just now I did so on a Korean Air 777-300ER. While I would’ve wanted to get on one of Korean Air’s frequencies with Apex Suites, the flight we ended up booking was more suited to our schedules by far, so I was happy to try out Korean Air’s older product on the way home. While I’ve done so on the Korean Air A330 and 777-200, it’s been a couple of years, and I’ve never flown Korean Air’s 777-300ER.

Korean Air Boeing 777-300ER Business Class

Once again the first class cabin was opened up for business class seat selection on this flight. However, they only decided to open up the cabin to full fare passengers, and we were booked into the lowest fare bucket (while I’ve written that you shouldn’t take BS from an airport officer when it comes to managing your travels, this is a reason I can completely get behind). So while I didn’t get to sit there, I still got to photograph the first class seat, which I’ll include in the full review.

With that, how was my flight? Good, actually – I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Continue reading “What Is Korean Air’s Old 777 Business Class Like?” →

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