Korean Air Skypass - Ex-USA J Trip Reports/Lounge Reviews; Sparse on FT

Hello all,

Im traveling from ORD to ICN and onward to DPS in J next weekend and am flying KE for the first time.

Of course I usually look to FT for the latest trip reports, pics and lounge reviews but Im having trouble finding any for KE. I havent had this problem with other airlines.

Is there a good source? Google searches didnt turn up much.

Alternatively...
can anyone give me an idea of the KE ORD lounge food and beverage offerings? Is it sufficient for a nice continental breakfast?

Is the AF Lespace Lounge open at that hour as an alternative to KE for a Skyteam DL Plat? (perhaps AF lounge serves other airlines as the AF/KLM departures would be much later and thus the lounge wouldnt be open in the AM to serve their flights).

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hello all,

Im traveling from ORD to ICN and onward to DPS in J next weekend and am flying KE for the first time.

Of course I usually look to FT for the latest trip reports, pics and lounge reviews but Im having trouble finding any for KE. I havent had this problem with other airlines.

Is there a good source? Google searches didnt turn up much.

Alternatively...
can anyone give me an idea of the KE ORD lounge food and beverage offerings? Is it sufficient for a nice continental breakfast?

Is the AF Lespace Lounge open at that hour as an alternative to KE for a Skyteam DL Plat? (perhaps AF lounge serves other airlines as the AF/KLM departures would be much later and thus the lounge wouldnt be open in the AM to serve their flights).

Thanks in advance for your help!

I too had notice this issue as well. Perhaps we can all start to contribute by reporting back when we have had experience on KE.

Great if you can come back here after your flight and tell us how it is ^

Hello all,

Im traveling from ORD to ICN and onward to DPS in J next weekend and am flying KE for the first time.

Of course I usually look to FT for the latest trip reports, pics and lounge reviews but Im having trouble finding any for KE. I havent had this problem with other airlines.

Is there a good source? Google searches didnt turn up much.

Alternatively...
can anyone give me an idea of the KE ORD lounge food and beverage offerings? Is it sufficient for a nice continental breakfast?

Is the AF Lespace Lounge open at that hour as an alternative to KE for a Skyteam DL Plat? (perhaps AF lounge serves other airlines as the AF/KLM departures would be much later and thus the lounge wouldnt be open in the AM to serve their flights).

Thanks in advance for your help!



Have you tried trip reports on airliners.net? You might be able to find some there. In any case, I am pretty sure that KE's food at ORD is better than what you find at average US domestic lounge.

I agree not a lot of reports on this board. I am flying JFK->ICN->BKK->ICN->NRT->LAX on KE in J this month and will report back on my experiences. I believe I will be getting the new J product JFK->ICN.

SunLover

Hello all,

Im traveling from ORD to ICN and onward to DPS in J next weekend and am flying KE for the first time.



I am flying out of JFK to ICN and onward to DPS after a couple weeks in Seoul also in J and would love to hear what you have to say about the ICN-DPS leg of your trip.

As for lounge reports, will do my best to report how the KE lounge at JFK is... but I usually barely make the check-in cutoff before boarding and then utilize last minute time for the DFS so we'll see how that goes.:)

Have you tried trip reports on airliners.net? You might be able to find some there. In any case, I am pretty sure that KE's food at ORD is better than what you find at average US domestic lounge.

I had before, but tried again and found this:
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/93970

It's a gem of a TR. The only missing piece is the U.S. lounges since his itin didnt take him that way.

I will definitely report back, but I may not have pics...but a description is forthcoming in a couple weeks!

I agree not a lot of reports on this board. I am flying JFK->ICN->BKK->ICN->NRT->LAX on KE in J this month and will report back on my experiences. I believe I will be getting the new J product JFK->ICN.

SunLover

Yes, please report back :) I'm doing JFK-ICN-MNL July 10 also with their new 77W. it'd be nice to get some feedback on their new product & plane. :cool:

I agree not a lot of reports on this board. I am flying JFK->ICN->BKK->ICN->NRT->LAX on KE in J this month and will report back on my experiences. I believe I will be getting the new J product JFK->ICN.

SunLover

Are you flying KE's 744 or 77W? KE's 744s are equipped with "Prestige Plus" seat which is new product and 77Ws have "Prestige Sleeper" which is even newer than Prestige Plus. I can't wait for your trip report since no one posted it yet. :-)

KE81/82 - 77W on Wed, Fri, Sun; 744 Mon, Tues, Thur, Sat
KE85/86 - 747 7x weekly

Starting this winter I believe KE85/86 will be operated by 77W 3x weekly when KE receives another. And KE81/82 becomes daily 77W

saw some pictures on flickr. The IFE on the new 77W has external cameras!

And here's a video of the cabin. Sorry, its in Korean hehe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfHncrJgDbc

Are you flying KE's 744 or 77W? KE's 744s are equipped with "Prestige Plus" seat which is new product and 77Ws have "Prestige Sleeper" which is even newer than Prestige Plus. I can't wait for your trip report since no one posted it yet. :-)
KE82 JFK->ICN on 7/3, which should be the new 77W product.

SunLover

Sitting in the Prestige Lounge at ICN right now and it's pretty nice. Big space with many different seating areas, and a counter for laptop work facing a floor to ceiling window with views of the tarmac. There are custom grind coffee machines and several coolers stocked with beer/soda/water/milk, etc. The breakfast offerings are danishes, muffins, and several kinds of cereals. Shower rooms are fully stocked with products (full-size) and shower shoes. There also appears to be a smoking room.

Stuck my head into the JFK lounge briefly and it seemed nice, though not too big. There are some small coolers with sodas and beers, and some work areas. The wood paneling reminded me of the NW WC at DTW, if you're familiar with that.

As for the flight, I was in Y. Same great catering and an excellent crew. The IFE is much improved from what I had a few years ago, with a wide range of movies, TV, and music, all on demand.

This is the OP with an update:
I switched my itin the day before and wound up on SQ instead of KE so unfortunately I have no report on KE...

I just returned Friday from a ORD-ICN-ORD trip in J. I will put together a trip report either tonight or tomorrow and post with the details of the journey.

After seeing this thread was bumped I felt guilty about not following up, and decided to post regarding my recent KE experiences for a 5 segment JFK-ICN-BKK-ICN-NRT-LAX KE itinerary. I was reluctant to because parts of the trip were not positive. I traveled in both F and J on all 3 generations of KE aircraft seating, which I will refer to as Old, Newer, and Newest:

JFK-ICN Newest J product seat 8A
Arrived at 11:30am for a 2pm departure. Check-in was slow; you know you are in trouble when the economy class line with 10x the passengers moves faster than the first/prestige/morning calm lines. Had to ask basic questions like where is the club and are my bags checked thru to Bangkok, which is information that is normally offered automatically. Club was fine for the purpose of servicing one flight at time; on the small side, lights snacks, and not much booze.

Prestige class seating in the newest design is excellent. Full lie flat. ^ I was in the mini cabin in 8A but as a walked the plane in flight I would have preferred the larger cabin because it was roomier and had better climate control. AVOD kept crashing on me, and had to be totally reset during the flight. Prestige sections maybe 75% full.

I found the service on the flight was disappointing. Koreans were fawned over, others were relegated to the point of being an afterthought. I knew I was in trouble when a request for water became a long drawn out process. I wrote it off to the flight attendants lack of English skills, and therefore their unwillingness to engage the non-Korean speaking customers. I slept as much I could in order to avoid this situation.

Incheon KE club was large, with a wall of floor to ceiling windows and a view of the tarmac. Nice food selection and decent booze selection. Smoking lounge and shower rooms. A nice club to kill a couple of hours in.

ICN-BKK Old J product seat 8A
I was surprised how uncompetitive this product is for International Business Class seating. 4 seats out of 24 occupied. Service was wonderful though. They helped me navigate my first Bibimbap meal. :) The entire crew could not have been nicer, and made this flight segment a positive one.

** For my next 3 flights I was booked in J but upgraded to F. Not sure why but I was not asking any questions. In BKK I tried to re-route ICN-JFK, and was told I could stand by in ICN if I wanted, but chose not to pursue that because I checked luggage. Mistake :( would have gotten the newest product again on the ICN-JFK leg.

BKK-ICN Newer F product seat 1A
The club at BKK was nice. Shared with KLM and Alitalia I believe. Champaign, sushi, internet stations, massage chairs… Can I live there… ;)

Really nice pod style F class seating. Full lie flat with privacy walls. Nice storage bin by the window. Large screens with good AVOD. Pax count 2 in F. Service was friendly. Basically ate and went to sleep since the flight left at 12:30am. Great flight.

ICN-NRT Old F product seat 2A
I was surprised how uncompetitive this product is for International First Class. It was a short flight <2 hours so it was up/eat/down. Service was fine. Left ICN 90 minutes late due to weather, so we were at least 1 hour late arriving NRT, but it did not matter much because it was the same equipment for the next leg.

KE NRT club was small, and the offerings limited. Did not spend much time there and went to the NW club instead which was a short walk away and MUCH nicer surroundings. ^

NRT-LAX Old F product seat 2A
Same bird, different crew. For 9.5 hours (even in F) this is a difficult hard product to get comfortable in. The service was shocking; to the point of offending. It was the least favorable environment I have ever experienced, in any class of service, on any airline. :td: And this was in the front of the bird no less. Even the passenger next to me was getting frustrated with the flight attendants. :mad: I actually relocated from F to J in order to avoid the situation, and to try to get some rest. Just thinking about it now bothers me to no end. I sent a “Voice of Customer” email to KE, and received a form letter email reply a week later.

Summary thoughts
All in all my KE experiences were very uneven. The old product is uncompetitive in today’s market, while the newest product is super nice. Some of the flight crews were excellent, others made flying KE a painful experience. Overall I can not recommend KE because of the uneven nature of their products and services. Certainly, if you do not speak Korean, I can not recommend flying KE. My advice: If you must fly KE for convenient scheduling or route system or price reasons, keep your expectations low.

KE got me to where I was going. Their planes are a pretty blue. Incheon is a nice airport. I had some non-positive experiences with them. That is all I am going to offer anyone outside of FT that asks my opinion of Korean Air.

SunLover

I just returned Friday from a ORD-ICN-ORD trip in J. I will put together a trip report either tonight or tomorrow and post with the details of the journey.

Any luck banging out that TR?