Korean Air totally blew my mind

[orlandodlplat]

I just had the most amazing experience flying JFK-ICN on the DL-coded, KE-operated flight.

First of all, the flight was delightful. Very nice crew, good food, brand new fully-flat seats in J, great AVOD selection, on a 77W couldn't have been more than a year old. The JFK lounge attendant invited me into the first class side, even though I was in business. (E+ perk?)

Once onboard, doors closed 20 minutes early, and we arrived on time 14 hours later.

Immigration was a breeze, and I arrived at baggage claim the minute the belt started moving. First bags were all tagged priority, and of those mine was the 10th off the belt.

This was a flawless experience, how flying should be - and now, the mind blowing part:

When I retrieved my bag, I discovered it was dripping wet, on the outside. (It was not raining at ICN - no idea where the water came from.) The water hadn't permeated the interior of the bag and all my clothing was fine... but the exterior was now wet and fairly dirty. I really wasn't too upset about it, and I would have just left, had I not bumped right into a man in a KE uniform who was standing there to monitor the process.

As soon as he saw the bag, he immediately apologized, took out a two-way radio and called his supervisor, who ran over within 3 minutes.

The supervisor acted as if the airline had lost my dog. He apologized profusely, and filled out an incident report on the spot. He told me I can get the bag dry-cleaned in Korea and KE would reimburse me. But then, as he handed me my copy of the form, he handed me an envelope as well, saying it was "for dry cleaning." I figured this was the envelope to mail in a receipt. I was wrong.

In the envelope was 50,000 won in cash, the equivalent of $50!

I am a big fan of DL and DL people; I'm by no means knocking them. Having said that, I've never encountered such proactive service recovery. The entire process, from getting the bag to getting the cash, took less than 10 minutes.

Amazing!

[DLATL777]

Nearly every Asia based carrier>Any US legacy.

Its an equation you will become more familiar with the more you fly none US based legacies internationally.

[avidflyer]

Originally Posted by orlandodlplat

I just had the most amazing experience flying JFK-ICN on the DL-coded, KE-operated flight.

First of all, the flight was delightful. Very nice crew, good food, brand new fully-flat seats in J, great AVOD selection, on a 77W couldn't have been more than a year old. The JFK lounge attendant invited me into the first class side, even though I was in business. (E+ perk?)

Once onboard, doors closed 20 minutes early, and we arrived on time 14 hours later.

Immigration was a breeze, and I arrived at baggage claim the minute the belt started moving. First bags were all tagged priority, and of those mine was the 10th off the belt.

This was a flawless experience, how flying should be - and now, the mind blowing part:

When I retrieved my bag, I discovered it was dripping wet, on the outside. (It was not raining at ICN - no idea where the water came from.) The water hadn't permeated the interior of the bag and all my clothing was fine... but the exterior was now wet and fairly dirty. I really wasn't too upset about it, and I would have just left, had I not bumped right into a man in a KE uniform who was standing there to monitor the process.

As soon as he saw the bag, he immediately apologized, took out a two-way radio and called his supervisor, who ran over within 3 minutes.

The supervisor acted as if the airline had lost my dog. He apologized profusely, and filled out an incident report on the spot. He told me I can get the bag dry-cleaned in Korea and KE would reimburse me. But then, as he handed me my copy of the form, he handed me an envelope as well, saying it was "for dry cleaning." I figured this was the envelope to mail in a receipt. I was wrong.

In the envelope was 50,000 won in cash, the equivalent of $50!

I am a big fan of DL and DL people; I'm by no means knocking them. Having said that, I've never encountered such proactive service recovery. The entire process, from getting the bag to getting the cash, took less than 10 minutes.

Amazing!

Yup, sounds like a great flight and performance by KE ( I use them from LA to INC sometimes).. This is where I was coming from in the "Delta is now World Class" thread. I like them, they do a good job, no real complaints but they do not have the same attention to detail and sense of urgency that good International Airlines are renowned for. Delta does a great job most of the time but putting them in the "World Class" league tells me the person doing so has not recently traveled in a real premium product.

[GBadger]

Remember when there was a thread about DL becoming a "Premium" carrier in Asia? Well, this is the sort of thing that people were talking about when they were basically laughing at that notion.

[avidflyer]

Originally Posted by GBadger

Remember when there was a thread about DL becoming a "Premium" carrier in Asia? Well, this is the sort of thing that people were talking about when they were basically laughing at that notion.

[motytrah]

Asian carriers tend to be much more proactive, in particular in the terms of baggage and logistics. My experience with JL is they know the bag didn't make it by the time you get to baggage claim and they are looking for you.

Priority baggage also MEANS something to the ground staff. They take pride in getting off on the belt first.

[GBadger]

Originally Posted by motytrah

Asian carriers tend to be much more proactive, in particular in the terms of baggage and logistics. My experience with JL is they know the bag didn't make it by the time you get to baggage claim and they are looking for you.

To be completely fair, I have to say that a few years ago I was flying NWA:
MSN-DTW-YOW-DTW-AMS-onward (MR -- don't ask).
Anyway, MSN-DTW was delayed, making my connection at YOW (different tickets) a quick one since I was supposed to be on the same aircraft turning around (you have to clear customs and immigration at YOW before you can board). We made it, but our bags didn't. By the time that I reached DTW, I had two voicemails stating that my bags had not made the flight, but that they would be on the next one out and on to AMS from there.

[orlandodlplat]

Originally Posted by avidflyer

Yup, sounds like a great flight and performance by KE ( I use them from LA to INC sometimes).. This is where I was coming from in the "Delta is now World Class" thread. I like them, they do a good job, no real complaints but they do not have the same attention to detail and sense of urgency that good International Airlines are renowned for. Delta does a great job most of the time but putting them in the "World Class" league tells me the person doing so has not recently traveled in a real premium product.

You're absolutely right. It's foolish to expect this type of service from any US carrier. Their networks are just too unwieldy to allow such service for every passenger. (Remember, I wasn't being treated like a DM here...)

I think the reason has more to do with size than anything else. KE is a small airline with one hub (which happens to be one of the best airports in the world - that certainly helps). With such a comparatively-uncomplicated operation, it has many more available resources to deal with pure customer service. The same is true for all the respected Asian carriers.

[BearX220]

Originally Posted by GBadger

Remember when there was a thread about DL becoming a "Premium" carrier in Asia? Well, this is the sort of thing that people were talking about when they were basically laughing at that notion.

KE, CX, SQ, MH, TG: when it comes to service recovery, all these Asian carriers will apologize and take fast action while DL, AA, UA laugh in your face and walk away. American carriers don't have the DNA to ever be "premium" carriers in Asia.

[avidflyer]

Originally Posted by orlandodlplat

You're absolutely right. It's foolish to expect this type of service from any US carrier. Their networks are just too unwieldy to allow such service for every passenger. (Remember, I wasn't being treated like a DM here...)

I think the reason has more to do with size than anything else. KE is a small airline with one hub (which happens to be one of the best airports in the world - that certainly helps). With such a comparatively-uncomplicated operation, it has many more available resources to deal with pure customer service. The same is true for all the respected Asian carriers.

Agreed. I gotta tell you though, I just flew in an all Biz Singapore A340-500 from LA to SIN and the service made KE look slightly lacking. The price was a ridiculous $3200!~ To say they treat you like an elite is to make the understatement of the year..It was completely amazing and I am not a rookie on Asian and ME airlines. I was not sure what to expect because some very informed FT'ers had told me that SQ was going downhill. They need to give it another shot AMAZING.

[DaddyRabbit]

Originally Posted by orlandodlplat

I just had the most amazing experience flying JFK-ICN on the DL-coded, KE-operated flight.

First of all, the flight was delightful. Very nice crew, good food, brand new fully-flat seats in J, great AVOD selection, on a 77W couldn't have been more than a year old. The JFK lounge attendant invited me into the first class side, even though I was in business. (E+ perk?)

Once onboard, doors closed 20 minutes early, and we arrived on time 14 hours later.

Immigration was a breeze, and I arrived at baggage claim the minute the belt started moving. First bags were all tagged priority, and of those mine was the 10th off the belt.

This was a flawless experience, how flying should be - and now, the mind blowing part:

When I retrieved my bag, I discovered it was dripping wet, on the outside. (It was not raining at ICN - no idea where the water came from.) The water hadn't permeated the interior of the bag and all my clothing was fine... but the exterior was now wet and fairly dirty. I really wasn't too upset about it, and I would have just left, had I not bumped right into a man in a KE uniform who was standing there to monitor the process.

As soon as he saw the bag, he immediately apologized, took out a two-way radio and called his supervisor, who ran over within 3 minutes.

The supervisor acted as if the airline had lost my dog. He apologized profusely, and filled out an incident report on the spot. He told me I can get the bag dry-cleaned in Korea and KE would reimburse me. But then, as he handed me my copy of the form, he handed me an envelope as well, saying it was "for dry cleaning." I figured this was the envelope to mail in a receipt. I was wrong.

In the envelope was 50,000 won in cash, the equivalent of $50!

I am a big fan of DL and DL people; I'm by no means knocking them. Having said that, I've never encountered such proactive service recovery. The entire process, from getting the bag to getting the cash, took less than 10 minutes.

Amazing!

Thanks for posting this. I like KE; they can be a little ridid at times, but the FAs are first rate. The ICN Business Lounge is super.

There could be others, but KE is the only airline I know of that has one of the FAs clean the toilets during the flight.

[xolinlevh]

Passed through TPE and NRT last week on a MR, my first time in Asia, and its amazing how much nicer and more polite the airline staff are over there then in the US.

[patriots68]

Flew ORD-ICN KE on the 744 last year and the baggage service was horrific almost worse than DTW when they split the bags between two belts and you don't know where your luggage is going to come out. Took nearly an hour for the first bags to start rolling and then as far as I could tell there was no priority just everyones bags at once. And there was only one round of alcohol service in Y for the entire flight. Beats Delta's 744's in Y but not even close to service on their 777

[EVA777]

Originally Posted by DaddyRabbit

Thanks for posting this. I like KE; they can be a little ridid at times, but the FAs are first rate. The ICN Business Lounge is super.

There could be others, but KE is the only airline I know of that has one of the FAs clean the toilets during the flight.

You can add EVA (Taiwan based) to the in-flight toilet cleaning list. They are also an exceptional airline. The premium economy cabin is great and J is even better.

All my KE experiences have been great even the ones in Y.

[exwannabe]

Originally Posted by xolinlevh

Passed through TPE and NRT last week on a MR, my first time in Asia, and its amazing how much nicer and more polite the airline staff are over there then in the US.

No doubt on the airline front-line employees.

OTOH, the gate lice are worse!