matthandy

Thanks for everyone's comments. A letter has gone off to Emirates customer services so I'll see what response I get. Interestingly it would appear that the particular FA in question is known to others on this board including a colleague of mine who I sent this TR to. I'll let you know what response I get, if any.

Moomba, Genius1, spot the plane geeks

Apologies for my faux pas, I've changed the report.
I've also learnt something now, so thanks.

SMART51

Always look at the tail. easy.

matthandy

Transferring in Dubai is relatively easy. As soon as we de-planed, simple signs pointed out the way to the gates. All passengers have to go through security re-screening although there is no fast track for First and Business class passengers which I thought was odd. Security however was quick with about 10-15 lanes open.

Once through security I was out in to the main terminal area with big screens showing you which flights were operating from each gate. Two observations, one, terminal 3 at Dubai is huge, very long and thin, two, it was heaving with people. It was probably 1am on a Thursday night/Friday morning and the place was absolutely packed.


People gathering in front of the departure screens

The next task was to find the lounge. Having never been to Dubai before and not being helped by the signs I made a bit of a mistake and turned right. I walked for probably 5 minutes or so before realising that I must have missed the lounge, since I could see it above me but couldn’t find the entrance. The signs were really poor because as soon as I turned round they pointed towards the lounge, in the opposite direction to where I was heading. Why only have signs that face one way? I turned round, walked all the way back that I had come to see that the lounge entrance was just a few metres from where I had emerged after security. Annoying.

The Emirates Business class lounge is accessed via a series of escalators up to the floor above the main departures hall.


Entrance to the lounge

The lounge complex is absolutely huge and was heaving with people at this time of night, much like the floor below. I checked in with reception and enquired about taking a shower as was pointed in the appropriate direction.

The showers were a huge disappointment, essentially these were nothing more than private shower cubicles and not the full wet rooms with toilet facilities that you often find at airport lounges. Additionally, in the block that I went to, near the lounge entrance there were only three showers which meant that there was an uncomfortable queue. In a lounge this size, with Dubai as a major world hub it is unacceptable to have so few showers and poor facilities. I did see later that another set of showers was available further in to the lounge but I doubt that the facilities were better. I luckily didn't have to wait too long and was given a plastic wrapped towel by the attendant. The shower cubicle itself was very small and smelt mouldy. It was a far cry from the rain shower at the Wing in Hong Kong.

Anyway, as I’d also bought a change of clothes and toiletries I was able to freshen up before my flight to Singapore. I decided to walk deeper into the lounge to explore.

This lounge is like nothing that I had ever seen before. Seriously, I thought that the Wing was big at Hong Kong, or the perhaps the South Galleries lounge in Terminal 5 at Heathrow. This was something else. It is impossible to describe how big the lounge actually is but it wouldn’t surprise me if it had capacity for two thousand people. It pretty much seemed to run the length and mostly the width of the terminal building with the central area opened up with a view down on to the terminal floor. My guess is that it’s about 2 or 3 times the area of Trafalgar Square in London. Surely it is the largest airport lounge in the world.

Unfortunately, despite the lounge being so huge, with the number of people flying it felt crowded as people congregated near the entrance. My tip is to take the time to walk further in to the lounge and you should be able to find a quieter area.

I started off my adventure in the ‘blue carpet’ section of the lounge which had a children’s food bar with attendants on hand to make up some child friendly creations for your little angels.


The blue carpet area with the children’s bar

On my travels I believe that I counted about 3 or 4 main food and drinks areas. Everything is attended, even the bar so you simply ask for whatever you need.
In the centre of the lounge is the main kitchen and I could see the kitchen team preparing the masses of food that was on offer for the lounge guests.
As per the lounge in London there was a full menu and although I didn’t look at this in detail I’m sure that there was a very wide range of choices, enough to provide guests with a three course meal and all the snacks that they could ever want.


Main eating area with dining tables to the right


Dining area, the food area is to the right


Dining area with the food area in the background

The lounge is divided into several different themed seating areas including cosy semi-private corners.


Sofa area


Another differently themed seating area

There were even seats all down the sides of the central corridor. The photo below gives you an indication of the length of the lounge.


Looking down the central corridor towards the entrance somewhere in the distance

I decided to get a drink so headed to the fully attended bar in the main dining area. I didn’t fancy anything alcoholic so asked for a lemonade. In a typical English versus American language clash the attendant, Alfredo, thought that I meant proper lemonade whereas I actually meant Sprite. He apologised for not having any so made me one instead using the cocktail ingredients that he had to hand. That really brought a smile to my face, to find a member of staff that was so friendly and willing to please.


Alfredo, the friendly bar attendant, thanks for the homemade lemonade!

I sat down to enjoy my lemonade and noticed this on the table.


Ironic, given the lack of departure screens

I suppose that a sign like that makes sense given the fact that you could utterly lose yourself in the lounge however with few departure screens it often meant a bit of a trek to find out when my flight was boarding. When I checked, at about 2.15 which was half an hour before scheduled pushback the flight was showing as ‘Flight Closing’. Damn (I used a stronger word). I quickly downed the lemonade and made a bit of a dash out of the lounge and towards the gate.

Verdict

A visit to the Emirates Business class lounge is definitely an unforgettable experience although not an exclusive one due to the sheer number of people passing through at any time during the day. I found the food and drink facilities to be excellent with a huge variety on offer and friendly staff. There were more than enough areas to sit and relax although finding one that’s empty might require a bit of a walk. The shower facilities were poor and this is definitely an area for improvement.

I’ll have more time in the lounge on my return flight from Seoul so I aim to capture a little more detail on what’s offer during that visit.

matthandy

Flight: EK432
Carrier: Emirates
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Scheduled Departure time: 02.45
Duration: 7h 20m
Scheduled Arrival time: 14:05 (local)
Routing: Dubai (DXB) T3 to Singapore (SIN) T1
Class: Business
Seat: 7A (seat plan)

I arrived at the gate to find a few stragglers making up a small queue. I was a bit surprised that I seem to have turned up so late, given that the flight wasn’t due to leave for another 30 minutes. Perhaps the ‘final call’ announcement had got everyone running to the gate to board early. As I had my boarding pass checked (fast track for First and Business had closed at this point) I made my way down to the gate area to board. There was rather a long queue and again, there seemed to be no First or Business class lane for priority boarding which was a little annoying. As if he’d read my mind, one of the staff checking boarding passes called out for First and Business and I was able to step out of the line and skip to the front of the queue.

This aircraft had two air bridges attached, the first at door 1 for First Class only and then at door 2 for Business and Economy passengers. I boarded through door 2 and after having my boarding pass checked and a welcome on-board by name I was directed left towards my seat 7A which was located in the forward mini business class cabin. Now, it may seem strange but this was the first time that I’d been able to properly left, disregarding any time that I’d boarded from the rear of an aircraft of course. I entered the forward cabin to find it mostly full and that I seemed to be the last passenger to board.

This Emirates 777-300ER was configured with two rows of First class in a 1-2-1 formation followed by 2 rows of Business class with both cabins situated between doors 1 and 2. Right of door 2 was the main Business class cabin and then economy.

The Business class cabins are arranged in a 2-3-2 layout and as my seat mate had already boarded it was not practical for me to take a photo of the seat. However, I did so at the end of the flight.

I stowed my bag and sat down in my allocated seat, 7A. Unfortunately, this seat had a misaligned window so I was not able to see what was going on outside. Almost immediately I was offered a welcome drink with the usual choices of champagne, orange juice or water. I of course chose the champagne and started to relax a little after the dash from the lounge.

The seat was very comfortable and spacious with a good degree of privacy once the screen was electronically raised. Present was the Emirates standard issue remote controller which could be used to control the IFE and seat position. The only thing that I found to be an issue was lack of storage space. There really wasn’t anywhere to put anything apart from the large seat pocket in front which was actually impossible to reach when seated. Not something one suffers from when travelling in economy .


The view when seated, shortly after boarding

From this vantage point I was able to peek into first class and I noticed that no overhead bins were present for the centre seats. The ceiling was incredibly high and this was probably the first time that I’d been able to appreciate how much ceiling space there is above the main cabin on a standard configuration.

The crew today seemed mostly Asian with an English lady also serving my side of the cabin. They came around with newspapers and magazines presented on a tray. Shortly afterwards socks and eye shades were handed out. I was a bit concerned that I wouldn’t receive an amenity kit, like on the previous flight, however, shortly after this the hefty and famous BVLGARI amenity kit was distributed.


Men’s amenity kit containing shaving foam, deodorant, razor, tissues, toothbrush and paste, and BVLGARI aftershave, moisturiser and aftershave balm

The Captain came over the PA to announce a 6 hour and 30 minute flight time to Singapore and inform us that the cargo loading was still taking place. Our push back time came and went and after another 10 to 15 minutes the Captain came on to say that we might be further delayed because we’d now missed our take off slot. After a bit more banging and shaking as the cargo was loaded we finally pushed back 35 minutes late at 03.20. The safety video was shown, during which the menus were handed out.

What I love about Emirates is that they allow you to watch the IFE at any point during the flight, including taxi, take off and landing. And, what I also like is that they have Family Guy, one of my favourite programmes. So as we taxied towards the runway I enjoyed an episode as we loudly took off (compared to the A380) on our way to Singapore.

Shortly after take off the seat belt sign was extinguished and the crew came around the cabin to offer the mattress service. Like the A380, a quilted cotton lined mattress is placed over the seat to provide additional comfort when seated or in bed mode.

After returning from the toilet the crew had started the meal service which started with a drinks round and warm nuts. The flight actually went on to Brisbane after stopping in Singapore so the menu contained the details for both flights. I’m only going to include the service from Dubai to Singapore.

And the wine list:

What? Is that it? I’m glad I ate in the lounge then, oh no wait, I didn’t because I was called to board the flight so bloody early and then spent over and hour on the tarmac. Hmmm. This was not what I was expecting. All along I’d thought that I’d be able to have a reasonable meal on-board. Well here’s a warning for anyone on EK432, the first meal service is pitiful.

When the FA came along with the trolley and asked me what I’d like she explained that you don’t actually get everything and that you need to choose from the selection presented. So again, even less food than I thought! I chose to have a couple of the sandwiches, the turkey and cheese and the chicken tikka as well as the cheese cake.


Snack service – ‘sandwiches’, more like canapés!

The sandwiches, that looked like canapés, were actually pretty good. They’d sneaked a slice of chilli on to the chicken tikka ones which almost blew my head off. I finished off the cheese cake and then as soon as I had done soon the English FA came by, noticed my empty plate (which I’d practically licked clean) and welcomingly offered another round, same again please.

After this I fully reclined the seat, put in my ear plugs and donned my eye shades and laid back to get some sleep. Fortunately, my fears about having a ‘lie flat’ product on this 777 service were unfounded. The seat itself heavily reclines so it is just off horizontal. It felt pretty much flat and I was able to get very comfortable, so much so in fact that I managed to sleep for about four hours.

I woke up at about 12.30 Singapore time and felt pretty refreshed indicating that I’d slept well. A quick trip to the toilet and then I settled back into my seat to watch an episode of ‘Mythbusters’ on the large IFE screen in front of me. The ICE system (Information, Communication and Entertainment) was the same version as on the A380 with a huge selection of films, TV programmes and music to enjoy.


Watching ‘Mythbusters’

As you’d expect for this time in the day there was bright sunshine outside so I was able to take some cabin photos before breakfast was served.


The forward business class cabin with just two rows on this 777-300ER


7A and B with 6A and B in the background

Shortly afterwards breakfast was served and I chose the scrambled eggs. This arrived rather quickly, although no bread was offered. To be honest, the meal itself was pretty poor. The eggs were very runny so I left most of it. I forgot to take a photo. The FA didn’t say anything when she collected the tray.

The Captain announced top of descent at 13.40 and we started to descend in to Singapore.


Islands near Singapore as we make our descent

We landed at 14.15, only ten minutes behind schedule and after a quick taxi we parked up at the gate at Terminal 1. De-boarding was quick and I’d planned this opportunity to finally grab a shot of the seat.


The Emirates ‘lie flat’ business class seat, 7A and B

After saying thank you to the crew I quickly de-planed via door 2 grabbing this shot along the way.


My ride from Dubai

After entering the terminal building I went to put my camera away, only to discover that I had no bag to put it in, bugger, I’d left my bag on the plane. Taking photos for this TR had distracted me so much that for the first time ever I’d managed to leave an aircraft without my bag.

I quickly went back to the gate area and spoke to one of the attendants. She asked me where I was sitting and then escorted me back on to the aircraft via door 1. I was able to walk past First class which looked very impressive. My bag was still sitting in the overhead bin so I collected it and then, for the second time, said thanks to the crew and de-planed via door 2.

Verdict

Overall a very good flight from Emirates in terms of the hard product. The seat was very comfortable and my fears about not having a ‘flat’ seat on this flight were not fulfilled. My only gripe with the seat was the lack of storage space. I really liked the mattress that was provided as this made the seat incredibly comfortable when seated or in bed mode.

The crew were good this time around with the Asian attendants especially friendly and welcoming.

The food was disappointing. The sandwiches were good but there weren’t enough of them. The breakfast was rather poor. I suppose that the flight is catered for those people travelling onwards to Brisbane, however, for those that weren’t I don’t think that the food was substantial enough.

matthandy

After a quick stop at immigration (no questions asked, they never do) I collected my bag which had transferred successfully at Dubai and made my way out of the terminal to the taxi rank. After a short ride I was outside the Grand Hyatt, just off Orchard Road.

The hotel was not particularly impressive from the outside, looking rather dated and all concrete. The porter collected my bag from the boot of the taxi and I was ushered into reception. As soon as I arrived I was welcomed by a lady who checked my name on her list. Now, this was a first for me, instead of checking in at reception she escorted me directly to my room where the folio was waiting for me to sign. She already had my key card. I found the experience a little weird and I wonder if it is safe for a lone female member of staff to check people in directly in their room, perhaps she picks and chooses depending on what the guests look like. I must have passed. After check in my bag arrived and I was able to take a proper look around the rather large and contemporary room.



My room in the Grand Hyatt, Singapore


Looking back towards the entrance and the large LCD TV


Extra large bathroom with separate shower and bath

I’m beginning to like Hyatt hotels over Marriotts more and more now. The hotel in Mumbai was fantastic and modern as was this. The Hyatt’s that I’ve stayed in seem to be a whole other level above the equivalent Marriott property.

The room had a huge bed, large bathroom, large TV and all the facilities that you’d expect including a separate a work area which overlooked the pool. I found that a box of chocolates had been placed on the desk with a note welcoming me to the hotel.


The swimming pool

I realised that I was pretty tired so took a couple of hours sleep. After waking up I decided that I really couldn't be bothered with going out so ordered room service and hooked up my iPhone to the TV and watched a movie. I’d really recommend getting a TV out cable for your iPod, iPhone or iTouch. As a frequent traveller I’ve got so much out of being able to watch films and TV programmes on the large hotel TV instead of the tiny iPhone screen.

Saturday was spent unfortunately working, which after all was the reason that I’d travelled to Singapore in the first place. The training session went well and in the evening I met up with some crew friends of mine who had flown in from London and arrived in Singapore in the morning. This was the first time that our schedules had been aligned since first meeting them over 5 years ago!

We took dinner at the Indo-Chine restaurant on the quayside opposite the river. The meal was fantastic, if not a bit pricey. I used up my expenses limit and they both used up their meal allowance however, it was worth it. After that we went to a bar near to and owned by the Fullerton hotel. It is styled like a boat and was sat on the roof deck and enjoyed a couple of cocktails. The night was still young so we decided to go down ‘One Fullerton’ near the Merlion and went to ‘Overeasy’ bar and found a seat overlooking the new development across the water. We treated ourselves to a bottle of Moët and Chandon which cost $140 SGD which is about $100 US or £70. We didn’t care though, it was great meeting up with my jet setting friends in Singapore. Interestingly I shared my experiences of the poor crew on my Emirates flight with one of my friends who is an on-board manager and she was rather appalled. She told me afterwards that she actually used my examples in her crew briefing the very next day!


I woke up on Sunday with a reasonably poor head and made my way into the office for the second round of training. I must have put away a litre or so of water during the first hour because I was so de-hydrated.

In the evening I went to a local restaurant to try and sample two of my favourite Chinese foods, Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) and Dan Dan Mien (noodles in a very spicy peanut sauce).


Xiao Long Bao and Dan Dan Mien noodles

They were pretty good but no way as good as they were in Hong Kong when I had them last time. Still, better than room service or McDonald’s!

I took the day off on Monday and spent most of it by the pool. The hotel pool is rather nice and I received excellent service from the staff there. Guests have to walk past a large waterfall and landscaped gardens to reach the pool area. As soon as I had sat down a waitress came over with iced water. I noticed that each table beside the sun beds had a buzzer which you could press to place an order from the menu, order water or ask for the bill, a novel, if not lazy touch.


Sitting beside the pool

After a swim I went back to my room, checked out and then went back to the pool to grab a late lunch and carry on with this TR. Soon it was time to leave for the airport to catch my flight to Seoul, so at 7.30pm I grabbed a taxi from outside the hotel and I was on my way to Singapore’s Changi Airport.

Verdict

The Grand Hyatt in Singapore is a fantastically classy, modern but friendly and professional hotel with excellent services. The rooms are huge and provide everything that a leisure or business traveller would require.

The leisure facilities are also excellent and having stayed in the Marriott twice now I would choose the Hyatt for my next visit to Singapore.

Seat 2A

An excellent report, Mr. Handy. I particularly applaud your photos and composition. I'll certainly keep an eye out for your reports in the future. Well done! ^^

ung1

Very nice trip report. ^

How would you compare the 77W J seat to the 380 J seat? It does seem less exclusive on the 380 with such a large cabin, but the layout seems to afford more privacy.

mymflyer

Thank you for the enjoyable report.

matthandy

Flight: OZ752
Carrier: Asiana Airlines
Aircraft: Airbus A330-300
Scheduled Departure time: 22.35
Duration: 6h 25m
Scheduled Arrival time: 06:00 (local)
Routing: Singapore (SIN) T1 to Seoul Incheon
Class: Business
Seat: 1A (seat plan)

My taxi whisked me to Singapore’s Changi airport in a little over half an hour with a little traffic along the way. I arrived at the terminal entrance, paid the driver and then started to look for the Asiana check in desks. This was easy given the huge departure board that was right in front of me as soon as I entered the building.


The extra large, old ticker style departures board

The Asiana desks were located at row 1, with several desks open for economy ‘Travel’ class passengers and only one for business class. Subsequently, there was quite a substantial wait to check in. As the economy passengers all whizzed past me I stood in the same spot for a good 10 minutes. Apparently there was a problem with the booking of the people in front of me. Another agent noticed that I was being made to wait so called me over. Check in wasn’t exactly quick. My bag was tagged with a priority sticker and I secured the seat that I’d reserved, 1A. This was the first time that I’d been able to secure a coveted ‘1A’ on any of my flights thus far. I asked about the lounge and the agent gave me some instructions.


Asiana Airlines check in desks

I made my way through immigration which was very quick and the up the escalators to the ‘SATS Premier Club’ lounge which is shared by a number of airlines. My lounge invite was taken and my name ticked off the list. The lounge wasn’t particularly impressive, but was at least decorated in a contemporary fashion and it looked like a comfortable place to spend an hour or so.


General lounge overview – with the food and drink bar to the right

There was a strangely segregated ‘First Class’ section which actually looked less comfortable than the standard seats.

There were several hot food options, although it seemed to be all Asian food. Additionally, a limited selection of drinks was available, some non-descript wines and a couple of different spirits.


Hot food options as well as hot and cold drinks


Spirits and wines

I wasn’t too sure about the food at this point, none of it looked particularly appetising so I helped myself to a vodka and lemonade and sat down, pulled out my laptop and used the slightly slow but free wireless service to answer a few emails. The worst thing, work wise, about working in Asia is the time difference with the UK. If you think that you’ve finished for the day you are wrong. As soon as the UK come online another storm of emails erupts into your mail box.

My stomach eventually won me over so I went to re-appraise the food options. I chose a slightly cheesy pasta which had mixed peppers. It wasn’t too bad actually and it filled a gap.

There were no screens in the lounge that I saw so it was impossible to know when your flight was boarding other than to wait for an announcement.
I wasn’t sure how far the gate was so at 22.00 I quickly made my way out of the lounge and towards the gate (E20) which actually only happened to be a short distance away.

It was clear that I had arrived too early as the gate area was packed and boarding had not yet started. I quickly went through the gate security and had my boarding pass checked. Almost as soon as I had sat down, my name was called. Uh, oh, a seat change. I was asked to hand over my passport to check some details, which they did very quickly, handed back my passport and that was it. There were several other calls for passengers as well, not sure why.

The boarding announcement for Business class and Star Alliance frequent flyer members was made at 22.20 and it was a bit of a rush to get onboard. Two air bridges had been attached, the first at door 1 for business class and the second at door 2 for economy. The plane was decked out in the old Asiana livery.

I found my seat in row 1 and stored my bag in the overhead locker. My seat mate had not yet joined me but did so shortly afterwards. A blanket and pillow had been placed on my seat. Slippers and economy style headphones were in the seat pocket in front of me.

The cabin overall looked modern and spacious with the crew dressed very smartly in their suit like uniforms.


The business class cabin during boarding, as viewed from row 1

Welcome drinks were offered as everyone got themselves comfortable. Announcements were made in Korean first and then followed up in English. Interestingly, there did seem to be quite a high proportion of Western passengers on board.


Welcome drink of Champagne

Now for the seat. Well, it wasn’t particularly comfortable I must say. It seemed to have lumps in the wrong places and looked a little worn.


The Asiana business class seat on this A330-300


Electronic seat controls, a little confusing at first


Leg room, large IFE screen and slippers

The doors were closed at 22.38 and push back started only a couple of minutes later meaning that we were running only 5 minutes late as per the schedule. The taxi itself was pretty bumpy, but I suppose that must be due to sitting right over the nose wheel.

The crew were introduced over the PA and bowed to the passengers, which I found interesting. The safety video was played which was in both Korean and English. Weirdly, a video regarding etiquette was played which showed what to do and what not to do on-board an aircraft. The aim seemed to be to create a pleasant environment for everyone on board.

The Captain came over the PA and announced a flight time of 5 hours and 45 minutes and we lined up on the run way for take off which was very smooth.
By 23.00 we were airborne.

As soon as the seat belt sign was extinguished the sound of whirring seat motors began. It was actually rather loud, enough to be annoying.

I had a dilemma now. With the short flight time, I had to decide what was more important to me, catching a bit of sleep or getting something to eat. After initially refusing the menu I decided in favour of dinner since I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway if I was still hungry.

In the mean time, I reclined the seat and grabbed a snap or two around the cabin.


The seat in it’s fully reclined position, yes that’s it


The business class cabin from the rear

The crew came around serving drinks and were frantically going back and forth to the galley, they were certainly working very hard.

The menu’s were handed out although we didn’t get to keep them. All I can tell you is what I remembered very quickly after making my choice.

The champagne was Charles Heidsieck. There was a choice of either a Korean or Western dinner. There were two choices of mains for both. The Korean menu contained a Korean favourite, bibimbab. The Western menu had a choice of either braised beef or poached sea bass. The starter was marinated prawns.

I made my selection of the beef and very shortly afterwards the service started at about 23.40.


Prawn starter with roll and mushroom side salad

The prawns were really good and the mushrooms appeared to be marinated in some kind of slightly sweet sauce. It was excellent both in terms of food quality, presentation and service. Touches such as the all white China, the large metal cutlery and the white linens all suggested a very good standard of presentation.
I was offered wine but declined, I noticed that those that were having wine were first presented the bottle before being poured a small amount to taste. The crew then remembered everyone’s wine choices.

Next up was the beef main course that I had chosen. I was a bit disappointed with the way that it was presented, being nothing more than an economy style meal in a China dish, however, it was very tasty.


Braised beef with rice

During the meal I took a quick look at the IFE offering. The system was AVOD with a small collection of TV programmes and films. I chose to watch Sherlock Holmes and the video quality was very good, however the sound quality was poor due to the rubbish economy style headphones. Surely it wouldn’t cost too much to upgrade these to noise cancelling?

Next up was a cheese a fruit platter which was good followed by a fruit tart but I was full at this stage so I declined the offer. The dinner service finished only thirty minutes after it had started which was excellent since I was able to maximise the amount of time left to sleep.

Well that was the theory. The seat was pretty uncomfortable and the angle of incline made it very difficult to get comfortable. It was just too steep and I kept slipping down. I had to raise the foot rest to brace myself against it. It’s easy for me to say that this is the worst ‘lie flat’ style business class seat that I’ve experienced and that includes BA, Qantas, Cathay and Emirates (2 kinds). I think that I did manage to doze for a bit but I doubt that I would have slept any worse in an economy seat.

With about 30 minutes until landing the Captain came over the PA to announce that we had started our descent. I packed up my things and put the seat back in to it's original position. Interestingly, the crew were still serving coffees and drink until about 10 minutes until landing.

We touched down at Seoul’s Incheon Airport bang on time at 5.45am, just as the sun had started to rise over the hills. The taxi took a little while as seemed to trek right around the terminal to reach a gate on the far side.


The sun rises over the main terminal building at Incheon

With the doors opened I was actually the second person off the plane and was soon heading towards immigration, following the trademark blue and white signs overhead.

I was through immigration reasonably quickly although I was slightly held up by a less fortunate sports team who didn’t seem to meet the entry criteria and were sent to the ‘special room’ for secondary screening.

Within 30 minutes of stepping off the plane I was in a taxi and on my way to the hotel to hopefully grab a couple of hours sleep before heading into the office and straight into a meeting room for the next 8 hours.

Verdict

Asiana Airlines wasn’t my first choice, I’d hoped to travel on the morning flight on SQ. However, in terms of the soft product such as the overall service and the food they excelled. I found the crew to be very professional and attentive, in fact they were back and forth to the galley as nothing seemed to be too much trouble. The food quality and presentation was also very good, certainly on par with many other Asian carriers.

What let Asiana down was the seat. It was tired, lumpy and just not conducive to sleeping in. I honestly don’t think that I would have slept any worse in an economy seat. While great for reclining and watching a film, in it's fully reclined mode it definitely falls short.

Would I choose Asiana again? No probably not because to me the hard product generally outweighs the soft product, but only for that reason.

Blair_C

Really fun write-up. Keep the great details coming.

UA_Flyer

This is a great report with right balance of photos and narratives (somthing that my own trip reports have been lacking...just too busy to sit down to write).

I am thirsty for more reports from you.

abcx

That's not very nice. I'm flying the OZ A330 from DEL-ICN and am not looking forward to the seat. That's way worse than LH or LX. That's not even angled lie flat! I'm gonna call OZ and get row 1 though. That extra leg room seems worth it.

Daniel Peralta

I'm on the Delhi to Incheon as well. Bummer it's not better. I do hear good things about the First Class experience as we will continue on that to LAX.
Thanks for posting this.

abcx

Yeah, I'm on a F award but DEL-ICN has no F. And I need to go to ICN because I'm stopping over in Seoul.

matthandy

Thanks for the great comments.
There's a link to my previous TRs on the first post if you want to read more