I arrived at Changi an hour before departure. Four desks were open for my flight and there was absolutely nobody checking in, but I headed for the J counter anyway and, after a modicum of confusion ("where on earth is SDJ?"), I had my tix and headed to the lounge.

Asiana's J pax share the "SATS Premier Lounge", a fully generic airport-operated lounge for 10+ companies. It's nothing to write home about (Flyertalk's a different story ), but I had 20 minutes to grab a bite to eat -- salmon sandwiches: good, dim sum: horrid; serves me right for trying the food at 11 PM when it's been sitting there for most of the day -- and something to read before heading off to the gate. Maybe someday I'll learn that "Last call for immediate boarding" means there's still an easy 15 min to while away... but on schedule I boarded:

OZ 352 SIN-ICN J B767-300

I'd been warned about OZ 767s earlier on FT, and with reason: these are pretty crappy planes for long-haul, esp. overnight. Seat recline is equivalent to SAS E+, and there's no PTV even in Y. Even the livery looks dingy. I ended up in seat 1A, meaning I had the bulkhead again my feet -- my seatmate Mr. 1B was smarter and snagged 2B when nobody showed up in 2A/B. Load was perhaps 50% in J, maybe a little higher in Y.

[Ed: the plane was supposed to be a 747, which would have been a bit better, but evidently it wasn't meant to be... the inflight entertainment guide indicated that they fly both planes to SIN and the 747s have PTVs at least in C.]

This was also my first OZ flight, and I have to say the staff uniforms are remarkably unattractive: the coarse grey fabric with military stripes for rank looks more like a North Korean carrier, and I was half expecting them to wear little Kim Il Sung buttons on their lapels. That said, staff were reasonably attentive and professional, although the Korean accent with its inherent inability to distinguish L and R was cute. I also found the Korean habit of writing Japanese labels and text with Chinese traditional kanji (hanzi? hanja?) odd, but I guess this makes text 80% comprehensible for both markets... like Japanese, the spoken announcements were interminably verbose, but seemingly even more so because (unlike Jp) I couldn't understand a word except the -hamnidas and -sumnidas at the end.

We got served a glass of OJ on boarding and, other than a hot towel, that was it for the evening, not even drink service. Changi looked very pretty during takeoff, and after nearly an hour of blather the lights were turned off, although the overhead TV directly in front kept flashing like a strobe in my face for another hour.

Despite my best efforts -- I'd been warned to sleep well by my Japanese welcoming committee, since I wouldn't be getting any sleep the next night -- I managed to sleep perhaps 2-3 hrs total before breakfast service at the ungodly hour of 4:30 AM SIN/5:30 ICN time. (I woke up once and saw the plane passing over HK and the Pearl Delta, wow!) A white tablecloth was laid out and fresh fruits, yogurt, a selection of breads and a preselected dish were served; I'd opted for the lor mun kai, a giant sticky rice dumpling with chicken, mushrooms and gingko nuts, not bad at all with a dab of chili sauce... but a little odd to combine with a croissant, strawberry yogurt and coffee. I think Mr. 1E, who ordered ramen noodles for breakfast, chose better. Once again, drinks were limited to OJ, coffee and tea -- if you wanted anything else you had to request it. If they're going to wake me up at 4:30 the least they could do is give me a glass of bubbly, dammit!

ICN, Asiana Business Lounge

We landed on schedule at 7 AM on the dot. It was my first time in Korea (and thus ICN), the airport in its size and ultra-modern design reminded me of KUL... although the scaling was a little more humane and there were a little more people about. Tax-free proved a total washout, I went looking for a simple scarf but the cheapest I could find was US $90 -- and that after a 30% discount! All prices were denominated in dollars, not a bad move given that the won is one of those currencies with at least 3 zeroes too many.

So I headed to the OZ biz lounge (where I'm typing this now), and this place is excellent. It's huge, it's stylish, and it has everything you need to kill a few hours and then some. I partook of the free shower service, which gets you a private bathroom that could easily be out of a quality hotel, nibbled some of the many snacks on offer and then plunked myself down at one of the many (~10) Internet PCs on offer. This place also doubles as the *A Gold lounge, and it gradually filled up as the morning progressed... it'll be interesting to see how the SQ lounge compares. And how does OZ manage to differentiate the F lounge -- champagne in addition to cognac?
The story continues next Sunday...


[This message has been edited by jpatokal (edited Feb 10, 2004).]