Asiana Airlines
Business Class
NRT-ICN (Narita International Airport, Tokyo – Incheon Airport, Seoul)
OZ 105 – Business Class (I)
6:50 PM – 9:30 PM
April 16, 2014
Booked: Boeing 747-400
Flown: Boeing 747-400 Combi
We ended up traveling to Dubai via Seoul, via Bangkok in a case of “You can’t get there from here”. There were limited flights to Dubai from Narita if you weren’t flying with Emirates or Etihad, making the Star Alliance connection points Bangkok or Beijing. We opted for Bangkok as we had been through China previously and found the Air China service and catering a little lacking. For some reason, there was no nonstop Thai Airways availability was on offer- likely due to it being high demand Airbus 380 service between Narita and Bangkok. So that brought us to a flight to Incheon Seoul, an overnight at the Hyatt Incheon, then a another flight down to Bangkok, a visit to the Royal Orchid Spa and a last Thai Airways flight onto Dubai.
A trick of the book today. For some reason, Asiana is operating a three class aircraft on a two class route. We self assigned ourselves seats in the Asiana First Class nose of the Boeing 747-400. The service was usual business class service along with business class menus. It’s a bit of a trick as without knowing, you could also book an Airbus 321 with traditional barca-lounger seats on this route as well which would be a substantial difference in comfort. Obviously, not everyone knows or asks about first class seats as there were as 3 empty seats up front tonight (5/8 load). One of the passengers was uniformed staff (male). Unfortunately, it’s also likely the last flight I will take seated in first class in the in the nose of a 747 as most carriers are retiring these aircraft in favor of more efficient models.
Today’s flight started with double jet bridge boarding between business and “travel” class. Like other shorter Asian Business class flights, no amenity kits were offered. The usual Asiana branded slippers in a transparent case were made available.
We settled into the familiar OZ first class seat that we previously experienced on
OZ201 LAX-ICN. It’s getting a bit dated now but it’s still a very comfortable set up. It’s not showing any wear and tear at all on the suite product itself. This time we opted for the center seats 4E/F instead of the outer seats of 3A/4A as we had previously experienced.
Business class menus were presented, along with a towel service. A pre-departure beverage of water, juice or champagne was offered. Dinner orders were also taken while on the ground in Narita.
On take off, the difference between the Boeing 787 and the 747 aircraft became apparent. The 747 transmitted bump and quivers throughout it’s frame as the plane climbed to altitude. These shakes, rattles and rolls were notably present compared to our last flight on the 787 which was shake and rattle free.
Tonight’s flight was a short one. In addition to the groans of the cabin on the climb, there were a substantial amount of bumps and turbulence on the flight. The seat belt sign on for almost entire duration of flight. The divider between 4E and 4F has a privacy screen – but it can only be left in place with smooth flight. It has to stay down for most if not all of the flight. Given the bumps, I didn’t get the opportunity to get up to talk to the back to see whether the regular business class section was being sold. My guess was that it was not.
The dinner of beef tenderloin presented all at once with salad. You can tell how bumpy the flight was by the state of the red wine in the photograph.
Dinner was followed by mixed nuts- in a pouch instead of a ramkin (the horrors!).
The plane had Video on Demand. I didn’t get too into it given the short duration of the flight.
There were regular refills of champagne throughout the flight. The glass was never less than half full. I’m happy to report that it was classic, reliable, attentive Asiana service.
Before we knew it, we were on approach into Incheon. After landing, we had a long 15 minute taxi to the terminal. This was followed by a long line at immigration with no option for fast track. We had another 15 minutes here since several large capacity jets from China appeared to be unloading at this hour. The bags were already on the belt on arrival to the carousel.
Exiting into the public side of the arrivals hall, we were accosted by taxi driver touts like never before. We were approached by four separate taxi drivers at separate times looking for fares on our walk to the Hyatt Regency shuttle bus. The touts were super aggressive. We had just come off a trip across Africa without any troubles similar to this. I actually had to tell one guy to bugger off and leave us alone. He actually followed us for about 5 minutes and wouldn’t leave until we took his business card. It was a bit surprising since I certainly wasn't expecting this in Incheon!!