Flight Review – Jakarta to Seoul – Asiana Airlines – Business Class

Summary

What’s to like – Asiana Airlines usually provides a solid service, this was a night flight so it was more about sleeping than being wowed by the food and service and they did get the snack service over and allow the cabin to sleep in a reasonable amount of time.

Could improve – I have to say that the snack service was a little underwhelming when we got on as it was pretty dry and average, the angled lie flat seat seemed a little lumpy and not that ‘flat’ and the second course of the breakfast was also a bit of a let down.

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Flight number –OZ 762

Seat Number – 3A

Aircraft type – Airbus 330-300

Check in – Because I was flying in Business Class on Asiana after approaching the designated business class check in counter I was personally lead to a priority processing area where you are ushered through and sat down with a check in agent and processed, this seemed to be a service offered to a number of airlines, after which you were lead through to a priority immigration booth and processed. From there it was straight through into the JAS Premier Lounge. It was a very efficient and pleasant experience.

Lounge – I have reviewed the Premier Lounge here – http://lifestobelived.com/2014/05/06...rport-jakarta/ . In short the lounge was a pleasant place to spend a few hours prior to my flight as the flight ended up being delayed approximately 45 minutes and the ride to the airport was fast and uninterrupted by the traffic jams that Jakarta is known for and for which I had allowed time for.

Seat – The seat was an angled lie flat type and there were 30 seats laid out in 5 rows in a 2-2-2 arrangement in Business Class. The seat on Seatguru.com is listed as having a 60 inch pitch, 26.5 inch width and angled at 168 degrees. It may be described as lie flat but even when extended fully there seemed to be several dips and bumps in it which I know occurs in many seats, but this seemed a little more bumpy than I tend to experience. The flight was only approximately six and half hours so its probably sufficient for the duration and I was able to get several hours of sleep. The entertainment system was reasonable although a larger selection of movies and other items would be good, the only tv episodes available was Elementary so I guess if you’re not into that series you were out of luck.

Food and beverages – As it was a midnight flight it was obviously geared to a quick snack on boarding so that the cabin could be darkened to allow people the maximum amount of sleep possible. Shortly after departure a roll was provided with turkey, salad and fried onion. While it didn’t taste too bad it was seriously dry and so this detracted from it and I didn’t finish it.

After watching half a movie I then attempted to get some sleep and eventually woke up in the morning as other people were being served their breakfasts, so I guess the crew were allowing people to get the maximum amount of sleep, but perhaps you should be given the choice of if you want to be woken for breakfast? Anyway from there I chose the hot western breakfast option after a first fruit course which was a frittata, hash brown, tomato and sausage. The hash brown was soggy, the frittata not that great, in short not that great a meal and most of it remained uneaten.

Service quality – The quality of the service was reasonable, although as it was a night flight and most of it spent with the cabin darkened or asleep the service wasn’t truly tested. For those wanting to get the maximum amount of sleep the meals were served relatively promptly which would be helpful.

On time – The plane left Jakarta about 45 minutes late or 12.30am which had me a bit concerned as my booking had the plane leaving at 11.45pm and getting into Seoul at 8.55am before connecting to another flight at 9.45am, so a tightish connection. With an hour and ten minute transit and my first flight leaving 45 minutes late I was anticipating not only not having any lounge time in Seoul, but missing my next flight completely. Not sure why, but anyway even with leaving 45 minutes late the flight time was only six and half hours rather than 7 hours plus in my ticket details and so we arrived only a few minutes after 9am. Having a look at some recent flights on this route instead of 11.45pm most flights seem to leave after midnight and often 10-15 minutes after, so not sure why there is an often late departure of this flight? Anyway it was a late departure, but didn’t have catastrophic results as we arrived roughly on time.

Conclusion – This was an ok flight, as mentioned above it was a night flight and so the service wasn’t tested as thoroughly but was designed to ensure passengers in the cabin got the maximum amount of sleep. The movie selection wasn’t that great on a regional flight although Asiana offer a better selection on their longer haul A330 flights. Some improvement in the meals could produce a better product.

http://lifestobelived.com/2014/05/24...usiness-class/