Kiwi Flyer

Auckland to Incheon Seoul on Korean Air B747-400 in business (AKL-ICN C)

After my previous experience with the airport shuttle waiting for an hour I decided to take a shuttle back to the airport earlier than I normally would. This one was on time so I hopped off at domestic terminal and walked across to internation for a fix of A1 fumes and to fill in time.

At check in I was quickly checked in for this flight, but the onward codeshare flight took longer to see to. Being a codeshare flight I had been unable to pre-select a seat as both the marketing airline and operating airline blocked seat selection. Fortunately I was able to get my preferred aisle seat. Unfortunately it is right next to a closet, so not the most ideal. A comparison of available seats with the seat map I'd printed out and brought with me showed no better seats available. Oh well.

The airport's carry on police were scrupulously checking all carry ons as usual. I handed my departure card to the officer and headed to use the smartgate kiosks as usual when I was called back - you can't use smartgate flying Korean. So for the first time in several years I had to join the regular immigration queue out of Auckland. Normally I use smartgate, or the premium line that Air NZ has via their premium check in lobby, or the pre-clearance route when flying Emirates or Qantas or Singapore Airlines daytime flight. Being holiday season the line was long and slow moving.

Up to the lounge. At the entrance was a sign saying no guests allowed due to overcrowding. Indeed it was fairly full with several widebody flights departing in the next couple of hours. Lots of flights were called. The boarding time came and went with no call for my flight. I decided to leave the lounge anyway and stretch my legs en route to the gate.

At the gate there was no sign of boarding so left to wander a bit more. Departure time came and went with still no boarding. Eventually it was our turn. I boarded very late in the process, so as to see if the adjacent seat had remained empty. If yes then I can leave stuff on it that would otherwise have to go in the overhead bin. My seat was taken. There was a large family spread over a few rows and they'd seated themselves in the wrong seats. I offered to the crew to switch to another row which had 2 empty seats. This was accepted.

We departed an hour late. This was to cause issues for some connecting passengers since Korean has 45 minute minimum connection time at Seoul.

I was very tired so after brunch, a movie, and a few glasses of bubbles, I slept for a few hours. The passenger across the aisle from me was very sick - coughing up a lung and sneezing all flight. Hopefully nothing too serious or contagious.

When I awoke it was time for bubbles ahead of dinner. The first glass offered was flat and warm. The replacement glass was better.

Due to our late arrival time we had been given a gate in the main terminal. Every other time I've flown Korean from Auckland we've gotten a gate at the satellite terminal (departing flights are from the main terminal).