Nest Hotel.
A member of Design hotels.
Seoul Incheon.
On arrival at Seoul Incheon, we landed two hours and 10 minutes late. After we deplaned, we looked for a golf cart or a limo transfer to our next flight, which was departing in 40 minutes. Just kidding.
Asiana had a suited representative waiting for us at the top of the jet bridge with our names on a sign along with our flight number. We had about 40 minutes to make our connection and at that time, with the handler, and a small army of Asiana representatives handling the mis-connects, I was feeling pretty confident about the whole thing.
He assisted with getting us to the front of the train lines, and the security lines and through the maze over to the international transfer area of Incheon gate 47. Of course, this international transfer couldn’t have been any worse as it was from one end of the outer terminal concourse, to the other end of the main terminal concourse. It was a mess and maze of people as we, with his help, expedited us through the masses.
We bypassed security with an express cut to the front, and transferred by train between the outer concourse to the main concourse. This was another full out race through the departure hall. I thought I was done running through airports after my
spastic Sydney Australia departure experience 5 months ago but here I was again, tearing down moving sidewalks toward the next chapter in this story.
Unfortunately, his magic was limited. I also happened to notice on the trot (with his running like a suited ballet dancer) that our handler didn’t seem to have a two way radio with him. As we arrived at Gate 47, at T-10 minutes to spare, we presented our already printed boarding cards to the gate agent and were told to “please wait to the side”. The gate signs were showing in “final call” Some frantic phone calling, radio squawking in Korean and we were ultimately politely informed that we weren’t able to board us and to “please wait for the Air Canada manager”.
Likely, it seems that our seats were given away to other travelers, operational upgrades or contingent travelers. I did happen to notice two other travelers (traveling separately), with boarding cards on Asiana stock in economy class, successfully board the flight after us. It was a bit useless having run all the way over from the other concourse since Asiana could have confirmed that we were coming by radio or phone call. Despite Star Alliance’s claims of “the way the earth connects”, it certainly didn’t work in our favor today.
To make first world problems worse, we had pre-selected seats in the first class cabin (Asiana operated a three class cabin with two class service on this route), meaning that we missed out on a very comfortable ride down to Ho Chi Minh City. I had thought about asking them to off load the other contingent travelers (if they were of a lower status) but I thought that it was a bit of a cheek.
Ultimately, Asiana passed the mis-connect buck to Air Canada and asked us to wait while they pulled back the jetway. We waited for the Air Canada manager whom arrived to the gate on foot and bid farewell to the Asiana handler. I later learned from Flight Track Pro the next morning that the plane actually didn’t depart for another 45 minutes AFTER we had left the gate with the Air Canada Manager. Groan.
The Air Canada Manager had re-booked us on the next OZ flight the next morning. She escorted us back downstairs through Immigration and Security, indicating she would get our bags re-tagged for the new flight. I’d heard that one before! Thankfully we had carry on’s with us since I’ve lost my bags about 50% of the overseas trips that I have taken lately.
We met up with the other Air Canada mis-connects in the arrivals hall on the public side. It turns out there was 22 of them from our flight. Wow – AC lost some money on that one! We got an old fashioned ticket voucher with red carbon for our flight the next day, where we were thankfully confirmed on the next non stop Asiana flight in business. There were others in our group headed to Denpasar, Bali on Korean airline who were waitlisted for seats. Aside from the disappointment of missing out on our connecting flight, we came out of it ahead. I asked the Air Canada manager what hotel we were headed to and got a very vague comment
“The Nest Hotel. I think you will like it”.
Gosh - wonder what that means ? It's either really good, or really bad!!
We bid farewell to our Air Canada manager. We were transferred as a group to the Nest Hotel by motor coach. It was about 10 minutes away by bus.
We arrived to a very modern looking and sleek hotel. We had a prompt check in and were given a dinner and breakfast voucher for the next morning. This is one of those places that you never expect to end up in, and never happened to see in day light, but I figured that this review might be of help to someone. . . Some photos after our arrival.
We received a comfortable base level room, with attached balcony. There was free wifi throughout the hotel, without the need for any code or password. I used the wifi to get in touch with the Sheraton Saigon and to change the time our driver was scheduled to picking us up.
The room included a very neat cargo flight information display on the television.
We had dinner in the Platz restaurant. The food was European styled – chicken with bread crumbs and balsamic vinegrette. The voucher menu was a set offering. I did happen to notice the complete absence of any Korean dishes from the room service and dinner menus, which I found to be a bit strange as I was half hoping to get some Korean food in thanks to this unexpected stopover.
There was also a hotel lounge called The Kunst Lounge, but given we had a 5 AM wake up, we didn’t partake in any libations tonight. The lounge had a European contemporary feel to it, much like other areas of the hotel. Books anyone?
Overall, better than expected for an unexpected hotel stay. I doubt I would stay here again, but perhaps this information is worthwhile to those that are considering a stay here, or wanting to experience once of their other hotels. Based on my experience here, I’d easily consider a Design Hotel if no other options were available.