Just completed our NRT ICN LAX trip. Some good and some not so good.

Meal service NRT ICN has been reduced substantially. No more Korean option and everything is served together on the tray including the industrial grade dessert. Service was very good, but the steak was pretty much raw inside and it felt more like doing surgery than dining.

Meal service ICN LAX was excellent and served in courses as before.

IFE still very limited, so bring your own entertainment and the cabins are kept very hot. On NRT ICN the A388 APU was inoperative, no one requested an AC hose, or maybe one was not available due to the colder temperature in Tokyo, but boarding was unbearable. It must have been 90F in there. When I first complained to the FA, she looked surprised and asked how it could feel hot, yet her face was covered in sweat 🤦.

I requested a cooler cabin 3x ICN LAX but it never happened.

The main lounge at ICN still has decent food, but frustratingly, not a single dessert option. Also the privacy lounges that faced the ramp windows were removed and replaced with regular, albeit comfortable seats. The first shower room had hair everywhere which was gross, but I was moved to another room immediately and they brought out the poor old cleaning attendant and made her apologize 😢.

Again to me the seat was perfectly fine especially the A350 with plenty of space where I could lay at an angle and sleep comfortably if it wasn’t 85 degrees in there.

At $1500-1800 each way, the competition here isn’t JAL, ANA, or SQ, at this price point the competition is ZipAir, and given the option between the two, I’d choose OZ in a heartbeat every time. It’s not even a fair fight. Plus with a Korea departure, you have the two hours flying back to Japan (avoiding North Korea ) to finish the meal and a movie, and the other 8 hours to sleep and arrive refreshed, vs the too-short TYO-LAX nonstop.


A388 seat

NRT ICN lunch


A350 seat













Korean meal