fly747first

The LX Lounge at JFK is terrible. Some flyers previously claimed that they won't let you access the F side and that is true since the F side is not open in the morning and hence they make you use the J side, which is one of the worst lounges I have ever been in. Personally, I think that OZ doesn't force the LX staff to open the F side because very few people are actually paying for F.

fly747first

Exactly. OZ will try to tell you that it is because the F side isn't open in the morning, but why isn't it open? Simple: because OZ doesn't want to pay LX to open it.

TrAAveller

Agreed...also, the F side isn't even open, so it's not even possible to sweet talk (or stealthily slide into) the F side before the OZ departures. :-( I find it a poor ground experience that OZ doesn't attempt to create a better experience prior to boarding (no buggy, personal assistants for transfers, poor lounge food/drinks). I might have missed it, but it didn't appear there was any expedited security line for OZ First (although at the time I arrived it went pretty quickly without).

The check-in counters and agents at JFK were rather unremarkable. I'd expect they don't have any special treatment than they give to the economy passengers, even just lip service to see if there's any additional needs. I did like that all the Asiana check-ins had sample seat maps printed out for quick reference so you could ensure the ticketed seat numbers corresponded to your preferred seating location (aisle, windows, or pairings, etc).

Despite the poor ground experience, it was still 100% worth it to take the JFK-ICN suites flight for the inflight amazing experience. I even routed from DFW-IAH-JFK and ovenighted at JFK just to take this specific flight...and it did not disappoint. (Granted there's two perfectly decent direct flights from DFW, but that's no fun!)

agjil

just out of curiosity, is there an F lounge at LAX for OZ F passengers?
I didn't have enough time to check any of the lounges last time I flew OZ F out of LAX, so this made me wonder whether OZ has a dedicated F lounge at LAX.

lazard

They use the *A First Class lounge.

JVPhoto

On the *A site for lounge finder it shows:

The Lounge Contracted Asiana (First/Business) International Terminal 4th Floor

Is this a non-airline run lounge you can also access?

And when you say that LX F side isn't open in the "mornings" like real morning or around 11-12ish? I'll have a 1pm JFK-ICN F trip the end of April and hoping for a decent ground experience (never really fly out of JFK)

anandrag

Flying ICN-JFK in 3 weeks in F. What seat would people recommend? Traveling alone

Duke777

I loved my ICN-JFK flight in F in December. Amazing seat (way better than Thai A380) and great service. Take any of the single seats if you're flying alone. I had 2A, which is quiet since it's far from the galley.

The only disappointment was the F lounge in ICN wasn't that exciting. The food was mediocre (morning flight), but the flight itself had great food. LH FCL's still take the cake for me.

Always Flyin

There is a joint Star Alliance first class lounge OZ uses at LAX.

Forget a decent ground experience at JFK. You'll be in the austere business side of the Swiss lounge, which is at least after security now. Having been in the F side when flying LX in the past, you are not missing much.

2A, 2K, 1A, 1K, in that order of preference.

Keep in mind that OZ only has F service to four cities and one of those is a regional flight (NRT). The economics of supporting a full service F lounge like LH or AF doesn't exist. It is a nice lounge, however, and at least it is not crowded and has all the facilities you would need.

JVPhoto

Yes but what is the "The Lounge" contracted by Asiana that it lists at JFK?

Always Flyin

OZ flies out of T4 at JFK uses the Swiss business class lounge.

Since there is no "International Terminal" at JFK, it is pretty clearly an error.

LAX888

TBH I have never had any good check-in experience in the US regardless of which airline you fly. They interact as little as possible with the passenger and often have that bored look on their face.
I thought that maybe OZ would staff the check-in desks with some more competent staff but it seems that this is not the case.

jon503

I second that. Honestly, I've never been blown away by the OZ boarding experience in ICN either though. It's way better than in the US, but I find the staff at the Diamond counter to be very matter-of-factly. Not that there's anything really wrong with that, it's just that the staff in FRA is always amazingly friendly to me and I've even ended up chatting with them for a bit on several occasions.

agjil

Did you mean the LH or OZ staff at FRA?

anandrag

Looks like I got lucky as have seat 2A tomorrow morning for ICN-JFK!