Just flew Asiana First ICN to LAX. Champagne list downgraded.
 

My wife and I just flew Asiana First class on the A380 last night and we were extremely disappointed in the champagne offerings and liquor selection. They updated their champagne list to Baron de Rothschild blanc de Blancs and a Laurent Perrier Brut which goes for 40 a bottle at home.

After take off I was informed that they only stocked the flight with one bottle of Baron de Rothschild and it was consumed on the ground. So they only had the Laurent Perrier available. Also the flight was delayed by 3 hours.

They also had a pretty low end liquor offering except for blue label. The other offerings were: Absolute vodka, Jack Daniels, Canadian Club, Beefeater Gin, Bacardi Rum. I honestly thought the attendant had given me the business class drink menu. Not being pretentious but I literally checked the front of the menu to see if I had been given the wrong menu. These liquor offerings are pretty low end for an Asian carrier first class menu.

This was was a special trip for my wife and I as we blew 130k points each on this flight. Is there anything we can do about the flight delay and the champagne issue? I know this is a first world problem but we were just very disappointed in the liquor offerings and the delay. Our outbound flight on EVA business even had better liquor offerings and was significantly less points. If we had known the liquor list would be downgraded this much, we probably would have stuck with the business class award. We booked it through mileageplus. What are the chances of a partial points refund? Slim?

"Slim" is probably overly optimistic. Closer to "none"

You flew first class in a private suite on points. There is zero basis for complaint or refund.

Yeah I figured. Just wanted to see if anyone had any luck with it.

I was deciding between Thai royal first and Asiana suites when booking our award ticket. The champagne & wine list was a huge determining factor for us. I was just disappointed Asiana downgraded their champagne offerings and that they stocked a fully booked first class cabin (with 12 passengers) with only one bottle of the more premium champagne offered. In our case the only champagne available after take off was a $40 dollar Laurent Perrier (arguably a business class level champagne).

Do you have a link of where you found the champagne offerings?

I took a photo of the drink menu. See attachment.

I mean where did you find the Champagne offerings prior to your flight? You mentioned that it was a deciding factor between Asiana and Thai.

http://thepointsguy.com/2016/11/asia...flight-review/

And for Thai royal first, we knew they usually served Dom in Royal first.

Now I'm a little confused. TG does not fly to the US.

Sorry forgot to include the details. Our return flight was BKK to LAX.

We were deciding between:

Thai first bkk to hkg, Asiana HKG to ICN business, ICN to LAX suites

Thai Royal First BKK->LHR, then united polaris LHR to LAX.

Our Thai royal first flight was so short from bkk to hkg, but the food and service was amazing. We wished we would of flown that product on the long haul instead of Asiana. Oh well.

So you still got the TG F ground services at BKK plus Dom on BKK-HKG. And I assume they're still serving the caviar in OZ F? It would be a shame if your main take away from that journey is disappointment over the liquor.

Well between the two options I had when booking the award ticket, I would of received the same Thai ground services at BKK regardless. And if I had gone with the Thai Royal First from Bkk to Lhr, I would of gotten the caviar as well.

The Thai First class flight was at 8am, so I didn't take advantage of the Dom since it was too early to drink and I had an upcoming long haul first class flight on Asiana where I could have some nice champagne. So I was just disappointed when I got on board the Asiana flight to discover they only had a $40 dollar champagne available after take off on a long haul first class flight.

In hindsight, still a good experience. I just wish I would of known about the liquor downgrades as I would of chosen another long haul first product over Asiana.

There have been plenty of passengers disappointed with TG's long-haul F service lately. They've been cost-cutting, too. And of course service and hard product on UA from LHR-LAX would have been far inferior to OZ. So I don't think that claim really washes at all.

Did not know that about Thai long haul first service. We had such a great experience on the Thai first short haul, that we were thinking it would be the same for their long haul.

It was still a very nice experience on Asiana First. Its just hard for me to get over the fact they only had a $40 dollar bottle of champagne in first class. But like I said, it's definitely a first world problem. The hard product was top notch and so was the food.