Annyeong haseyo! And welcome to the Korean Air Economy Class experience. I feel a short intro on how this trip came about is in order. A couple of weeks ago, with work load heavier than ever and no vacation in sight for months, I feel the (not uncommon) urge to be flying. It seems like ages since I last saw a plane up close, let alone fly in one. The withdrawal symptoms – making fictitious bookings on airline websites, drooling enviously over trip reports, and the like – were setting in: I knew an urgent fix was in order.

Having no excuses to be away from work means this escapade would have to be made within the confines of a regular weekend from my current Kuala Lumpur base. But where? Much exciting scenario planning happens for which I shall not go into detail. But in the end, a confluence of factors – including a relatively healthy balance of WorldPerks miles, a slightly less healthy bank balance, the chance of flying in a spanking new Boeing 777-300ER, trying a new airline, and availability of award seats – puts flying Korean Air to nowhere in particular as the firm favorite “weekend plan”.





So here’s the deal. Setting out from work for KLIA on Friday night, I will take the red-eye to Seoul Incheon, arriving early Saturday. In the late afternoon, another Korean Air flight – on the B777- 300ER, its newest purchase – will take me from Incheon to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, where I will overnight. An early Sunday morning AirAsia flight brings me back to Kuala Lumpur, completing some 9,200 km in the process – in time for a Sunday family lunch with the folks. Apart from the real possibility of contracting swine flu along the way, it does sound like an absolutely delicious plan – on paper. Whether or not it works out in real life remains to be seen.



friday night





Skytrax five-star rated national carrier Malaysia Airlines is contracted to do the check-ins for Korean Air. With five desks dedicated to Economy class (and one each for First and Business), the queues are short for tonight’s flight and I am attended to almost immediately. I mistakenly hand the MH agent the printout for my Sunday AirAsia flight which confuses him: “you came from Ho Chi Minh City?” he asks. No, I reply, I’m going there. He is completely baffled: “but this flight is going to Seoul.” Oh, yes I know, I’m on transit. He taps on his keyboard, finds my reservation, and without a further word, issues the boarding passes for both KE flights. Obviously mad detours like this must happen more regularly than I think.





A laminated seat map of the plane we’re traveling on sits on each check-in counter top: a low tech but no less practical touch which makes it easy for airline staff to explain where one is seated. My 58H is by the window of the third-last row on the Airbus, I discover. At the other end of the plane, I am intrigued that Korean Air still sells a First Class service on this regional flight, but the 58-inch seat pitch doesn’t seem competitive. Neither, I think, is the 41-42 inch legroom for Business, which is more akin to Premium Economy these days. But for someone seated in the deep belly of steerage, such matters are of academic interest rather than genuine concern. The ease with which I snagged a redemption seat led me to think tonight’s flight would leave with lots of spare room to stretch out, so I am surprised – and a little disappointed – to hear the agent tell me “the flight is full.”







I pass one of the airport’s Self Check-In machines – interestingly, only four airline operating out of KLIA offer this facility here. Korean Air is not among them.

It may be a Friday night, but the cavernous terminal is quiet and unexciting. (The real action at Sepang is to be found in the warehouse AirAsia calls a hub across the tarmac.) Finding no reason to hang around, I proceed through immigration and while queuing for a security check, a Malaysia Airlines directional sign for its latest premium lounge attracts my attention. I’d seen the “5-star MH” icon used in fare deals in local papers, but to use it here suggests it’s become the airline’s new slogan, together with “5-star services at affordable fares”. From the looks of it, it does seem MH is on the way to becoming an LCC.





I still have plenty of time so I take a wander up to the upper level of the satellite building. Renovations (which are ongoing) to increase retail space, F&B outlets and brighten up the public areas make it a more appealing place. I also spot Cathay Pacific’s brand new and larger premium lounge just opened across from the old one. Looks rather nice from the outside, but alas, I don’t foresee being able to glimpse the inside for a long while yet. Tonight, it is hosting oneworld partner JAL’s Tokyo-bound Business Class passengers.







The departure board tells me tonight is not a good one for MH. Almost every long-haul flight operated by the airline is running late. When I ask, a girl at the airport’s information counter says it’s “due to bad weather” but it looks like a perfectly fine night. Well, perhaps, the rough weather is somewhere else…

I make my way to gate C12, where Korean Air’s HL7525, an 11-year old A330-300, is already being readied for the overnight to Incheon. At least this flight seems to be on time. Night shots in poor light are always a challenge – for me anyway – so apologies in advance for the poor quality of the pictures on this sector.





Kuala Lumpur – Seoul Incheon
Korean Air flight KE 672
Airbus A330-300 HL7525
Dept 2350 Arrv 0722 (next day, on schedule)


The holding gate area starts to fill up, with the load looking rather “full” as promised. A large proportion of passengers are Korean holiday makers with kids in tow heading home, but there’s a fair number transiting Incheon en route to the States, Japan and China too. Korean 672 is code-shared with Delta and Malaysia Airlines – which incidentally has its own nonstop service (also an A333) tonight, timed a quarter of an hour ahead of KE. Bilingual pre-recorded boarding announcements are made and – save for a trip reporter rushing in to catch a pix of an empty cabin – the crowd boards in a remarkably orderly fashion.





There are smiles and much polite nodding in the welcomes as I walk down the aisle towards the back of the plane. The stewardesses, all immaculately groomed, tall and slim in their fitting jade blue outfits, have a certain catwalk-model quality to them. Add dangerously starched pointy scarves and a dramatic hairpin that could poke your eye out to the ensemble, and you really don’t want to mess with these girls.   I so wanted to share a pic of some of the, oh, so attractive crew here, but am told KE management has a strange rule prohibiting the taking of photos of and among the crew. Of course, they do “accidentally” creep into the frame every once in a while.







If the crew looks rather eye-catching, the cabin décor is anything but. There aren’t so many pictures on A.net of the interiors of Korean Air’s Economy Class, so seeing this for the first time was a bit of a let-down. The front Y cabin is decked out entirely in dark blue, and the back cabin in brown. I suppose there’s nothing really wrong with them, just a little on the boring side.

Like every other seat, mine comes with an above-average 33 inch pitch – which I appreciate – a light woolen blanket and a good-sized pillow.




The unexciting interiors aside, this Airbus doesn’t look bad at all for a decade-old plane. There may not be PTVs but fittings seem to be in order and the seats are sturdy and comfortable. Ever since my flight on an MH A330 in December, checking the lighting panels above the window seats for cobwebs has become a bit of a habit. This one looks spick and span.




As an early passenger, I also manage to snap the still unoccupied middle rows (which reduce to 3-abreast from 4- as the cabin tapers at the tail) across the aisle. This section soon fills up, with almost every seat taken.




With boarding seemingly complete, an American sounding Captain Lock comes on the pa with a cheerful welcome; says tonight’s flight will be 6 hours 15 minutes, cruising at 39,000 feet across the South China Sea, and over Taiwan and Korea’s Jeju island, with likely intermittent turbulence along the way. The seat next to me remains unoccupied. Dare I even hope for it: an empty seat next to me? But it’s too good to be true. While we push back, a stewardess comes over to very politely ask “if you would mind” that a passenger currently seated in a middle seat, but wanting an aisle seat, be moved next to me after take-off. Can I really say no?

Although on board announcements are done meticulously in three languages – Korean, English and Malay – the safety video is shown in Korean only, which I find rather strange given the airline’s international clientele and its renewed focus on safety. There are, I notice, English subtitles on the video but the words are so small it’s almost impossible to read off the distant overhead screens.





From the now obligatory knee shot above, you get to see that the legroom’s not bad at all, especially considering what’s stuffed into the seat pocket. Just from KE alone, we have the in-flight magazine Morning Calm crammed with great pictorial stories, a voluminous Sky Shop brochure, an e-Sky Shop mail order brochure (which sells 1:200 scale models of KE A380s and B787s at attractive prices, but only if you have a postal address in Korea), a bigger IFE guide than is necessary for this flight, an assortment of stickers, forms and other pamphlets, air sickness bag and safety information card.









Headsets and a corporate-colored, pouch-like comfort kit containing socks, eye mask and toothbrush (similar to what you get on CX and QF) are passed out immediately after take-off: the fact that this is done from a trolley makes it feel a little Business Class-like special. It is past midnight and many of the passengers have nodded off by now. I suspect that is what’s happened to the passenger eyeing the aisle seat beside me – he/she doesn’t show up, so I get my bonus room after all!





Flight attendants are busy, discreetly distributing pre-ordered duty frees (apparently buying items on the outbound and collecting them on the return sector is rather popular with Korean holiday makers). Two stewardesses come over separately to apologize when I ask if I can purchase the KE scale models: “I am really sorry to disappoint you.” Service on board remains top notch, and far friendlier than I had imagined Korean Air would be. Somehow in my archaic mind, I thought it’d be a sterner Confucian approach! Tonight’s crew also includes a largish contingent of four Malaysia-based flight attendants, who by look and image are almost indistinguishable from their Korean counterparts. Catering though is meager at this late hour: a quick beverage service and roasted peanuts are the extent of it:




An hour and a half into the cruise, we’re well over the South China Sea and starting to feel a few tropical bumps off the Vietnamese coast. The seat belt sign comes on, and the lights go off. There’s little in-flight entertainment to speak of, so it’s time for bed.






Having not had much sleep the night before, I sink into a deeper slumber than I usually do seated upright. I don’t know if there were any drink rounds by the crew during the night, but I wake up feeling dehydrated, while my neck aches. (You really appreciate J class with its bottled water and in-seat massage at these moments!) Looking at my watch, I realize I’d slept for two and a half hours straight, which is rather good for a red-eye in Y class.

The aroma of fresh croissants wafts into the darkened cabin (I wonder if that’s what woke me up) while outside, through the cloudless night sky, lights from a large city which I guess must be Taipei are clearly visible. A little less than two hours before arrival, the cabin fluorescents are switched on – a tad too stark now for someone already spoilt by the gentler, moody tones on the newer planes – and the girls in jade blue, still looking immaculate, swing back into action along the aisles.





An exercise video is being aired on the overhead screens, while towels and orange juice are distributed. There is a choice of omelet or noodles as the main hot breakfast dish. It’s the standard airline fare but the presentation’s rather nice. My expectations of economy class catering have dropped so much these days that I am now impressed the cutlery isn’t plastic and the croissant is warm.





A new day beckons but turbulence returns and the seat belt signs come on as we cross the East China Sea towards the Korean peninsula.




Apart from being a little choppy, the last hour of the flight is uneventful. As we start our decent into South Korea’s largest international hub, an interesting video in English that’s a shameless plug for Incheon comes on. In addition to the usual talk of facilities, convenience, and efficiency, this short film – that obviously targets U.S. travelers headed for China – goes on to say how much easier it is to connect via ICN (giving the example of a passenger traveling between LAX and Qingdao in China) as opposed to the hassles – of changing planes, clearing immigration and customs, collecting bags and then lugging them between airports – via Shanghai. A bit below the belt, but it tickled me.





We make a smooth landing at Incheon in an early morning haze. On a parallel runway, a departing Lufthansa A343 takes me by surprise. I didn’t know there were such early departures for Europe, but a check with the online schedules later reveals that this machine is probably headed for Korea’s second city Busan, a continuation of the overnight flight from Munich.




I saw farewell to the crew. With no reason to rush, I am the last passenger to leave the plane. This is the forward Y cabin in blue after all its passengers have disembarked. My first flight on Korean Air had been a very pleasant one.



Looks like it’s turning into a lovely Saturday morning: I stroll leisurely up the glassy aerobridge to the terminal and into South Korea.





The welcome greeting when I reach the terminal is a nice touch.




And finally, a farewell to HL7525 that got me here to gate 19. Korean carriers KE and Asiana use the main terminal gates but all foreign airlines have been shifted to the new standalone Concourse A (which you see in the background, and reachable by shuttle train) after it opened last year.




incheon day


I had such ambitious plans for the eleven hours here. Among those on the list were catching up with an old classmate in Seoul or trying one of Korea’s interesting new LCCs out of Gimpo Airport. (I particularly wanted to see the far-out interiors of Eastar Jet.) Based on my calculations, I can just about manage a quick roundtrip to Jeju in the time, but as the local airlines’ websites are entirely in Korean, the booking will have to wait until I get to the airport today. Which is just as well, because the reality of a couple of previous sleepless nights strikes home hard: my nose is runny, and is it my imagination or is that a fever I’m running? These days, get off a plane with a few sniffles and people will think you’ve got swine flu, so I opt for the prudent course of action of getting some real shut eye. I check into a local hotel in 10-minute away Incheon town instead, with a day room costing a reasonable 60,000 Korean won (about $47).






saturday evening






I am feeling refreshed and sufficiently dry-nosed when Hotel Sevilla’s complimentary van service drops me off at ICN. With almost three hours to go for my flight to Ho Chi Minh City, I have plenty of time to spare. Although the boarding pass for my onward flight has already been issued, I decide to check-in my hand carry, which means a trip to the check-in desks.





Korean Air has plenty of staff directing passengers to the right queue. I am told there’s no need to wait with the others and to head straight for the baggage drop off counter, where there’s a much shorter line. It’s all done quickly and painlessly.






I rather like the feel of the wooden floors used at the check-in areas, and in many parts of the airport. They give it a warm, humane feel, much better than the impersonal tiles or cold marble used at other airports. Although there’s still plenty of space, crowds are starting to build up with dozens of departures scheduled for the Americas, Japan, China and Southeast Asia in the airport’s late afternoon/early evening bank of flights.






Thus far I have refrained from making any comment on Korean Air’s tagline: Excellence in Flight. But this display at an Incheon ticketing desk is just too “in your face” not to deserve a little mention. Okay, call me a skeptical old fart if you will, but I think the slogan’s a mistake. Quite apart from the grammatically iffy usage (can one even say: “We are excellence in flight,” for instance?) I feel KE – or indeed, any airline using such a tagline – is setting itself up for a fall. It seems dangerous to suggest that one is “Excellence” (or rather excellent) when it is such a wide, all encompassing word. All it takes is a minor slip up for others to suggest otherwise. (Can you imagine if this was QF’s? The media will have a field day, and a half.) Fine it may be as part of an internal target for your employees, but I think not as a tagline… well, just my    here. Please feel free to vehemently disagree.

That rant over, the reality is Korean Air is growing on me in ways I never expected. The airline has so far (paraphrasing a defunct slogan from another airline) gone beyond my expectations. The standards in-flight as well as on the ground remain consistently good, at least for this Y class passenger, although the hardware on the regional flights are so far lacking. An ongoing plan to overhaul cabins will bring it up to speed with regional leaders, the airline says. Perhaps I get a taster of KE’s future aboard its B777-300ER this evening… I can’t wait.







I make my way, without much fuss or waiting, through immigration and security into the terminal’s main departures area. It’s an immediately likable place: nice, spacious and simple, the terminal comes without complex corners or multiple levels to confuse you. Gates are open-plan so there’s no shortage of seating areas either.







Huge back-lit maps like this one help you navigate Incheon. Not enough airport have them, I feel. Gates 101 to 132 at Concourse A are used by foreign airlines, while gates 1 to 50 are the domain of the home team. As a general rule, Korean Air takes up the right side (lower numbered gates) of the main terminal while Asiana uses the left side (higher numbered gates). But with KE’s bigger presence, its planes tend to spill over to the side occupied by OZ, which is poorly represented this afternoon. There is little doubt which airline dominates ICN.









An example of hub Incheon in action: the A333 above is Kuala Lumpur-bound as KE671 while the B744 at the next gate is operating KE071 headed for Vancouver.





Although the terminal gets busier, it never feels crowded. And there’s much to do. Among the more unique offerings are the Korea Experience shops operated by the tourism authority where transit and departing passengers can while away those waiting hours by immersing themselves in local culture or dress up in Korean outfits for photos, all for free. (By the way, the picture at the start of this TR was taken here.)





Thankfully, the airport caters well to plane spotters too, and getting close to the planes is effortless. The views of the tarmac are fantastic, even if today looks a tad hazy. But much as I like the KE color scheme, I would have appreciated a bit more variety in the spotting. It’s a pity that unless you’re departing on a flight from Concourse A, it’s almost impossible to get there and back without running into a lot of hassle.





I snap a picture of this non-ER B773 principally as a contrast against the ER I’ll be flying this evening. Little did I know that HL7532 would, two days later, be involved in a tail strike incident at Narita. Thankfully, it wasn’t any more serious. Here, the plane is being prepared as KE651 bound for Bangkok.





Korean flight 681 to Ho Chi Minh City departs from gate 22 this evening. Like many other regional and transpacific KE flights, this one is code-shared with Delta, as well as Vietnam Airlines.




I am at the gate two hours early – there aren’t many passengers yet, but I get to see HL7782, Korean Air’s first ever Boeing 777-3B5ER, pull in after a long flight from New York as KE082. Delivered at end-May, this shiny twin jet had been in commercial service for slightly over a month and operating a pretty punishing schedule three times weekly between JFK and ICN, with a tag-on service to SGN, also thrice weekly. I may have flown on the 77W before, but it’s hard not to feel a little excited at the prospect of getting aboard this one.







Korean Air did what an increasing number of airlines do these days when they “update” their liveries. It upsized the name on the fuselage, added a couple of logos to the GE90 engines – and there you have it: the new Korean Air livery… designed to outfox even keen plane spotters.





You can tell new planes by how clean and shiny they look. In Korean Air’s case however, it is far less obvious because of the way its other machines are kept looking in mint condition.





Seoul Incheon – Ho Chi Minh City
Korean Air flight KE 681
Boeing B777-300ER HL7782
Dept 1900 Arrv 2149 (on schedule)





Boarding starts at precisely 6.30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. departure. The many spaced-out looks among my fellow passengers mean only one thing: they’ve just come off longer flights, having crossed many time zones to get here. For them, this represents the final leg home, or least one before a comfortable bed tonight. The longish queue at the gate (I am close to the front) suggests it’ll be another packed flight to Saigon. I didn’t fully appreciate it at first, but the departures level is quite a bit higher than the actual plane.





Among the first to board, I am greeted by a series of polite welcomes that I now know is a Korean Air hallmark. Turning right (rather than left, as I would have much preferred   ) at door 2L, I pass passengers settling into their Business Class seats. The premium cabin comprising 6 rows of the 74-inch pitch seats, arranged 7-abreast is huge, and stretches all the way down to doors 3. Not a bad looking place except at first glance, the seats do resemble the generic J class seats this airline (and others like JL, TG, MH) use, albeit slightly upgraded with more legroom. My attempt at capturing the fleeting moment with the camera isn’t too successful though, so I’ll try again on the way out.

Beyond door 3L, this is what I see. I must admit that seeing the same dark blue décor on this brand new 77W as I’d earlier seen on the older A330 is a little underwhelming.





Past door 4L in the second, back Y cabin – and I am already braced for this – is the entire section decked out in dark brown! Don’t get me wrong, I like sober tones when I’m flying, but this is, well, just plain boring. It also makes the cabin look older than it actually is. I keep reminding myself: this plane is less than 2 months old… really?





My mood improves when I get to my seat. Anticipating a pretty packed flight that’ll largely be in the dark, I had reserved 52D, an aisle seat at the second-to-last row. Looking across, one thing that strikes me is the abundance of legroom: seat pitch is a generous 33-34 inches.





Looking forward from my seat row is a delight too. The seat backs are clean, light colored and come with as-wide-as-they-come-in-Y PTVs. At least, it’s starting to look and feel like a brand new plane! The seatback also comes with a conveniently-located controls handset, USB port and coat hook, in addition to the usual tray table, drinks holder and seat pocket.







Incidentally, across the aisle are the only twin-seats in Economy, found in the last two rows of the plane by the window. Everything else comes in threes.




The seat is comfortable. Once I get settled, I start playing with my new toys. The handset for the Thales inflight entertainment system detaches from the seatback easily; seems sturdy enough while the controls are pretty instinctive.







Power in Economy: definitely one of the most useful innovations introduced into the newer planes, allowing you to work (or play) on your laptop no matter how far you’re flying. Two under-seat power sockets are shared among three passengers in Y, which is quite generous enough.

The touch-screen IFE system which KE calls “Beyond” seems easily navigable while response time is acceptably rapid. At least it doesn’t freeze on me, as some tend to do when faced with impatient fingers. But there are obvious kinks that need be sorted out, like with the readings for speed and time which show that we’ve achieved a ground speed of 400 kph with 2 hours to go to our destination while still parked at Incheon…







The Airshow: my favorite part of the IFE – and I know also of many A.netters – which I return to countless times during the flight. The screen resolution is pretty damn good too.

In addition to Airshow, the Sky Map section also features the now standard-on-newish-planes outside cameras, offering downward and forward views. The clear image being transmitted via the forward camera while on the ground makes it all look almost voyeuristic.






I am buckled-in ready for departure. For a while, nobody takes up the seats next to me but a holidaying Korean couple board at the very last moment to stake their claim. They’re a nice, if slightly eccentric, pair who seemingly having bought all the snacks that can be got at Incheon are determined to eat their way to (and possibly through) Vietnam. The wife, seated next to me, tries to engage me in conversation, but our linguistic limitations don’t get us very far, so we end up with an exchange of polite smiles and finger pointing. From what I can gather, she is bemused by my photo taking of the PTV – on which there is much animated discussion, interspaced with lots of laughter, with her husband in Korean. Later, she offers me a bun from her carrier bag of goodies, followed by more laughter. They must think I am as bonkers as I think they are: we make excellent seat buddies!





Captain Park welcomes us aboard as we push back on the dot from the gate. The massive GE90 engines power up: the cabin noise level at this stage being noticeably higher than on the A333. Flight time this evening is a very fast 4 hours 25 minutes (no reason given, but I figure a pretty brisk tail wind). This means we could be landing at Ho Chi Minh City up to 45 minutes early, which is quite impressive for a flight that’s scheduled for 5 hours 20 minutes. On board announcements are made in Korean, English and Vietnamese, and like on the previous flight, the safety video is played in Korean only. But at least on this flight, the English subtitles are visible.







The lights have been dimmed as we make the quick taxi to the runway. With no queues for take-off, we roll on and rev up for powerful lift-off after a relatively short run. The 3,600 km hop across East Asia with a load like ours must be a piece of cake for the B77W. We hit turbulence as we head south over the Yellow Sea so the seat belt sign remains on for a little while yet.





Head sets are passed out at cruise, but not comfort kits like on the previous flight; I guess such amenities are only reserved for red-eye flights. Like on the KUL-ICN sector, the service remains unfailingly polite, while the stewardesses (almost all of KE’s cabin attendants are female; on this flight they all are) are eye-catchingly attractive. Grooming is meticulous, with absolutely no exception to the not-a-strand-of-hair-out-of-place rule.





Drinks are being served and passengers are settling in with their entertainment choices – by the way, there’s a decent enough selection of some 40 English titles in the AVOD movie section. A stewardess from Vietnam (as I can tell from the small flag etched into her name tag) collecting juice glasses notices me frowning at the PTV, and asks why: “is there a problem?” I tell her I can’t get the sound to work: the soundtrack to the movie is just garbled noise. (I had moments earlier – and obviously rather prematurely – written in my note book that the IFE was top rate, easy to use, no problems at all.) Setting her tray on my table, she leans down to have a listen to the headset, then volunteers an immediate solution: “why don’t I get you a new pair of headphones… if you’re still facing the problem, we may have to reset the system.” I must say that at this stage, I am far more impressed with the quick, unprompted response to my problem than I am concerned with the problem itself.

A new headset arrives – but the sound’s still bad. It’s obviously a system problem. The crew appears to be busy preparing for the meal service so I keep the issue to myself – after all, whether or not I am watching Duplicity is of little consequence when I’d rather be tuned into the Airshow screen mute. The problem can wait – but apparently not on KE. From a distance, I see my Miss Fix-it from Vietnam trying to grab my attention, her raised brows and expectant look indicating an urgent desire to know the verdict. I shake my head in reply. She nods in acknowledgement and rushes off to tell somebody.

In a matter of minutes, another girl in jade blue comes down the aisle to ask if the sound is any better: she has tweaked the system for me. But no, it isn’t. “Then, I think we will have to find you another seat, is that okay? I am sorry,” she says. Miss Fix-it, passing by at that moment, smiles pitifully at me like my favorite pet had just died: “yes, we’re really sorry.” I can’t help feeling pampered and a little special – and that’s a rare sensation behind the Business Class curtains these days.





Within the next few minutes, an empty seat by the aisle in the last row had been earmarked for me – with the bonus of an empty seat next door. A flight attendant (above) even tests out the system before inviting me to take my new seat. “This is a new plane… we are still testing it,” she says, apologizing again, adding that it’s also her first time on the new B77W. I am impressed: a technical failure has been transformed with ease into a major service triumph for the girls in jade blue. Well done.





Dinner service starts from the back of the cabin, so the passenger at 53F is one of the first to be served. There’s a choice of chicken or fish mains – I select the latter in a spicy sauce that tastes much better than it looks. Still, the offering which also comes with a tub of ice cream and coffee later, is meager for a main meal, and leaves me wanting more. I notice my former neighbors at row 52 working methodically through their snack containers, and now think they’re probably the smartest couple on the plane…







The flight makes good progress, but probably not as well as my PTV seems to suggest. Otherwise, some sort of strange new record would have been set: apparently, we broke the sound barrier and are now charging along at Mach 1.4, but at the incredibly low cruising altitude of 3,159 feet!   







A couple hours passes quickly when you’re engrossed in a movie. Quiet and uneventful, we make our way through the unusually calm skies above the South China Sea. Before you know it, we’re skirting Vietnam’s coastline and about to turn towards its commercial capital. A final drinks service completes the crew rounds, before our descent into Tan Son Nhat International Airport. We land early in Vietnam and are at gate 18 more than half an hour ahead of schedule.







With no reason to rush and being seated right at the tail of the plane, I take my time to exit. Here’s a last look at the well-appointed economy class cabin that could have been made a tad more interesting. All things considered though, it’s a nice upgrade for KE, while the seats and legroom (where it matters) are comfortable enough even for a much longer haul.





Next, a sneak peek at how the other half lives. Passing door 3R, I see the largish Business or Prestige Class cabin housing the airline’s new Prestige Sleepers. Six rows of 7-abreast seating occupy the section between doors 2 and 3, while another two rows are placed in a mini J cabin ahead of doors 2, making a total of 56 seats.







The 74-inch pitch allows for the seats to extend into a 180-degree fully flat bed. Korean Air says that these will also be the seats installed into Prestige Class on the A380s when they are delivered next year.





Further along, past door 2R and heading distinctly up-market, at the front of the plane are the two rows of First Class configured 1-2-1 with the airline’s latest Kosmo Suite. Compared with the airline’s previous sleepers, these are a tad wider, have larger TV screens and come with wood-effect partitions





Not sure if I’m the only passenger left aboard at this stage, but the flight crews have exited the cockpit and are ready to leave. Captain Park, standing at door 1L, shakes my hand and thanks me for flying Korean Air. How’s that for a regal send off?






sunday morning


My trip is almost over: a short flight on AirAsia this morning will get me back to Kuala Lumpur. I hadn’t planned on saying very much more, but just wanted to share a find: the coffee shop on the upper level of Tan Son Nhat’s new departure hall yields some unexpectedly good spotting opportunities. It offers something rarely available at airports in this region any more: uninterrupted viewing of the tarmac and runway at close range. And since everything that moves at this airport passes in front of you, you miss nothing. The pictures taken here are from a compact in the space of 45 minutes over coffee Sunday morning.




Indochina Airlines, a privately-owned Vietnamese airline which started operations last year, runs domestic routes with two leased B738s. Below, the Vietnam Airlines B772 is headed on a regular domestic run to Hanoi.





Ho Chi Minh is one of the few (mainly regional) international destinations served by Shenzhen Airlines. It is now headed back to base. Below, Ho Chi Minh City-based low cost carrier Jetstar Pacific used to be called Pacific Airlines. Its all-white B734s will eventually be replaced by a fleet of A320s which will then be sporting the standard Jetstar logo.





A VN A332 is being towed to the domestic terminal as a Korean Air B74F comes in for a landing



Viva Macau, the long haul, low cost airline in vivid fluorescent green just arrived from its home base. I am spotting this for the first time.





A320 s from low cost carriers Tiger Airways and AirAsia – my flight out – arrive in quick succession. Turn-around time is short for AK, so it’s time for me to hightail outta here.




Ho Chi Minh City – Kuala Lumpur
AirAsia flight AK 881
Airbus A320-200 9M-AFM
Dept 0907 Arrv 1153 (13 minutes behind schedule)





AirAsia’s flight to KUL is uneventful, getting me back home in time for lunch. It tickles me to see an almost entire plane-load of prudent Malaysian tourists decked out in surgical masks, something that wasn’t apparent on either of my earlier two flights. By paying MYR25 ($7) more, I get an emergency exit seat row, which is well worth it on an otherwise packed flight.






last words


To be frank, I had doubts about this trip immediately after I booked it. My work schedule is punishing enough during the week that I really don’t need to be spending the weekend sleeping on planes and rushing around airports, I thought. More than once, I almost decided to completely forego this journey – hence truly “burning” those hard-earned miles.

But I am glad I didn’t. The weekend turned out to be a very enjoyable one, with a number of nice surprises thrown in. I truly liked Incheon as one of the world’s most pleasant large airports: this is not my first visit there and my affection for the South Korean hub has only grown – it certainly deserves its many accolades. Korean Air was a surprise: particularly the on-board service, which was better and more spontaneous than I had expected. The new B77W is a smart new plane, with fittings and IFE systems that put the airline on par with most of its major competitors. Existing plans to upgrade other long- and medium-haul planes are overdue, but welcome. Once that’s done, I’d certainly consider KE on a longer journey in the future.

Thanks for reading.

Airpearl.