Trip: ICN-DPS
Airline: Korean Air
Aircraft: A330-300
Scheduled Departure Time: 6:05pm
Push Back from Gate: 6:03pm
Actual Departure Time: 6:20pm
Actual Arrival Time: 11:55pm
Announced Flight time: 6:35
Miles: 3,280
Seat: 8G
Honeymoon flight number two! In case you missed it, our first segment was 24 hours earlier when we flew from Toronto to Seoul. I got a much better feel for the ICN Airport on our return trip to Incheon than I did when we arrived. It’s huge, clean, well run and not that difficult to see why it’s often voted number one in the world. Unfortunately, I haven’t spent enough time in ICN to cast my vote so Singapore’s Changi and Hong Kong International are still tops in my book.
The coolest and most unique thing I saw in ICN was the “Walk of the Royal Family” which is a reenactment of the lives of Joseon Royal Court (1392-1897). I’ve never seen anything like this before, have you? The parade has 23 cast members including the ‘King’ and ‘Queen’, and a number of different stories are performed to promote Korean culture. I’m not sure how often they perform but the airport does have a Korean Cultural Museum.
Since we were guests of Korean Air we had access to the KAL First Class lounge. It has free Wi-Fi (no password needed) and all kinds of drinks and of course hot and cold food. Mini Haagen Dazs ice cream options stood out and you would be happy to know they serve them on the plane as well. The lounge is plush but my favorites are still Qatar’sin Doha and Lufthansa’s in Frankfurt.
Our flight to Bali was on a A330-300 and business class was empty. Only one other couple were in the cabin so it felt like we were on a private jet — just like our flight from Toronto to Seoul. Korean Air’s new business class seats are top notch. They recline to a complete flat bed so you can lie down and have so much legroom you can’t even touch the seats in front of you with your tippi toes. Seriously.
The entertainment system was similar to the Toronto flight but didn’t have quite as many options. Its Sky Map is a hundred times better than the map on their 777-200 planes since it has four maps to choose from and not one advertisement. I don’t know about you but I always keep the map on so I can see where we are. It’s surreal to fly over exotic countries like Taiwan, Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia. Note: The only time it got a bit bumpy was over the island of Borneo — just before we crossed the equator and it stopped shortly after.
One of the highlights of this six-hour flight was the incredible service including asking passengers how they like their beef cooked. Natalie requested medium rare and sure enough that’s the way it was served. Amazing, right? We were also treated to a wicked lightening storm off in the distance so it was like fireworks in a star-studded sky. The most amazing part of the flight was the honeymoon cake.
Not many people know that Korean Air offers free in-flight honeymoon and birthday cakes to its passengers in all classes of service. It sounds too good to be true but I gave it a test drive on this flight. I actually almost forgot I arranged it but the flight attendants reminded me after dinner. The cake was light, lemon-y and large enough for four people. Gotta love Korean Air!
To order just call Korean Air’s reservation agents (800-438-5000) at least 24 hours in advance. Below are the pics from our flight.
It would be a very fun promotional event if they would raffle off 10?? of the available business class seats for an automatic upgrade from coach … and their coach fliers would have some exciting anticipation that they might be selected. It would certainly be an exciting branding exercise for the chance to enter and win.
Johnny and Natalie –
If you are still in Bali, try to go to the Uluwatu Monkey temple (Hindu). It is a fantastic place and the semi-friendly macaques are the most photogenic I’ve ever seen. Just watch that they don’t playfully steal anything like sunglasses.
And if you need a fun restaurant to go to and you are near Ungusan, our friends Matthias and Widya Frenzel have a new restaurant which I think is called Garage. Matt’s cellphone is 62-816 71 85 03. Matt is German, Widya is Indonesian and we spent time with them last year and they are very friendly. But I don’t know if you honeymooners left whichever hotel you were at!
Congratulations!
Definitely flying Korean air