A few observations on the interior of the Korean Air A380. Below are a few interior photos of the aircraft. I cannot speak to business and first class because I did not sit there or look, at length, at the seats. In economy the seat that stood out the most was 47D. It is in the center section but there is no seat in front of it. It is an aisle seat and again, not an exit row. The bulkhead seats look pretty good and will provide some extra space, but, of course, there is nowhere to stretch your legs straight out. The exit rows look fantastic, but remember there are no personal video screens during taxi, takeoff and landing to view the flight cameras. I learned my lesson on the Lufthansa A380.

The economy class is divided into 3 sections. The exit rows are “42″ in the 2nd 3rd and “52$” in the 3rd section of economy. Please note: Rows 28 (port & starboard) is NOT an exit row. The middle of that same first row is 30 and it is standard bulkhead. Have a look at the pictures and I am happy to field any questions.
I am not sure how many bathrooms this plane has relative to other A380 operators, but there was a constant line for the bathroom. This made me think that the duty free shop occupied the space that normally would have been dedicated to lavatories. Lack of bathrooms due to duty free? Cheers!

3A

2 D&E 1st class

2D first class

1st class bar

3D

forward stairs

20 A & B

celestial bar

52 H,J,K

aft stairs

aft galley 2nd floor

duty free

After the pageantry and speeches, it was finally time to fly. Each coach seat had a pillow, blanket, headphones, slippers and a toothbrush. I immediately began fussing with the brand new touch screen televisions. The purser came by and welcomed me on board by name.

The JFK-ICN inaugural flight was scheduled for 12hrs and 44min of flight time. We taxied and had virtually no wait for take-off, a miracle in itself at JFK. At 3:46pm (1hr and 46min past schedule) we were airborne. After I got over my disappointment of not having access to the upstairs bar, I began to enjoy the flight.

As soon as the pilot let the flight attendants know they could do so, the FA’s passed out pajamas to the children on board, set up a few bassinets and drew a curtain between the cabin and galley, in order to prepare for service. After 50 minutes, beer, wine, juice, soda, peanuts and a sanitary towel were offered.

Korean Air’s A380 boasts the fewest number of seats (301) in the coach cabin (and overall) vs. other A380 operators. I found this very evident in the amount of legroom I had in 36C. Also, the seat never got uncomfortably hard, like my experience with ANA’s new economy seats and was sitting on 2 pillows by the end of the flight. Much more on the best seats in the next post.
The coach cabin was bright, but not in a negative way. It was refreshing and clean looking, very un-complicated.

Dinner consisted of Korean Bimibap and seaweed soup. This is what I was offered and not sure if there were more choices. It’s delicious stuff and oddly, bimibap was exactly what I was served when I flew Korean Air Business Class.

After dinner, the show, aka duty free sales, started. It was quite chaotic. There were 4-6 fa’s in each aisle, shuffling to & fro, passing goods back and forth and speaking loudly to each other. When that concluded, the lights dimmed and I slept. I woke to an fa offering me water and banana or bread. When I woke up again, the cabin lights were on, there were 4 hours to go and the 2nd meal service was commencing.

Airline food used to, and probably still does, get a pretty bad rap. I think it’s improved considerably over the last decade. However, when people talk about “airline food” and the images that are conjured up, they were referring to the piece of chicken served on this flight. Not exactly edible. The other option was creamy pasta with vegetables. Water and OJ were offered before our 5pm arrival at foggy ICN.

The service on Korean Air has never disappointed me and this flight was no exception.
I will post some pictures of the rest of aircraft shortly.

big windows huh?

push back

note the CX tail

22R

smiling; novel concept

great stuff; where can i buy it?

“it’s ice”

2nd meal service

mid cabin

rear cabin

korean’s other a380; the 1st delivered: HL7611

New routes and new aircrafts are always a treat to be a part of. The launch of the Korean Air A380 from JFK to Seoul (ICN) was one of the latter as Korean Air has been flying the aircraft within Asia for a few weeks. Of course, each airline’s “personality” is bound to show in the context of the celebration and/or ceremony before and after the flight. For instance, when I flew the Air France A380 inaugural from JFK to CDG, there was champagne in the terminal, a band on board, special menu and small orchestra upon arrival; among other things.

This A380 launch was NOT that. But that was OK, that’s not what I expected and I don’t suspect that reflects the Korean Air culture. This was very much about business, recognizing integral, internal (and external personnel) and promoting Korean Air as the first Asian carrier to fly the A380 across the Pacific from New York.

I assigned myself seat 36C, but at check-in inquired as to whether there was any preferred seating for Sky Team Elite members. The check-in agent looked at me puzzled and said:
“Sky Team Elite… what’s that, what do you mean?”
I provided a brief explanation and then asked what was, apparently, a tougher question:
“Do coach passengers have access to the upstairs bar?”
Answer: “For this aircraft {as opposed to the other aircraft with a bar} I honestly have no idea”
At least he was honest.
What he did know was that I had access to the Prestige Lounge.

At check-in, each passenger was given a raffle ticket to deposit into a box at the gate for chance to win a free upgrade to Prestige Class. Actually, 2 names would wind up being drawn which made for 2 very excited passengers.

After some refreshments in the Prestige Lounge, I went to see the arrival of the A380. There were many photographers and members of the Korean press. Following the aircraft’s arrival, a few speeches were given by several Korean Air executives during which many people were recognized and received flowers including the pilots and flight attendants. (I wonder if they were able to bring those fresh cut flowers through Korean customs…)

Excitement was building and anticipation mounting throughout the ceremony which concluded at 2:10pm. The flight was scheduled for a 2pm departure, but nobody cared. Passengers could not get on this beautiful beast fast enough.

a few ground crew at the ready

spectators & passengers

cue water cannons

this water cannon set up a bit short

ke executives, faa personnel, jfk staff, port authority management

quick interview with pilots & then time to go

Seoul, South Korea to Los Angeles, CA
Korean Air #17
Boeing 747-400
Prestige Class (Business)

No, this is not the plane I flew, but thought it was a cool picture/drawing/postcard.

The caption in the picture above really says it all. Here are the pictures to prove it.
I am not sure if Incheon Airport is so huge that it seems empty, is huge and really is not very busy or some combination of the two. This is what most of the gate areas looked like:

Incheon Airport includes many ultra high end shops.

International Departures:

Here is our ride to LAX. Boarding was organized, minus the security screening of carry on baggage just before entering the plane. The security personnel were off to the side, kind of waving and yelling (politely) for people to bring their bags over, while more people were trying to board, creating a bottleneck at the jet way entrance.

my seat, upper deck, exit row, window:

Surprisingly, no amenity kits were given to Prestige class passengers; only slippers were available.

far eastern part of Russia?:

Once we leveled off, dinner service began. The menus were not passed out, they were already in bins at our seats when we boarded. There was dinner and breakfast service on this flight.

I had the opportunity to try something new for dinner: “Bibimbap” – a bowl with rice, vegetables and minced beef. It was similar to a stir fry, but I believe the vegetables were steamed. Quite tasty indeed.

Appetizer: best smoke salmon I have ever had. The small dishes in the upper left hand side are condiments for my main dish.

Instructions on assembling the Bibimbap:

Bimimbap (the red stuff is hot pepper paste):

I was served the soup as well, but I had the FA take it away as it was bumpy and I almost wound up wearing it.

post dinner cheese plate:

breakfast menu:

For the exit row, a personal television came out of the armrest. Here is a sample of the movies, many had not yet been released on DVD. The breadth and depth of music selection was also impressive.

flight path:

mid flight, looking forward in the upper cabin:

sunrise:

think there enough leg room in the exit row?

tasty breakfast:

The seats were comfortable but not flawless. I managed a few hours of sleep, but did wake up once with the lower portion of my legs on the floor. I had slid down the seat.

seat in full recline:

Service on this flight was smiles all around. Korean Air flight attendants make you feel like you are the only one on the plane. Fly Korean Air to experience “Excellence in Flight” from food to entertainment to service.

Korean Air #672: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-Seoul, South Korea
Airbus A330-300; duration: 6 hr 5min
Prestige Class – 11:45pm departure

outside KUL airport:

a few other departures tonight:

Asia’s “low-cost” carrier-how ’bout the slogan?

I had read, on a few different blogs, that red eyes from Southeast Asia to East Asia were a “nightmare” and therefore had low expectations. Based upon my experience, what I read was completely wrong because this was one of the most pleasant, relaxing flights I have ever taken. To my amazement, there was only 1 passenger in First Class, 3 in Business Class (including me) and a very light load in Coach.
The First Class seats looked identical to that of the Business Class section except there appears to be more width and leg room.

looking forward into the first class cabin:

empty business class cabin:

On this Airbus, Korean Air still uses the “old” style business class seats as opposed to the more modern lie flat seats that so many are accustomed to these days. I love these seats. Yes, there is limited recline and limited space for your legs, BUT the seats are quite wide, very soft and just plain comfortable.
 

business class seats:

seat controls:

leg room:

As soon as I was seated, the Purser came to my seat and introduced herself, let me know the flying time and offered her assistance if there was anything I needed. If you are on local time, this is a red eye. I am somewhere in between local time and EST time, no sleep for me on this hop.
Drink orders were taken (as opposed to passing a tray of pre-poured drinks) while on the ground: “Champagne perhaps?”

Entertainment on this regional route consists of streaming movies in several different languages shown on personal televisions which pull out from the center arm rest. Streaming, meaning no pause or rewind, no watch as you please…10 movies being show all at once, you decide what you want to watch and when the movies are over, they start again and you can change the channel to watch something else.

Breakfast menus were passed out and orders taken within first 30 minutes of flight.

A hot towel service commenced and water and peanuts were passed out. A few minutes later “fish cakes” with a chili dipping sauce were served.

They were quite tasty, particularly the sauce, although I could not identify what they consisted of; I’m guessing some type of fish, possibly. More drinks were offered after our snack, but no amenity kits were distributed. Slippers were placed (pre-flight) at each seat, and even though they were quite small, I wore them anyway.

in-flight magazine:

flight distance page in the magazine:

After service, the cabin was darkened. I played solitaire for an hour and thought about what I would do when I got to Seoul.

….

As the sun was rising, breakfast service began. I did no justice to the picture of breakfast. Those are mushrooms on top of the eggs.

What I found truly amazing on Korean Air is that anytime I had a question like, where the headset plugged in, how to make the TV play in English, an FA appeared to assist before I could even ask, anticipating every need, almost like they were standing right behind me. And maybe they were because there were so few passengers on this flight, but my sense is that this is standard service on Korean Air.