Posted by Seth on February 4, 2012 under Flying, frequent flyer, points | 
One of the more notable stories in frequent flyer land this week was that award inventory for Korean Air is being published into the GDSes, meaning that it is publicly visible and searchable. Both Gary and Ben mentioned it earlier today and both of them also note that folks can sign up for an ExpertFlyer account to search the inventory and setup email alerts for it. I’m a big fan of ExpertFlyer and I love the access they have to a lot of otherwise private inventory and fare data, but I’m also a big fan of free access to free data, and in the case of Korean Air awards and upgrades, getting the information for free is absolutely possible.
One of my many travel-related projects is the Wandering Aramean Travel Tools website. It includes, among other things, award inventory information for a bunch of airlines. And now that the data is accessible, Korean Air is part of that collection. You can search for award or upgrade inventory for free. And there’s even an email alert function that can be set, allowing you to get a message if the award inventory opens up.
Yes, you have to register to gain access to the data, but it is free and no strings attached.
Here’s a snip of what the search page looks like:
Not particularly pretty, but quite functional. Also of note is that sometimes the system will provide options that don’t quite get you where you’re going, but to an intermediate connecting point instead. On the above Seoul to Singapore search there are two non-stop flights (KE 641 and 643) that are both available, but there is also KE 683 to SGN, from which you might be able to pick up a connection on SkyTeam partner Vietnam Airlines, another of the carriers searchable in the tool collection. Displaying more than just the non-stop options should help folks with flexibility to better find awards that work.
Coach award inventory is not currently available in the system and first class isn’t available to partners, but otherwise the data should be accurate for redemptions.
Give the tools a try and let me know what you think.
Tags: award, frequent flier, frequent flyer, Korean, points, Seoul, Singapore, SkyTeam, upgrade, Vietnam, Vietnam Airlines
Posted by Seth on January 30, 2012 under Flying, News |
Thai Airways has announced the end of their non-stop service between Thailand and the United States. The flights will be reduced from the current daily service to 5x weekly on February 1 and will shift to one-stop service via Seoul starting in May. At that time the route will also shift from the gas-guzzling Airbus A345, the only plane flying today with the range to make the non-stop trip (Update: I forgot the 772LR can make it, but TG doesn’t have any), to a Boeing 777-200ER, which has lower fuel burn rates but also a much more limited range. This new flight schedule will only operate 4x weekly. Additionally, the change means no more premium economy product on the route as the carrier’s Boeing aircraft are not configured with that seating. The connection will also increase the travel time between Los Angeles and Bangkok by approximately 2 hours each direction.
This move doesn’t come as too much of a surprise given the trend in jet fuel prices, but it is still somewhat disappointing to see the option disappear. Then again, when I flew it last July I wasn’t particularly impressed with either the hard or soft products on board. And that was in business class. So maybe it is for the best that it is going away.
If you’ve got a ticket booked on TG 794/795 now would be a pretty good time to call the carrier and get that straightened out.
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Posted by Seth on September 10, 2009 under Uncategorized |
The flight from Seoul to Chicago was the first that I actually got to sample the food on the flight. The menus came with instructions for how to mix them bibembop (only for the white folks, of course) as well as some Western dining options. The food was actually pretty good, though the timing was once again strange. Lunch was served right after departure. Well, just over an hour after departure. And no drink service immediately upon departure either. The first drinks were not served until after the first food was presented. It is billed in the menu as a pre-drink appetizer – a small lump of crab meat in some sauce – and it was rather tasty, but I generally prefer my drinks first and then my food, not the other way around. I also generally prefer my drinks in full size glasses. I’m sure that they keep their wine budget down by using the miniature glasses that they do and shrink the costs even more by only filling the glasses half-way with each refill. The net was that I pretty much got one sip from each pour. It was definitely a slow go on the alcohol side of things.
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| Bibembop for lunch. |
The menu showed a mid-flight snack and then a light meal later. When I woke up from a nap about 6 hours into the flight I thought I’d be getting the former. It was the latter. So another strange meal schedule with the last several hours of flight completely food free. Good thing I saved the honey roasted peanuts they provided at boarding for a late morning snack.
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| The "light meal" |
The seat in business class is OK, but that’s about all I can say for it. The current seat on the 747 is a lie-flat-at-an-angle model, also known as a slidey seat. I slept fine and with minimal sliding, but there are a couple of quirks that make it hard to get particularly comfortable in the seats. The armrests are at different heights – about 4-6 inches different. This is very confusing to me, and rather uncomfortable. Also, the padding on the seats is quite thin, enough so that I noticed. I tend to fly on Continental a lot and their seats are hardly known for being well cushioned. The Korean business seat was the same or worse to me. Using the blanket provided helped to address the issue when sitting up but didn’t help much during the sleeping portion of the flight.
No amenity kits and the pillows in business class are the same as those in coach, and it isn’t because the coach pillows are that nice.
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| Much more direct with the warnings! |
I understand that the latest & greatest business class seat is better than the current iteration, but that isn’t really why I wouldn’t spend the money or points on their product. It turns out that it just is rather blah. If I’m going to spend the points or dollars I’d rather feel like the quality of the product, both in the air and on the ground, was actually worth the expense.
Posted by Seth on September 8, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Back to the airport now in Manila and getting ready for my return trip. Fortunately I had been able to find reward inventory in Business Class for the return so my hopes and expectations were slightly higher. Of course, knowing what I did of the lounges I should have been more guarded but I wanted to believe that the blah experience thus far was because I was in the back of the plane.
Manila’s airport is quite lively late at night. There are wide-body flights headed to Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Korea (3 flights) Singapore and several other destinations. That meant plenty of people around and no seats to be found. Since the check-in counter doesn’t open until around three hours prior to the flight that meant I was stuck sitting on a baggage cart for about an hour waiting for the agents to arrive. Part of that is my fault – I chose to arrive early so that I could do the drive to the airport in daylight- but it was still annoying. The staff had a bit of a show that they performed when opening the check-in counters (it was all in Korean but the rest of the passengers applauded so I guess they did well) and then I was finally able to deposit my bag, collect my boarding pass and head through immigration and to the lounge.
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| The dining spread at the Korean Air lounge in Manila |
Finally, a lounge with food and a full complement of booze. Sure, the brands were less than exemplary – Absolut vodka, Gilbey’s gin and a local rum that was passable but unremarkable – but at least there were options. They also had some actual food options beyond packaged snacks. Nothing truly delicious, but a bit of food to tide me over.
I wanted to pick up some alcohol at duty-free but I wasn’t sure if I would be permitted to carry it through the security screening passing back through Seoul so I asked at the desk. You’d think I had asked the woman the answer to the meaning of life or some other such complicated inquiry. The response started as a simple “I don’t know” and only when I pressed did she make an effort to find out. All of their flights go via Seoul. This seems like the kind of thing that passengers might ask rather frequently. I didn’t expect it to take 20 minutes to figure out an answer. I helped myself to some snacks since they actually had some available and eventually got the answer to my question so I headed out to buy my booze. I wish that the answer had been more accurate. I was able to clear security in Seoul with the duty free just fine but upon boarding my flight to the USA I learned that they only permit duty-free purchased in Seoul to be carried onto the planes bound for the USA. Even though the bottle was in the stupid tamper-proof bag and was purchased 10 hours earlier. Fortunately they were able to check it for me but I have no idea if it will arrive in one piece or not.
I also asked about postcard stamps. I had finally found cards and written them but had yet to find stamps. The guy at the information booth in the airport said that I should be able to find them past security. I couldn’t. I asked at the lounge and she said that they were sold at a store there but she didn’t know which one. Based on the trouble with the duty free inquiry I didn’t push it any farther and resigned myself to the fact that I likely had postcards that would never be mailed. Still, not the type of service I had expected to receive from the folks in the lounge.
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| First and Business on a KE A330 |
Midnight rolled around and I wandered over to the gate area and made my way into my seat. Not the most comfortable in the world – recliner style – but it would do for the 3.5 hour flight. In truth, I tried to stay awake for the dinner. I actually went so far as to tell the flight attendant that I wanted the bibimbop option. And then I promptly fell asleep. Again they were very apologetic that they were unable to serve me since I was asleep and I once again explained that the sleep was more useful to me than the food. Smiles and nods all around and then I was off to the rather pedestrian lounge that I’d spent so much time in on the outbound journey for another shower and an attempt to make a breakfast from their meager offerings. I also needed to see about my seat on the upper deck of the 747.
I’ve only had a few opportunities to sit on the upper deck. There was the United fare mistake to New Zealand a couple years ago but we were stuck downstairs in both directions on that flight. And then there was this trip. I reserved a seat upstairs in advance and everything was looking so good. Alas, it was not meant to be. At the counter in the lounge they explained to me that there was no upper deck. Suffice it to say that I was very confused. It was definitely still a 747-400 plane but there were no upper deck seats. “How is this possible?” I asked. “The upper deck does not exist,” was the reply. Once we got past the part about how they couldn’t simply remove the bubble from the top of the plane I was able to show them a seat map and they looked it up some other way on their system. Apparently the upper deck was being used as overflow seating for economy customers on this flight. So it was back downstairs, albeit to a lovely bulkhead window seat, for me. Walking through the cabin I can see why – not an empty seat to be found in the economy cabin. I’m still annoyed; another chance at flying upstairs lost to the fickle whim of the travel gods.
Three beers and a shower in the lounge later I wandered out into the terminal in one final effort to find stamps and mail my postcards. I was successful! Cards posted and the clock rapidly approaching noon had me on my way to the gate area to board the flight. Strange coincidence at the gate area. There was a guy struggling with his phone charger in the lounge so I lent him an adapter to use. I ended up standing next to him in line to board the plane. And then I found myself sitting next to him on the flight. Just one of those strange coincidences in life, I guess.
More coming in part 3…
Posted by Seth on September 5, 2009 under Uncategorized |
The Asian airlines have quite the reputation going for themselves. Phenomenal service is considered the norm, the minimum that one should expect while flying with them. The lounges are supposed to be better than those of the American carriers and the in-flight product is supposed to as well. As I am sitting on my fourth Korean Air flight of the week – two in coach and two in business, two long haul and two regional – I am seriously wondering where this reputation comes from. The entire experience has been most notable for its lack of anything exceptional. Maybe I’m being too judgmental. Maybe the expectations I had were unreasonable. But I don’t really think so.
The trip started with a 12:50am departure from New York City to Seoul. That is sufficiently late that I wasn’t really expecting to eat a full meal on the plane right at departure. I would be sleeping. I somewhat expected that their business class lounge at JFK airport would have some snacks or light finger foods of some sort. I was horribly overly optimistic. The selection of snacks rivaled that of Continental’s Presidents Clubs, hardly the standard bearer when it comes to munchies. And the alcohol selection was – while self service – miserably poor. There was Scotch, brandy and whiskey. And beer. No other liquors to be found. Top it all off with the fact that the lounge was impressively crowded and it all adds up to a lounge that I see no reason to visit again.
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| Mid-flight breakfast |
Back to the flight. With the early morning departure I was asleep within about 15 minutes from wheels up so I have no idea what the first meal option they served was. The second meal was served 6 hours into the flight – right in the middle – disrupting any chance of getting a full night’s sleep. I was roused by the sound of the carts rolling by and became coherent enough to grunt and nod yes when asked if I wanted breakfast. Sure, it is just airline food, and coach food at that for my outbound flights, but I’m not really sure that is was meant to be served at that point in the flight. That also meant that the following 6 hours were food-free, right up through the 4am arrival in Seoul, where there were no real food options to speak of available. Fortunately I had liberated a couple packets of Fig Newtons from the lounge at JFK.
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| The legroom destroyer |
The coach seats were fine as far as coach seating goes. Like most planes these days the in-flight entertainment system has some heavy-duty gear that sits under a seat at some point blocking leg room and Korean’s 747s are no exception. Fortunately for me that blockage is under the middle seat and I had a window so I was unencumbered. The entertainment system is decent, with a wide selection of music and movies, though none I really wanted to see. There are about 30 in English, mostly new releases. I did watch Back to the Future at some point, though I was still pretty much in a sleepy haze. At one point I wanted to watch the in-flight map and track our journey. Instead I found myself watching a rotating series of ads for hotels in Seoul, Los Angeles, Waikiki Beach and a few other places. There were also a number of ads for Korean Air, their Skypass frequent flier program, their AVOD system and SkyTeam. There was a notice that all flights are non-smoking and a cute teddy bear wearing a seat belt, reminding us to buckle up. Each display page was on the screen for about 15-20 seconds and the total loop was around 8 minutes long. Of that time about 3 minutes was actually the in-flight map. Rather pathetic, really. On the plus side, I now have a list of about 8 hotels that I won’t give my business to since they interfered with my in-flight map watching ability.
At least the sunrise (or sunset, I’m not entirely certain) I saw during the flight was rather pretty.
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| Sunrise (or sunset??) somewhere over the Pacific |
Transiting Seoul was pleasant for the decent shower I was able to get (though no toilet in the shower room; saves space but can present issues when trying to perform the three “S” of morning ablutions) but wholly unremarkable in every other way. The alcohol selection was similarly limited to that available in New York (no vodka for a bloody mary??) and the food options were arguably worse. This from their flagship lounge at their hub in their home city. At this point I grabbed another beer from the cooler and went from being relatively neutral on the whole thing to rather unimpressed. The food did get better for short stints at a couple points throughout the day but overall it was not what I would expect from an Asian carrier that presents itself as offering a premium product. It is certainly worthwhile to get out of the lounge and out of the airport if you have the time while transiting Seoul. Staying in the lounge for more than about 3 hours could lead to bouts of depression and general malaise. It is not recommended.
The flight from Seoul to Manila was uneventful though that likely comes from the fact that I slept the entire time. The flight attendants did stop by to mention that they tried to serve me dinner but I was asleep. Such is life. Two flights and three meals served and I had only actually seen one of them. And eaten zero.
At this point in the trip the good stuff happened. I was underwater for four full days of diving that could not have been better.
Read more in Part 2, coming soon.
Posted by Seth on September 4, 2009 under Trip Reports |
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| A quick stop for breakfast in Seoul |
The routing I took to get to the Philippines offered me either a 3 hour or a 16 hour layover in Seoul, Korea. Given the opportunity to add another country to my list and to wander around town for a few hours, how could I possibly say no? I couldn’t. And even though it meant a 4am arrival at the airport in Korea and waiting around a bit for things to open up and get started early on a Sunday morning I definitely got to experience a bit of Korean hospitality, transportation, food and drink.
The 4am arrival into Incheon airport caused a few problems right from the get-go. The lounge was open so I got to take a quick shower but other than that there was nothing. Even the food options available in the lounge that early pretty much sucked. On the plus side there was plenty of Hite beer available so I had one of those to start off the day and then headed out to see the city. Sortof. I had to wait about 45 minutes for the left luggage facility to open up so I could leave a bag there. I probably could have just left it in the club but with a laptop and other things inside that didn’t seem like a good idea. There are free lockers airside at Incheon – just ask for a key at the information desk near the base of the two spokes in the terminal – but those weren’t open until even later in the day. Instead I sprung for the $5 fee, dropped off my bag and headed into town.
Most folks heading into Seoul from the airport take the bus. There are a few companies offering airport limousine bus service that seems pretty nice. There are some traffic implications to consider with the bus (though not much at 6am on a Sunday) and they offer direct service to many different hotels around town. Since I wasn’t headed to a hotel and since i had no bags I opted for a different trip. I took the train in. Taking the train means riding on a dedicated link from Incheon to Gimpo (the other airport in town, similar to Narita and Handea in Tokyo) and then switching there to the local subway system. The total transit time was just over an hour which is about as good as the buses can do at their best, and the train is much more consistent, but it depends on not needing to be at a particular hotel to really work out well. It also meant that I got another mass transit card for my collection. That is quickly becoming one of my favorite souvenirs to bring home from my travels.
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| A shopper and fishmonger surveying the day’s offerings |
Just after 7:30am I finally made it to the first stop on my tour schedule: Noryangjin Fish Market. The fish market is Seoul’s largest and even on a Sunday morning there was plenty of activity. Not so much with the wholesalers working (at least not that I saw) and even some of the retail folks took the day off, but there was plenty going on inside. The biggest disappointment for me was that all of the restaurants around the market appeared to be closed; that definitely put a crimp in my dining plans for the day. Still, wandering amongst the stalls and seeing the vast spread of fish available is always a fun time. It didn’t seem quite as vast as the Tsukiji market in Tokyo, but it was close and still plenty fun.
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| The romance of train travel |
Following the time in the market I still wanted to wander around town a bit but I was thwarted by a bit of rain. Rather that deal with that I chose to hop on the train – the KTX Bullet Train – and go for a little ride. The trains are reasonably cheap and phenomenally fast. I paid ~$30 for a return ticket with one way in first class and the other in coach for a ride of about an hour each way. That hour had me over 200 kilometers away from Seoul and our top speed was just over 300km/h. The first class car was much nicer and quieter than the coach one and the whole train had WiFi (but I didn’t have a laptop to try it out). The ride was fast and quiet. I truly wish that the United States could figure out how to implement something similar, even if only in limited geographic areas. I know that it will not likely happen in my lifetime, but I can dream.
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| Some of the traditional hanok buildings |
A couple hours after leaving on the train I was back in Seoul and the rain had cleared up, leaving me with no excuses not to wander about a bit more. And wander I did. I was fortunate to have come across a guide that Hanok Girl has put together for some walking tours of the Gahoi-dong neighborhood in central Seoul. The neighborhood includes several old homes and guest houses – a traditional Bukchon hanok village – many of which are now owned by the government and which have been restored to their former glory. The juxtaposition of the old and new adjacent to each other right in the heart of the city, with the old being preserved as a reminder of years gone by, is quite impressive. And the walking tours that Hanok Girl provides are great. I did tour #2 and it was pretty much exactly as the website said it would be.
At that point I was pretty much exhausted so it was back to the airport to collect my bags and head off for the flight to Manila. There are plenty of things I didn’t get to see in Seoul so I’ll have to go back at some point, but for a quick introduction I think I did pretty well. And I’m intrigued enough to want to go back which is a good thing.
Posted by Seth on August 29, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Everyone has their own version of a “solution” to jetlag. Sometimes it is simply that genetics works out in your favor and you’re able to keep going after a short night’s sleep. For me, I believe that it is partly that, partly a strong motivation to stay alert since jetlag inherently means that I’ve traveled somewhere and I probably want to see things there and – most importantly – my personal favorite anti-jetlag method.
It is quite simple, really – a shower and a beer, preferably at the same time. Yup, I hit the lounge on arrival (quite quiet in the Korean Air lounge this morning at 4:45am local time) grab a beer and then hop in the shower. Both the shower and the beer are refreshing, but when combined I feel as though I am truly ready to take on the world. It doesn’t really matter that the beer available this morning is hite, a local Korean brew that doesn’t have a whole lot of flavor to it. I still quite enjoyed it. And the showers at the Prestige Lounge in Seoul Incheon were quite passable. Not a huge room but enough space to put my bags down, clean up and get back out to discover what I can of the city.
Bit of rain out there right now which is mostly a problem in that I packed my raincoat in my checked bag which I won’t see until Manila and I have no umbrella. Still, I’m looking forward to today’s adventures!
