Asiana Airlines

This was my first trip flying Asiana Airlines, so I didn’t have any idea what I was getting myself into other than a long, long flight. Setting up my seating selections was very simple, once I connected my fight from Expedia website (I booked my entire trip through Expedia.com) to the Asiana Airlines website, I simply selected the seats I wanted and clicked save. Like most airlines now, you get to see the plane seating configuration when you select your seats, so staying away from high traffic areas (restrooms and flight attendant stations) is very easy.

Of course you can hop over to SeatGuru or SeatExpert for helpful traveler seating reviews on your selected airline.

Notes from my Travel Journal

12:00pm – My first flight was full and the boarding lines to get on the plane where a bit long but everything went very smoothly, they had lots of staff to expedite the boarding. Though they claimed to be running out of overhead luggage space, I had no problem finding a place for my travel bag, yes I only had one carry-on bag for my trip. The plane seating configuration was a three seat window row on both sides, with a four seating configuration in the middle of the plane. I was a very happy flyer when I found out the middle seat next to me was out of service, allowing for extra elbow room during the flight, and with 13 hrs to go, that is a good thing.

Shortly after reaching 14,000 ft, the flight hostess started passing out the welcome gifts,which included moisture wipes, headphones and slippers. Though the headphones are as cheap as they get, they did the job when watching the on flight movies, after several minutes I was wishing I had a set of those nice Bose noise cancelling headphones some people were using. Noise canceling headphones would have been great during my flight as my window buzzed like a rattlesnake the whole trip … grr.

Soon after that a menu was passed around showing the two in flight meals we will be receiving during our flight.

12:13pm – Last sighting of land as we leave the coast of California.

12:50pm – almost 1 hour into the flight and lunch was served!

A very tasty Grilled Beef Tenderloin Steak with red wine sauce, mashed potatoes (all most taste real), steamed carrots and green beans, smoked ham salad, dinner roll and a vanilla cream cake. For an economy seat, I was quite impressed!

2:30pm – we reached 32,000 ft, flying at 552 mph with a brisk -68°F outside, by this time, my body was starting to get a bit sore from sitting. We were just off the coast of Canada, heading towards Alaska, time for a movie! I watched Bradley Cooper in Burnt, enjoyed it immensely, not the headphones, just the movie.

4:00 pm – Once we reached Alaska, the view out the window was spectacular!

I thought I would check and see if my T-Moblie service reached up here – nope.

Politely asked to close my window so everyone could sleep – WTF!

5:30 pm – crossed the international date line. I am now in the future!

6:20 pm – served a small ham and cheese sandwich for a snack.

Going to get fat on this flight!

9:00pm – Holding up well with only 1100 miles to go!

At 551 mph I should be in Korea in approximately 2 1/2 hours.

10:30 pm – finished watching Witch Hunter and James Bond Spectre movie, meal number two is going to be served!

You can actually smell dinner before they bring it down the aisle, much better than smelling smokers sneaking into the bathroom for a cigarette break.

Lights finally go on and the plane comes to life.

A decent serving of Penne Pasta with Bolognese sauce, crab salad, dinner roll and a fruit cup is brought to my seat.

For someone who wasn’t feeling very hungry, I managed to destroy this meal as well.

12:00am – Looking out the window, the terrain is extremely rugged, indistinguishable from home. Some areas are heavily farmed with large mountain ranges separating the inhabited regions. As we fly further south, the terrain becomes more densely populated with closely built homes connected by lonely barren roads. What do these people do?

1:21 am – Landed in South Korea at Incheon International Airport, 6:00 pm Korean time.

Perfect 13 hour flight marred only by the touchdown – we swayed left then right, never experienced a landing like this before!

Yes, a wee bit of panic crept up into my soul …

Departing the plane, walking into Incheon International Airport was exciting for me, besides the fact that I desperately needed a restroom that was not located in a plane, it was my first time here. Unfortunately, there was no time to explore, with only a 1 hr 40 min layover, but I was making mental notes on what I wanted to do during my return layover of 12 hrs in a few days.

Incheon International airport is huge!

Before I could transfer to my final flight, there was the whole security/transfer screening process again, shortly after you get off the plane, in order to navigate to the second floor International terminal. This took far longer than needed due to the slow process of opening up new lines for the surge in flyers lining up to fit into a sardine can assembly line. As I wasn’t completely sure I was in the right location, that nervous panic slowly started to creep up with the nagging worry of missing my transfer flight to Hong Kong. At this point I was happy that I stopped for a restroom break before getting into the line, there was a serious back-up and the lines were just creeping along.

Making my transfer flight with a few minutes to spare, I once again boarded Asiana Airlines for my 3 hr and 50 min flight to Hong Kong.

2:43 am – 1544 miles to go!

My flight to Hong Kong from Incheon was without incident, though I tried to sleep, I was too tired to do anything but look out the window as the world slid past me. It’s funny how sleep can evade you when you need it the most…

After all the food on my first flight, all I wanted was a couple of gallons of water, flying makes you so dehydrated.

6:00 am – Arrived in Hong Kong.