Review of Asiana Airlines flight from Hong Kong to Seoul in Business

Background:
This series covers a trip to Kaohsiung (高雄) and Kinmen (金門). Refer to Part 1 for a detailed background. As a reminder, the routing for this series is:
Part 1 – LAX-ICN [OZ 203, Boeing B777-200ER, Economy] – Here
Part 2 – ICN-HKG [OZ 721, Airbus A330-300, Economy] – Here
Part 3 – HKG-KHH [CI 948, Airbus A330-300, Economy] – Here
Part 4 – KHH-KNH [B7 8915, Aérospatiale/Alenia ATR 72-600, Economy] – Here
Part 5 – KNH-RMQ [AE 770, Embraer ERJ-190, Economy] – Here
Part 6 – KHH-HKG [AE 891, Boeing B737-800, Economy] – Here
Part 7 – HKG-ICN [OZ 722, Boeing B747-400(Combi), Business] – You are here
Part 8 – ICN-LAX [OZ 204, Airbus A380-800, Economy] – Here
Pre-flight:
This report starts as I head back towards the OZ transfer desk, which is located at E1.

Reaching the counter, an agent is just sitting there playing on her phone and doesn’t look up for over 45 seconds. I don’t know who handles the OZ ground services at HKG, but they were pretty terrible all around in my limited interactions with them. She finally looks up and I hand over my passport. She types my name in and looks at me saying, “we don’t have any reservation for you” as she hands me back my passport. WTF? I go into my backpack and pull out my itinerary with eTicket and hand it to her. She again hands it back saying “this ticket doesn’t exist in our system.” I’m getting pissed at this point since she clearly has no intention of trying to do anything to reconcile this issue, which is a completely unacceptable way to treat any customer, but especially those with status with the airline. I finally tell her to just call OZ and reconcile it, which is when she finally picks up the phone and calls to identify where the issue is. Two phone calls later; she finally finds my reservation and prints out my boarding passes. No apologies or explanation, just hands them to me and turns to play with her phone again. Needless to say, a complaint was filed with OZ regarding their 3rd party ground services at HKG.

No line at transfer security, so I’m quickly on my way to the SQ Lounge to meet up with Numero_2, who was already waiting for me inside.

Some champagne, laksa, and a LX chocolate as I enjoy a conversation with Numero_2. His identity can be confirmed by that fancy watch in the top right corner ;)

My boarding documents for the flight.

After visiting the SQ and TG Lounges, I had to part ways with Numero_2 and head off towards my gate.
NH B789 taxing in front of an AA B77W.

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Asiana Airlines, OZ 722
Equipment: Boeing B747-400 [HL7423, delivered May 1999]
Departure: 13:15 (ATD: 14:01)
Arrival: 17:30 (ATA: 17:39)
Flight time: 2:38
Reaching the gate area, I hear an announcement that boarding is being delayed for 15 minutes.

The Queen is awaiting outside^^ (actually 2 if you count the KL B744 in the background)

When boarding is called, I head off towards the priority line, where boarding pass and passport checks are completed.

As I scan my boarding pass, I get a “beep.” The agent pulls out another boarding pass, scans it and tells my seat was moved. At first I was pissed since I thought they were taking away my carefully selected window seat in front of the wing, but look down to see an 11B.
Entering the Queen. 3 FAs are standing there. They welcome me on board, check my boarding pass, and tell me to proceed upstairs.

Strafe of the Y cabin. They seem to have the middle generation IFE on this plane (same as the long-haul B772s).

Blurry shot as I prepare to head upstairs.

Reaching the top, another FA welcomes me onboard and gestures towards the newspapers at the top of the stairs.

The old J cabin. Wasn’t lucky enough to get bumped into the F seats in the nose, but no complaints from me. OZ sells F seats as J on regional routes where there is no 3-cabin offering.

The old angle lay-flat seats.

Plenty of legroom.

IFE is a lot larger than in the Smartium cabins.

Storage compartments.

Same blanket and pillow as Y, just a different color.

Wow, talk about old pillowcases… this logo is over 10 years old.

The same headphones and slippers as long-haul flights.

The seat controls and IFE remote is on the side of the center console.

My neighbor passed out after the PDB, and slept until we landed in ICN. The reading light and a moveable privacy shield. His elbow was blocking it so I couldn’t see how far it fully stretched.

All the seatback contents are in a plastic sleeve.

The safety card on this B744(Combi).

My new boarding documents.

PDBs were offered (champagne, water, or orange juice).

Newspapers were walked down the aisle as boarding completed.

Both the lead FA and cabin manager pass through the cabin, stop at each person to welcome them on board and to thank them for flying. This is followed by distribution of immigration documents for Korea. I just ask for the free pen. Lastly, there is a pass with hot oshibori.

The safety video plays as we begin our pushback and taxi out.

The IFE was available immediately and had the middle generation interface, but this clock is way off, it was set for US Central time, maybe this plane had come from ORD?

We had the full long-haul IFE content, but that still doesn’t mean it was good content. It’s really Asia heavy in the content compartment leaving few Western options. I just watched “To Kill A Mockingbird” while I ate.

After we leveled off, the FAs handed out the menus.

It was bibimbap again for the Korean option, so I decided to just take a Western meal and asked for the baked sole. I like the Korean dessert options better (fresh fruit and cookies).

The drink menu.

As expected, the FA kneels at your side while taking your order. The 3 FAs working the upper deck were more senior and very attentive throughout always making strong eye contact when addressing you by name.

The linens were laid.

Since my seatmate was fast asleep, he got the missed service card.

The starter is served by tray. I’m not a fan of the tray service; there is no reason why all these items can’t just be placed on the tray table like during a long-haul meal. They offer real salt/pepper shakers, but then have a plastic cup of salad dressing. Just examples of where OZ has some weird inconsistencies.

The starter had okay presentation. The anchovy wasn’t listed on the menu, but offered some nice saltiness and umami to the cold chicken.

A standard salad.

Bread was offered so I took some garlic bread.

I was offered mineral or still water to accompany my makgeolli.

Buttonhole.

After I finished my starter, the plate was removed and my makgeolli was refilled.

The mains were brought out by cart. Not very attractive looking and rather small in size. The fish was well cooked, but a lackluster dish since the sauce was pretty tasteless. This almost reminded me of a CX meal.

Cloudy skies as we continue our run up towards Seoul.

The trays were cleared.

Here comes the dessert cart.

I was offered port with my cheese plate, but asked for the ice wine instead. The FA looked confused since she only had the bottle of port and said they didn’t have any ice wine. Then she stopped midway through her apology, and thought for a second, before told me to wait a second while she checked the galley. She returned with the bottle of ice wine and poured me a glass while she apologized for the mistake.

After the cheese plate, my table was cleared again in preparation for dessert.

Dessert service is done along with coffee/tea service.

Some surprise, Häagen-Dazs^^ Elevated to a 5* dessert with my LX chocolate from Numero_2^^

After dessert, I went back to the bathroom. It was clean and had all of the long-haul L’Occitane products.

I reached my seat as the FAs were coming through cleaning up the last of the meal items.

They proposed more coffee, which I promptly spilled when I kneed the tray table. The FA quickly came by to wipe up the mess when she saw what I did.

A view of the seats in full recline.

As we started our initial descent into ICN, hot towels were handed out again.

I asked for a Bailey’s on ice to sip during decent, which was quickly brought out.

As final cabin preparations were done, the arrival and connection information were displayed.

So, I’ve noticed something in the OZ UNICEF ads. When they talk about “coins in your pocket“ they show a passenger in Y, but when they talk about “a bill in your wallet” they show a passenger in J. A little bit presumptuous.

We come to a smooth stop at ICN.

Final view of the cabin as I head down the stairs. As soon as signaled, 2 of the FAs go running down the stairs to begin holding back the Y masses to ensure that all the J passengers can get out of the upper deck before releasing the rear Y cabins to deplane.

Heading out the jetbridge.

HKG gets a PRC flag.

I’ll leave off this series as I make my way towards the transfer security at ICN.