Review of Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul to Shanghai in Economy

Background/Routing

We continue the outbound trip with a hop down to Shanghai on Asiana, which serves it with 4x daily frequency (3x ICN-PVG and 1x GMP-SHA).

Transit Experience

We start this report exiting transit security at 04:15.

We head off towards OZ's Central Lounge only to find it closed. A quick search confirms that OZ's lounges don't open until 05:00 or 06:00. The SQ Lounge also doesn't open until 07:00 closer to when their flights operate.

The airport is very dark and eerily empty at this hour with our flight being the first arrival of the day along with OZ211 from SFO.

Luckily, ICN has enough kids zones to keep our son occupied during the wait.

At 04:45, we started the walk towards OZ's East Lounge since it is the first to open at 05:00.

Asiana Lounge (East)

We joined the queue waiting for the lounge to open and headed up as it opened. There was a line for Priority Pass entrants, but the agents let us form a side line to get shower rooms.

Shower rooms were available immediately. They are well appointed with amenities and clean.

After showers, we went into the lounge to grab seats and check out the buffet. Another failure on OZ's part, the buffet does not open until 06:40 (>1.5h after opening) so there are only cold and packaged foods available.

We just grabbed drinks and found some seats while waiting for the hot food to be brought out.

Eventually the hot food was brought out and I took a sampling. Taste and quality were both good.

Airport Experience

At 08:00, we left the lounge to stretch our legs before the flight and the terminal was much more active at this hour.

ICN T1 has plenty of natural light and seating between gates.

Looking out the window, it appears we got an aircraft swap from booking. This flight was originally supposed to be on an A333 and got swapped to a B772. We will get HL7700 today, a 23 year-old B772 that was delivered to OZ back in May 2002 featuring its C22 (1-2-1) and Y278 (3-3-3) configuration. The plane would be 100% full in Y so the aircraft swap was justified.

Boarding

We joined the business class line as the agents prepared the gate area for boarding.

We were welcomed into the plane by several FAs, my wife and son turned left and I turned right into the empty Y cabin. This B772 has the "newer" cabins since this plane primarily operates long-haul routes.

Seat Tour

Seat pitch is excellent at 33-34".

The seat back has IFE screen, coat hook, USB-A port, and IFE remote.

In between seats are 110V outlets.

Seat back contents.

Headphone jack is in the end of the arm rest.

Push Back and Taxi

The FAs came through the cabin and offered immigration forms.

View from my seat with a HY B788 next door.

On-time, the front doors closed and the safety video played as we initiated push back.

7C B738 and YP B789 taxing around.

BX A321neo.

GA's Pikachu Jet taxing in and what looked like a CI B747F landing…

This plane was having an identity crisis and would instead be an OZ B747F now despite retaining the CI paint job.

LH A359 arriving from MUC as we get closer to the runway.

To complete the Korean LCC tour, we get a LJ B737-MAX8 departing.

KC B767 arriving.

KE B747F arriving.

OZ B772 departing.

We join the queue behind a KE B77W.

A SQ B78X joins the line behind us.

Take-off from ICN

We finally align onto runway 16L.

We take off at 09:35, >30 minutes late offering great views over ICN.

Goodbye ICN.

Our climb out on this sunny, but hazy day in Seoul.

Entertainment

This plane has the middle generation IFE interface, but has the same content.

There is no Wi-Fi on the B777 fleet, which is not an issue on a short <90-minute flight down to Shanghai.

Meal Service

Despite our plane going backwards, meal service quickly started as we finished our climb up past 10,000 ft.

Flipping down the bi-fold tray table.

No choice of meal and everyone is handed a snack box and main. Drinks are offered, but are limited to non-alcoholic beverages.

The snack box contents are a coconut jelly, chocolate brownie, and water. The downside of this catering style is the over use of packaged items.

The main today is Wagyu Beef with Black Bean Sauce.

The meal would be what you would expect on a meal tray although it is missing fruit.

A quite good main.

Disposable cutlery is offered along with gochujang paste and a refreshing towel.

Mid-Flight

I finished my meal as we were leaving the Korean Peninsula.

Crossing Jeju as we continue our journey backwards.

Reaching the mainland, we started our descent into the dark clouds of Shanghai during rainy season.

Arrival into PVG

Some gaps in the clouds as we reach land approaching Pudong from the south.

We descend into 34R with the new terminal construction under full swing in the distance.

We landed at 10:00, slightly ahead of schedule onto a very wet tarmac. From the standing water, it clearly had been raining very heavy this morning.

Welcome to PVG T2.

The heavens opened and rain started again during the taxi.

MU A320 taxing out.

The less desirable direct option from SFO. These B77Ws are not old, not sure why UA struggles to make them look decent with unpainted cowlings on this one.

We pull in next to a HO B789 in the Chinese Peony livery.

Jet bridge is engaged quickly and we are out through 1L and welcomed to PVG with the expected HSBC ads.

There were a couple of flights from Europe arriving in parallel, but we were directed to a special lane and were through immigration in a reasonable amount of time reaching the baggage claim less than 20 minutes after deplaning.

Bags in hand, we were quickly out over to the parking garage. PVG has these pretty cool new boards for ride hailing that show you where your car is going to park to reduce the traffic in the garage.

I'll leave off this series here as we start our stay in Shanghai with the rain clearing the next day to be replaced by the sunshine of summer.