Review of Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul to Los Angeles in Business

Background/Routing

We conclude this series with a flight from Seoul-Incheon to LAX. Due to the large diaspora of Koreans in SoCal, all 3 Korean carriers operate this route with up to 6 daily non-stop flights. Surprisingly, no US carriers operate this route with UA only operating from SFO (2x daily), DL deferring to KE for this route to prioritize its other hubs, and AA rarely attempting to compete on Asian routes these days. Since KE/OZ dominate the market with probably >80% of seats using A380s and B748Is exclusively on the route versus YP's B789s, it will be interesting to see what happens to prices once it is effectively monopolized. Post pandemic, OZ has returned to operate their 2x daily service exclusively on A380s. We picked OZ204 since we had little need to arrive early in the day into LAX and wanted to get the extra half-day in Japan instead. The final routing is thus:

The tourism bonus for this report will be Kitakyushu (北九州) and Dazaifu (太宰府) for those interested.

Transit Experience

After a number of bad transit experiences, we were surprised to see that they had finally started installing new Smiths machines that don't require liquids or electronics removed. These weren't there when we transited several weeks before so maybe Incheon will become a good transit point again in the future. The FIDS leaving security with our flight showing as on-time departing from Gate 17.

With 3 hours to kill before boarding, we just went to the Central lounge since it is the closest to security and closest to our gate.

The terminal below the lounge access.

Asiana Business Lounge (Central)

Central is the smallest of the lounges and was moderately crowded, but we were able to find a set of 4 seats to occupy near the buffet area.

The buffet area. Drinks are located on the opposite end of the seating area.

The offering is always kid friendly.

My offerings throughout the stay. There are usually only 4-6 options of hot dishes so not as expansive as other lounges, but food quality is good.

The lounge has large windows overlooking the tarmac, which is one of its good features.

Pre-Flight

Spending 3 hours in the lounge is tough, so we went out to one of the many play zones throughout the airport to burn off some energy.

The advantage is that these are near the windows so you can also do some spotting, like the EK A380 at the adjacent gate.

We started walking towards the gate to arrive around the indicated boarding time of 20:00.

Boarding

Reaching our gate, no lines had formed yet, so we went off to stand to the side to look at our A380 since it would likely be my last chance to fly OZ's.

Tonight, we would get HL7634 again, which was the same plane that took us LAX-ICN several weeks earlier. As mentioned in Part 1, it is a 10-year old A380 that was stored for ~3 of those years. It has OZ's standard F12 (1-2-1), C66 (1-2-1), and Y417 (3-4-3 / 2-4-2) configuration.

Boarding was called at 20:15 and down we go only to go back up the ramp to the upper deck.

Entering the plane, we are welcomed by a friendly crew and make our way back to our seats in the main cabin featuring OZ's Smartium cabin with Solstys seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. This flight we did a column of A seats along the window to avoid fighting over window seats. My son's seat being aisle adjacent.

My seat for this flight right behind him being window adjacent.

The aisle seats are obviously more exposed in these 1-2-1 configurations.

As with the B747, A380 upper deck window seats offer the much coveted storage compartments. If you are flying Y, it is also the number one reason to try and secure the little Y cabin in the rear of the upper deck.

The seat cubbies on OZ's Solstys product are decently sized.

The side table features the literature compartment, reading light, audio jack, USB-A port, and in-flight amenities.

Along the side are the seat controls, IFE remote, and an arm rest with a small storage cubby.

Fully adjustable and non-protruding headrest.

The tray table folds down from the seat back and can pivot to allow aisle access.

A 110V universal power outlet is under the seat.

Pre-placed on the side table were slippers and headphones.

The amenity kit on flights from ICN are yellow and have much better material than the blue ones we got from out-station. The contents are the same so check the OZ203 report for that information.

The bedding, which I'll discuss later.

The crew was quick to greet us and handed us menus for this flight.

Along with a pair of packaged towels. OZ doesn't do hot towels anymore so hands these out instead. OZ also axed the pre-departure drink service.

The menu for tonight's flight, which will be a dinner and snack service.

The drinks menu.

Push Back and Taxi

The safety video played as we finally prepared for push back at 21:22 with the final connecting passengers arriving.

Let's hope not…

HU B737-MAX8 arriving, and then our turn to push back.

Goodbye T1.

SC B738 in China Arts Festival special livery.

MH A333 as we continue our taxi out.

TW A333 and TK B77W.

Take-Off from Incheon

We took off from runway 34R at 21:56, over an hour late to start our 11h flight to LAX.

The Han River cutting through Seoul.

First Meal Service

The FAs were quick to action with the delayed departure and were out to setup the cabin for meal in just 15 minutes with the distribution of table clothes.

The table is set, appetizers are handed out, and drinks are served by cart.

I had opted for the Korean meal so my starter is Poached Octopus with Wild Ginseng Root. It was good, but the Western starter my wife and son had looked a lot better.

After the starter was cleared, a tray with the Korean set was brought out.

Drinks were regularly topped up with every pass.

The Korean option was Grilled Beef Ribs Ssambap.

In the back we have kimchi, bean paste, and a Korean version of chawanmushi.

And of course soup.

My son had ordered the Grilled Beef Tenderloin Steak with Black Truffle so needed help cutting the meat. Upon inspection, the cook on the meat is probably one of the best I've seen on a plane with a nice pink center and very juicy.

As the trays were cleared, the cart came down the aisle with fruit and cheese plates being offered. I opted for just a fruit plate and glass of port wine.

Desserts are then handed out and the Korean meal gets a simple pair of candied walnuts and red bean paste mochi. Coffee and tea are also offered.

The meal service did not feel rushed, but completed within 90-minutes of departure as we were reaching the western coast of Honshu. With the >1h delay departing Incheon, it was well past 23:00 and time for bed.

Mid-Flight

OZ offers decent bedding with a mattress topper, blanket, and pillow. The pillow could be thicker, but otherwise much better than the bedding currently being provided on KE.

Despite the age of the Solstys product, it still makes a decent bed.

The cabin quickly falls asleep.

After a good 5h sleep, I woke up since it was approaching 13:00 in California.

The lavatories were always clean, feature a good selection of amenities, and offer a nice wing view.

Pressing the call button, a FA was immediately up the aisle and at my side. I've never had their Chilled Acorn Jelly Soup before so ordered that along with a coffee. The snack was brought out ~5 minutes later served with kimchi and pickled daikon.

The A380s have the newest version of IFE interface. Content is average at best and the navigation can be tedious with how they nest content requiring you to go back and forth between screens to navigate.

It was a surprisingly smooth TPAC crossing with only 1-2 patches of light turbulence  and lights started to cycle back on ~2h to arrival.

Second Meal Service

Meal service started with the distribution of 2 packaged oshibori and a selection of juices from a tray.

Linens were laid for what they call a "Snack," but really is a coursed meal.

A tray was placed down with the starter: Grilled Vegetable Salad. While on the surface it looked very boring with some cold grilled vegetables, there was at least a very flavorful bed underneath.

Warm breads were also offered and this black garlic focaccia was quite good.

While the braised abalone sounded good, I opted for the more comforting option on the stomach: Perilla Seed Chicken Porridge. It was very simple, but satisfying and served with soy sauce and more pickled daikon. This type of dish is also highly kid-friendly and our son ate the entire thing.

As trays were cleared, desserts were brought out along with coffee/tea.

The dessert was Hallabong and Jeju Green Tea Mousse. The gold foil was an unexpected addition on OZ.

Approach into LAX

As the meal concluded with just under an hour to go, we had reached the first sight of land with the Bay visible in the distance.

San Jose and South Bay.

As we crossed barren central California, we get to do some exercises to limber up.

Reaching the San Fernando Valley.

Making our turn towards downtown over Malibu.

Crossing over Westwood with UCLA's campus visible on the left.

After making our u-turn over Montebello, it is the standard approach into LAX. Air quality is very poor with Palos Verdes barely visible amongst the smog.

Crossing a very quiet I-405.

Cargo operations at LAX.

We land on runway 7R as a tiny WN B737-700 departs on runway 7L.

Kiss landing at 16:57 as we pass T1 (WN) and T2 (DL), only 30 minutes late.

We exit the runway for the long taxi around to TBIT.

AA B788 at the UA hangar.

DE, FJ, and AF at the satellite.

We follow an AY A359 in.

LH A380 in from MUC.

We park next to our sister-in-law.

The jet bridge for the upper deck always seems to engage last and it was eventually our turn to disembark and make our way through the trash ridden TBIT towards immigration.

Global Entry was empty and a seamless process.

Reaching our baggage claim, the previous flight was still having bags come out and there were hundreds of people blocking the area making it very chaotic. LAX clearly has more flights than they can support with the current infrastructure, it makes no sense for 2 international flights to share the same baggage claim.

With that chaos over, we take the chaotic bus over to the ride-share area and are off to our hotel for the night. That concludes this series, thanks for stopping by and feel free to check out the bonus below for some additional Kyushu tourism!

Flight Information

Asiana Airlines, OZ204
Equipment: Airbus A380-800 [HL7634, delivered May 2015]
Departure: 20:40 (ATD: 21:56)
Arrival: 16:30 (ATA: 16:57)
Flight time: 11:01