Review of Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul to Osaka in Business

Before I jump in, I would like to point out that this was my first flight in Business class. I have always been a dedicated Economy class flyer ever since I remember. As a result, I am not writing this to critic anything, just because I have no background in this area and everything is an upgrade on everything.
I decided to fly to Osaka on this route because:
1. I wanted to fly on the Korean Air A350 since they, against all odds, took delivery of Asiana's orders.
2. Between the two A350 destinations of FUK and KIX, i preferred KIX.
3. While going to Osaka, I thought why not fly on Asiana one last time before it's gone? Round trip flights were not that cheaper than one way tickets.
4. Business class was only, from what I remember, 30,000KRW more than Economy. No brainer, really.

Myself two days before the flight, furiously checking on the database to see which registration I'd be on. I check the departure list of the day before my flight, and see which A350 frame is assigned on which route. If a certain frame is assigned to a long haul route, say OZ521/522, you can know for sure that that A350 will not be on your morning flight the next day. I wanted to be on one with the revised winglets, which is from HL8308 onwards.

Topping up my card before I head to the Airport. As this was an early morning flight at 8 in the morning and there were no buses that arrived early enough for my flight, I decided to hang it out and spend the night at the airport. Looking back now it seems pretty stupid but I always wanted to do this once, as a romantic that reminisces about the past like second nature.

As I live in a city called Seongnam which is located just south of Seoul, I took the Bundang Line - Line 2 - Airport Railway route. This took me about 2hrs and 30 mins which doesn't really matter for me as I was in no rush.

Transferring at Hongdae really is no joke. It certainly is NOT 280m. I must've taken this halfway through my walk.

Every few months there seems to be a new airline covering the ad space. It really makes you want to go for a trip, but that desire would be put into better use if the passersby weren't on their way to the airport already. 

Was surprised to see how many people were going to the airport at 11pm. Maybe they were in the same boat as myself.

This was my first time coming here at such a late hour.

This was where I'd settled down. I thought I'd spend the night here, but later realized that sleeping on a bench while the place wasn't heated at all was physically impossible. Some heat is provided if you're inside the main building, but seats are hard to come by.

My setup.

Some others have also decided to spend the night here.
I presume a major chunk of passengers spending the night at the airport is here for the early morning flights from some low cost carriers, mainly Vietjet. Vietjet loves these types of flights, and they have check in open from 0345 for flights to HAN, SGN, etc. 

There wasn't much going on if any at 2 in the morning. I went to the first floor to pick up my USIM for Japan, and had a look around the terminal. Most of the people took up a whole row of the bench and went to sleep, and one memorable group of uncles were playing cards to spend time.

There is a hall that is open 24 hours a day. If you didn't have any checked baggage you could go through security as soon as the clock hits 12 and spend your time airside, go to a lounge and whatnot. But as I had a suitcase I had to wait until 5am for check in and maximize lounge time.

Looking at my flight on the FIDS to trick myself into thinking the departure time is closer than it seems.

Tried the new Monster in Korea. I'll stick to the gymbro's choice with the Ultra.

If memory serves my right the lights were only installed when the second terminal opened. Distinctions.

Asiana Airlines has their upper class check in area in the A section. It is separated from all the other things going on around it, and it did make it feel more premium, at least compared to the Economy class sections.

You can see the queues forming as it gets closer to check in start time. There was a very long line for Asiana passengers, it was so long it reached the Business class line, causing quite a bit of confusion. There wasn't that long of a line for Business class, but I'd say there were about 10 groups.

I was the second one through the gates for check in. Everything went smooth as I had done everything online, except checking in. One interesting thing was the agent asked me about my return ticket. I've never gotten that question before, but I have never booked two one way tickets. 

Security took only about 30 minutes, which was surprising because there were lots of talks about the long lines for security and how the whole process was severely understaffed. I've read online people taking up to 90 minutes just for security. However, this all seems to be resolved as of now.
I went to see this United 787 which arrived from SFO as UA805 before going to the lounge which opens at 6. I came to see this because UA806 leaves around mid-day and I figured it'd go to a remote stand before I roam around after my breakfast at the lounge.

I went to the SilverKris lounge and not the Asiana lounge as while Asiana has a much bigger lounge, it is way more crowded.
The food options were good, but I didn't expect much for breakfast.
I sat facing the tarmac with a view of Gate 30.

I also visited the Asiana lounge, just to take a look, and to no surprise there weren't any seats available. Definitely much bigger than the SilverKris lounge, though.

Made some time again, for some plane spotting. I was delighted to find out that HS-THQ, one of two Thai A350s with the Star Alliance livery, was put into one of the two Thai overnights. This was quite a surprise as Thai was supposed to use the classic A350s for this flight, but looks like it was swapped last minute to the ex-Hainan configuration.

My plane for today was waiting at gate 23. HL8362 was assigned for my flight, and it had arrived from LAX about 3 hours prior. This airframe is equipped with the revised winglet and simplified censors at the nose. Personally I think Asiana's livery is one of the best on the A350, with Thai and Vietnam Airlines. Maybe a hot take, but I like China Southern's livery on their A350s.

Boarding the plane. With the way the gates are set up at ICN you get this nice overall view of your plane before you board. T2 has the same system, but a slope on the roof makes it so that the view is limited compared to here in T1.

The Business class seats onboard this A350 is staggered in a 1-2-1 configuration, with the even-numbered rows having seats closer to the window, and couple seats being at the odd-numbered rows. I chose the seat closer to the windows, but it still was hard for me to get into a good position to take pictures.

Air bridge being detached. You can see our plane's reflection. 

With the air bridge detached, I could finally see the view out the window for today on seat 6A. Beautiful engine view, and I believe this is the best angle to see the A350's winglets. It really shows the curvature of the device, the elegant design. The curve really stood out for me when it was first introduced with the old design, which was more curved but shorter than the current design.

As the fuselage gets narrower as you go to the front, you can see the curvature of the cabin and how the whole thing including the overhead panels and bins follow the curvature pretty well.

HL8521 was parked next to us at gate 22, waiting for its flight bound to FUK as OZ132. You can kind of see how they covered the old Asiana logo.

We took off from RWY 33L with a view over the second terminal. Now as 33R/15L has finished repavement, the airport operates with two departure runways and two arrival runways. Before this was all finished though, 34L was the landing runway, 34R was the takeoff runway, and 33L was used mainly as a landing runway except rush hour, mainly the morning time slot, like my flight. eastbound flights took off from 33L while westbound and southbound flights took off from 34R.

If you're on an eastbound flight out of ICN, be sure to sit on the left side to get the best view of Seoul, alongside Hangang river, enroute to EGOBA for the SID.
In #3 you can see Yeouido and the 63 building, and in #4 you can see Jamsil and the Jamsil Lotte World Tower.

The menu for today. I didn't take a picture of the English side, but it's basically scrambled eggs or chicken steak. I went with the latter, as I already had "breakfast" at the lounge. I expected the meal to be served in a tray as this was only a short hop to Osaka.

Our breakfast was served, much better than Economy class even though it was served in a tray. I don't really critic the food too much as my taste buds are very lenient, and this was no exception. I found it to be very good. 

I played with the IFE as I was eating. The system hadn't been updated for the revision of the livery. Also, another thing that would've changed by now is the 767 being present in the fleet information.

A look at the cabin. You can see the absence of overhead bins at the center of the cabin. Also, the shells seem to make the whole mood kind of stuffy, not very open. Maybe I'm just too acclimatized to the openness and the lack of privacy on Economy class flights.

As this was such a short flight, we started our descent about 10 - 15 minutes after the meal service had ended.

We landed on runway 24R with company A330 landing just behind us, coming from GMP. 

We parked next to this AirAsia A330, while the company A330 that landed after us followed us in to their gate.

One last look at the cabin before I deplane. Just realized someone dropped their phone when I took the picture.

KIX is known for its long lines for immigration, but I managed to get out pretty early, hassle free. Maybe it wasn't peak hours. The airport as a whole seemed to be a bit dated, but it was kept clean throughout.