Avis du vol entre Seoul et Singapore en classe Economique avec Korean Air

Welcome to the final trip report of my annual holiday trip. As much as I wish my holiday will continue, the lack of annual leave in Singapore forbids me from staying another few weeks in USA or in South Korea.
Still, I tried to keep my spirits up. I have a new airport to explore! I have 2 lounges to hop! I have another flight to catch! All these things make me happy!
Here is the route I took for this trip:

I cleared security quickly and re-entered the departure area of ICN. What a huge airport! It reminded me of DOH in scale.
There were many travelators that assisted passengers with mobility issues.
The duty-free shops were at ripoff prices as per all international airports.
As I had 8h of time to idle, and another 2 out of 4 Priority Passes left, I decided to visit two lounges.
Prior to visiting these lounges, I've read online that they have amazing food. Both lounges did not disappoint!

Lounge hop 1: Matina lounge

The Matina lounge is located at the middle of Terminal 2 at what seems like the area above the security line for travelers who start their journey in ICN.
The queue at 7am is insane. I've never seen such a long queue for a lounge before!

Upon entry to the lounge, I placed my bag at a chair to secure a seat, then went to the buffet area. The lounge felt more like a buffet than an airport lounge.
There were both hot and cold options that cater to both the local and international palate. As I've not been in Korea before, I decided to get a taste of local cuisine. I sensed that I was in good hands when I saw numerous middle aged Korean women in the kitchen, which likely implied that the food were cooked from scratch.
After the first few bites, I concluded that this was hands down the best lounge food I've had for a contract lounge. The quality of food put many Korean food stalls in Singapore to shame. There was nothing on the plates that I didn't like.

Drinks were readily available, ranging from soft drinks, coffee, tea to simple alcoholic beverages like beer and wine, all self-served. I took the chance to try two Korean soft drinks that I can't find in Singapore.

Therefore, I strongly recommend visiting this lounge for a bite with a Priority Pass if time permits, just to enjoy delicious Korean cuisine!

I left the lounge around 10.30am as my 3h time was up. I figured I should be a considerate traveler and allow others the opportunity to enjoy the food in the lounge.

Lounge hop 2: Sky hub lounge

I made my way to the Sky Hub lounge next, which happened to be above the gate where my flight will depart from.

As this lounge was much emptier, I took the opportunity to take more photographs of the buffet area. This lounge pales in comparison in terms of food variety, but the quality of food is also very good! I wouldn't mind being served these food in a buffet on the ground.

There are both hot and cold options for food, but the food options in this lounge were more Korean, which I absolutely didn't mind! I ate a bit of everything and kept in mind to leave some stomach for the inflight feed later. The korean fried chicken in this lounge was extraordinarily good. This dish alone made me want to visit South Korea in future just to do food tourism.

I found the drinks in this lounge to be superior, as there were spirits and soju available for self-serve. There was also a cocktail machine which made 4 kinds of cocktails with 2 different bases. I tried 3 out of 4 cocktails before calling it a day due to the slight tipsiness.

As the lounge was pretty empty for my entire stay, the staff did not seem to mind that I stayed beyond the 3h that Priority Pass states.

I left the lounge when KE643 started to call for boarding, as seen on the monitors in the lounge.

Inflight experience: Horror of horrors

After the pleasant experience on KE86 in economy class on Korean Air's B777-300ER, I was expecting a comfortable 6h flight.

Operating KE643 to Singapore is HL8216, a 14.4 year old B777-300ER with the new livery.

Upon entering the cabin, I was greeted by KE's gorgeous new business class product. Wow! It would be a great pleasure to fly on these seats one day!

The gorgeous premium economy cabin greeted me next. Wow! The seats look fabulous and look good to be in for long haul flights. I certainly wouldn't mind trying them!

Then came the crushing disappointment. I facepalmed when I saw this new economy cabin. New screens? Sure.
But 3-4-3 seating arrangement? That's an epic disappointment. Korean Air has joined the dark side of 3-4-3 economy cabins for the B777-300ER, and the world weeps for the loss of a previously incredibly comfortable B777-300ER economy cabin. Why join the likes of Emirates, Etihad, Air France, Cathay Pacific, ANA, BA, Air Canada and Swiss?
At this point in writing, I believe this is the first trip report for this new downgraded economy class product on Korean Air.

However, I got to give credit where it is due.

Korean Air kept its 33-34 inch seat pitch, similar to the previous flight. My 1.77m frame happily fit into the seat. However, the seat width has been made narrower. My seatmate and I are average sized Singaporean men, and our shoulders touched for the entire flight. This is on row 52 where there are only 2 seats on the left side. I can't imagine flying in the middle seats in this tight squeeze…
I kept telling myself to remain positive about the situation, as flying is still a great pleasure of mine. Hey, this is better than the same 3-4-3 arrangement and a 31 inch seat pitch.

The tray table was also made thinner and no longer folds in half to hold a drink. This makes getting out of the seat a bit more irritating.

The seat pocket also downgraded from multiple pockets to a single large pocket that holds everything.

Korean Air gave each economy class passenger a pair of single use slippers which are of inferior quality, but made for a good souvenir that I took with me. A water bottle was also given to each passenger at their seat. The push for greener packaging made Korean companies drop their plastic labels, which is a good move in my opinion!

A stewardess came to confirm my Korean vegetarian meal has been loaded. She also asked for my choice of drink to be served with those meals. What a nice touch!

After takeoff, the crew quickly got into action and started serving meals. I got my Korean vegetarian meal before the main cabin. I caught my seatmate looking at my food but he didn't start a conversation with me. I would have happily talked the whole flight about airlines if people chatted with me!

I pre-ordered the Korean vegetarian meal as I was inspired by Jayden Wong, a flight vlogger I subscribe to on Youtube. He praised the Korean vegetarian meal in one of his videos. In summary, this was the arguably one of the best economy inflight meals I've tasted.

My meal came with sliced fruit. They tasted sweet and fresh.
There were two side dishes. The first was some salad leaves with pan fried mushrooms. This was delicious when dipped in the chilli mayonnaise. The other side dish seemed to be some radish pickles, which I enjoyed.
The main course is steamed rice with some stir fried vegetables and mushroom tofu patties. This was extremely fragrant and delicious. I could smell the sesame oil used to cook them. It's savoury and well balanced. I was so impressed with this dish that I told my wife about it after I got home.

The regular meal choices were either Bibimbap (Again), or chicken curry with rice. I overheard my seatmate telling his friends that the curry was disappointing, to which I inferred that it didn't align with his Singaporean tastebuds.

After the meal, the crew came around with Cledor cheesecake ice creams. A stewardess put the basket of ice creams in front of me, so I helped myself to it, but I returned the ice cream as my special meal did not come with ice cream. However, the stewardess said 'check remaining' and walked away.
After a few minutes, the stewardess came back with a cup of ice cream that I happily devoured. This was an interesting flavour of ice cream.

Feeling thirsty mid-flight, I went to the galley to attempt get a glass of whiskey with coke, but only wine was available on short routes.

Korean Air is very generous with the meals on this route, as they served a second snack before landing. Singapore Airlines does not do this. My special meal snack consisted of rice pancakes called Hotteok. It was my first time trying and I enjoyed it.
The other passengers got a choice of a banana or a Korean onigiri.

We landed in Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 4. We got the furthest gates so it was a 5 minute walk to immigration.
I recall clearing immigration and collecting my bag within 20 minutes. Incredibly efficient airport.

Thank you for reading!