Hi everyone, and welcome back to another review. In the near future, I plan on posting a few slightly shorter reviews than normal, mainly because these all took place before I discovered Flight-Report. Some of these will likely have fewer photos and details than you might be used to with my more recent reviews, but I still wanted to take the opportunity to share some of these experiences. So my apologies in advance for some short (but still sweet) posts, and hopefully I'll revert back to the usual soon when the snowstorms clear up and schedules begin to open!
In honor of Asiana's move to T2 with Korean Air, I thought it would be a nice opportunity to explore the one and only time in my life I've taken them, on a very short trek from Beijing to Seoul. Back to May 2025 we go!
As of today, there are 14 daily flights between the cities, and it seems OZ have retired using widebodies on these short flights. Luckily I had a chance to try it out beforehand! This was a very short three/four day trip, letting me head to Korea to see some friends whilst also getting to try out both OZ and KE's short haul widebody experience.
It was a warm May day in Beijing as I pulled up to Terminal 3's international departures. Load for today's flight seemed extremely light across all classes, and I was quickly checked in within a few minutes. There was this cute little sticker wishing you a great trip attached to my boarding pass, but unsure why there's a Seoul-Tokyo feature from 2023, anyone know the significance of that trip?
The usual schenanigans in T3 then came and left, quick security check and the small tram over to immigration. After all was done and dusted, the happiest time of my life was up next, coffee and planespotting! Since it was early morning, the noon rush of CA's long-haul departures was imminent, but not quite there yet. However, still multiple widebodies parked on the main concourse.
A350 bound for Europe (was probably Stockholm, I can't quite recall)
Oh, and just the Queen of the Skies casually passing by, nothing unusual right?
I did quite a thorough lounge review of CA's T3 J lounge in a recent review from PEK to TPE, please feel free to check that out if interested on the lounge offerings. I must admit, the food offerings today was not nearly as good as the review to TPE, so don't worry there's not much you're missing out on!
I soon noticed an OZ jet heading to a gate, and as it came closer I thought, oh no… air change? Luckily, I quickly realized there were two OZ flights to Seoul within an hour or so, and this narrowbody was in fact not for me!
Ah, that's the one for me, my good ol' widebody, a 21 year old Boeing 777-200 ER. This must have been up there with one of the oldest planes I've been on. You know it's your lucky day when it's repping a Star Alliance livery.
Boarding soon began ahead of our 10:40 departure, and up to the jetbridge we went.
Here's the first glance at the J cabin, in a 1-2-1 configuration with 24 J seats. The seats alternate between those closer to the window/aisle, and middle seats alternating between those further apart and closer 'honeymoon' seats. As you can probably tell, the cabin/seats are starting to show its age.
Having completely forgotten to ask for a window seat during check-in, I was placed in the aisle seat 4D. I had originally sat in 3D before the actual seat owner embarked and I realized my mistake, my apologies! I also take back what I said during checkin of this being quite an empty flight, as it turned out the J cabin was nearly all full, no empty window seats.
The mustard shade of yellow…. doesn't it sort of remind you of Thai Airways' F cabin?
Waiting at my seat were some headphones, a pair of slippers, and a pre-packaged wet towel.
Back at my own seat, I snapped a quick frontward view. The IFE systems are also showing age, being extremely small for modern standards and mine especially was extremely unresponsive throughout the flight. The tray table being on the back of the passenger in front's seat also makes the IFE screen seem even more miniscule :).
There are small coat racks on available too, but no need for a hot May day in Beijing.
There is space under your footrest to place your shoes, but quite a small area as mine wouldn't fully fit inside. Considering the age of the cabin and seat, it was actually very comfortable. The footrest may look rather tight but I didn't have too much trouble fully extending my legs.
As I always do, I asked for a fleece blanket but was told they were unfortunately not equipped on this flight. Not a huge problem since it was only a two-hour trip, but for reference CA does provide them on this route.
To my delight, there was a full printed menu available, and lunch service was imminent. My apologies for not having a full display of the drinks menu (again, trip happened before my discovery of our wonderful website, sorry :( ), but there were two options for lunch. The crew member actively promoted the Dory fish dish, so that was my choice.
We then began taxiing…. oh wait, not quite. We ended up waiting at our gate for a good hour before taxxing out towards the runway. I'm looking back at my Flightly and it shows only a 20 minute delay, but I fondly remember thinking at the time that we could potentially be grounded in Beijing for even longer than the actual flight time! Luckily, we started moving after an hour or so.
Take off soon followed, and we were off in the air for our very quick trip over to Seoul.
As soon as we took off, meal service kicked into action. I had asked for a diet coke with my meal earlier when meal orders were taken, and it came alongside my lunch all on one tray.
I had heard rumours, especially from some of my Korean buddies, that OZ had essentially given up with their soft service due to their imminent merger. To be honest, I have mixed feelings on that because the lunch was really darn tasty. Although it might not look super pretty, the fish was genuinely incredible. For a 90 minute or so flight, this was top notch. I love a strong spicy flavor, and this delievered in every way. Although not the biggest fan of vegetables, everything here was made so much better due to the sauce. The fish itself was very tender, and if I was served this at a restaurant on the ground I'd be a happy man.
My only complaints were the very sad looking salad and terrible tasting cake, but if you've ever flown out of Beijing, you know that's solely down to its catering from PEK, nothing to do with OZ in that regard. I genuinely could have done another portion of this, and was sad when my plate was empty.
Now that the meal service had concluded there was really only an hour, if that, until descent. Now I've done a few trips to Seoul, whether on CA or KE, and the crew always make an effort to come around and ask for refills or extra drinks once the meal service had completed. Today, however, I never saw any crew members again after lunch. They only showed up again once we began descent to do final checks. It's not a massive complaint, but there is some element of soft service lacking in that regard.
Another side note was when I headed to the front lavatory, I passed by three crew members having a chat and laughing quite loud. I mean I didn't really mind, I doubt anyone else did either on this short flight, just an observation as the experience would have been improved if they offered (or even inquired) on additional beverages. Anyways.
My IFE system continued to malfunction throughout the flight. I didn't really want to bother the crew since it was such a short trip, so I just ended up deleting old photos. There was also no internet on this trip.
Nothing too notable really occurred after lunch, and our short trip came to an end in a flash. We touched down at ICN Terminal 1 at 14:14. Of course, nowadays you would be heading over to Terminal 2 instead!
On my way out, I passed by this stunner headed to LAX! Lovely way to wrap up the trip.
