korean air AKL ICN trip report

We left hotel around 7:00am in the morning to AKL airport,New Zealand airport was small compare to most industrial countries’ gateway airport and Korean airline check in counter was pretty empty for all classes. We finished all procedures and arrived Air New Zealand lounge in just less than 20 minutes. The lounge was packed with so many people, I couldn’t’ even find a place to take pictures.

 


This was not our first time to this airport, few years ago, we took Air New Zealand from Los Angeles to Sydney, but our connecting flight was delayed by 9 hours due to weather and no smoking area in the airport…Maybe they got too many complaints and finally opened up a smoking area for us now. However, the cigarette price in New Zealand was the most expensive one I have ever seen, it’s even expensive then New York City, London, 14NZD per PACK.

Korean airline was parked at the furthest gate in the airport, Gate 15th, it was a long walk from Air New Zealand lounge. Boarding was on time and business class was not full, only 7 or 8 people in total. It was still older version B777, seat was
not a flat bed, but monitor was very big

Soon after took off, purser came to introduced herself and to my surprise,  she knew how to speak Chinese. I really liked Korean Air because of their Korean traditional cruise, bibimbap, the spicy sauce tasted so good, I ended up bought several boxes.

Since it was a day flight, it’s hard to fall in sleep, thanks to the great entertainment system to keep me busy and most importantly, I hadn’t watch any movies for few months.What impressed me the most was their Duty free shopping book, it was so big and so many to choose from, price was low and most stuff was indeed “duty free”. Like most Asian airlines, the on board service was always excellent, but this Korean air lie-flat seat was one of the most uncomfortable seat I had ever been on.

Flight landed in Seoul on time, there was one more flight back to Shanghai the same day, but since I wanted to stay one night, I did not choose that one when I booked my flight. Shuttle to Hyatt was packed with full of transit passengers, we had to stand in the shuttle, glad it was not long. We went to Regency Club for the cocktail hours, there was no seat anymore, too many people. Since I wanted to go to Casino, I just ate my dinner in the lounge.




Only foreigner or Korean with resident permit of foreign countries could go to Casino in Korea, so the only quite place was actually Casino. I stayed until 3:00 am.

Korean Air had a check in counter inside the Hyatt hotel, but the funny thing was, they only checked your bag to a specific counter in the airport where you need re check again! Flight back to shanghai was short, but I still had a chance to eat bibimbap one more time. We landed in PVG around noon, after 3 weeks of vacation, we finally back home.