Korean Air

I flew Sydney to Seoul LAX through to Sao Paulo July 11 2014. First time with Korean Air and I am very impressed my trip was a dreadful 40 hours but it was made easier by the friendly and prompt service of the cabin crew who adorned their guests with smiles. The inflight food was good inflight entertainment the same. Only bad things were: Good legroom but harder than normal seats no salt and pepper with food and no transit directions at LAX.

MNL-ICN-LAX-YVR-ICN-MNL. Checked in at NAIA terminal 1. Check-in was fast tons of counters were open. KE flight 624 to Incheon was great. Given a blanket and a pillow together with headsets. They wake you up if you put a sticker on your headrest if its early morning breakfast. We arrived in Incheon waited 10 hours for our connecting flight with KE017 to LAX on an Airbus A380-800. Left Incheon at 3.30pm Korean time. They also had headsets pillows blankets and amenity kits though the amenity kits only contained slippers and a toothbrush. 2 hours into our flight they served us early dinner the food was excellent flight attendants were so kind and friendly. 3 hours after dinner they served food again every following 2 hours they'd go through the cabin and serve peanuts and beverages. An hour before we landed at LAX they served breakfast. Took our 2nd to last flight of trip which was Vancouver-Incheon flight 72. Service was the same to LAX. When we arrived back in Incheon we went through security for our final leg which was ICN-MNL we waited just an hour. Service on flight 623 was the same as on 624. I recommend Korean Air.

KE 601 from Seoul to Hong Kong: On time somewhat bumpy ride but quite satisfactory in all respects. Crew served well special meal as ordered were friendly and willing to help. A330 cabin was clean spacious. Crew handled a bunch of difficult Chinese passengers well. But a notch below their Korean cousins Asiana.

SGN-IAD: The usual excellence in flight and on the ground. Helpful charming and professional staff. Spotless 777 ER from SGN to Seoul and from Seoul to IAD. More than adequate legroom. If only the guy in the middle seat hadn't insisted on taking half of mine! The Prestige Lounge in Seoul was however a disappointment offering meagre choice of cold food and very generic decor. But the coffee was terrific! Will use KAL again and again.

Travelled 3 times SYD-ICN FRA-ICN and ICN-BNE. All 3 flights lots of leg room. SYD-ICN the crew were fantastic continuously bringing soft drinks/water around. FRA-ICN on an old 744 sitting near the back and it was very noisy. Crew allowed many passengers to have carryon baggage on the seats next to them as we came into land. ICN- BNE similar to previous flight but a bit stricter with bags on seats. Flew out in May and back in June but very little had changed on the in-flight entertainment.

ICN-ZRH. Last month I moved from Korea to Switzerland. The fleet was Airbus 330-200. It was quite good but the problem was the bathroom. It seemed like a new plane but the smell of the bathroom was bad. However their service was really good. The AVOD contained various movies music and games. Also the seat has a USB outlet so it was possible to charge my phone. But the value for money was very bad. I know that a one-way ticket is quite expensive but paying 2000 USD for a 10 hr flight is unacceptable. I will use Qatar or Finnair instead of Korean Air.

Flew from Hong Kong to Paris via Seoul return in June. Great seat pitch. If you like Korean cuisine you will love the bimbimbap. Inflight entertainment is sufficient with large individual screens. What distinguishes Korean Air from other airlines is its cabin crew. All crews are very friendly attentive with above average English. Definitely recommend!

LAS-ICN-MNL-ICN-LAS. The flight left late Friday night which is great as it allowed me to work all day and still eat dinner and head to the airport for my flight. The aircraft was fairly new or at least it seemed new. The interior was clean and spacious. What I liked was that there is a channel that allows you to get a pilots view of takeoff or you can see underneath the aircraft while taking off. This channel does not stay on the entire flight but it is a pretty cool thing to see. During the flight they gave us a little travel kit with eye cover and slippers a toothbrush a a little thing of toothpaste. I know this is pretty common but it's a nice touch. On the Vegas-Seoul flight I had the Korean meal. They have a selection of Korean beers. The inflight entertainment has many options in English/Korean and Japanese. I was able to watch some pretty new movies. Each seat also had a USB outlet to keep your phone or tablet charged during the flight. I had this on all 4 legs but I guess is only on certain flights. I found the crew very friendly and full of smiles they are quick to assist if you need help or just want a drink. They come through the cabin frequently with water/OJ or juice and are pleasant to talk with if you aren't shy with them. My only complaint is this it's not Korean's fault as I also had this issue on ANA and EVA but the 777 is not designed with an overhead seat vent so I always get very hot and sweat on these flights as it's controlled centrally within each area of the cabin. Throw in 12 hours in the same seat and it can get pretty uncomfortable All in all I'd say a good experience on a high quality airline. I love that they fly directly to Vegas.

Flew economy RT from CGK to ICN. The A330 to ICN showed signs of significant ageing (yellowing interior worn seats filthy bathrooms). The B777 on return was generally comfortable. VOD was large and responsive but selection limited. Disappointed by the baggage allowance of 1 bag per pax (except to USA) additional bags $100. Flight attendants were direct and the food service was too long leaving finished meal trays on our laps for over 30 minutes. Overall my expectations for the inflight experience staff friendliness and efficiency were greater than what was delivered.

SFO-ICN-PEK XIY-ICN-LAX. Due to the many changes in itinerary aircraft equipment and seat assignments made by the airline I had 45 mins minimum connection time in Seoul which did work barely as the flight was on time and the connecting passengers were escorted from the arrival to the departure gate. The return leg departure time for the flight from Xi'an to Seoul was brought forward without previous announcement (although this is part of their terms of service). I had previously been obliged to change my itinerary to return to LAX instead of SFO when this flight had originally been re-scheduled to depart later. Now I find with the revised earlier departure that I could have taken the SFO flight after all and made my connection back to SFO. I did get a free pass though for the Prestige Lounge for the 3.5 hour layover. The return flight to LAX was on a packed A380 and the cabin staff were completely disorganized rushing individual meals from one end of the main cabin to the other. The meals were okay but not served up to the standard of their competitor Asiana Airlines. The traditional decorum of the cabin staff wore thin dealing with a huge Chinese tour group who had probably never flown before. The leg room is restricted by almost 2 inches due to the thick airline sales catalogues that they cram into the seat pockets. I was further delayed at immigration since the airline somehow had omitted to tell the US authorities about the changes in flight numbers.