Korean Air

I took Korea Air new aircraft airbus-380 flight between Tokyo (Narita)-Seoul (Incheon) last month. It was really smooth flight and even in Economy Class the seat is very conformable. Airbus is very quiet and smooth on route. Flight Attendant are all friendly and polite but they seem to be a bit nervous for new aircraft. As for Japanese citizen often fly to Korea I am always impressed by both mega carriers of Korea Korean Air and Asiana for their good services and conformable aircraft compare to JAL and ANA. The quality of services on Korean Air and Asiana are getting better year by year instead JAL and ANA are getting bad. However inflight meal of Korean air is not preferable for the short leg flights.

SGN-ICN-IAD: immaculate 777s on both legs. Lots of leg room and recline good AVOD. Ground staff in SGN was excellent with an easy transfer through ICN. Lots of leg room and recline. FAs were professional & helpful. They were also stylishly turned out which matters. I do miss the Korean entrees that this excellent airline used to offer.

LAX-ICN-KUL. One of the bad parts of the trip was a 13 hour layover in Seoul but Korean put us in a hotel for free - we could have opted for a free four hour tour of Seoul. All staff very polite and friendly inflight entertainment system was great. Staff brought drinks around about every 45 minutes. We were on an older B747 towards the back but it was two seats instead of three so gave us a lot of space to put everything. One nice thing they handed out slippers!

Extremely disappointing customer service. Beware of buying sleeper seats - they have often switched planes on me last minute without notice and don't make up the difference between the sleeper seat and regular business class seats. My experiences with the Korean Air representatives is that they are extremely rude and unprofessional. I fly to Korea often but find that Asiana Airlines is a much better choice.

IAD-ICN-HKT-IAD Boeing 777 with good seat pitch able to stretch legs and comfortable for economy. Excellent AVOD with large screens and new movies to choose from. Cabin was very clean and cabin crew friendly and helpful. Seoul is a really nice airport to transit through.

Seats quite comfy good legroom cabin clean. Flight attendants attentive and polite although English is not their strong point. Meals were decent although it felt quite rushed during meal times. By the time I got mine someone would be strolling by offering coffee or beginning to clear away trays. AVOD excellent with latest movies. The newer planes had USB ports to charge your ipod. I received a free stopover in Seoul outbound and that was terrific although quite disorganised at the airport.

Internal flight Daegu - Incheon on which my wife and I had a confirmed booking. Normal check and security clearance proceeding through to departure lounge. Shortly prior to scheduled departure the departure notice board advised the flight was on hold. No advice was given as to action required. After a lot of confusion we proceeded back through security to find our baggage dumped in the checking area without any advise or security. Korean air staff were ineffectual and totally unprepared for any form of customer aid. We experienced a delay of approx. 3.5 hours and eventually made our connecting flight.

ICN-YVR. Check in and ground service at Incheon excellent. Inflight service disorganized and of poor quality. Cabin crew have poor to non-existent English language skills. My seat 10J was hard and made sleeping difficult. Minimal seat upholstery. Overhead luggage bins utilized to store cabin service equipment or crew luggage. Older model 777-200. Food quality is deteriorating each year. Menu selection the same as two years ago. First class is similar but not worth the extra tariff for the same service level and amenities as Business.

LHR-ICN my first class flight experience and was expecting something very special. Reality was a disappointment and not much better than business class - certainly not worth considerable extra expense or air miles. Seats recline to 180 degrees instead of 160 for business but otherwise everything is the same. Discovered that the seat next to me which was empty at takeoff was marked with a sign for flight attendants to rest! Attendants resting in first class? Service from the attendants was super-smiley and Koreans are renowned for their hospitality - almost too much at times and it can be hard to get some peace and privacy. Cutlery was strange : metal forks and spoons but plastic knives which I suspect were recycled. I know that metal knives are a security issue but other airlines use blunt-ended metal ones in business. Food was certainly no better than business class and the whole experience was similar to KLM business class without the grumpy KLM flight attendants.

London to Auckland and enjoyed the leg room. Service fast and efficient and now with screens in all seats.