Today we are going to check out a flight that at just 90 minutes
long really couldn’t be better. We’ll see the airport, the lounge, the business class seat,
the food and more. Let’s get into it, welcome to Nagoya.
If you’d like to know the exact fare that I paid for my flight or my next five videos in queue,
please check out the description below and if you’re new here,
hi there and welcome, my name is Kevin. And you’ve found yourself on a channel that takes
unbiased travel content seriously. I make airline trip reports, high end hotel reviews and will soon
dabble with cruises as well. I always film without the airline or hotels’ knowledge to be sure I get
a true experience and give you nothing more than my own personal honest unbiased opinion.
Getting from Nagoya Station to the airport is a very easy process, though I do think
I accidently got on the slow train. Either way though, a thoroughly smooth experience.
Today we are going to be flying Korean Air on
their 787-9 in Business class to Seoul where I will connect onto Singapore.
As with the majority of international flights from Nagoya, today we are going to be using Terminal 1.
Which is a good segway into, why am I in Nagoya to begin with. Originally, I had a flight from
Tokyo to Singapore booked on Zipair, but they canceled my flight around a week beforehand,
so I was trying to find an interesting way to get down to Singapore. Originally I was just looking
at Tokyo origin flights which were comically expensive, including on Korean Air. But then
I started broadening the search a bit and found this gem that started in Nagoya with a 787-9. So,
I booked that and took the Shinkansen bullet train down from Tokyo a few hours before check in time.
Nagoya really didn’t have too many international flights at the time so
it was a thoroughly pleasant and peaceful experience at each step of the journey.
Opening the check in counters precisely three hours before departure time,
I was able to use the Business Class counter which Korean refers to as their Prestige Class.
Quite fitting since last night I was at the Okura Prestige tower.
Korean also offers an expedited check in line service for economy passengers
called Morning Calm. That might be the most Korean thing I’ve ever heard of.
Anyway, checkin was very speedy and then security and immigration was very organized
with clear instructions of what needs to come out of your bags, which I appreciate.
Once through we were into a mostly empty terminal with beautiful sweeping views of the tarmac with
the beautiful bay and clear day as the backdrop, the airport being surrounded entirely by water,
built on a man made island, similar to Osaka Kansai and Hong Kong. Come to think of it,
Tokyo Haneda is an island as well. As always, my first task of the day was to
find the lounge. Surprisingly Korean Air has their own lounge here and oh what a lounge it was. With
such beautiful views from the terminal, the lounge must be some next level stuff.
Well yeah, it was next level, just not in the good direction.
Honestly, I don’t understand the point of even operating this lounge. No windows, cramped
seating area and a small assortment of snacks and drinks with a North Korean military parade
playing on the TV, nice. I had a quick snack and then headed back upstairs to the sunlight.
I love when an airport is practical with bathroom doors.
Was just filming randomly and was more than pleased with myself when
I realized I caught a touch and go on camera.
A bit less impressed when I realized it was the 6th one they’d done.
So, Korean Air. Hmm, how do I say this. I’ll quote the then President
of South Korea Kim Dae-jung who in 1999 described the safety record of
Korean Air as “an embarrassment to the nation”- he chose to fly Asiana instead.
So yes, Korean Air has had quite a few safety issues in the past, key words there, in the past.
Founded in 1969 after Korean Air Lines was purchased from the government,
they currently serve 126 cities from 44 countries along with 13 domestic destinations.
From 1970 until now, Korean Air has written of an insane 17 aircraft due
to serious incident or accident, 16 of them were from before 1999.
I bring up their safety record simply because 1. It’s an elephant in the room when talking
about Korean Air and 2. I think the record, looked at now does little more than show
how much they have obviously improved since their sketchy days in the past.
And here are our beautiful aircraft arriving today. She seems to be the
main event for the spectators at the very cool observation deck on the roof of the terminal.
I’ve never been a fan of Korean’s livery, but I do have to admit, on a 787, it really is striking.
In 2000, Korean Air became a founding member of the SkyTeam alliance and later
in 2007 created a low cost carrier named Jin Air which like almost all low cost
carriers in Korea has a large focus on the Seoul to Jeju route, the busiest on earth.
In 2020, Korean Air announced intentions to merge with rival Asiana Airlines and acquire Asiana’s
two low cost carriers, Air Busan and Air Seoul as well. Their intention is to combine the three
LCCs into one and the two full service into one, but they are hitting many snags along the way,
as you’d expect when you take 50% of a country's airlines and try to merge them all together.
Korean currently has 132 commercial passenger aircraft with a further 81 on order.
Our boarding was delayed three times, 10 minutes at a time until we finally began
boarding at our original departure time. As for today’s stats, we ended up taking
off 40 minutes late for our 92 minute flight to Seoul’s Incheon airport, cruising at 34000
feet at a snail's pace of 380 knots, arriving just 10 minutes behind schedule… somehow.
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I was greeted as I boarded through door one and passed through the single row of
“first class” as I headed back to business class. My seat for today being 9 Juliet.
Korean’s 787s really are an anomaly of the entire industry as that first row
they really do consider a different class of service, but the seats are exactly the same.
I’ve read many others try to justify why it makes sense, but it doesn’t.
Who cares about that though when you have APEX suites to fly in. APEX suites are hands down my
favorite non custom business class seat to fly in and with today’s flight, I’ve now officially
published reviews on all airlines that offer the seat, since there are just four of them.
What some people think you lose to a claustrophobic vibe, I think is more
than made up for in the fact that you can make a legit bed with no foot cubby.
This is one of the very few seats out there that I can actually sleep on.
The seats are in a unique 2-2-2 configuration with the window seats being slightly staggered
to give everyone direct aisle access without having to climb over your neighbor.
For those on the aisle seats, they’ll have this small nook for storage,
while the window seats will have the space to pass through.
Of all of the APEX Suites I’ve flown on, Koreans are actually the smallest by dimension,
but there are a couple smart storage areas custom to their configuration.
Each seat has a universal outlet as well as a USB port, a small drink table which
admittedly is not in the best spot and some more storage to the side of the seat.
Just above that are the intuitive seat controls as well as the in flight entertainment remote.
The headphones were not that great, but I do love a good pair of open toe airline slippers.
Blankets were available on request only,
upon boarding there was a big ol floppy pillow at the seat though.
Full printed menus were passed out along with pre departure drinks and a pre packaged snack mix.
The K-Pop themed safety video began shortly after.
I should mention one silly design feature is the fixed in place armrest which can only be
lowered when the seat is made fully flat. Push back began and more K-Pop continued.
Can’t film a flight departing Japan without getting the ground crew.
We were just waiting for one Air Do to land before our departure which would
be to the south before quickly turning towards the northwest.
The spool up and incredibly beautiful take off are coming up now.
As lunch service was being prepared I had a quick look at what was on offer
in the bathroom- surprised to see Atelier Cologne toiletries,
something I haven’t seen since the Majestic Hotel in Barcelona.
As for the in flight entertainment, it’s a surprisingly limited assortment, specifically
limited when it comes to new releases- but surely still more than enough for a couple of flights.
Lunch service began as we were crossing over the Japanese coastline.
Here’s the full menu. The red prices are sample retail prices I added to the graphic
for the wines on offer. I repeat, I added the red prices, no you don’t need to pay on board.
For lunch there was a choice of western or Korean options. I chose the Korean
which today was Mixed seafood with hot bean sauce served with noodles and vegetables.
This was served alongside a small salad and with a few less than amazing rolls.
The main dish itself though was really good. Dessert was a small fruit place and overall,
for a 92 minute flight, I’d say that was a pretty satisfying meal.
Let’s take a quick peek at the onboard bookstore.
Each seat came with enough reading material to make up for the lack of new movies.
And how about this for a duty free catalog.
We were soon crossing over the Korean coastline but before we start our descent,
let me show you the seat in full flat mode.
Plenty of space to spread out. There’s also a divider that can be raised and lowered between
you and your neighbor. When not sleeping, as long as you have a friendlyish neighbor,
I prefer to keep it down, because of the seat stagger, you still won’t see your neighbor.
We had a bit of an other worldly descent
into Seoul with some pretty gross air quality waiting for us today.
And that is that. Good stuff. I’d happily fly Korean again, if someone can explain what happened
in my next Korean Air Video, which is coming out next week. Truly something I can’t explain.
I really do hope you enjoyed this video today, if you did please be sure to give it
a like and subscribe with notifications on so you don’t miss a single beat.
I will see you next time for finally, finally some Cruise content. Join me as we check out
what Costa Cruise lines are all about. Oh and thanks for watching until the end.