Grrr...flying from Incheon to Busan

[scooby5]

I do the trip quite often, initially from Hong Kong, then KL and now from SG. When i lived in HK i had to transit through ICN, get on the bus and get to Gimpo. On a good day i could land at Incheon and be checked in at Gimpo ~40min later. Even from KL i could get to/from Busan the same day.

The funny thing is, now i moved to SG and HK gets a direct DragonAir flight to Busan every day. It is doable to get SIN-HKG-BUS in a day but not coming back as there would need to be an overnighter in HK.

The other options are that through BKK on Thai or through Manilia on Philippine.

I took the SQ route through ICN last time and it was pretty bad. Apart from the SQ gate being in the new "farmstead" building across the tarmac, we landed ~3.5hrs ahead of the OZ flight to BUS and I wasn't even able to check in cause domestic counters at ICN only open 2hrs before the flight i was sitting like a chump next to the counter with no access to any lounge or anything.

[Braniff]

I know the pain. Just about to go for a conference in Jeju. Overnighting in Seoul the night before since my flight gets in too late to make any connections at Kimpo. On the way back, I managed to connect at Kimpo directly to Tokyo Haneda on ANA. Back to civilisation

[QSG]

I am sure you know this but might I suggest the BKK/FUK (now on the TG 333, it's about freak'in time) then connect to either Korean 784 or Asiana 137.

Despite what Kiwi encountered many years ago at FUK, you can now do international transfers without the immigration/customs shuffle of hell. I've seen it now done (recently as October). Important to note though, FUK has no shower facility for anyone, anywhere (kind of an O&D place), the NH lounge is OK. Korean has it's own lounge. JL codeshares with Korean(not all flights, and still bizarrely so does TG at this outpost)....and NH codeshares with Asiana. Also, sadly the TG flight is only 5 per week.

On the return Korean 783 or Asiana 138 will let you connect to the non-stop to BKK on TG as it leaves at around 11:45 AM.

[QSG]

Confirmed that the PUS-FUK-BKK shuffle is desirable and doable !

"I forgot to update about my experience.

My OZ flight touched down at 10:35. Arrived at the gate at 10:40, and I was in the transit room by 10:45. It took though a full 30 minutes for them to get my TG boarding pass. There didn't seem to be any problem, just it took them a while. I did alert TG in advance about my arrival and need to transfer there. As part of the transfer process, someone from security came and gave me a thorough scan with a hand-held scanner and searched my carry-on. I had no checked luggage to worry about. After getting my boarding pass, I was escorted up the stairs and into the departure area.

The boarding time for my TG flight was 11:10, and I made it to the gate at 11:15, after it had begun boarding, but still with plenty of time. The plane departed 20 minutes later, 5 minutes ahead of it's scheduled departure time.

With the transfer process taking so long, much more than I expected, I probably wouldn't try this again with such a short connection time. With a longer connection time though, I don't think anyone doing a international-to-international connection at FUK should have any problems. Absolutely no need to go through immigration.

As a side note, there was a sign at the gate announcing the start of TG's A333 on the FUK-BKK route, so I assumed based on that, that they won't be seeing the ancient AB6 anymore. I asked one of the FA's onboard and he verified that the AB6 is gone for good from FUK, and furthermore that all A333's will be one of the newer planes, which it was for my flight. Not so sure though how fixed that will be. They do though have three of the new planes as of right now, and several more coming in the next few months, so they have enough new A333s to always put one on this route do think PUS-FUK-BKK would be a much preferable way to go and get a new A333 instead. The PUS-BKK frequency and timing is also very poor. There's a morning KE flight from PUS(to FUK) that would make for a good connection with the TG flight, going either direction, being the TG has an over 3-hour turnaround time in FUK.

Thanks for the advice which led to my successfully pulling this off!"

[jjpb3]

Thanks for the update, QSG.

[scooby5]

As it goes we got in early so my quick nip to the Hyatt at ICN for a shower and change was a little easier that it would have been. Not for the first time I got a little side tracked doing emails, and a little cocky having got in early so left it a bit late going back to ICN from the Hyatt.

Instead of my normal daytime SQ flight in Y from SIN to ICN I will be taking the OZ overnight flight in J for the first time, landing 6am, before connecting to the ICN-PUS flight at 8:20am.

Of course domestic departure is different to international so there is no lounge access (with showers), there is no arrivals lounge I think, and no Priority Pass lounge Landside so what is the best way of getting showers upon arrival given only about 2hrs in Incheon?

Or do we head to Gimhae and get a pay-by-the-hour motel on the road to the client's place? (Did that last time after taking the overnight flight from Manila......how cow that was an experience, Disco Ball with Flashing Lights, Naked Lady Tiles in the bathroom, Vibrating Bed, the whole 9-yards)

[MAN Flyer]

Of course domestic departure is different to international so there is no lounge access (with showers), there is no arrivals lounge I think, and no Priority Pass lounge Landside so what is the best way of getting showers upon arrival given only about 2hrs in Incheon?

As you say there is no lounge at all for domestic pax on either OZ or KE at ICN. More evidence of this bizarre situation they have there.

I know KE give J pax a voucher worth peanuts for one of the drinks outlets in the terminal but don't think OZ give anything, even for *A Golds. No domestic J on OZ of course. There used to be no facilities whatsoever down at the domestic gates at ICN, but I noticed a very small drinks kiosk when I was there in October.

Or do we head to Gimhae and get a pay-by-the-hour motel on the road to the client's place? (Did that last time after taking the overnight flight from Manila......how cow that was an experience, Disco Ball with Flashing Lights, Naked Lady Tiles in the bathroom, Vibrating Bed, the whole 9-yards)

I have been taken on nights out in Busan a few times over the last few year and seen one or two sights in that time. But I have not had the pleasure of any pay by the hour motels there.