Asiana A359 to Seoul: Bibimbap, Cocktails at Zest, and Nest Hotel Incheon

[yflyer]

My room was not ready for check-in when I arrived in the early morning, so I left my bags at the reception, changed into PT kit and went out for a long morning run along the Han River.



This was a beautiful, warm, Sunday morning, a great time to be walking or cycling along the river.



Looking towards the east, I spied a tall building in the distance. What was that?



Google told me that this was the Lotte World Tower, at 555m and 123 stories tall. When it opened in 2017, it was the 5th tallest building in the world.

Interesting. Rather than head east, though, I turned towards the west and headed along the river in that direction.



There were great views to be had along the way...



There were many folks up and about this morning...



Dongpo Bridge, one of the many bridges across the Han River, which had an average width of about 1km when it traversed Seoul...

[yflyer]

My hotel was the Aloft Seoul Gangnam, a business/value hotel which was part of the Marriott Bonvoy group.



The hotel was 1km away from COEX mall in Gangnam, which was a pleasant 15-20 min walk. It was close to bus and subway stations so it was easy to get around from there. All you needed was a T-Money transport stored value card, which could be used for subway/buses etc.

One quirk of map apps in Seoul was that Google Maps could only provide public transport routes and directions, not driving or walking instructions. For those, you had to use Naver or Kakao Maps. I used mainly Google Maps to get around by subway and bus, but Uber was fairly inexpensive by Singapore standards, to if you needed to get somewhere by car, Uber was a reasonable option.

The Aloft brand was marketed as "A Vision of W Hotels"...



...and you could see that in the quirky and colourful interior design, which did remind me of W properties...



The check-in area...



My room was on the 11th floor...



This was a fairly compact room, but nicely styled, and very airy, clean and new.



Small work top, luggage rack and bench...



Minibar and complimentary Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee...



Bathrobe and slippers...



Frosted glass walls between the bedroom and bathroom...



Elegant bathroom with shower stall...



Washlet-equipped WC.



Overall this was a very comfortable and convenient place to stay in Seoul!

[yflyer]

Continuing with the TR...

I caught bus 6006 from ICN airport to the city.



This was both inexpensive and convenient, as the bus was practically non-stop most of the way from the airport to the city, before making stops at several locations in the city, including one stop right across the street from the Aloft Seoul Gangnam.

The bus layout was a very comfy 2-1 layout. It was possible to sleep for most of the hour long bus ride, as there was a long uninterrupted stretch from ICN to the city, before announcements came for stops in the city. The announcements would wake you up, so there was no danger of missing your stop while sleeping.

[yflyer]

Great read and thanks for sharing yflyer!!

Thanks for reading, SQ218!

A fictional rabbit by dutch artist and got popular in Japan due to the kawaiiness of it.

Dutch! I would never have guessed! :-)

[SQ218]

Great read and thanks for sharing yflyer!!

The display outside T3 departures celebrated 70 years of Miffy (Who's Miffy you ask? No idea... :-)

A fictional rabbit by dutch artist and got popular in Japan due to the kawaiiness of it.

[yflyer]

Overall, I had a really good flight on Asiana to Seoul. The A359 Y cabin was spacious and comfortable. As this was a slightly older A359, I thought the cabin product and IFE were not as advanced as SQ's A359 (or TK, which I recently flew on the SIN-MEL sector), but as this was a red-eye, the IFE didn't matter too much to me.

I thought catering on this flight was fine. I was slightly disappointed that only wine and beer were offered with the meal, but the meal itself was tasty.

Cabin service was efficient, if not the warmest or friendliest (Maybe there was a language gap?).

What I really liked was the quick service format: A meal served quickly right after take-off, and no interruptions until top of descent, giving pax maximum time to sleep on this red-eye.

I wish I had tried the Asiana bibimbap, though. That would have to wait until my return flight.

Next up: Seoul!

To be continued!

[yflyer]

I slept really soundly on this flight. Next thing I knew, it was 30 minutes to landing. There was no disruptive breakfast or snack service, and cabin crew landing prep only started 30-35 minutes before estimated arrival time, which left pax maximum time to rest. Thumbs up!

A short video with stretching exercises was screened...



By then, the sun was up...



Final cabin checks...



28 minutes to go...



Today's route...



Finals...



On the ground at ICN...



We landed at 6:07am, a full 33 minutes earlier than the scheduled arrival time of 6:40am.

I was off the plane by 6:25am.



What a large terminal ICN T1 was...



There was a 15-20 min queue at immigration, but I had no luggage, so I didn't have to wait at baggage claim.

Once landside, I picked up a local SIM card from SKTelecom which gave me 6 days of unlimited data roaming for a very reasonable fee. They also threw in a transport card for bus/subway/train services, which could be topped up at any convenience store or subway station.



From there, I caught the airport limousine bus 6006 from ICN to the Aloft Hotel in Gangnam.

[yflyer]

5 hours and 54 minutes to Seoul today...



Meal service began shortly after take-off, starting from the front of the cabin...



There were 2 choices of main in the Y cabin: Asiana's signature Bibimbap, or fish with rice.

My friend had recommended the Bibimbap, but alas by the time the cart came to me in the last row, only the fish with rice was available. I would have to wait until my return trip to try their famous Bibimbap.



All that said, the meal on my tray looked pretty appetizing.



Beverage-wise, I was surprised to learn that Asiana had only wine and beer on offer as alcoholic beverages, no liquor, soju or makgeolli. I decided to pair my fish with white wine.

The fish and rice were ok, if a little bland, but the packet of fiery Gochujang sauce really saved the day: it transformed the fish and rice into something quite delicious...



After that, the cabin crew came round with coffee and tea...



Meal service ended fairly quickly...I was done with my meal within an hour and 20 minutes of take-off, leaving 4 hours to rest/sleep.

[yflyer]

I was handed eye shades and earplugs -- a nice touch on this red-eye flight.



The seat pocket contained a safety card, connectivity info and a thick duty free catalog. No inflight magazine, though (I wonder if any airlines still offer a hardcopy inflight magazine...).



Headband style headphones, which I left unopened, in favour of using my own Shure earbuds.



Seatback IFE...



USB power under the IFE screen...



Underseat A/C power (And no underseat obstructions...)



Not the most sophisticated looking IFE menu...



There was a selection of movies/TV/music available, but the number of titles seemed a lot fewer than what SQ offered.



Some of this month's movies...



I was delighted to see that one of the TV selections was a broadcast of a Czech Philiharmonic Orchestra concert with guest soloist Daniil Trifonov, one of the world's leading classical pianists, who coincidentally just played with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra earlier in the week.



There was wifi available on this flight.



Asiana had a no-nonsense safety video, which just gave detailed safety instructions -- which to me was a good thing.



I think many airlines go overboard with their safety videos, which detract from the message of what pax must do to survive an emergency...

[yflyer]

The bathroom...



Toothbrushes and combs on the counter...

[yflyer]

Asiana Airlines OZ752 SIN-ICN was operated today by Airbus A359-900 XWB registration HL8360, a 6 year old aircraft.



Boarding took place slightly late as the inbound aircraft arrived a little late.

The Y cabin was arranged in conventional 3-3-3 layout.



The first few rows had extra legroom.



These seats had large placards stating "EXTRA PAYMENT REQUIRED".



The row 29/30 seats emex row seats also had extra legroom. Note the row 30 window seats had no seat in front of them (A layout fairly common on the A359).



My seat was in the rear of the Y cabin...



I had chosen 43G for one reason only -- on this very full flight, the seat next to mine was empty on the check-in seat map. When travelling in Y, an empty seat next to you makes a flight much more comfortable!



My seat had pretty good recline.



Some seats in the rear had "DO NOT OCCUPY" stickers on them. It was not clear why those stickers were there. It was unlikely to have been crew rest, as this was a long haul aircraft with the crew rest cabin in the rear of the aircraft, above the last few rows.

[yflyer]

There were also a few shower stalls in the lounge, with no queue to use them.



Overall, I thought this was a decent lounge, with pleasant decor and good F&B. But the SATS Premier Lounge was quite crowded when I was there, so the ambience was not ideal.

After spending some time in the SATS Premier Lounge, I decided to head to the SQ Krisflyer Gold Lounge next door, which I was eligible to use as a KF Gold / Star Alliance Gold member.

The SQ Lounge was far larger and much less crowded -- this made all the difference. I much preferred the ambience here.

Pics of the SQ Lounge during my visit below. It felt much more serene and peaceful than the SATS Premium Lounge, as there weren't too many people there at the time.



I spent a few minutes chilling in the SQ lounge...



...before heading to the gate.

[yflyer]

Wine glass in hand, I headed to the buffet...



Carrot Soup...



Chicken congee...



Miso butter spaghetti, and "lu rou fan": braised minced chicken with rice...



Someone at SATS really loves chicken: also on the menu were chicken karaage, salted egg popcorn chicken...



...and chicken fricasee...



There was also fish curry...



Brocolli and mushrooms, and mashed potatoes...



Maggi Mee Goreng and Kimchi fried rice...



Vegetarian samosas with mint chutney...



There was also SATS signature laksa...



Just add your own piping hot laksa gravy...



If I had not already eaten dinner, I think I would have been quite happy with this spread.

Beancurd with Ginko nut for dessert...

[yflyer]

The T3 SATS Premier Lounge was located next to the SQ Krisflyer Gold Lounge.



This was an airy, semi-open lounge, with a seating section...



...and a sit down dining section with a self service buffet and beverage spread.



There was a separate seating section which was open only to Asiana airlines passengers.



The main section of the lounge was quite full, so it was nice to have a separate room to relax in, although there wasn't much in that room apart from sofas and workstations/ worktops.



I left the Asiana-section and headed back into the main lounge where all the F&B was.

There was a self-service bar area with a small wine and liquor selection.



I poured myself a glass of Pol Remy sparkling wine.



There were also soft drinks and mixers available.

[yflyer]

At 9pm, there was a queue at the economy check-in queue for Asiana Airlines, but it wasn't too long. There was no queue at the Business Class / Star Alliance Gold check-in counters, so I got my boarding pass very quickly.



The display outside T3 departures celebrated 70 years of Miffy (Who's Miffy you ask? No idea... :-)



Once past boarding pass and passport-less passport checks (just a face scan required for Singapore passport holders), I headed straight for the designated lounge, the SATS Premier Lounge.