SQ A359 Economy to Incheon and 3 Days in Seoul

[yflyer]

Last month, at the start of April this year, I had the opportunity to fly SQ to Seoul, on a short work trip to participate in a business event taking place there. I was scheduled to fly to Japan on vacation later that month. Thankfully the dates did not overlap, although I would be cutting it very close.

Looking at my vacation dates, and the businee event dates, I decided on this plan: I would head to Seoul mid-week, on SQ612 SIN-ICN at 2.25am, spend 3 days in Seoul, then depart Seoul late Friday evening on SQ605 ICN-SIN at 11.50pm for an early morning arrival in Singapore at 5am on Saturday morning. Then I would depart on Scoot to Haneda on TR 882 at 5.15pm that same evening to begin a family vacation to Tokyo and Okinawa.

If I was less risk adverse, I might even have considered departing Seoul on Saturday morning. Rather than fly out late Friday night on an economy red-eye, I could have had a proper night's rest in the hotel, then taken SQ607, a Saturday morning 9am departure out of ICN that would get me into Changi at at 2.20pm. This would still have been an easy connection to Scoot TR 882. But no, any major delay would have derailed the vacation, so I stuck with SQ605, which would give me a 12 hour stop in Singapore, time enough for me to head home, relax then head out to the airport again for my vacation.

I'll cover the Tokyo and Okinawa vacation on Scoot in a separate TR, but here is an account of my trip on SQ to Seoul....

--------

There was a beautiful sunset on the evening of 31st March. I headed for a run in the early evening before my flight.



SQ612 had an ungodly departure time of 2.25am, but at least it meant that I could have a full evening at home in Singapore before heading to Changi T3 just before midnight.



I used the self-service check-in kiosks to pick up my paper boarding pass.



This was just after the Hari Raya celebrations in Singapore, so the kiosk user interface still had a festive theme...



In the airside area, I spotted fully autonomous robot wheelchairs making their way around the terminal...

[yflyer]

I made a quick pitstop at the T3 KrisFlyer Gold Lounge...



By that hour, the evening bank of flights to Europe, Australia and Asia had mostly departed, so the lounge was pleasantly quiet and peaceful.



There was of course a full buffet spread (covered in previous TR's). I went straight for a bowl of laksa at the live laksa station -- this never failed to disappoint.



I also couldn't resist some har gao and siew mai...



I washed it all down with a G&T.



Update on the wine selection in this lounge: There were just 2 choices of wine, Penfolds Rawson's Retreat Shiraz Cabernet or Chardonnay.



I wish SQ would consider a wider selection of wines in this lounge, and also add a sparkling wine to the selection.

That said, the laksa really hit the spot, and for me, the lounge is worth a visit just for that.

[yflyer]

At the gate, Airbus A350-900XWB registration 9V-SHD.



This was a 7 year old aircraft, with a 2-class medium haul configuration.

I had not flown SQ in a while. It was nice to be back on my favourite airline.



The business class section comprised SQ's current regional lie-flat J seat, configured in a staggered 1-2-1 layout.



Economy was laid out in a comfortable 3-3-3. This was SQ's latest economy product, first rolled out in 2017, but still looking very new and fresh.

[yflyer]

My seat was 70G, an aisle seat in the last row of the Y cabin...



This is where I like to sit when I need to fly an economy red-eye, because there is no-one behind me. I can recline any time I want, and if I decided to sleep through meal service, I don't need to put my seat back upright for the person behind to eat.



This seat also gave me easy access to the rear bathrooms. The A359's toilet flushes seem much more quiet than 787 toilets, which are often super loud and noisy, so the close proximity to the bathrooms were not an issue.



On this aircraft configuration, I was able to recline the seat, but I suspect the seat recline was marginally less that other seats because of the rear bulkhead wall. Still, there was enough recline to rest comfortably, and there was no-one behind me, so I was happy to be seated here.

[yflyer]

IFE on this aircraft was state-of-the-art, with a large HD touchscreen.



There was a great movie selection (Not that I would be watching anything on this red-eye).



USB charging port and headphone jack under the screen.



A/C power under the seat.



The contents of the seat pocket. Still no hardcopy SilverKris magazine!



I browsed the IFE...



There were some excellent music selections onboard...



There was complimentary internet for all KrisFlyer members. Thumbs up!

[yflyer]

No hardcopy menus were handed out on this flight. Menus were accessible on your own device after connecting to the inflight wifi.



You keyed in your flight details...



You could then browse the menu online, or download a PDF.



On this flight, they would be serving breakfast, with 2 choices of main: a cheesse omelette with chicken patties, or Korean style minced beef congee with vegetables...



Wine and spirits...

[yflyer]

Hot towels were handed out...



I was so glad when SQ reinstated hot towel service after the pandemic...



I watched the new safety video for the first time...



I was quite tickled to see durians featured...



...just before the oxygen masks dropped down.

[yflyer]

Today's flight time was 5 hours and 35 minutes.

After take-off, the cabin went dark for pax to rest. As usual, I ordered a G&T before reclining my seat and falling asleep.



I slept pretty soundly for a couple of hours hours. Two and a half hours into the flight, the cabin lights came on, and the crew began prepping for breakfast service.



As per SQ norms, breakfast service in the economy cabin began 2 hours 30 minutes prior to landing. Unfortunately in this case, this came right smack in the middle of the flight, which I think definitely impacted everyone's sleep.



I would normally have skipped the meal and continued sleeping, but hey, what is the point of a TR without a pic of the meal :-)



I chose the Korean-style minced beef congee...



This tasted pretty decent.



The route on this flight took us past the southern tip of Taiwan...



I gobbled up breakfast as quickly as possible, then went back to sleep.

[yflyer]

By the time we reached top of descent, the sun was out...



I headed to the rear exit door to take a quick pic.



We landed at ICN on a clear sunny day, at 9.40am, 10 minutes ahead of scheduled arrival time 9.50am.



I had a very good flight. The aircraft was spotless, with a state-of-the art cabin product, and the onboard F&B was good. On a red-eye like this, there weren't many opportunities to get to know the cabin crew, but cabin service was warm and efficent.

Any quibbles I had were minor. Why wasn't there a lemon slice in my G&T? (I know I say this in every TR...). One less ideal aspect of this flight was the fact that there was no good time for meal service on a 5+ hour red-eye departing at 2.25am. Would it be possible at all to do a truncated meal service 1.5 hours before landing rather than 2.5 hours prior?

I did manage to get several hours of sleep on the plane, and felt ok upon arrival. The immigration queue was fairly long but moved at a reasonable pace. I had no checked luggage and was out in the landside area by 10.15am.



I caught the airport limousine bus from the airport to my hotel in Seoul -- wide reclining seats in 2-1 layout made for a comfortable 90 minute ride to Gangnam.

Next up, my stay at the Intercontinental Grand Parnas in Seoul Gangnam.

To be continued!

[yflyer]

Continuing with the TR, my hotel in Seoul was the Grand Intercontinenal Seoul Parnas. The hotel was located in a busy part of Gangnam, close to COEX.

I had stayed there many times over the years, including a very memorable eating trip with Mrs yflyer in 2014. and it had been beautifully renovated since the last time I was there.



The lobby bar was now a popular spot for selfies and wefies.



The recently refurbished rooms were beautful as well.



My room was deocrated in light pastel tones and had a nice view of the city.



This was not a huge room, but it was stylish and very well thought out.



The entrance area had a wood floor, with soft carpet in the main bedrooom.



There was a comfortable work top and a marble console with coffee maker.



The bathroom was very large.



There was a tub as well as rain shower.



This was a lovely room, which I found very comfortable.

[yflyer]

That evening, I had dinner with business associates at Geumdwaeji Sikdang, a well known and very popular restaurant for Korean pork barbeque.



You sat at large tables with charcoal stoves built into the tables...



The servers, who doubled as chefs, brought large platters of different cuts of pork to the table...



...and cooked the meat to perfect done-ness as you watched.



Each cut tasted different, delicious in its own way...



The more adventurous among us sampled the pork skin, which was considered a speciality.



We accompanied our meals with beer and soju, prepared in traditional Korean style...



What an excellent place for dinner. There was a bit of a buzz in the restaurant that evening, I only found out later that Black Pink's Jisoo was dining with a small group at the table just behind us, dressed discreetly and wearing a cap. I wish someone had told me before she had left!

[yflyer]

I spent the next 2 days in Seoul at business events. Driving through the city, I saw cherry blossoms in full bloom.



While Japan is famous for its Sakura season, these were also visible in some parts of Seoul, and looked beautiful.



I would be heading to Tokyo immediately after Seoul, and with some luck, it would still be Cherry Blossom season there, but it was nice to get a preview on this visit to Seoul.

[yflyer]

I had a very tight meeting schedule. Right after my last event, on late Friday afternoon, I would have to catch an Uber straight to ICN for my flight home.



I had no checked luggage, so simply picked up a printed boarding pass from the self-check in kiosk and headed in search of dinner.

A good friend had recommended a Korean restaurant in the landside area for a bibim naengmyeon fix...



This was one of my favourite Korean dishes. Cold, chewy noodles, in spicy, sweet and vinegary gochujang sauce.



For non-Koreans, this would be an acquired taste. When I first tried it, I was totally dumbfounded as nothing remotely similar exists in any Chinese or South East Asian cuisine that I had ever tasted, but since that first time, I had grown addicted to the taste of this dish, and would seek it out whenever in Korea.



After that, I headed into the airside area for a visit to the SilverKris Lounge.



Full details of my visit to the lounge can be found here.

[yflyer]

After eating and drinking my fill in the Lounge, I headed to Gate 31 for my flight SQ605 ICN-SIN, an 11.50pm departure.



This flight was operated by Airbus A359 registration 9V-SHE.



This was a 7 year old aircraft in the 2 class medium haul configuration.



On-time boarding...



The regional business class cabin, the SQ's latest 2017 regional lie-flat business class seats laid out in staggered 1-2-1.



The Y cabin was laid out 3-3-3.



Decent seat pitch and recline, with no underseat obstructions.



I was in a regular middle bank aisle seat in the rear of economy, but wished I was sitting at the Row 48 window seats, which were a row behind the emex row, with no seat in front of it.



They had just changed over to the April IFE selection. What a massive selection of programs and music.



No hardcopy menus were provided, but you could a QR code on your mobile and access the menus online.



Two choices of main on this flight: Western style grilled chicken thigh, or Korean style braised beef.

[yflyer]

Hot towels...



The new safety video...



Just under 6 hours to Singapore this evening...