So, this flight is part of a bigger trip that I blogged about booking a month ago.
Asiana 202
Seoul (ICN) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Tuesday, October 13
Depart: 2:50PM
Arrive: 9:45AM (Same Day)
Duration: 10hr55min
Aircraft: Airbus A380
Seat: 2K (First Class)
For starters I have to say I was blown away when I walked onto this flight and saw the First Class Suites. For comparison I’ve flown First class on Lufthansa’s 747, ANA’s 777, and Thai’s A380, but this is by far the best hard product that I’ve seen. The suites are beautiful with high walls, closing lockable door, the biggest screen I’ve seen onboard at 32″ HD TV, a really large seat that converts to a bed, and it’s on the bottom level of the A380 giving it much more vertical space.
As you can see the seat configuration is very spacious and gives each passenger lots of privacy. Soon after taking my seat I’m offered a pre-takeoff drink and I ask for some champagne. Although it’s not Dom Perignon (which is what they serve on Thai’s First Class) it’s still a nice bottle of Pol Roger Champagne which goes for about $70/bottle back home.
The in-flight entertainment system is really incredible. There is a small touch-screen on portable remote that is full color LCD and allows me to browse through and select that I want. The screen itself is a massive 32″ HD TV – which has to be at least twice as big as I’ve seen on any other First Class flight. The picture was excellent! One downside is that you can’t watch a program and use the remote to view in-flight status / maps (which is something you can do on Air Canada’s new 787 business class). The other downside is although they had a lot of New Release Hollywood titles, but they had almost no mainstream TV programs. Since I’ve been flying a lot recently I’ve seen all the New Release titles and there wasn’t enough content. I watched the film Max which is about a boy who gets a Navy Seals trained dog after his brother passes away in battle — good movie. There wasn’t enough content though I resorted to my iPad after that.
The screen for take-off shows the flight info, the remote is a full color LCD touch-screen
Placed a water bottle next to the screen to give you an idea about the size
Bose noise-cancelling headphones, they aren’t over-ear so I decide to use my own instead
Shortly after takeoff I’m given PJs and slippers for the journey. I have to say they are the most comfortable and best fitting PJs I’ve received. From past flights I found Lufthansa’s PJs were way too large for me and ANA’s PJ pants were too short for my legs. But Asiana’s were just right!
A silk bag with my PJs for the flight
Next I go use the bathroom to change into my PJs, it’s a good configuration which offers more space than standard aircrafts. The bench folds down over the toilet so you can use it as a changing room. Although Thai’s A380 configuration does offer a larger First class bathroom with a separate vanity mirror and bench which I thought was more spacious.
The bathroom for First class passengers
After that I come back to my seat to check out the contents of the amenity kit which is filled with goodies including some nice lotions and toiletries
The contents of the amenity kit
It’s time to have a look at the menu and I realize I shouldn’t have eaten at the lounge — it’s 10 course meal! For the main I decided to go for the Deep Fried Pork Loin with Egg Fried Rice. In hindsight I didn’t care for the main dish as it tasted like cheap Chinese Sweet & Sour pork and I should have ordered the Beef Tenderloin. The rest of it was delicious though! I skipped the cheese plate, as it was so much food.
The Dinner Menu with 10-courses
Potato Cake with Mushroom Timber, Fontal Sauce
A rose with my bread and silverware
Caviar
Lobster Escabeche
Chicken Consomme Soup
Ceasar Salad
Citrus and Grapefruit Sherbet
Deep fried pork loin with Chinese spicy sauce and egg fried rice
Fresh fruit plate
Chocolate Tart
Post dinner the flight attendant comes to make up the bed and I slip into a state of sleep induced by the consumption of such a large amount of food (aka food coma) for about 3 hours.
Not the best picture, but you can make out the bedding — it was quite comfortable
I wake up and we are 6 hours into the flight, I look up to the stars on the cieling which is very cool and unique to the A380. I decided to watch the movie Self/less on the big screen and then a few TV shows on my iPad.
Before I know it, it’s time for breakfast! I have a look at the menu and decide to order both the Omelet and the French Toast! I like to have some protein with every meal, but the french toast sounded too good to pass up. Glad I did it cause the French Toast was amazing — better than anything I’ve had in a restaurant before!
The breakfast menu
Fresh fruit and cappuccino, skipped the yogurt
The cereal, I didn’t eat much as this as I saving myself for the main event
French toast, with raspberry compote and sugar-fried bacon topping — yum!!!
Omelet with potato roesti and smoked salmon
Before I know it, it’s almost time for landing and at about 40-minutes prior to landing they put on a video about exercises you can do in your seat on long flights. It seems a little late for that seeing as we are about to land, but ok?
In seat exercise video, this one is to avoid headaches
The head flight attendant comes around and thanks me for flying with them and asks about where I was in Asia and how my trip was. Right after the FA gives me a gift which is an Asiana travel bag.
Nifty travel bag as a gift from Asiana
30 Minutes before landing they cut-out the inflight entertainment system (a little premature) since most Asian carriers seem to let you watch IFE until you pull into the gate.
Overall, amazing flight and one of the best first class experiences I’ve had.
Pros:
- Large suite with private sliding door
- Enormous 32″ screen HDTV
- The comfortable extra-large seat that converts to full flat bed
- The food was top-notch, I especially enjoyed the french toast special
- The PJs were very comfortable and fit perfect
- The service was amazing, the FA came around and checked on me every 20-30 minutes while I wasn’t sleeping to make sure I was ok
Areas for improvement:
- Thai’s A380 has a larger bathroom and Emirates has showers onboard
- Thai has a cool Rimowa miniature-luggage case for amenity kits
- Thai and ANA First have better quality champagne including Dom Perignon
- In-flight entertainment is lacking TV content — would have liked to see Modern Family / 2 Broke Girls
I loved the overall service and would happy to fly it again if they continue to open up F reward availability in the future.
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