I Love Korean Airlines

We flew Korean Airlines to and from the States instead of Northwest Airlines which had always been our choice in the past. The first difference is we flew from Incheon to O'Hare, had a three hour layover and then caught a flight to the Twin Cities. The flight we had taken on Northwest in the past was Incheon to Tokyo with usually a 1 1/2 hour layover (sometimes we were running for the gate because they were boarding) and then Tokyo to Minneapolis. The Korean Airline schedule is worse because of the long layover in Chicago but other things well make up for it.

Korean Airlines seat layout makes for a lot more spacious seating area. There is plenty of room between you and the seat in front of you even if that seat is inclined. On a long flight that is an important consideration. They also have an extensive choice of movies and television shows that will keep you entertained the entire 13-15 hour flight.

Both airlines feed you a lot of food in my opinion but that is to be expected on the competitive overseas flights. But what happens when you eat is that you will need to use the bathroom. The flight home we sat in the exit roll with the bathroom right in front of us. I was shocked to see a Korean Airlines flight attendant tidying up the bathroom. I had noticed this on our flight to the States too but I wasn't sitting where it was easy to monitor the bathroom activity. A flight attendant tidied up the bathroom at least once an hour. That really helped to keep the bathroom from becoming a "pit" after a long flight.

We did see a first on our flight back to Incheon. We were taxing to the runway with clearance to take off and we were taxing at pretty fast pace. We were sitting directly across from a flight attendant who was sitting all buckled in when one of the overhead bins popped open. She immediately unbuckled and raced over to shut the bin. She returned to her seat just was we were preparing to take off. As the pilot put the engines into full throttle for take off, another bin popped opened. As the plane raced down the runway, this same flight attendant got up and dragged herself up the seats to the open bin and struggled to close it as the plane lifted off. She secured the bin and returned to her seat as the plane climbed into the sky.

Curt (hubby) and I were really shocked. We have been on a flight where a bin has popped open on takeoff but the attendant waited for clearance before leaving her seat. We have never seen a flight attendant leave her seat during takeoff. I'm pretty sure that is illegal under FAA rules but maybe foreign airlines has different rules. It was a pretty exciting start to a long flight.

The picture above is what we received from our Korean Airlines flight. It consists of socks, mask, toothbrush and lanyard (not sure what that is for). I also took an air sickness bag. Sometimes I'll decorate the bag and use it as wrapping for a present. It always gets comments.