Asiana Archives - asthejoeflies

Sep 08 2015

Ninja Battle of Eastern Carrier Business Class! (Part 2)

My name is Dan, and I am a friend and avid follower of the “asthejoeflies” blog. As one of Joe-sensei’s top protégés in the points and miles game, Joe has allowed me to contribute a guest post regarding my trans-pacific escapades this summer. (Ed. note: Daniel-san is also the producer of the Saverocity Observation Deck and a legendary Hearthstone player).

In the previous post, I introduced Korea’s Asiana and Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airlines as contenders of our “Ninja Battle of Eastern Carrier Business Class!” I compared the lounges, aircraft equipment and seats from my experience this past summer. Continuing the battle, in this post I will discuss the food, service, in-flight entertainment and overall winner!

Training Diet (Food)

The best part of flying premium class has to be the food. My impressions from friends who have flown these two airlines is that the food is spectacular (at least compared to US carriers) so my expectations were sky high! Both flights served a meal shortly after take off and about 2 hours before landing. Western and Eastern course meals were offered for both meals.

Asiana’s Menu

While my wife and I usually try to order different meals at restaurants, weddings etc, our excitement to be traveling to Asia led us to both order the Korean Bibimbap main course. Funny enough, we noticed most of the Koreans on board ordered Western meals which looked quite good as well.

Roast beef around something, cucumber around goat cheese, both delicious.

There was actually a sweet sauce in the tomato to pour/dip with the rolls. Unfortunately I only realized that after I popped the tomato whole in my mouth.

Not a big fan of pumpkin soup in the States, guess that dislike transcends cultures as well.

I was so excited to eat this, I accidentally dumped the rice into the bowl before taking a photo, oops.

In my opinion, the main course was the best part of the meal (as it should be!) You can’t compare it to authentic bibimbap in Korea, or even in restaurants in the States, but it was quite good for an airplane meal and I cleaned off the bowl in no time.

Dessert was a bit disappointing (some Korean crackers/cookies) which doesn’t warrant a picture.

Naruto’s favorite meal – ramen! Nice bonus with all the Korean fixings. A bit overcooked but delicious nonetheless.

Appetizer before landing… not sure what happened to the rest of the meal.

Cathay’s Menu

After nearly 2 weeks in Taiwan, I was probably getting a bit tired of Asian food so I opted for Western meal options on the Cathay flight back home.

For some reason this “mac and cheese” was substituted on the menu option for the chicken curry dish. Unfortunately, as creamy as the “mac and cheese” might look in the picture, it was mainly just a thin watery broth flavoring the pasta with not much as a hint of cheese. The chicken was expectedly dry and the corn overcooked and hardened by the microwave.

Hands down the best food available all flight. This burger doesn’t look like much but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Australian grass fed beef has a distinct and juicy flavor, and the brioche bun was toasted perfectly.

I ordered the Western breakfast (poached egg, sausage and bacon). What I was served was not worthy of a picture. The tomato in the dish had disintegrated in the heating process leaving the egg, sausage and bacon soaking in watery tomato juice. Looking over at my neighbors, the Chinese breakfast didn’t seem to fare much better.

Having heard rave reviews about the great food on Cathay from friends and family, I was pretty disappointed with the food served during the set meals. Had I known beforehand, I probably would have been more satisfied just ordering the burger for all the meals. (Ed note: Go to McDonald’s before you leave Hong Kong or something because you got to eat Asian food on Asian carriers in my opinion).

Fighting Styles (Service)

My wife and I were blown away by Asiana’s flight attendants and their service to the passengers. A few anecdotes illustrate why we were so impressed:

Upon boarding the plane, my wife was feeling quite hungry since it was already 1PM and there hadn’t been any lunch option at the Swiss Lounge. She asked the flight attendant for some peanuts to go with the pre-flight drink, and when the flight attendant saw her scarfing down the nuts, she offered to make my wife a sandwich. Within 5 minutes, the flight attendant returned with a warmed croissant ham and cheese sandwich all before the airplane doors had even been closed! (Ed note: Wow, in business class? I’m impressed).
Again, pre-flight, an elderly Korean lady was settling into the seat across the aisle from us. She looked as if she might have been a bit cold as she wrapped herself around the shoulders with the down blanket. Without prompting that I could discern, a flight attendant came with two additional blankets and went ahead mummifying the appreciative elderly lady, wrapping her legs/feet and midriff with additional blankets and then returning multiple time throughout the flight to help tuck the lady in.
Throughout the trip, the flight attendants were constantly patrolling the cabin looking to assist in any way. On multiple occasions, a half empty cup or wrapper I had set aside would disappear so silently and quickly to the point where my wife and I were joking about ninjas on the plane.

Cathay’s service was by no means poor, my one annoyance was that during meal times, all passengers were served each course simultaneously. On Asiana, as soon as you completed one meal course, you were offered the next one (as a fast eater, I probably finished my meal about 20 minutes ahead of my wife). On Cathay, the pace of the meal seemed to be limited by the slowest eater in the cabin. Which meant by the time dessert rolled around, I had already given up waiting, brushed my teeth, and was in bed sleeping.

Genjutsu (In-Flight Entertainment)

Unlike Joe-sensei, the ultimate connoisseur of in-flight entertainment, I haven’t developed the same refined taste in IFE since I typically bring my own in the form of an iPad. Both flights offered touchscreen systems with easy to navigate entertainment options (and both flights had Avengers: Age of Ultron for Joe!) While both flights seemed to have about the same number of titles (in terms of movies and TV shows), the options available on Cathay were much more interesting to me (either by random chance or perhaps better curated). I watched half of Insurgent on the Asiana flight before getting bored and returning to my Naruto. On the Cathay flight, I found Fury, Big Hero 6 and a Hong Kong comedy–From Vegas to Macau, to be quite entertaining. I can’t remember the last time I watched 3 movies in a row!

And after the dust settles, the winner is….

ASIANA! Overall, I felt I had a much better experience on the Asiana flight than the Cathay Pacific flight. In terms of equipment and seats, both products were fairly similar in quality and comfort. However, the main difference between the two flights was the attention to detail of the flight attendants which not only showed in anticipating passenger needs, but the quality and preparation of the food. I don’t think flying in the A380 made much of a difference in the travel experience, but if you’re even the slightest airplane enthusiast, it’s still a cool experience to try at least once.

The Asiana flight from JFK to ICN can be booked with 80k United points and availability is fairly open (except for summers and holidays). Cathay Pacific flights can be booked with 55k American Airlines points, although the flights are not as readily available unless you’re booking a year in advance. However, availability in business/first class is almost always guaranteed to open up last minute (about a week before the flight).

Thanks again to Joe-sensei for showing me the ropes in the points and miles game. Blogs like this and others at Saverocity really help the travel planning process more accessible. We look forward to sharing future travel adventures another time!

Perhaps I should have booked that first class Cathay seat after all… (Ed note: DUH).

Aug 24 2015

Ninja Battle of Eastern Carrier Business Class! (Part 1)

My wife and I are based out of Boston and we traveled to Taiwan this summer for a family reunion on my side of the family. We did a similar trip in 2012 in economy class and we knew the trip would be a grueling affair so we decided early on that we wanted to ease the pains of travel by flying business class on the long haul trans-pacific flights. Through Joe’s blog and guidance, I was able to accrue the miles and book business class flights going to Taiwan via Asiana’s A380 JFK-ICN “smartium” product and return on Cathay Pacific’s HKG-BOS business class.

I won’t go into much detail in how I obtained the tickets since Joe already blogged about how I found the Asiana A380 tickets and has blogged extensively on searching and booking Cathay Pacific seats. Instead, I will combine the two trip reports into a NINJA BATTLE OF EASTERN CARRIER BUSINESS CLASS! (Ed. Note: Dan has read like 5,000 volumes of Naruto over the past three weeks so bear with him).

*note – I did have an opportunity to upgrade to first class on Cathay as award space opened up last minute, however for the sake a science (and a bit of laziness on my part) I decided to not upgrade so I would have a fair comparison of trans-pacific business class on 2 Asian airlines. (Ed. Note: Moron.)

The Opponents:

Asiana is a Korean airline and Star Alliance partner. In terms of passengers carried annually, they rank 21st in Asia behind their larger sibling Korean Air (rank 13). As of spring 2015, Asiana started a new daily route from JFK to ICN on their newly acquired double decker Airbus A380.

On our outbound flight, we took a short commuter flight from BOS-JFK, departed JFK around 1PM on the Asiana flight (~14 hours) and landing in Seoul around 4:30PM and finally arrived in Taipei on a 2 hour connecting flight from ICN to TPE.

Cathay is a Hong Kong airline and part of the One World alliance. Cathay Airlines is ranked 10th in Asia in terms of passengers carried. As of spring 2015, Cathay started a new route between HKG-BOS running 4 times a week.

We flew separately on our return flight (since my wife wanted to stop by EWR to see her family). Since Cathay flies direct to Boston, it saved me a connection so I was able to fly from TPE-HKG (2 hours) and connect to my HKG-BOS flight (15.5 hours).

Ninja Village (lounge):

Asiana shares a lounge with Swiss Air at JFK. We felt the Swiss lounge in Terminal 4 on a whole was quite average. The food selection was limited with only a few simple pastries and fruit available (I don’t think the food bar changes all day as it was still the same when we left around 12:30pm). There was a “quiet” room but my wife said the walls didn’t really block out the noise of the rest of the airport, and guests within the room didn’t respect the “quiet.” While small, the lounge never felt crowded but we did have to share with guests who had crashed the lounge without boarding passes.

Unfortunately we didn’t have an opportunity to check out the Asiana lounges in Seoul so we hope to do so sometime in the future.

On the other hand, on it’s own home turf, Cathay has 5 separate lounges available for business class customers (and 2 separate locations for first class). I spent my time at “The Wing” which is considered the flagship Cathay lounge. While fairly busy at 4PM in the afternoon, I had no problem finding a spot to sit next to a window and enjoy an array of dim-sum treats and other snacks. I wasn’t very hungry at the time, but if I were hungrier, there was a noodle bar on the level above as well as a well stocked buffet with both western and eastern hot and cold food options.

The showers were very clean and modern (and it seemed like they were seldom used). I was able freshen up before my long flight (that Taiwan humidity really sticks to you).

Weapons of Choice (flight equipment and seats):

Before this trip, I had never flown on an Airbus A380. When I saw availability for this option as a means to get to Taiwan, it was a no-brainer for me to book the flight even if it meant an extra layover. As a child I always enjoyed hunting for 747s on the airport tarmacs, and it just seemed too cool to be able to fly in one of the largest commercial jets.

Asiana’s business class product is branded as “Smartium” which is unique for it’s staggered 1-2-1 layout. Every other set of 2 middle seats are either staggered very far apart, or very close together. Window seats are also either staggered right next to the aisle, or right next to the window.

Flying as a couple, the 2 middle seats very close to one another worked out very nicely as we were able to converse privately and stay in close proximity throughout the flight.

However, I can easily imagine the 2 middle seats being very un-smartium if you had to share the space with a stranger or even more awkward– boss. While there is a semi-barrier between the seats, if both seats are in lay-flat mode it doesn’t block one’s legs from accidentally kicking out onto the other persons “bed” area (not saying that did or didn’t happen to us). And while the screens are slightly angled towards your seat, there is no privacy of what you are watching and the brightness could still disturb your ~~bed~~seatmate.

In terms of comfort of the seats, being an average 5’10”, I found the seat length in lay flat mode JUST long enough. I could imagine anyone 6′ or taller having to bend their knees or some other part of their body in order to fit. My size 10.5 feet were slightly too large to leave sticking straight up while laying on my back, but some creative feet angling solved that issue. The cushioning was very comfortable though, and I could barely feel the seams between seat sections when flat. The duvets were both light and warm with some sort of soft down filling.

One big negative about our seats was the lack of any storage space for personal belongings. For our seats, this cubby under the armrest was the only official storage space. Seats next to windows had storage compartments available between the seat and the window.

Riding on the upper deck of an A380 for the most part felt like flying on any other normal aircraft. I’m not sure if the following observations were just perceived or reality.

Turbulence felt more dampened on the larger aircraft (or maybe we just had calm flight)
More head space? The cabin felt very roomy
Quieter? Or maybe we were just further away from the 4 roaring engines

There were some concrete benefits of being on an A380 coming in the form of more common space.

Hangout and chitchat when cabin is dark and quiet for sleeping

There is a toilet under that square cushion

Cathay Pacific flies the Boeing 777-300ER on its HKG-BOS route.

The seat layout is symmetrical and identical for every row with each seat having “direct aisle access.” The biggest difference to note is that the middle seats can have some semblance of privacy. Couple’s flying together may opt to sit across an aisle though if they want to be able to talk to one another during the flight.

In lay flat mode, the seat was pretty close in length to the Asiana seat. However, because I wasn’t sticking my feet in as confined of a cubby as I did in the Asiana seat, I do feel like the Cathay seat suited taller passengers better. My very average 10.5 sized feet also had no trouble fitting in whatever orientation they wished.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to capture too many other pictures, but there was ample storage space in a closet next to the table, and even a little closet for your shoes next to the aisle (I didn’t find it until after we had landed). I did find that the seat was slightly more uncomfortable than the Asiana seats as for some reason the seats felt like they slightly extended beyond a 180 lay flat angle and I could distinctly feel the seams between seat sections.

The foot locker (Editor's pic) — The foot locker (Editor’s pic)

Coming Soon, Part 2: Fighting Styles (food and service) and Showdown conclusion!

Apr 26 2015

Using Flexibility to Find Premium Award Space to Australia and New Zealand Part 2 (Skyteam)

I wrote last week about how, if you’re flexible enough, you can use United miles to get to Oceania in premium cabins. Today I’m going to write about how you can do something similar with Delta miles, though I should remind you that Kenny from Miles4More has already written extensively about the most direct routes to Australia on miles.

Like with United, the key to finding premium cabin award space is taking roundabout routings, namely, through Korea.

Getting to Australia Using Delta Miles

Aside from the highly preferable Virgin Australia option, you can route through Korea to get to Oceania using Delta miles as well – with no fuel surcharges so the prices are good. Now that Delta has vastly improved its award search engine, you can pretty much find flights you want in business class to Australia or New Zealand (as long as you’re willing to route through Korea).

The costs of these flights are 80,000 miles in business class each way plus taxes and fees – the same as United. I had more trouble finding return itineraries than outbounds. There seem to be options with China Southern as well.

Korean Air flies from Seoul to Sydney, Brisbane, and Auckland, here are some sample itineraries through ICN (all searches for two people):

You can basically try to get to those three cities in Oceania through ICN on Korean Air from any airport they fly from. They fly to ICN from ATL, ORD, DFW, IAH, LAS, LAX, JFK, SFO, SEA, YYZ, YVR, and IAD. I did quick searches from these airports and found premium cabin space from ORD, LAX, JFK and IAD, but there was economy space from all those other airports. It’s worth searching from all of those airports if you want to fly business to Oceania!

One other thing to note – Delta has some weird blackout rules for Korean Air dates that more or less coincide with Korean Air’s peak travel times. The peak times for 2015 and 2016 can be found here.

Screenshot of Korean Air peak times you need to be aware of

It’s worth taking a look at this Flyertalk thread to see people’s different experiences regarding peak times (the short version is it seems like if a flight is during a peak period you can see it on delta.com but cannot book it).If you’re trying to book for those dates, you won’t be able to book on Delta – though you have another option.

Getting to Australia Using Korean Air Miles

You can book any of the Korean Air space that you find on Delta using Korean Air miles (obviously). The upside of this is Korean Air is an Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, the downside is it levies fuel surcharges. But it can be helpful in a pinch or if you need to fly during peak periods (which are more expensive on Korean though).

The cost to route from North America to Australia on Korean Air is 97,500 miles each way during off peak time AND , so it’s more expensive as well.

While the booking process for partner awards on Korean Air is super cumbersome, to book Korean metal it’s pretty straightforward. The biggest issue is that you can’t search award space on koreanair.com unless you have enough miles to book the award – do not under any circumstances transfer from Ultimate Rewards until you know the space is there. To get around this, search on delta.com (like above) or use Expertflyer (paid subscription).

If you find space, you could transfer miles over from Ultimate Rewards and then book. In my experience, the lag time is around two days (though I’ve seen them go through in as little as one). This makes me a little paranoid – I’m always afraid the space will disappear (though Korean is admittedly generous). If you’re willing to do a little extra work, there’s a way around this.

Call into Korean and tell them you want to book a bonus ticket (their term for award ticket). Feed them your flights and then tell them you need to transfer miles over and want to put them on hold. The last time I did this, they put the flights on hold for a month!

So that’s how long you have to transfer your miles over and book (or make up your mind). As long as all flights are on Korean Air you can just complete your booking online and not deal with the faxing nonsense necessary for partner awards.

Korean Air is pretty generous, I saw two or three business class seats on a bunch of days using delta.com. I think they might open up even more seats to their own members if you’re booking through Korean Air.

Final Thoughts

Like I said at the top, Virgin Australia is the best way to get to Australia on miles. But if everyone has booked the space thanks to Kenny’s post or if you don’t have Delta/Virgin America miles, there are still other options as long as you’re willing to go the long way around (also be aware some of KE’s business class is still angled so do your research). If you’re using United or Korean Air miles – book a stopover in Korea and hit two continents in one trip! Bottom line – though the quickest way between two points is a line, being willing to go outside the box can yield great results too. Happy booking!

Apr 20 2015

Using Flexibility to Find Premium Award Space to Australia and New Zealand

Kenny has written extensively about how Virgin Australia is a bit of a gold mine for travel to Australia/Oceania using Delta or Virgin America miles. Virgin Australia remains the single best way to get to Australia in a premium cabin, provided you have a way to position to the West Coast (since domestic space can be tough to find on DL).

Virgin Australia is definitely the way to go, but if you can’t find space and you’re willing to tolerate some extra time in business class there are other options to get to Australia/NZ. In fact, you can find space using two alliances! The key to the space? Funnily enough, it’s Korea.

Korean Air (Delta or Ultimate Rewards partner) and Asiana (United partner) both are pretty generous about business class award space, specifically on their A380 JFK-ICN routes. I’ve pointed out Asiana’s JFK-ICN award space before but noticed while working for a client that Korean Air is equally generous. The key here is that both Delta and United will allow you to route through Asia to get to Oceania.

In today’s post, I’ll focus on getting to Australia using Star Alliance on Asiana, and later in the week I’ll discuss using Korean Air and Skyteam.

Getting to Australia Using United Miles

Getting to Australia using United miles on Asiana is pretty straightforward. Sometimes, you can just find it through a straight search. For example, if you search JFK-SYD you can find a flight like the following:

Two seats to Sydney via Seoul using United miles on Asiana

You can go to Auckland as well, usually connecting through Sydney.

The mixed cabin is only an economy leg from SYD-AKL, everything else is business

However, sometimes the itinerary through Korea won’t come up automatically. In that case, search for the award space one segment at a time – ensuring that you are spending less than 24 hours in Seoul (anything greater would be considered a stopover – doable if you are booking a round trip but not on a one way. So yes, if you’re booking a round trip you could spend some time in Korea in one direction!).

After you have found the space, run a multi-city search cherry picking for the flights that you know are there (be sure to be careful about the dates you put in). The multi-city itinerary should price at the same cost as a one way, 80,000 miles plus taxes and fees.

160,000 miles is for two people, so 80,000 each (as it should be)

In a worst case scenario, you can call in to book the ticket. If you are trying to avoid the phone fee, you can book one leg online and then use the 24 hour cancellation/change policy to call in and add the segment that you want.

I searched routes from the United States to ICN and found the following:

– There seems to be decent to good business class space availability (except in December) on the flight from ORD-ICN, but it seems you have to use the multi-city itinerary search to piece it together as below. The tougher leg to find business class space in is ICN-SYD, but there are also options to connect through Bangkok on Thai

Again, the price is 160K due to searching for 2 people

– Space is great between SFO-ICN, though some of those flights are on UA metal (save 10,000 miles get a lesser product)

– Space is equally great between SEA-ICN

– As far as I can tell, JFK, ORD, and SFO all feature lie flat business class seats, while the SEA flight is angled flat

– From ICN, Asiana flies to SYD (flat beds as far as I can tell) and this is what availability looked like in Aug-Nov.

Space from ICN-SYD for Aug-Nov. 11 months out looks pretty good too

11 months out space looks really good, and there is pretty great coach availability as well. From SYD you can catch an Air New Zealand flight to NZ – usually in coach but good enough for the shorter flight.

Final Thoughts

Getting to Australia is tough, but routing through Asia can help you get there in a premium cabin. If you book a round trip, you can even stopover in Seoul if you’d like. United miles are your best Star Alliance bet here due to the lower fuel surcharges, but on Aeroplan it’s also 80,000 miles and $300 in taxes and fees each way. Though space isn’t rampant, it’s a lot better than most direct premium class flights. Also note all my searches were for two seats – you might have better luck if you’re only looking for one. Next time I’ll take a look at the Korean Air space doing the same thing – it’s even a shade better.

Feb 05 2015

Remember to Check Award Space Regularly: Slightly Discounted Business Class on Asiana A380

Halfway around the world for 70,000 miles in business class (gcmap.com)

Update: Since I wrote this last night, United has actually made their “non-advertised” sale official. See details here (book by 2/28!)

When friends ask me about awards they want to book – the resourceful ones often want to learn how to fish. One thing I always tell them is: keep checking for award space – you never know what you might find. Recently, two separate pieces of information surfaced in the blogosphere that I didn’t even think to connect in my head (though I’m sure many did). But everything clicked when my buddy Dan messaged me today: “Hey I can fly from JFK to Seoul on an A380 for 70,000 miles in business?”

Why, yes, Dan, you can right now! When I first saw that Asiana would be starting a new A380 flight from JFK to Seoul on One Mile at a Time, I didn’t really think too much of it, mainly because I don’t have the Star Alliance balances to book such a flight.

But then when Dan said he saw business class space for 70,000 miles I remembered that I had read somewhere that United was doing another unadvertised award sale. I’m not trying to plagiarize or anything (don’t want to incur PFDigest’s wrath!), but I really do not remember where I saw that.

For the unfamiliar, after United’s devaluation, partner premium cabin awards have become much more costly than awards on United metal. For example, business class to North Asia on United metal costs 70,000 each way, while business class on partners costs 80,000.

The recently devalued United award chart - more expensive partner premium cabins — The recently devalued United award chart – more expensive partner premium cabins

So the business class seats on the Asiana A380 should cost 80,000 miles each way. But for some reason, United has been having these random “sales” where they price partner awards at the same cost of United metal awards – currently it seems like that’s happening for both Asia and Europe. So right now this award is pricing at 70,000 miles each way.

Current pricing - 10,000 miles cheaper than usual in business — Current pricing – 10,000 miles cheaper than usual in business

That’s pretty good news, because in today’s prices that’s a fair (though not cheap) price to Asia in business class.

The even better news is that right now Asiana has released a ton of award space. Here is my July and August search for 4 seats:

Notice that space basically becomes wide open after the A380 starts operating every day in mid-July.

Here is my September and October search for EIGHT seats:

So the bottom line is, there is a ton of award space – even enough to get a family of four to Asia in business class if you have the miles. You get to fly a new plane, on a new route, for a temporarily reduced price!

In terms of the product, it’s a lie flat business class seat – very “Smartium”.

Business "Smartium" class — Business “Smartium” class

Final Thoughts

If you know when and where you want to travel and you don’t see award space at first, try, try again. You’ll never know what you might find – in this case a new route plus an unannounced award “sale” led to a pretty good deal. I’m not sure how long this “sale” will go for, United had one before, it ended (Asia was pricing at 80K when I went last minute two weeks ago), and now it’s on again – but if you know you need to go somewhere, book while it’s hot!