My connection at Incheon Airport was just over two hours. I headed towards transit security, which took about 15 minutes. That meant I had about 90 minutes until boarding, so rather than trying to find a lounge, I just headed straight to the gate. Both of my flights didn’t have Wi-Fi and I had some work to catch up on, so I really needed about 90 minutes to get that done, and the gate area was a perfectly fine place to do that. So I won’t be reviewing Asiana’s lounge this time around, though I’ve done so in the past (and wasn’t impressed).
Incheon Airport terminal
While Incheon Airport is perfectly okay, I can’t wrap my head around how this is rated one of the world’s top airports. I find that it’s consistently overcrowded and even somewhat poorly designed. I don’t get it.
Incheon Airport terminal
My flight was departing from gate 50, which was about a 10 minute walk from the transit security checkpoint. When I arrived the previous flight was just departing, though the monitor was quickly updated to reflect the Asiana flight to Chengdu.
Incheon Airport departure gate
The plane arrived at around 6:30PM.
Asiana A321 Incheon Airport
Then the crew arrived around 7PM.
Incheon Airport departure gate
Anyone know what the person at the top right is doing? Is thinking not allowed at Incheon Airport?
Incheon Airport prohibited behavior
Business class boarding started at 7:35PM, 25 minutes before departure.
Asiana 323
Seoul Incheon (ICN) – Chengdu (CTU)
Thursday, October 26
Depart: 8:00PM
Arrive: 11:00PM
Duration: 4hr
Aircraft: Airbus A321
Seat: 3F (Business Class)
At the door I was welcomed by three friendly flight attendants, and was escorted to my seat. Asiana’s A321 business class consists of a total of 12 seats, spread across three rows in a 2-2 configuration.
Asiana A321 business class cabin
Asiana A321 business class cabin
The seat pitch is roughly comparable to what you’d find within the US. SeatGuru claims the seat pitch is 39″, and that sounds about right to me.
Asiana business class seats A321
Asiana business class legroom
I was seated in the last row, and I got lucky that I had the only empty seat in business class next to me, so I had both the window and aisle to myself. Underneath the center armrest were two 110v outlets.
Asiana business class power outlets
Then in the console between seats was the entertainment controller, though the seatback entertainment is also touchscreen (though in general I prefer avoiding that, so I don’t disturb the person in front of me — there’s nothing more annoying than a seatback TV “pecker”).
Asiana business class entertainment controls
Asiana business class IFE screen
Also underneath the center armrest were headphone jacks and USB outlets.
Asiana business class headphone jack & USB outlet
On the aisle-side of the seat were the manual seat controls. I always struggle a bit with manually adjusting footrests, since they don’t naturally go up. You sort of have to wedge your feet underneath the footrest to make it go up, and that’s not very easy.
Asiana business class seat controls
The tray table folded out of the aisle-side armrest, and could be folded in half.
Asiana business class tray table
Already waiting at my seat on boarding were headphones, the same fairly high quality ones that I was offered on my longhaul flight.
Asiana business class headphones
There were also a flimsy pair of slippers.
Asiana business class slippers
Also on my seat were a pillow and blanket. The pillow on this flight had better padding than the one on the previous flight, even.
Asiana business class pillow & blanket
During boarding, the purser stopped by my seat to thank me for flying Asiana, and she told me that our flight time was 3hr30min, and that I should let her know if I need anything during the flight. She returned a minute later to offer me a pre-departure beverage, with the choice between water, orange juice, and champagne. I selected the champagne. As I mentioned in the previous installment, Asiana doesn’t offer champagne on the ground in the US because they don’t want to pay the duties on it.
Asiana business class pre-departure champagne
I was also given a landing form for China, as well as a pen.
Immigration card for China
I was then offered a warm towel towards the end of boarding.
Asiana business class warm towel
Boarding was efficient even though the flight was full, and by 7:55PM the door closed, and five minutes after that we began our pushback.
At this point the crew lined up throughout the cabin, bowed, and then the safety video was screened.
Taxiing Incheon Airport
We had a pretty quick taxi to the runway, but then just stood there for a while. At 8:15PM the captain announced “we are ready for departure but have been delayed because of air traffic control at Incheon International Airport. We are second in line for takeoff and expect to depart in 10 minutes.”
Just a few minutes later we were cleared for takeoff on runway 34.
Taking off from Incheon Airport
Five minutes after takeoff the seatbelt sign was turned off, at which point the crew turned up the cabin lights and closed the curtain between the cabin and galley.
Asiana business class cabin after takeoff
A few minutes later menus were distributed.
Asiana business class menu & wine list
The menu read as follows:
The drink list read as follows:
A few minutes after presenting the menu, the crew came through the cabin to take meal and drink orders. I ordered the beef bulgogi and a sparkling water. Despite this being a fairly long flight, the meal service was efficient, and the appetizer, main course, and dessert were all served on one tray.
Asiana business class dinner
The appetizer consisted of mixed greens with black forest ham. I didn’t eat it, but it looked fine.
Asiana business class dinner — mixed greens with black forest ham
The main course of beef bulgogi (soft beef slices flavored with Korean bulgogi sauce served with grilled onion and mushroom and steamed rice) was excellent.
Asiana business class dinner — beef bulgogi
The tiramisu was great as well.
Asiana business class dinner — tiramisu
There was also a selection of bread available.
Asiana business class dinner — bread
Once I was finished with the rest of the meal, the crew removed my main course dish and brought me a cheese plate, which was tasty as well.
Asiana business class dinner — cheese plate
All-in-all it was a solid meal, though the highlight was the service. There were two flight attendants working an 11 seat business class cabin, plus the cabin service manager, so service was attentive and genuine. Asiana’s flight attendants are top notch, and the service didn’t stop after the meal. They kept coming through the cabin every few minutes all the way until we arrived in Chengdu.
It’s nice that Asiana has seatback entertainment on their A321s, so I browsed that selection.
Asiana business class entertainment selection
Asiana business class entertainment selection
The entertainment selection was alright. I’ve certainly seen worse selections, though it also wasn’t Emirates’ ICE system.
Asiana business class entertainment selection
Asiana business class entertainment selection
As luck would have it, they had the episodes of Hawaii Five-0 that I hadn’t seen in my binge watching session on the previous flight, so I watched those.
Asiana business class entertainment selection
Asiana business class entertainment selection
I also kept an eye on the progress of our flight through the Airshow. Asiana has a better airshow interface on their A321s than they have on their A380s, as it’s more customizable.
Asiana business class airshow
After watching a couple of episodes of Hawaii Five-0, I dozed off for a bit, and woke up to an announcement from the captain that we’d be landing in 30 minutes.
Asiana business class airshow
Asiana business class airshow
Before landing I checked out the lavatory, located at the front of the cabin. Despite it being the end of the flight, the lavatory was clean and it had plenty of toiletries.
Asiana business class lavatory
Asiana business class lavatory amenities
Our entire flight, including the descent, was smooth, and at 11:10PM we landed in Chengdu.
AirAsia A330 Chengdu Airport
From there it was a five minute taxi to our arrival gate, where we pulled in next to an AirAsia A330. Unfortunately it took about 30 minutes to get through, so by about midnight I was in a taxi to the Grand Hyatt Chengdu.
Asiana A321 business class bottom line
Intra-Asia flights are interesting when it comes to premium cabin travel, given that many flights within Asia are operated by longhaul configured aircraft. So obviously Asiana was at a disadvantage here, given that this was a regionally configured aircraft.
However, the professionalism of the crew and the good food made this a very good flight.
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