Last summer Asiana introduced a new first class product on some of their 777-200s, which initially debuted on their Seoul Incheon to Chicago route. Then as of this summer they switched the newly reconfigured 777-200s onto the Seoul Incheon to New York JFK route.
While I haven’t flown the new product yet it looks phenomenal. Asiana has always had top notch food and service (I really enjoyed both of my flights in their old first class, which you can read about here and here). The new first class is a fully enclosed suite, and features the largest personal TVs of any airline in the world.
What was frustrating is that as of a few weeks ago there wasn’t a single date through the entire end of the schedule with award space in first class on this route.
However, that seems to have drastically changed overnight, because at the moment first class award space is wide open, even for travel over summer. Best of all, most dates even have two first class award seats!
The thing to keep in mind is that united.com doesn’t display Asiana award space on this route, so if you want to book it using United miles you have to call. Of course be sure to first check availability using the ANA website to make your life a bit easier.
United charges just 70,000 miles for a one-way first class award to Asia before the February 1 devaluation, and US Airways charges just 120,000 miles for a roundtrip first class award to North Asia (and Seoul is in North Asia). If you got in on the recent opportunity to book Lufthansa first class with partner miles and ended up booking it as a trip to Asia, this is a nice way to fly in one direction to sample another great first class product.
(Tip of the hat to AJK)
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