Korean Air’s Bizarre New 787 First & Business Class Cabins

The Apex Suites were originally designed as a high density first class product by B/E Aerospace. The seat is spacious but the width is closer to business class. Privacy is not as good in the aisle seats compared to the window seats.

Koreans are communists at heart - vast majority are - so it's no surprise that they want to provide EQUAL TREATMENT by their own interpretation and standard. Even the government offices are far better off than private enterprise ones(who's paying for these? people's taxes). They despise those who can afford luxury yet are so envious at the same time. If there's a luxury to be had, they want to make sure that it be accessible to the wider public.But such things come with price. they don't care as long as it be spent from tax money or OPM. Korea is a land of angry labor unions and disgruntled working class looking for social upheaval and it shows on every facets of their society.

I take the point on F, this oik never having been so privileged, but that J class looks way more inviting with all-aisle access than the ancient 2-3-2 clamber-over-your-sleeping-neighbor hard product in the 777/380 on the ICN-JFK rotation. Lower the cabin thermostat a degree or three and fit individual fresh air vents and I'd be a happy little J-class clam in that 787. I can see KE heading for an Air NZ-style Biz Premier, Premium Economy, Steerage layout on at least some routes. That is seriously going to annoy employees of a Korean company I know where the long-haul policy is 'next class up from Economy' and worker bees are very happy there's no Premium Economy on KE, the mandatory airline for travel to head office.

I echo the comments above. The reason why KE has first class across its entire widebody fleet is to serve government officials and executives from their chaebols (aka conglomerates). I just flew First on the 747-8 from SFO-ICN last week, and load factor was 5/6. I know the pax next to me was a KE pilot flying home, but the others appeared to be chaebol executives. The BA lounge at SFO (used for KE flights) was full of middle-aged Korean businessmen, so I felt a bit out of place. I wasn't all that impressed by the service - it was perfectly acceptable for First Class, but couldn't help but think that the flight attendants were fawning over the chaebol executives and paid more attention to them because that's KE's bread and butter for their premium cabins. That, plus the language barrier, made KE service in First one step below the service I experienced on SQ on the same trip.

I think the second comment by @betterbub said it about right. Usually, CEOs of conglomerates, as well as Ministers of Government get to fly first class - and they probably don't care about the hard product - it is the "prestige" of being in "first class" and feeling special - not being mixed up with those "commoners" (Board of Directors, or deputy ministers of government, high-ranking managers) that matters a lot to them. So - KE is probably catering to such demand - and trying to make the most out of it. (Note: Conglomerate CEOs in Korea are CEOs because they inherited the company - and they usually have strong desire to be treated differently from those from "common" background.) KE has been going premium light after their attempt at all-business class upper deck of A380 kind of failed - they cannot find routes that will fill up 91-business class seat cabin, and involuntary upgrade is very common on A380 routes. I won't be surprised to see KE installing some economy seats on upper deck when they reconfigure A380. KE has also decreased business class seat count on reconfigured 77W and 744. I wonder if KE will start eliminating first class cabins - until now, it is one of the few airlines in the world that keeps first class cabin in "every" widebody aircraft - due to high demand from both government and conglomerate contracts mentioned above.