Review of Lufthansa flight from Munich to Seoul in Economy

Hey guys,
welcome to this series, which covers my trip to wonderful Seoul, Korea with Lufthansa in Economy Class.
You are here in the first part which is the flight from MUC to ICN.

Series overview

1st Part
MUC > ICN with LH718 You are here!
2nd Part
ICN > MUC with LH719 Can be found here: LH719: ICN > MUC

Flight information LH718

Aircraft Registration: D-AIHW
Aircraft Type: A340-600
Boarding (planned): 03:30 pm
Boarding (actual): 03:35 pm
Push Back: 04:00 pm
Departure (planned): 04:10 pm
Departure (actual): 04:16 pm
Arrival (planned): 10:45 am
Arrival (actual): 10:47 am
Arrival Gate: 10:57 am
*All times are local
Flight Ticket

Pre Flight @ MUC

Saturday, January 13th was a very calm day @ MUC.
I arrived about 3.5 hours before the scheduled departure to ICN and was really looking forward for my flight to ICN with LH - it has been quite some time since I had a longhaul flight with LH.
Last LH longhaul flight was in 2012 asI flew MUC > DXB > MUC with an A330-300.
This time it was one of LHs famous A340-600! Unfortunatley they will be all replaced over the next years by the A350.
Thankfully I got the chance to fly with the LH A340-600.
After I checked in my luggage I went to the visitor terrace in Terminal 2.
On a very cold Saturday afternoon there was quite some action going on as the Queen of the Skies - Thai B747-400 - got ready for her flight to BKK.

LH Airbus A320 at the gate

Another LH Airbus was pushed back

Etihad B777-300ER
She was pushed to a remote stand where she had to wait for the night departure to AUH.

Kneel down as the queen departs to BKK!

Flight LH718

After my visit to the T2 visitor terrace I made my way through security checks and immigration.
There were not many people at Saturday afternoon.

LH City Line Aircraft @ T2

My aircraft to ICN that day!

Boarding started 5 minutes later than scheduled, but it was finished within 20 minutes!
The fastest boarding I have ever experienced :)
View from my seat (50A) as another LH A340 came to T2

Seat pitch and width was okay, nothing bad to mention about it

Inflight monitor and view across cabin

Overall the flight was not completey full. There were a lot of free seats - especially in the back!
Upgrades for Premium Economy and Business Class were available.
If I remember right!!
300€ for upgrade to Premium Economy and 600€ for Business Class directly from Economy Class.
Similar to last year, as I flew with EY to KUL and waited for push back, I captured a departing LH A350!
She was flying to Tokyo that day :)

Push back was on time and while we taxied to the runway, another LH A340-600 was prepared for her flight.

Flight map was already available

LATAM A350 - used by QR - arrived from DOH
I flew with her last year in August :)

Finally LINE UP!

Video of departure

Take off and climbing through thick clouds

Video of climbing after we got through the clouds

About 45 minutes after departure drinks and snacks were served

After the snack I used the time to work and read something while the dinner was prepared by the crew.
View across the cabin and inflight magazines

2 hours into the flight, dinner was served.
Menu card

Dinner tray - salad, Korean kimchi, fruits and chicken for me

After dinner I choose some cognac

I continued to work after dinner and got ready for some rest during the night.
Still 8 hours until we reach ICN :)

One thing is very unique in LH A340-600 - the toilets are located in the "basement" of the aircraft.
Pretty cool - I don't know any other airline which has that feature!
So of course I had to check it out.
Stairway to basement and view across the cabin next to it

After some rest, I tried to watch the NFL Playoff Game Atlanta Falcons @ Philadelphia Eagles.
Quality was not too bad!

2 hours before landing the cabin woke up slowly.

Breakfast was served about 1.5 hours before landing @ ICN

Some wing detail during cruising to ICN

Shortly before arrival @ ICN, we had to go through the thick clouds once again!

Finally we did it and Korea was in sight :)

Approach to ICN

TOUCHDOWN!

Video of arrival

Welcome to the home base of Asiana Airlines and Korean Air!

Quite some action was going on!

AeroMexico @ ICN

Vietnam Airlines @ ICN

And finally we arrived at the gate - right next to an AirAsia Aribus A330-200

Post Flight @ ICN

After arrival at the gate, it took a little bit to get off the aircraft.
Overall the way from aircraft to baggage claim was quite long.
First of all a train ride was necessary to get to the main building of ICN Airport.
But immigration was very easy and absolutely not complicated - I guess it was the fastest immigration I ever had!
Never the less, ICN Airport is very convenient - everything is explained very good, absolutely no worries here.

BONUS: Getting to Seoul from ICN & some pictures from Seoul

Contenu masqué : Cliquez pour afficher

There are a lot of different options available.
You can take the Metro which is very convenient.
Also an express Train, called AREX, is available, which is much faster than metro but of course more expensive.
Also some shuttle busses were available and cheaper than the AREX train.
As I had quite some luggage with me, I selected to take the shuttle busses option from ICN to my hotel in Seoul.
I would highly reccomend to check out, if there is a shuttle bus available for your hotel - everything is very easy and unstressfull.
Busses ofer very compfortable seats

ICN bus station

Finally I reached my destination with my SQ Teddys!

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Seoul is a beautiful city. The metro system is very efficient and very easy to handle!!
I was two weeks in Seoul and the weather in January is … well wintery!
In the first week the temperatures were around +5°C to -5°C … in the second week … well it was bloody cold!
Second week temperatures were up to -25°C!! Holy … :D It was not that cold in Bavaria over the last two or three years or let's say, I cannot remember such temperatures in the last few years!!
There was also some wind in the second week which made it feel much colder. But the wind had also some positive effect, it cleared up and it was wonderful clear and sunny! :)
Food
Well let's start with food, because food and eating is always good.
And Korean food is delicious, amazing, … well I don't know what else to say!
Let's start with Korean Barbecue in different variants!
With pork, beef, prok belly and so on!

Bulgogi

Some kind of hot pot

Goat soup

Boiled chicken

Pork chop

Bibimbap

Local chicken with rice and vegetables

And of course when you visit Korea …. drink lots of Soju!
It tastes very good!
Visiting DMZ (Korean Demilitarized Zone)
At the border between North and South Korea there is the demilitarized zone.
I booked a tour via Expedia as it was reccomended on Tripadvisor.
Overall it is intersting to learn about history - but at the same time my overall feeling was quite sad.
Here are some pictures - unfortunately the wather was a bit foggy that day.
Getting to the zone by bus

The old locomotive which was destroyed during the Korean war and the train bridge @ Imjingak

DMZ Sign at the Third Infiltration Tunnel

Dora Observatory and view across the border

Dorasan Station

Sights in Seoul
Some views of Namsan Tower from my hotel room and from car

View from my hotel room

Lotte World Tower - Korea's highest building

View from the visitor terrace

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Cheonggyecheon-Ro

Namsam Tower

Well … a very long report with lots of pictures!
I really hope you enjoyed it and thanks for spending your time and reading :)
PS: Up to that point, that was my longest flight ever in terms of time!!
10h 31min from MUC to ICN was about 15min longer than my flight from FRA to JNB last year.
But that mark was shreded just two weeks later during my return flight with 11h 20min.
In terms of distance, the FRA > JNB flights are still the longest.
Both marks will be shreded once more this year when I will go from AUH to MEL in March 2018 :)