Review of Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul to Taipei in Economy

Here so Early!

Welcome to part two of my trip to Taipei. I am sharing my experience on Asiana Airlines flight 711 from Seoul Incheon to Taipei-Taoyuan on an Airbus A330-300, registered HL7736. The thing with OZ 203 is that it arrives in Seoul so early. We arrived around 3:30 am. After clearing transit security, I was back in the departures area. Unfortunately most of the stores and the Asiana Business Lounge were closed. The lounge does not open until 6am. The transit area was mostly open. There were lots of people sleeping and the free shower was closed. I took a quick nap while getting caught up using the Airport's amazing good wifi. 

inside the asiana business lounge

The lounge opened right at 6am. This lounge is near gate 26. All you have to do is scan your boarding pass at the gate and you will be let in. I've never had an issue but if you do have questions there is a desk attendant. I first made my way to the massage chairs as there are only two and some people hog it for a while, like the person in the next chair. Please be considerate and use it only for the time allotted! Or hopefully Asiana can add more of these chairs in the future.

Breakfast was not served until about 7 am. But they did have snacks, alcohol, and some instant noodles. The lounge is very quiet and very empty until about 8 am when the morning flights start departing. Breakfast items are the same as I had when I stopped by in November, eggs, sausage, potatoes and mandu, steamed Korean dumplings. It's a nice respite, and I was in there for about three hours.

Need exercise! planespot. pre-departure

Though my flight departed at 10 am, I left about 8:45 just to take a walk and plane spot. By now, the terminal was much more busy as the morning flights around Asia were departing.

I did some planespotting. Here is a Singapore 787 and an airline I was so excited to see, Uzbekistan Airways. It's always exciting to see airlines that I would rarely, if ever, see in the United States.

There is not much more to add here about the boarding procedures for Asiana. As a Diamond member, I get to board with Business Class. This is very orderly and obvious as there is a separate line for priority boarding. Economy and Asiana Gold and Silver start lining up when the ground staff make an announcement. It looks chaotic but it seems to work as everyone lines up in a fairly orderly manner.

Here is our plane, HL7736.

Once on board

The seats are arranged 2-4-2. The cabin is older and in beige. But, for a regional flight, it's fine. It's quite comfortable. Be aware in some of the seats, 14K in my case, there is a box that will restrict space underneath the seat in front of you. The screen is smaller compared to what I saw on the A350 and didn't have as much available. It's also significantly darker. But it is also a two hour flight and I was more looking forward to getting to Taiwan. 

Boarding is very orderly and the flight is fairly full. The flight attendant checks to confirm I ordered a Vegetarian Oriental Meal, which I confirmed. On these flights, meals are efficiently served in a box rather than on a tray. We took off a few minutes late and service started about 30 minutes after takeoff. There are no amenities other than the regular headphones and pillow. No slippers on this flight.

 

Getting ready for takeoff and here is the Uzbekistan Airways right behind us also ready for departure.

VOML on the flight

The meal consisted of a corn salad. This was not too bad as the bell peppers added some crunch and not make it spicy. The fruit came splashed with some lemon juice. I suppose this was to prevent browning. There was a small cup of water and more beverages as the tray came around later. The main was braised and firm tofu in an oyster sauce served with a block of rice, which was a bit dry and steamed vegetables. There is a huge shiitake mushroom under the cucumber. The sauce and juice from the vegetables helped make the rice a bit more moist. It was filling enough for the flight as I had eaten before in the lounge. Service was efficient and about 30 minutes later everything was cleaned up. There was about one hour left.

Arrival into taipei

There is no stretching video for this short flight. We landed about 15 minutes late and had a long taxi to the gate. Immigration took a bit of time as there were several other flights arriving around the same time we did. My luggage tagged priority was there once I got past immigration. I was out and ready to start my short time in Taipei and Taichung.