Review of Korean Air flight Seoul → Shanghai in Economy

background

This series covers a trip to Shanghai, please refer back to Part 1 for the introduction. At the time of this report, KE had resumed 3x daily service ICN-PVG, there is also 1x daily GMP-SHA service (but the flight time is aligned with business travel and we had no desire to choose an ICN-GMP airport transfer). The competition on this connection of major economic hubs is good with 16 flights between the cities (OZ: 3x to PVG and 1x to SHA; MU/FM: 4x to PVG and 2x to SHA; and CZ: 2x to PVG).

This report will cover the flight from Seoul-Incheon to Shanghai-Pudong, the bonus at the end will be a review of CRH's business class service from Shanghai Hongqiao to Nanjingnan for those into trains. As a reminder the routing for this trip:

Pre-flight

At 18:25, we exited our flight from SFO at the same time boarding was supposed to start for our flight to PVG which was a little stressful until we realized that KE had arranged agents to handle all tight connections due to the late arrival from SFO. Exiting our plane, we met our agent and she escorted us through transit security and to our next gate. A look at our plane, HL8248, an almost 12-year old B739 delivered to KE back in May 2012, at the adjacent gate before we start our long walk.

We walked the ~500m trek back to the transfer security with our agent.

Transit security was moderately busy since we are at the end of the major arrival block before all of the flights to North America/Oceania leave, but our agent led us through a dedicated line for tight connections and we were back airside very quickly. We then had to back-track all the way to where we had started. My first time in ICN T2, and it definitely looks new, but still feels incomplete compared to T1.

Checking my phone enroute, I received an e-mail from KE informing us that our flight was delayed from 18:55 to 21:10 “due to operational conditions.” I appreciate the visual communication of the change versus a text only version that most airlines provide.

boarding

We finally finished our 20-minute walk reaching the gate at 18:47, where there were several other passengers still filtering in from other late-arriving flights.

Documents are checked and we are sent through. Since all of Incheon’s gates are downstairs, you have to proceed down escalators to the arrivals level and into the nice glass jet bridge.

Reaching the threshold of our plane, there are 2 FAs to greet us and one came out to help our son up the step into the plane. The welcome on-board is friendly as expected on KE.

Entering the galley, earphones are available as you proceed into the cabin.

flight

Since we are part of the stragglers, the cabin is already full so no cabin shots boarding. The overhead bins were all full in the front so the FA told me to take my seat and she would make some space for us. She came back a minute later and escorted me to the back of the plane where she had made space for our cabin luggage.

The KE B739s have different configurations (domestic/international), ours will be on an international configuration 900ER with J8/Y165 and in-seat IFE. This is a picture on arrival at PVG as I had to wait for the plane to empty before going back to retrieve our bags. The seats are visually similar to the B77Ws, but are narrower (17”), have less pitch (31”), and have smaller IFE (9”) with the older Beyond interface (despite the same content). At OLCI, the flight looked very empty, so we picked A/C/D to try and secure some empty middle seats. The gamble partially paid off with B in our row remaining empty. We selected seats in the “Preferred” section (rows 28-31) which they try and charge ~$15-20 for, but were complimentary with our SkyTeam Elite Plus statuses. There are no differences in the seat, they are just in the front of the plane to deplane quicker (a benefit voided by the lack of overhead bin space in our row due to late boarding).

As soon as we settled in, a FA quickly came up and offered our son the toy set. This time he got a Pororo water painting book. She also confirmed his CHML order and placed the sticker on his seat to mark the special meal.

As expected on KE, the purser was also quickly back to greet my wife and I and introduce herself and thanked us for our SkyTeam loyalty.

There was a final group of a couple passengers that arrived after us and we quickly completed boarding and closed the front door. The flight was 100% full in J and ~95% full in Y with only a couple middle seats throughout free. The FAs were up the cabins to hand out earphones to anyone that missed them boarding and arrival cards for China.

Our view out the window will of course be HL8009, who brought us to ICN in Part 1. Fingers crossed the bags made it over.

The seat pitch is significantly less than on the long-haul fleet (31” vs. 34”), but an industry average and acceptable for a <2h flight. This was a good reminder of why we didn’t opt for UA on a direct SFO-PVG. There were no pillows on this flight, so you could subtract another inch or two from the pitch if placing one behind you for lumbar support.

The seat back is the same as on the B77W with a coat hook, USB-A port, bi-fold tray table with flip down cup holder, and seat back pocket with a separator for the literature. The IFE is old and very laggy, but the 9” screen was still decent resolution and brightness. The system was very non-responsive to touch, had to press 2-3 times to get it to register selections so the remote was still useful to have around.

Power outlets are under the seats with 2 shared per 3 seats.

The substantial seat back literature offering. I will note that the quality of all printed materials is very good, with thick matte paper for Morning Calm, SkyShop catalog, and the safety card.

Unlike on the B77W, there are personal air vents on the B739s, which was needed after the speed walk to the gate.

We pushed back at 19:07 as the cabin lights were dimmed and we basked in the blue BSI mood lighting. The safety video as discussed last time is a new version with AI flight attendants and passengers, but maybe not as strange as the winking guy from the old OS safety video.

Picture of the cabin as we wait for the turbines to start.

The ground staff wave goodbye as we head out after a pair of KE B77Ws were towed back to remote stands.

Our taxi took us by the KE B77W in ST livery and the OZ B772 in *A livery as we went out to runway 34R for departure.

We took off at 19:27, over 30 minutes late, with a sharp u-turn to the left to start our trek down the western coast of Korea.

The Beyond IFE is available gate-to-gate. The interface is more clunky than on the B77Ws, but the content is still decent in terms of selection. I won’t go through the details, you can easily see their offerings here (https://www.koreanair.com/in-flight/entertainment). There is no Wi-Fi on this aircraft, which is a moot point since flights into China rarely have Wi-Fi activated.

Just 13 minutes after take-off at 19:40, a FA came up and offered the CHML handing it to me saying that the main was still very hot so please wait before giving it to my son. The tray as delivered, there was a banana milk drink, small bag of crisps, packaged roll with strawberry jam, bamboo cutlery, and packaged refreshing towel.

On flights departing ICN, there are 3 options for CHML: spaghetti, BBQ chicken, and beef bulgogi.

The beef bulgogi CHML that is offered ex-ICN contains rice and squash. I tried some of the bulgogi and it was definitely geared towards children based on the muted flavors one would expect.

KE publishes their menus in all classes online (https://www.koreanair.com/us/en/in-flight/onboard-service/dining/first) and a couple of days before departure they even provide pictures of the dishes so if you do your homework, there should be no surprises in-flight. The menus are also available in the KE app if you want to check it in-flight. The only issue I found was that for this particular flight, the online menu was wrong (shrimp with pasta), but the picture provided was correct (halibut with potatoes). There are no meal options on this flight in Y so everyone is handed the same tray along with a full drink selection, they likely use seafood meals to have the least amount of conflict with dietary restrictions. If you don't like what they have, then you should pre-order a special meal.

Just 15 minutes after take-off at 19:42, the meal carts were out.  My tray as delivered. I’m assuming they use the smaller trays for space/weight reasons, but at least the tray is filled to the brim.

The meal unpackaged. In addition to the food, there is a packaged refreshing towel, metal cutlery, salad dressing (olive oil and balsamic vinegar), and butter.

The starter is salmon with salad and the dessert is wedges of apple and orange. Both were fresh, but my wife also agreed that the salmon ex-SFO tasted better.

While presentation was not glamorous, the halibut was flaky and moist. Still full from the previous flight, I only ate the fish and vegetables and passed on the potato wedges which were slightly tough post-reheating.

The meal was washed down with a can of Cass since they didn’t have KAL's Lager on this flight (which the FA was very apologetic for). There is no separate tea/coffee service on regional flights (hence the absence of cups on the trays) so if these are not requested during the single pass of the drink cart you’d have to request it via call button.

After the meal service, the crew cleared the cabin and did the duty free pass. I rested my eyes for the remaining 20 minutes of the cruise before the crew started preparing the cabin for landing ~30 minutes out.

The cabin as we align for our short final into PVG over the Hangzhou Bay from the south.

First sign of land as we cross over Dishuihui.

We had a slightly hard landing onto runway 34R at 20:03 local time, which was followed by the expected long taxi at PVG over to T1. First glimpse of T2 and all the *A carriers.

Passing by a CA A359 before crossing over to T1.

We do the long taxi to the end of T1 and loop around the end to take a gate between a sea of MU narrow bodies.

We pull into Gate 26 at 20:19 after our 16 minute taxi next to a MU A320neo.

Deplaning was quick, which was good since we had to wait to be the last to deplane so that I could get back to reclaim our cabin luggage from the rear. The crew gathered in the galley thanked us for flying and proactively helped our son down the step from the plane into the jet bridge.

Arriving at the end of T1 meant we had a >700m walk back to the immigration checkpoint.

A MU flight from JFK just arrived ahead of us so immigration was slow with only 4 foreign national lanes open and China increasing its scrutiny on foreigners leading to longer processing times. By the time we got through and down to the baggage claim it was 21:11 and our bags were among the ~5 left circulating on the belt. As feared, only 2 of our 3 bags made it to PVG. On one hand, 2 is better than 0, but not sure how our bags got separated at SFO when they were loaded into the containers since they all had priority tags. Walking over to the baggage counter, they were already pre-notified by KE and told us that the bag would arrive on KE893 the next day. We filled out our paperwork with contact information and received the bag by 4pm the next day at our hotel.

We walked over to P1 and booked our ride, and were quickly on our way into the city center. The fare was ~250 RMB (~$35).

We will close out this report with some nice views of the Huangpu River and city from our suite as we start our stay in Shanghai.

flight details

Korean Air, KE895
Equipment: Boeing B737-900ER [HL8248, delivered May 2012]
Departure: 18:55 (ATD: 19:27)
Arrival: 20:10 (ATA: 20:03)
Flight time: 1:36

Bonus : Click here display hide

The bonus for this report will be CRH's service from Shanghai Honqiao to Nanjingnan in business class. The business class product varies greatly, and we have the older product on this train. The new products are enclosed suites with 1-1 configuration, but are likely used on more premium routes like Shanghai-Beijing. Yes, you can fly from Shanghai to Nanjing, but MU is the only carrier and it is limited to PVG-NKG 1x daily. With CAAC's restrictions, you are likely to see no service on this flight since it is only 40 minutes wheel up/down. That said, MU does sell the route cheap (~170 RMB, ~$25) so it is competitive to the train in pricing, just not convenience.

Our ride of the day, which would be operating from Jiaxingnan to Yunchengbei today in ~12 hours.

The business class cabin is in a 2-1, 1-1 configuration (5 seats total) in the nose of car 8 on this 16 car configuration.

The pair of seats in Row 2.

A view of Row 1 in its 1-1 configuration. I suspect both passengers were already on the train from the origin in Jiaxing and were deep asleep with the seats in flat bed mode.

Seat pitch is of course excellent since these can go down to form ~185cm flat beds.

Slippers are provided.

Seat controls and tray table are in the right arm rest.

IFE screen is in the left arm rest, which I did not test out since we were only on for ~80-minutes.

Universal charging ports are on the front of the seats, but no USB adaptors.

A snack box is provided along with a quite large refreshing towel by the staff. Coffee/tea is also offered and our son was asked if he wanted something else.

The snack box contents.

Our son's muffin and milk.

The coffee is likely Nescafe unfortunately. My wife's tea choice is obviously better since it is loose leaf.

The business class product is not bad, you are really paying for the privacy/quiet since it is usually double first class ticket prices.