Review of Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul to San Francisco in Economy

AAR

OZ - Asiana Airlines

Flight taken on 01 January 2025
OZ216
16:50 10h 40m 10:30
Class Economy
Seat -
NGO85
869 · 102 · 3 · 23

Routing



Pre-Flight


After the painfully slow transit security process, we head up into ICN T1.


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A quick peek at the FIDS, which would not show our flight since it was in the previous time block for flights between 15:00-17:00.


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I still prefer ICN T1 relative to the newer ICN T2. Our plane was due to leave from Gate 7, so we would head to the east side of the airport to use the lounge.


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Asiana Business Lounge East


OZ has multiple lounges, but we will use the Business Lounge East today due to proximity to gate. We had access to the lounge due to our *G statuses, but also had access since we had Economy Smartium tickets, which provides lounge access in ICN.


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The floating logo welcomes us and a quick scan of our boarding passes provided access.


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Work spaces near the entrance.


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Faux library seating areas near the bathrooms/showers.


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Bar area where all alcoholic offerings are housed.


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Private seating areas line the walls, but lack tarmac views.


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The main seating area, which is very exposed. These central areas are the only places to find group seating.


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The buffet area offers hot/cold options, but was too busy to be photographed and not of interest having just ate on the plane.


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I will stick to the liquids of different shapes and colors.


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Boarding


About 30 minutes before boarding was due to begin, I left to take my son to a play area to get some energy out pre-flight.


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I like the inclusion of skylights to brighten the terminal.


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ICN T1 has numerous kid's zones scattered throughout and we settled on the Pororo themed one near our gate.


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At 16:15, the go to gate alert popped up so we headed down to the gate.


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Reaching the gate, boarding was imminent and looked like it would start ahead of time as the agents were busy organizing the boarding groups and checking documents.


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Our flight today would be operated by HL8383, an A359 delivered to OZ in 2020.


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Boarding started early and we were quickly herded into the business class line as the agents quickly checked documents. Down to the jet bridge we go.


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We will head down to L2 to board.


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A warm welcome from the crew as we turned into our aisle.


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I felt the lavatory near R2 was annoying on the SFO-ICN flight since the door slams shut every time someone enters/exits, so switched our seats over to the other side of the cabin to have less traffic/noise around our seats mid-flight since our son needed to sleep. The regular Y cabin was 100% load, but the Smartium cabin was only ~75% full so there were a lot of empty middle seats. A view of the row behind ours, which features the Safran Z300 hard-product with a 36-37" seat pitch.


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The unoccupied seats were clearly denoted with stickers on the antimacassars to discourage squatters.


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Pre-placed on the seats are blanket, pillow, and amenity kit.


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Seat pitch is excellent in the Economy Smartium section with 8-10" between knees and seat back.


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The seat back contains the ~11" IFE screen and remote.


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Under the tiltable screen is the headphone jack and USB-A port.


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Universal 110v outlets were located between seats.


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The seat back contained duty free catalog, Wi-Fi instructions, airsickness bag, and safety card.


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Headphones with single use covers.


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Good quality pillow with fabric cover.


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Similarly, a good quality blanket.


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The amenity kit, which contains slippers, eye mask, and dental kit.


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Standard A350 PSU with no air vents.


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The doors closed at 16:57 as the FAs bowed to the cabin. We pushed back at 17:02 as the safety video played before starting the long taxi around to runway 34R.


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We took off on runway 34R at 17:22, ~30 minutes late and were quickly making our u-turn to start our trek towards Honshu. The CHML was delivered just 24 minutes into the flight and the carts were in the aisle for the main service just shortly after that.


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The tray table is bifold in design.


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The options were ssambap or a western meal (chicken). I find ssambap difficult to eat on a plane, but still preferred over a Western option. Trays were delivered and then drinks were offered.


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The ssambap consisting of leafy vegetables, beef bulgogi, and rice. The back left corner was bean paste and an omelet.


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Bean paste soup.


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Kimchi is still offered.


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A small mochi stuffed with bean paste for dessert.


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Metal cutlery, chopsticks, refreshing wipe, napkin, and ssambap instructions are provided.


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A glass of Spanish red wine.


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A nice aspect of OZ is that they use J tableware for the Korean meals in Y.


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The ssambap is good, but just not easy to eat.


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Overall, a very satisfying meal as expected ex-ICN.


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Coffee is offered after the meal.


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If you drink quickly, you can also collect a tea as they come down the aisle a second time.


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The meal service concluded as we reached Honshu.


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The lavatory is the standard A350 offering, but L'Occitane products are offered as well as some other amenities.


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OZ' entertainment system is average at best despite the screen quality. I rarely watch anything on any flight, so do not factor this limitation into my decision of carrier.




OZ has Panasonic Wi-Fi on their A350s and the service was easily accessed via their portal.


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Three different plans are available and the full flight plan is reasonably priced at $21.95.


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Signal was good throughout the flight, albeit slow as expected with Panasonic Wi-Fi.


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About 2 hours to arrival, the lights started to cycle back on. No mid-flight snacks were distributed, but an announcement was made at the start of the flight that the rear galley would have a snack bar setup.


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The CHML was delivered first.


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The main was rice-rolled omelet with sausages and vegetables.


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A heavy serving of packaged Korean items in the snack box.


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The carts for the second meal operate from the rear of the cabin forward to ensure everyone can at least get their first choice entree for one of the meals. The options were a rice porridge with abalone or a Western option (scrambled eggs). I opted for the Korean option.


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The meal revealed.


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Sides are a yogurt, fruit cup, roll and butter.


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The main was a rice porridge with dried abalone, mushrooms, and scallions. Even though they are still served in plastic dishes, they are re-usable and a nice alternative to single use plastics employed by most other carriers.


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Coffee and tea were offered after the meal.


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The sun has now risen but clouds were still covering the Pacific.


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As standard for OZ, the UNICEF ad plays followed by their exercise video, which actually gets quite good participation throughout the cabin.


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We reached the California coast just south of Half Moon Bay.


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A look up the Peninsula towards San Francisco.


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SFO is visible.


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Nice aerial of Redwood City down to Palo Alto.


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Then San Carlos up to Foster City.


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We start our turn north.


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Stanford University amongst the trees.


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Bair Island as we complete our turn to align with SFO.


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Crossing Redwood Shores.


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Burlingame in the distance as we drop closer to the water.


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Clearing the sea wall.


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We touch down on runway 28L at 09:54, >30 minutes early.


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We exit off past UA's vast domestic operations.


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We arrived too early and took a spot in the queue behind a CA B77W awaiting gates in Concourse G. The pilot came on and apologized and said it would be at least 10 minutes until our gate was ready. It at least offered a chance for some plane spotting as the heavies rolled out of Concourse G. We start with a UA B77W.


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Then a SQ A359.


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Then a UA B788 being taken back to the domestic side of the airport.


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We finally started moving and passed a NH B77W.


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Looping around, the CA B77W had just pulled in ahead of us.


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We took our slot at G4, which at least means a shorter walk to immigration.


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We pulled in with a UA B772 next door.


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Goodbye OZ, until next time.


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It was a short walk up to immigration, which was instantly cleared with Global Entry.


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It was a decent wait for bags, but priorities were respected and we quickly collected our items and were out to catch a ride home.


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That concludes this series, thanks for stopping by!


Flight Information


Asiana Airlines, OZ216
Equipment: Airbus A350-900 [HL8383, delivered December 2020]
Departure: 16:50 (ATD: 17:22)
Arrival: 10:30 (ATA: 09:54)
Flight time: 9:32


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Display all

Product ratings

Airline

Asiana Airlines 8.5

  • Cabin9.0 / 10
  • Cabin crew9.0 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi7.0 / 10
  • Meal/catering9.0 / 10
Lounge

Asiana Airlines Business Lounge6.5

  • Comfort5.0 / 10
  • Meal/catering6.0 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi8.0 / 10
  • Services7.0 / 10
Departure airport

Seoul - ICN8.0

  • Efficiency4.0 / 10
  • Access8.0 / 10
  • Services10.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness10.0 / 10
Arrival Airport

San Francisco - SFO8.8

  • Efficiency10.0 / 10
  • Access7.0 / 10
  • Services9.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness9.0 / 10

Conclusion

OZ offers a very strong Y product and with their competitive fares to China/Japan represents excellent value from North America. Hopefully the KE/OZ route re-organization doesn't cut too many of their flights from the West Coast until 2026 since OZ's A359 hard product is much better than KE's current B787 hard product. The only criticism is that the seat could have better lumbar support, but that was fixed with the pillow. The OZ crew was friendly and efficient doing all service with politeness and a smile and went out of their way to assist families. The IFE is good quality for Y (resolution/size), but content is below average. Charging options (USB-A and 110V universal outlet) and Wi-Fi were sufficient. Catering ex-ICN was very good for both meals.

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Comments (3)

  • nice a350 product on oz where the ife is not as many compare to KE even great meal service too as well

    • Thanks for stopping by. KE does provide a better IFE offering, but OZ's not been incentivized to re-invest in improving hard product during the drawn out merger process.

      • yea i agree even the good cabin product as well do stay tuned for most of my new trip report the first 2 trip report on my korea adventure is out. as i tried the B777 300 ER on korean air.

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