Review of Korean Air flight from Seoul to Beijing in Business

Background

This series covers a recent trip to China. Needing to be in the Beijing area, there are limited options from SFO. CA/UA both operate direct flights and I would have picked CA, but they unfortunately do not operate daily service and Sundays are one of the days they don’t operate. The best compromise of cost/time was KE with a SFO-ICN-PEK routing. Since it was ~30% cheaper to buy the two legs separately I booked the SFO-ICN leg through DL to get some needed MQDs and then the ICN-PEK leg through KE since it cannot be purchased through DL. KE had no problem merging the PNRs, issuing a boarding pass in SFO, and through checking my bag.

Routing

Pre-Flight

KE's new catering now allows the pre-order of meals from expanded online menus on flights ex-ICN. Looking at the options, nothing looked particularly enticing, so I did not bother pre-ordering anything.

Checking in online the night before the flight showed one free seat, but it would be 100% full in J.

Transfer in Seoul

We pick up this series where we left off entering the transit security at ICN T2, which is now inferior to the ICN T1 experience. ICN T2 does not have machines that enable electronics to stay in your bag so it is a much slower process and it took 15 minutes to clear what was a fairly short line.

Clearing transit security, up we go into the terminal as we are welcomed by the high ceilings and abundance of plants.

Reaching the main concourse, the Korean Air Lounge (Prestige/East) is straight ahead.

I had other plans so started the long trek down the hall in the other direction.

Distracted by a KE B739 in the new livery on the way.

Korean Air Lounge (Prestige/Garden East)

It is a long walk, but eventually I made it to one of the new garden lounges that were opened at the terminus of each end of the terminal.

I enquired about a shower at the entrance and the agent walked me all the way to the back to the kiosk where I joined the queue.

I took a quick stroll around the lounge while waiting, which was very modern and chic. It was very quiet inside, not surprising given the few flights leaving from the area and the fact it was a good 10 minute walk from the main part of the airport.

A good diversity of seating areas throughout.

There was a substantial buffet area, but I was full from the flight and still had another meal to go.

Drinks stations were throughout.

There is a large bar on one end of the lounge. The bar attendant starting talking to me while I was walking by so I felt obliged to get a drink.

I took my libations back to a seating area to relax.

They had a couple Korean beers on tap so I tried the Magpie Pale Ale, which was a decent pour.

I eventually got a text my shower room was ready. The hotel style shower room was very nice and a surprisingly large space. It had Aesop products, a Toto bidet toilet, and a good shower. The only omission of note was slippers.

Pre-Boarding

At 19:05, I left to start the long walk back to my gate since boarding was due to start at 19:30. This part of the terminal is very quiet until you get to the main shopping area.

FIDS tonight.

We were scheduled to leave from Gate 250, which is also where the Information Desk is.

An escalator down typically means bus gate.

Turns out it is not a bus gate. I didn't know ICN had gates on the arrivals level. Shortly after arriving, a PA announcement was made to announce boarding would be delayed 10 minutes to 19:40.

Our plane was not easy to photograph so this is the best I can do from different angles. It would be HL8556, a <2 year old A321neo with KE's standard C8 (Prestige Sleeper 2.0 in 2-2) and Y174 (3-3) configuration.

Boarding

Boarding started at 19:40 and out we went to the plane. It is strange being in ICN and not going down escalators to board, but I suspect this gate and the adjacent gate are special since they straddle the control tower.

KE did not opt for the raccoon eyes on its A321neos. While it would have clashed with their old livery, I think it would actually harmonize their new livery better.

Entering the plane, I was greeted by 2 FAs and directed to my seat.

Seat Tour

I quickly find myself at Row 8 and KE's new regional product called the Prestige Sleeper 2.0 consisting of B/E (Collins) Aerospace Parallel Diamond seats in a 2-2 configuration.

Pre-placed on the seat were the new pillow, old blanket, and noise-cancelling headphones.

As expected, these seats are very close together given the 21" seat width provided. There is a small privacy wing between seats, but it's not much.

Seat pitch is very good at 63" making aisle access easy for the window seat passengers. I had no problem leaving my seat while my seat mate was sleeping.

The large 17" screens are high resolution, but very glossy.

Under the screen is a small storage area and the skinny footwell, which had slippers pre-placed on boarding.

Over your shoulder is a storage area with headphone jack and USB-C port along with a reading light that can probably only be easily used when the seat is in recline or in flatbed mode.

On the front of the center console is a 110V universal outlet and another USB-C port.

On the side of the console is a small remote and the literature pocket.

The standard literature offering: safety card, airsickness bag, Morning Calm, and duty free catalog.

The IFE remote is basic, but does list the time to destination at the top which is a good feature.

The top of the center console is the wireless charging station.

The PSU on this new aircraft.

The tray table is bifold in design and has device holders.

Pre-Departure Service.

Settling in, the FA serving our cabin came back and offered drinks from a tray and a snack mix.

She then returned with arrival cards and pens.

Then returned a third time to hand out menus. I didn't photograph it on the plane, so here are screenshots of the menu available online.

The view from my window.

Departure from Incheon

As we prepared for push back, the safety video played. It is at least cut to include aircraft specific features.

A look at the control tower that was next to our gate.

We get a wave goodbye as we start the short taxi over to runway 34R for departure.

Taxing out past a KE B787 at the end of the west pier.

A pair of A380s bound for LAX as we wait for our departure slot due to PEK ATC.

Eventually, it was our turn to take off at 20:43.

Goodbye ICN.

Meal Service

Service started with the distribution of hot towels as we were heading towards Shandong.

No table cloths are laid and it will be just a direct tray service with the FA opening the wine and pouring some.

As I was taking my picture, the FA quickly returned with a bowl of soup. The menu said there was a Grilled Kale Salad for a starter, so not sure where that went, but the meal looks good and substantive.

The nice metal cutlery and chopsticks on KE.

Along the back, we have a trio of small dishes (kimchi, spinach and beef, and baby bamboo).

The soup was quite good, not sure what it was, but rich and flavorful and a lot different than the standard soybean paste soup usually found on Korean carriers.

I had opted for the Korean Spicy Braised Seafood and it was as spicy as it looked. There were several scallops, shrimp, and pieces of fish inside.

Everything was washed down with a different red wine than listed on the menu. This would be from Bordeaux. 

After I finished, my tray was cleaned up and a fruit plate was served along with the offer of tea or coffee.

Most ate quickly and slept on this short hop between capitols.

The lavatory was clean, but small. There were a good amount of amenities including dental kits, mouth wash, and razors.

The lights turned off after the fairly quick service (<1h into the flight), which lulled me to sleep as well as we were approaching Tianjin.

In-Flight Entertainment

The IFE screen was sharp and responsive. The content is above average, but I only used the moving map. These screens do allow bluetooth device connection to serve as remote or connect headphones.

Wi-Fi was available, but I didn't use it. I find the prices for regional flights to be steep, ~$12 is high for a 2.5h flight.

Arrival into Beijing-Capital

After dozing off during the descent, I awoke as we were just miles from the airport. We apparently had done some holding patterns east of the airport based on the flight map.

The least atrocious photograph of the approach to runway 1 with us landing at 21:19, slightly ahead of schedule.

The purser came on the PA quickly to announce our arrival and inform passengers of a 15-20 minute taxi to the gate and to remain seated until we reach the gate. Looping around T3 as we head to the bowels of the airport to loop around to T2.

The highlight of the airport tour was seeing the HU aircraft graveyard.

HU B788 (B-2730) has been stored since October 2024 and has one partially dissembled engine.

JD A333 (B-8019) has been stored since April 2025 and is missing an engine.

HU B788 (B-2723) has been stored since April 2025 and has one missing and one partially dissembled engine.

We eventually reach T2.

We circle the terminal to the international side.

HU-B789 (B-6998) in the All Red special livery.

AF B789 prepping for its return to CDG.

We finally reach our gate at 21:48 after a ~25 minute taxi.

We are off quickly into the terminal and head up to the immigration area.

A last look at our plane heading up the escalator.

My first time arriving into PEK T2 on an international flight, but fluidity is good.

Straight into an empty immigration area and I'm immediately through.

Down to the baggage claim.

By the time I returned from the bathroom, the bags started circulating and I was out to find my driver quickly.

I'll leave off this series here, thanks for stopping by!

Flight Information

Korean Air, KE853
Equipment: Airbus A321neo [HL8556, delivered November 2023]
Departure: 20:00 (ATD: 20:43)
Arrival: 21:30 (ATA: 21:19)
Flight time: 1:36