ekscrunchy

It appears that both of these carriers fly direct from JFK to Seoul; I wonder if anyone can offer opinions on either airline to help me decide; unless I can find a "bargain" business fare (any advice?) I will probably fly coach.
(The trip will be in March or April; from Korea I will travel to China and return to Korea before flying back to the US)
Many thanks!

ekscrunchy

anyone??? thanks.

waynehazle

Flew Korean Air to Seoul a few years back
clean, great service, good food

would fly with them again

eezam

Flew Korean Air to Seoul and onto Hanoi on October 31st, returning from Bangkok to Seoul to JFK on November 15th. We were very impressed by the service and cleanliness of the plane. Would fly on Korean Air anytime.

julies

We're taking Korean air in coach Chicago to Seoul and then on to Vietnam. Do their transpacific planes have the individual tv screens or does everyone watch the same movies?

dperry

julies - i flew korean air earlier this year from los angeles to seoul. on the flight over, we had our own individual tv's and we could watch what we wanted
on the way home, however, the plane wasn't equipped with this feature
that was very disappointing
being able to watch what you want makes the flight go so much faster IMO

ekscrunchy

Thanks, everyone. I read of previous safety issues with KoreanAir but hopefully these have been resolved...

mrwunrfl

Flew Asiana to Seoul a few years back in business class. Great service, good food. Would fly with them again.

islandboy81

Flew Korean Air JFK to Seoul in August. Experienced great service as well. Each seat had it's own individual AVOD (Audio Video On Demand) system with a great selection of movies and TV shows. Just a note: at the time I flew, only the daytime flights out of JFK (KE 082) and Seoul (KE 081) were offering the AVOD. Not sure if this has changed since then.

ekscrunchy

Thanks..I feel better about the trip now. Koreanair has many more flights from JFK and they are also part of the Delta/Alitalia/Air France web so I think I will pay their office a visit this week to book.

Have any of you spent time in Seoul? Not sure how much time to allot..thinking 4 days which will include time to recover from jet lag...

ekscrunchy

I called Koreanair; they say that they usually have the AVOD devices on both JFK-Seoul flights now but cannot guarantee this since they do not know this far in advance (for late March) what the aircraft will be. Nevertheless, I am planning to book with them. For the first time in my life, I am considering (only considering) actually BUYING a business class ticket; does anyone have any ideas on how to do this at the best price? Any Asian flight sites recommended? Anything at all I should know? Many thanks.

islandboy81

It does look like all the JFK-Seoul (ICN) flights are now offering AVOD.

http://www.koreanair.com/local/na/gd..._ne_060427.htm

ekscrunchy

Thanks, Islandboy. I am seeing business class now for $5000 or so. This seems like an insane price to pay. Are there ANY tips at all for securing a less expensive business class ticket? As I said, I have never paid for this class before and do not have enough miles....many thanks.

rkkwan

$5,000 for business class to Asia isn't too bad. Full price is often around $7,000, but can be as low as $4,000 or so. Of course, depends on airline, routing, and dates.

You can also consider flying an airline with premium economy. For your routing, the one that makes the most sense is ANA. But that means connecting in Tokyo.

ekscrunchy

Thanks very much for the prompt response, Rkkwan.

I may look into the ANA option...will see what kind of connections I would be looking at and the savings in price between that and Koreanair bus class. I was thinking that there was some "secret" method that people were using to book these business class flights and that I was missing the boat, or plane, so to speak.

rkkwan

I tried to search for fares through gatewaylax.com, a consolidator specialized in Asian flights. They also come back with Korean for about $5,000 for March travel.

ekscrunchy

Thanks for the reponse! So the going rate is about that amount, more or less... I just received a response from Montreal from the following agency; they are quoting me US $4150. plus tax but it involves a connection and I don't know the details, as in which carrier, etc. I wonder if anyone here has dealt with this agency that I found through a small New York Times ad:

http://www.ax.imptrav.com/ContactUs.htm

ekscrunchy

Just heard back from the agency. This fare is for a EVA AIR flights with a change in Taipei. I think I will keep searching....

ekscrunchy

Thanks to everyone who has answered my questions so far. I am now planning to book with Koreanair. There are two flights a day from JFK to Korea. They each use different aircraft; can someone tell me if there is a noticeable difference between these two types of equipment that might influence my choice of flights:

777 200/200ER
747-400

Many thanks! (I know there must be websites that specialize in this type of information but I don't know which they are....)

islandboy81

SeatGuru has seating charts for both airplanes describing good and bad seats.

http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Kor...ng_747-400.php

http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Kor...ng_777-200.php

Seating charts from Korean Air.com

747
http://www.koreanair.com/local/na/gd...f/au_of_01.htm

777
http://www.koreanair.com/local/na/gd...f/au_of_03.htm