5th Freedom Wonders with SQ [Singapore Airlines] SQ 16 ICN-SFO (Seoul/Incheon->San Francisco) trip report [싱가포르항공] SQ 16 서울/인천->샌프란시스코 탑승기

The B77W looks great on Singapore Airlines colors

SQ 16 ICN-SFO (Seoul/Incheon->San Francisco)

DEP ICN 17:45 20 SEP 2012

ARR SFO 12:15 20 SEP 2012

Flight Duration: 10:30

Aircraft: B777-300ER

Today's flight took a bit southern route close to Hawaii. 

오늘의 비행은 약간 남쪽으로 비행하게 됬네요.

After good stay in homeland and travel to Germany (trip reports to follow), I took the Singapore Airlines flight SQ 016 back from Seoul-Incheon to San Francisco.  I would be departing from ICN around dinner time and arriving in SFO around noon-time.  Today's aircraft was B77W.  The flight is a continuation from SQ 016 flight from Singapore to Seoul-Incheon, with 1 hr 30 min layover in ICN. 

For my SQ 015 SFO-ICN trip report, click here!

한국에서의 여행과 독일여행을 하게 되고 이제 미국으로 돌아갈 때가 되었습니다.  싱가포르항공을 타고 귀국하게 되었습니다. 인천공항에서 저녁 6시쯤 출발하여서 샌프란시스코에 오후 12시쯤 도착하는 비행이였습니다.  기종은 B777-300ER이며, 싱가포르에서 샌프란시스코까지 가는 SQ 016편의 두번째 구간입니다. 

I got to the satellite concourse A via airport underground monorail that connects main terminal to the concourse. I was in the same train with the KLM flight crew. 

Concourse interior view

My flight would be leaving from Gate 123 tonight.

A Turkish Airlines A340 with old livery just pulled in.

Korean Air A380 may be the prettiest A380 out there.

SQ 016 arriving behind schedule from Singapore

It didn't take long for the plane to get to the gate.

SIA may be star alliance, but it seems that the airline partnered with Korean Air Catering in ICN.

Some passengers who were aboard SQ 016 flight from Singapore were holding boarding card that they received as they disembarked the plane in ICN.

The boarding process was proceeded by Asiana Airlines ground staff.

The engines of B777-300ER sure looked enormous!

Economy section near the wings.

And my seat for the flight tonight, 52K.

I like SQ's choices for the cabin colors.

Boarding finished in 30 minutes and the plane pushed-back 50 minutes behind schedule.

AVOD system of SQ's new economy seats

After take-off. The plane was flying toward the East Sea.

By this time, the plane as crossing over the mountains in the east side of the Korean peninsula. The plane started going through series of severe turbulence. Captain made announcements that he received warnings from the earlier flights in the same route. The flight services were stopped for about good two hours, and all flight attendants were seated for duration of this time. 

Over Japan, near Tokyo.

For dinner service, I got a strogonoff-style beef with mashed potatoes. The pasta salad on the top left had tuna.

Singapore Airlines long-haul flights has snacks for Economy class passengers in the back. Just make your way to the back and grab as you wish.

The snacks contained bananas, chips, and some bread filled with chicken or vegetables.

I watched an architecture documentary about Vitrahaus, an architecture masterpiece in Germany.

A very unique design!

The sun was rising as we were flying close to Hawaii Islands. 

For breakfast, I chose the western style (I forgot what the other option was).

The sun was up and bright in the morning of 20 AUG.

Approaching Californian coast.

The plane arrived at the same gate I left from with SQ 015 a month ago. (Trip report here)

Southwest Airlines flight bound for Chicago-Midway. I fell asleep for entire duration of this flight.

Thank you for reading my trip reports!

Berlin with China Southern Airlines [Korean Air] KE 855 ICN-PEK (Seoul/Incheon->Beijing) trip report [대한항공] KE 855 서울/인천->베이징 탑승기

KE 855 ICN-PEK (Seoul/Incheon->Beijing)

DEP ICN 11:05 09 SEP 2012

ARR PEK 12:30 09 SEP 2012

Flight Duration: 2:25

Aircraft: B777-300

A project from my company came up in Berlin, Germany while I was spending my vacay in Korea, so my company sent me directly from Korea to Germany.  They let me book my own flights, reimbursing upto $1500 of airfare.  There's no direct flight between Korea and Berlin.  Korean Air was way too expensive (price exceeding 2000 USD), but the airline did have direct flight to Frankfurt, where I could transfer to Air Berlin.  Asiana Airlines was the same case.  As I was researching, China Southern Airlines appealed to me the most.  It offered the cheapest price at the time (under 1100 USD). The flight segments would be as such. 

Outbound trip: Seoul-Incheon(ICN)->Beijing(PEK)->Amsterdam(AMS)->Berlin(TXL)

Inbound trip: Berlin(TXL)->Amsterdam(AMS)->Beijing(PEK)->Seoul-Gimpo(GMP)

Details of the trip was as such. 저의 여정은 이랬습니다.

Outbound 출국

ICN-PEK: KE 855 DEP 11:05 09 SEP 12 ARR 12:30 09 SEP 12

PEK-AMS: CZ 345 DEP 14:30 09 SEP 12 ARR 18:20 09 SEP 12

AMS-TXL: KL 1835 DEP 20:40 09 SEP 12 ARR 21:55 09 SEP 12

Inbound 귀국

TXL-AMS: KL 1826 DEP 14:30 17 SEP 12 ARR 15:50 17 SEP 12

AMS-PEK: KL 897 DEP 17:40 17 SEP 12 ARR 09:55 18 SEP 12

PEK-GMP: KE 2852 DEP 11:45 18 SEP 12 ARR 14:55 18 SEP 12

As you can see from the schedule, the only China Southern Airlines flight was the CZ 345 flight from PEK to AMS.  Two of the flights were with Korean Air and three of the flights were with KLM. This trip would mark my first time ever flying with both China Southern Airlines and KLM.  And, to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent service by China Southern Airlines. 

한국서 휴가를 보내던중, 일하는 회사에서 독일에 일이 있다고 해서 한국에서 독일 급히 가야 했습니다. 가장 싼 티켓을 알아보다가 중국남방항공이 가장 싸서 중국남방항공으로 결제하게됬습니다.  왕복에 총 여섯개의 플라이트로, 편도당 서울->북경->암스테르담->베를린 이렇게 가게 되었습니다. 중국남방항공으로 결제했지만 실은 그중 하나만 남방항공 이였습니다.  나머지는 같은 스카이팀 수속의 대한항공과 KLM 으로 가게 되었습니다. 

우선 9월 9일에 대한항공 KE 855편 (인천->북경)으로 출국했습니다. 

My Korean Air boarding pass for my KE 855 flight from Seoul-Incheon to Beijing. Since I purchased the itinerary through China Southern Airlines, the boarding pass actually contained China Southern's code-shared flight number, CZ 4508.

The beautiful looking B777-300. This was got freshly repainted so that the Korean Air font looks bigger. IMHO, it looks a lot better like this. 

Boarding stated at 10:35. I was coming back from meeting my friend who was Chicago-bound with Asiana Airlines.

The inside of the plane was very clean, but the scratches on the windows (not sure what causes such scratch) bothered me a bit.

New Economy seats for B777-300.

The inflight meal had no choices. (Korean Air tend to not have choices for inflight meals on shorter international flights to Japan and China. For the meal it was chicken, Korean rice cake slices, rice, salad, Korean style dessert (sweet rice cake), and bread. The chicken was excellent with tasty sauce. 

The window scratches were very bothersome.

Arriving at mainland.

The pollution at Beijing was evident even before landing. Smog was inundating the city.

The Terminal 3, designed by Norman Foster.

And the plane arrived into Terminal 2. In PEK, Skyteam airlines remained at Terminal 2 even when Terminal 3 opened back in 2008. Hainan Airlines took over all of Terminal 1.

To the immigration customs! There are no transfer facilities in China airports, so all transfer passengers must go through immigration customs, where they will have to show ticket itinerary or boarding passes for onward flights and receive a stamp in the passport for 24-hour limit stay within China. No visa necessary.* Yes, even without Chinese visa, transfer passengers can still get out of airport and travel to downtown China, as long as they make it to next flight out of China.

*(from 2013, Beijing and Shanghai airport transfer passengers may receive 72-hour transit visa, as long as the onward flight is out of China to different city other than the city they flew in from... meaning no round-trip ticket to Beijing to Shanghai will receive 72 hour transit visa) 

Immigration customs.. The transfer lines are to the far right.