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.
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