day 1 Frankfurt to Seoul

We went to the lounge in the terminal at Frankfurt for an hour or so. The same one that I went in with the family en route to India last October and we weren't very impressed. It's much the same although it was much quieter and there was an attempt to provide some hot food in shape of round sausagemeat with cold potatoes in a cheesy mixture. Not great and there was draught Becks but we'd had enough beer so went easy.


Went down to check in for the flight and Nick was told - apologetically - that his seat was broken and they needed to move him to 4D. After some careful consideration I agreed to leave 3A - a nice window seat - and move to 4E in the middle of 3 in the centre of the cabin.

4F was occupied by a Chinese chappie who was very quiet, didn't drink much and slept most of the way. But as I explained to Nick, the Asians don't like the sound of anything being expelled from the body so as he had a runny nose he spent the journey snorting. Which would have been useful sound effects if Babe was available on the in flight entertainment, but it wasn't.

We picked Asiana Airlines partly because there was availability for our bmi Diamond CLub reward points, partly because Asiana could connect through Seoul to airports at the Western end of Japan and partly because they have won several awards recently for best service. They were supposed to be better than Singapore Airlines. Although I haven't experienced Singapore Business Class since 1988, I have been Lufthansa and BA recently and they eclipse both of these for customer service.

The Boeing 777 is 2-3-2 configuration whereas BA with the same aircraft are 2-4-2. I think the BA beds are better, and always have been pretty good, as Asiana have those 170 degree recline versions which don't suit me very well...with the effects of being wined and dined then 'cooked' I had a few hours disturbed sleep - woken every now and then by Percy the Pig next door to me - before realising that the best way to sleep is rest feet at the bottom end of the bed.


A procession of nice hosties came and took out food and drink orders; although I asked for the Korean menu they'd run out so I had the Western one. Very nice too but at least we managed a Korean beer. It's called 'Hite' and tasted ok. There's no hidden 'S' under Nick's hand.


A not very good view of the cabin and some of the 6 girls assigned to serve the 18 of us in Business Class.


The seat back video monitors are the largest I've ever seen. But then I guess Korea is at the forefront of TV production.



Yum yum. This is the starter. No idea what we were eating as they took the menu away after we'd ordered but I don't recall seeing anything that sounded like it would go 'woof'. Tasted nice anyway.

About 2 hours before arrival at Seoul we were served a substantial breakfast, most of which I couldn't manage. Although I did have a very nice omelette and Tabasco and some more strange sausages. These were long thin ones so could have been Dachshund I guess.

We were both given customer surveys and Head Hostie knelt at our feet and told us what a pleasure it had been to have us on board. She did this to everyone of course, but it's nice to be looked in the eye like this. So I'm not sure about the non-lie flat beds but the overall service was delightful; I like the Asian touches such as delicately checking the overhead bins are closed and always closing the curtain behind you. As well as little touches such as the silver service condiments on a trolley (English Mustard etc) and when she saw me about to put my shows on, producing a show horn.

Flight time was 9hr 40min so quite quick.