Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ptarmigan]

You make it sound like the old Siberian railroad.

If they serve salted herring for lunch, don't eat it.

It's an old trick for prisoners headed for the gulag.

They don't serve any water for the entire trip.

Come to think of it, maybe that's why the airlines hand out free salt peanuts.

[No_hite_pls]

Everyone knows Korean Air is the best!
NWA doesn't even give you Kimchi
with your meal!

All jokes aside, NWA has treated me great and the prices were wonderful. I have flown the airline twice now. The food and choice of movies was outstanding. Every seat had it's own TV, and had about 30 or so movies that you could choice from. All my flights have been on time too.

[pharflung]

I don't know what all the griping is about. I just flew NWA from Seattle to Seoul via Narita, and the service was impeccable - far better than most flghts I have had within the US. Maybe there are better Asian airlines - this is my first time.

The food was excellent, as good as a very good restaurant, and reasonbly filling. There were plenty of rounds for snacks and fluids, initially. After dinner, this stopped. I presume it was to allow passengers to get some sleep. So you either use the call button on the remote control or just walk over and ask a flight attendent. They give you a choice of an Asian or Western meal - they served dinner and breakfast. So they must have had leftovers. If you are still hungry, I will bet they would give you seconds or even thirds. What else are they going to do with it? Throw it out the window?

The American next to me had lived in Korea and flown NWA before. He advised choosing the Western meals. You're going to have plenty of sticky rice soon, he pointed out. He was right.

But on the final leg from Narita they just had Asian food - another breakfast, this time primarily sushi, fruit, some meat, and green tea, coffee, juice etc. Beautifully served!

They have more movies available than you could see on a dozen flights with seatback LCD. Bring your own headphones, though, they will fit. Music doesn't sound good on the cheap headphones provided.

Keep in mind many airlines, including NWA, will contract with other airlines for certain feeder legs into their main flights. So the ticket might be NWA, but the airline could be something else, with different service and even a different gate, etc.

I got a great ticket price through Kayak.com. However, there were some alternatives that were also about the same price.

I would be happy to fly them again.

[oneofthesarahs]

Dragging an old topic back from the dead with a question.

I'm flying back to the States on Northwest and was wondering if I can count on the personal in-seat movie screen. If so, I won't bother trying to bring a lot of stuff to entertain myself because reading in-flight usually gives me a headache. When I flew here on Korean Air, the movie selection was decent enough to keep me mostly entertained during the trip, but I was curious if it will be the same with NW.

[OiGirl]

The Kosher meal in NWA is SO much better than the regular! Even if you don't keep Kosher, it's worthwhile.

Everytime I asked for water to take meds (mostly sleeping pills and painkillers so I could fall back asleep,) I got it.

But mostly they suck for the above reasons.

[sojourner1]

I have never seen video screens in coach class, except the book in the seat back mentions the programming and instructions for business class video screen systems. in business class up front.

I flew NW many times over the years going to Europe and then to Asia and various times in the states. The food is really not bad at all, but it was better years ago. 10 years ago, you got fillet mignon in coach class, even free booze, now you get a tiny, but decent meal of chicken fillet, mash potatoes, and vegetables with an MRE style roll. Sometimes you get a Fleur de lys shaped cheesecake pastry which is phenomenal stuff. I lucked out when the passenger sitting by me 1 month ago out of Tokyo to Detroit gave me hers.

On flight from Tokyo to Detroit one month ago, we were froze out of our gourds for 3 hours straight upon take off due to the air conditioning being on full blast. It was so high that you could see freezer fog coming out the ceiling vents and that little tiny blue blanket was not enough. And then the video system failed and we were told that it was considered to land in Anchorage for repair, but that was decided against since it was not a mission critical system. I didn't care, I was just so freezin cold and wanted to be in the states ASAP. We were given free lunch vouchers upon deplaning.

The planes are old, outdated, and still even have cigarette ashtrays. The only thing I am concerned out when flying NW is safety. Yes, safety due to an aging fleet of aircraft. They do pretty good since I can't think of an accident NW had, but I would say they are at high risk for a major accident due to having the oldest 747's and 757's.

Most take offs and landings were with top notch skill, except one. Upon arriving in Busan late one night, I noticed we were coming in too fast and it was a very rough and scary landing. The plane was going too fast, hit pretty hard, and was not straightened out, but these planes have auto corrections systems that uses the reverse thrust and flap fin things so it straighten out after the weight shifted from left to right several times during a fast landing. They just threw that plane in and rushed us through immigration. Heck, I went through the Korean only line since they told me to get in it. The airport was closing for the night in a hurry. No searches, no hassles, just bali bali speedy entry into Korea.


Many older passengers claim that back in the 70's and 80's, you got lobster, shrimp, and all the goodies of the good jetset life such as more room. The only drawback then was that the cabin was smokey which I never seen as I was not in a jetset family while growing up. I remember on several holiday family get togethors how we would talk about how crazy people are for getting on those planes since my uncle did it a lot for his work and how they worried that I would do the same. Ha ha, they were right. I didn't quite understand what they were talking about until after I graduated high school due to not having ever seen a jet in all my years of growing up in rural America until I went to see the world.

3 weeks ago, I chatted with a business class passenger on my way to Tokyo while waiting to use the toilet who claimed that in business class you get fed as much as you want of super gourmet food and wine. She said, you get your fill, they just stuff you with great food and wine. I was like, the prices quoted for business class are like $5000 each way so yea, you deserve the world.

[tigerbluekitty]

I flew with NWA once from LAX to NRT. The food was horrid. Talk about tasteless cardboard food and stale cookies. The cabin was chilly. Had to keep covered with a blanket throughout the whole flight.

Being a cheapskate, even I would pay a couple extra hundred dollars just to fly with JAL. Damn for such a long flight, I wanna be comfortable!

[millsy99]

I used to fly NWA a lot between Detroit and Italy. Never any major problems--once they upgraded me to Business Class from Amsterdam to Detroit for no apparent reason, which was cool. On the same flight, there was a passenger on the flight with a medical emergency so we had to make an unscheduled stop in GOOSE BAY which was interesting. Added two hours to our flight...glad I wasn't in steerage for that. However, the times I flew coach they seemed to be pretty similar to Delta, Continental, etc...same old same old.

I personally think Korean Air is a great airline and they do have decent food & entertainment on those long-haul flights. And the most anorexic flight attendants I've ever seen.

[spliff]

I flew them once and they charged me for beer and alcohol....never again, I only fly Thai now....

Also, the air hostesses are so rude they pretend they don't hear you when you ask for something.

[kat2]

It depends on the flight. I usually fly the Tokyo to Detroit or Minneapolis route. No TVs. Last time I flew from Seattle to Tokyo with onward to seoul and we had TVs. you can look on their website and figure it out though. NWA is the cheapest optoin out of Busan and thats' why I fly it. I personally don't care about the service that much, it's only one day in my life.