Korean Job Discussion Forums

[coffeeman]

When you are planning a trip and can choose between several airlines, which ones do you recommend and which ones do you think people should avoid? Which airlines have the best and worst service and equipment on their flights?

Also, what do you think about Korean Air for international flights? I used them once to go to Japan and they were good overall. But how about their longer flights? Like to North America.

My Answers,

Best Airline: Cathay Pacific. The flight attendants were very warm and friendly smiling all the time. Their smiles gave me the feeling that they really liked their jobs and working for their airline. The food was the best I had ever had in an economy class flight. Great Chinese food followed by Mango pudding and Hagen Daz ice cream for dessert. I felt like I was being well taken care of - a rare experience in economy class flights nowadays.

Most Surprisingly Good Airline: Air India. I cringed after buying a ticket with them, buy hey, what a deal I got! I wasn't expecting much before this flight, but it turned out to be one of the best flights I had ever taken. The flight attendants were very hospitable and friendly. When I asked for a King Fisher beer, the flight attendant said "Why don't you have two!" and put two cans on my table. The curry dinner was very tasty and the Indian movie was good fun too – add on the frequent turbulence that we experienced and this all combined to make one of the most exciting flights I had ever been on. It was never hard to get service because the flight attendants were checking on us frequently. A great time. The time flew as we flew.

Biggest Disappointment: Air Canada. Since the nation's only other air carrier, Canadian Airlines, went out of business about 10 years ago, airline service has been on the decline ever since in Canada. Yes, I am Canadian and now whenever I fly home with Air Canada, I just think of the journey as something to overcome. The food is nothing to get excited about. At times, it's total crap - like when the flight attendants come down the aisles offering Shin Cup Ramen for a snack (lunch?). That's just too cheap guys!

The flight attendants are not particularly friendly. Not much smiling. They're almost robotic "Would you like beef or chicken?" (They're so monotone that they sound like some of my shy students when they speak.) Sometimes, the equipment is broken. On one flight, I had a seat which didn't lock its position when you declined it so when you shifted, the seat would always rise up without you wanting it to. Another time it was the headphone jack. It was broken and I had to play around with my headphone plug just to get some sound for the movie. I had to keep my finger pressed down on the earphone jack or I��d lose the sound. You may think that I am knit-picking here, but these little annoyances are huge when you're in the air for 12 hours.

Air Canada is such a stingy company. On all domestic flights, there are no free sandwiches - just a glass of Coke. Now I don't mind this on a 50 minute trip from Montreal to Toronto, but on a long trip like from Vancouver to Montreal, I expect at least a free sandwich. It's a 5 hour flight and people pay about $600 (or more) for this flight. Even at that price, they're telling me that they can't throw in a free sandwich? Heck! Hide it in the price and charge me $605 if you have to. Air Canada, you are beeeeeeeeep!

[laogaiguk]

This has pretty much already been done.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=51698

[billybrobby]

northwest? northworst

[coffeeman]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Royal Thai Airlines was fairly good. Their only stewardess who didn't seem to know what she was doing was a Korean (asked me if I wanted ice in my beer, amongst other things).

I agree about Air Canada. Their domestic service is especially aweful.

Air Club is by far the worst international (charter) carrier I've flown, but I think they're out of business now.

[elynnor]

...

[Hater Depot]

It's a pleasure to fly Southwest and Jet Blue. Everything else I've been on has been just another airline.

[peppermint]

Eva Air is trying to be a kickass airline but it's got some work to do. Seatback TV, real cutlery and a blanket that could almost be called a quilt were nice touches, but consistently late boarding, and a lack of change for the inflight duty free kind of took the glow off.

[I_Am_Wrong]

hmm

I find international air flights to be pretty standard. I've never had bad service on an international flight. I've also found food to be comparable between all the companies that I've flown. I've flown Malaysian Air, Canadian, Air Canada, JAL, Nippon, Air New Zealand, Delta, Korean Airlines and all have been good.

A lot of people complain about Air Canada but I don't see why. Last time I flew with them they had good meals, good movies, and were very friendly. When my parents came to visit last Summer they had a great experience with Air Canada. They were standing in line to check in and a customer service representative came up to them in line and told them that Air Canada would like to offer them a free upgrade to first class. Can't beat that.

Domestic service in Canada is shite

Malaysian lost some of our bags on our way to Indonesia. We had an overnight stop over in Kuala Lumpur on our way back and they gave us a suite in an amazing downtown hotel with pool that looked over the city. They also got us a limo to the airport.

[Milwaukiedave]

For longer flights Singapore Airlines. They also have the seat back TV's which you can watch any movie or program anytime.

[Tiger Beer]

[Heifer]

I recently flew the trans-Pacific from Incheon to San Francisco on Singapore Airlines. Their service and food far surpassed the American carriers that I have flown on. They provided every passenger in economy class with a little package with sleeping socks, a toothbrush, and toothpaste. They still allow 70 pounds per back on the 2 checked bags unlike the American carriers who quietly changed the free allowance to 50 pounds in the Fall and started nickel and diming everybody. Northwest Airlines now charges $5 for wine, beer, or other alcohol on trans-Pacific flights.

It's easy to do the long-haul flight on Singapore Airlines and then book another low cost carrier inside the USA such as Air Tran for the domestic connection. I stayed 2 nights in San Francisco making a little vacation out of it. It cut down on jet lag almost completely! You can stay at a hotel with free transfers and book all kinds of tours at thereservationcenter.com. Singapore Airlines also has lots of bargain offers if you book directly on their website.

Aside from the seat size, flying on Singapore Airlines was almost as good as flying World Business Class, the highest available service, on Northwest.

[bucheon bum]

yeah, every time but once I took Singapore Air from ICN to SFO. usually it is as cheap as any other airline that does that route, but it is even worth spending an extra 50-75 bucks to take them than some other airline.

Qatar Air, however, is the nicest I've been on. They hooked me up with a nice luxury room in Doha for my layover. Emirates is very good too.

[Tiger Beer]

[ajgeddes]

Eva Air and JAL both had movies on demand in economy, as well. Even better, JAL had a Berlitz program where you could study something like 25 languages while on your flight. It even gave you little tests. That's the coolest thing I have seen on a flight. Cathay Pacific was also great, but their videos weren't on demand and you had to catch the starting time. All had great service just like KAL. However, KAL doesn't have tv's on the seats, and during a 14 hour flight, they showed 2 movies. One Korean movie where I couldn't even see the subtitles, and 50 First Dates, which was heavily censored, and I had just watched it two days earlier. That flight was sooooooooooooo boring.