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b-class rambler
Joined: 25 Mar 2009
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 Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 5:23 pm Post subject: Re: Incheon Airport loses World No.1 status |
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| Julius wrote: |
Its not bad but it irritates me that its impossible to get even a bite to eat after 9pm. |
THIS.
For the most part, I think Incheon is an excellent airport. But I do suspect the reviewers giving it those awards over the last few years didn't visit it after 8 or 9ish in the evening.
I hadn't either until a few years back when I had to take a 11pm flight. After I got past immi exit control to the departures area, I was astounded how many shops and restaurants were already closed. I found one restaurant open and tried to order but was told that wasn't available and was handed the "late night menu", listing the limited selection available between the "late night" hours of, umm, 8pm and 9pm.
That was about 5 years ago and I've since taken other late night flights and found that the situation is slightly better - the duty free pick-up point was open at least. However, last year, I'd been hoping to take a shower at the airport before leaving, following a 4 hour sweaty drive there in mid summer. Of course, it's good that ICN has such a facility and that it's free. But unfortunately when I got to the showers in the lounge on the 4th floor I found the sign saying they close at 10pm, and had done so even earlier that day as I was too late at 9.45pm. (I notice on their website that they now close even earlier at 8.30pm).
You could be blissfully unaware of these evening & night shortcomings if you'd only ever departed during the daytime and indeed I was for a long time.
I still think it's a good airport, although one other thing that would always give places like Changi and Hong Kong the edge is the level of English on display. Many of the signs at ICN are understandable, but clearly written by a non-native speaker. That's excusable in some smaller downtown shop or restaurant but an international airport really ought to take the trouble to get their signs checked by an appropriately qualified native speaker. |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 5:55 pm Post subject: |
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For me, Changhi airport is better because much like the two countries themselves, it is easier to speak English and the food is better.
Incheon is a well designed and very functional airport though. Getting around is easy and it is always clean. |
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wishfullthinkng
Joined: 05 Mar 2010
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| Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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| if you are a semi-frequent traveler who doesn't travel enough to get lounge status but travels enough where you can lament at not having lounge status, pony up some money and get a priority pass membership to use the priority pass lounges in most major terminals. while most airport reviewers probably slum it a little, most are also probably major flyers who also spend a good portion of their time in lounges most of which offer free food and almost all of which offer free drinks/booze. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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| I haven't been to other Asian airports except Narita. I like Incheon's airport better than some of the North American airports I've been to. |
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No_hite_pls
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Location: Don't hate me because I'm right
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| Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| I haven't been to other Asian airports except Narita. I like Incheon's airport better than some of the North American airports I've been to. |
Really? Seattle, Vancouver, BWI, even Manchester NH have better restaurants than Incheon. Crabs and beer at BWI can't be beat. |
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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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Savant
Joined: 25 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 4:47 am Post subject: |
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| Having departed from Incheon both at late night and early morning it is best not to go through security until the very last minute as it is a ghost town on the other side until things start opening around 6.30am-ish. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:37 am Post subject: Re: Incheon Airport loses World No.1 status |
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| b-class rambler wrote: |
| After I got past immi exit control to the departures area, I was astounded how many shops and restaurants were already closed. |
Its not only once you have gone through security. Its all floors of the main terminal building -the entire airport.
I met some friends there coming off a flight and tried to get something at about 9pm.
No chance.
Only thing available was KFC. Which was apparently on the verge of closing.
Its just the way korea is-in the city, everywhere. Everyone eats at the same time and its unheard of for someone to want to eat an hour later than everybody else.
| Quote: |
| an international airport really ought to take the trouble to get their signs checked by an appropriately qualified native speaker. |
The same goes for the english in the actual bank machines.
"input amount in how many 50,000 Won notes".
Eh? |
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b-class rambler
Joined: 25 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 4:38 pm Post subject: Re: Incheon Airport loses World No.1 status |
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| Julius wrote: |
| b-class rambler wrote: |
| After I got past immi exit control to the departures area, I was astounded how many shops and restaurants were already closed. |
Its not only once you have gone through security. Its all floors of the main terminal building -the entire airport.
I met some friends there coming off a flight and tried to get something at about 9pm.
No chance.
Only thing available was KFC. Which was apparently on the verge of closing. |
You're probably right. I didn't pay that much attention to what was available before going through security at those times. In fact, I'd find it acceptable if there was not much open late before security, as long as there was a decent range of stuff after going through. I reckon that's where the greater demand would be.
| Julius wrote: |
| Its just the way korea is-in the city, everywhere. Everyone eats at the same time and its unheard of for someone to want to eat an hour later than everybody else. |
I dunno about that. Yes, Koreans do often tend to want to eat at the same time as each other, but I think it's much, much easier to find a 24 hour eatery in Korean cities than in a number of other countries I've spent time in. And that's what made it all the more surprising that ICN was so dead late at night. There are many countries where cities are pretty much dead after 9 o'clock, but Korea isn't one of them.
There are probably a dozen flights leaving after 10pm, nearly all them large planes going some distance, including an Emirates A380, so that's well over 1,000 passengers likely to be hanging around, looking for the services they'd expect a major airport to provide.
| Julius wrote: |
| b-class rambler wrote: |
| an international airport really ought to take the trouble to get their signs checked by an appropriately qualified native speaker. |
The same goes for the english in the actual bank machines.
"input amount in how many 50,000 Won notes".
Eh? |
You could probably blame the bank for that more than the airport, although the airport should be getting on the bank's case to put it right, I'd agree. But I think this, more than the late night closures, is a 'it's just the way Korea is' issue. A lot of Koreans have, I find, a bit too much confidence in their ability to write native speaker standard English. Like, I suspect, dozens of others on this forum, many's the time when I've suggested corrections to someone on some official sign or notice they were making, only for them to ignore what I said and decide that they knew better.
Perhaps if you're an EFL teacher you're more sensitive to this than you should be and, of course, I'd rather have a clean, well-run airport with Konglish signs than a dirty one with perfect English. But it's something they could so easily get right and which many others do. These days, I think even the Japanese often make a better job of their English signage. |
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Scorpion
Joined: 15 Apr 2012
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| Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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| It needs a decent bookstore with a decent English section that contains more than novels. The bookstore there sucks. |
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