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Introduction
This set of flights is the return journey from my previous report, "Singapore Airlines 747 service to LHR – The end of an era". To continue the theme of saying farewell to 747s, I chose the NH flight NRT-FRA also operated by 747, since NH will also be phasing out their 747s soon.
Although I had tried ANA F in the 747 before, it was in their old cabin way back in 2001 (report here) and my other experience on NH F was last year on their 77W (report here). I had always wanted to try the "new" F cabin on the 747 as NH F is simply a wonderful product and the nose section of a 747 - well, it doesn't get any better than that! So when a space became available out of the blue, I decided to seize the opportunity and booked it. And made an early start of getting very excited for the flight!
There were a few noteworthy incidents on this journey back, including a pleasant surprise on the ICN-NRT flight, my first ever medical diversion and also the longest delay I have ever suffered in >15 years of flying. Read on!
My original schedule:
Flight 1: OZ102 16APR ICN NRT 1000 1210
Flight 2: NH209 17APR NRT FRA 1130 1635
Flight 3: LH4810 17APR FRA LCY 1810 1840
Index:
1. "A very pleasant surprise!" - OZ ICN-NRT
2. "A morning of sheer anticipation" - NRT and Lounge report
3. "Like a child on Christmas morning..." - NH NRT-FRA
4. The short hop back to London - LH FRA-LHR
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Flight 1: OZ102 ICN-NRT 16APR (TH), B747-400, Seat 2K
STD: 1000 (On Time) STA: 1210 (On Time)
Pre-flight
I was originally scheduled to fly on UA F for this first segment. Naturally I would have preferred OZ F over UA F (superior service and food/beverage offerings), but OZ had been unavailable in F and never became available up to departure. As the flight was only 2 hours, I thought UA F would be fine – but in a last minute change of mind, I decided to give OZ C a try instead as it had been a while since I last flew 747 Upper Deck. Three days before departure, after changing my ticket, I tried to assign my seat online but it gave me an error message saying that it could not allocate me a seat at this time – I then resigned myself to just turning up to the airport early.
Two days before departure, I was sending off a friend who was also flying to Tokyo and after she checked in at the City Air Terminal, I asked about my flight as well – I wanted to reserve a seat in the Upper Deck emergency exit if I could. The agent said “Well, I’m not officially supposed to help you reserve a seat two days before departure, but I’ll do it for you just this time” and booked me 10K. I was very much looking forward to the pleasant atmosphere of the 747 Upper Deck which is also quite different from the nose section.
In the vague hope that the seat assignment system was working again, I logged into the OZ online check-in system on the night before departure. This time, the seating chart managed to come up, and I was very surprised to find that I was actually booked on seat 2K instead. And the aircraft had the new OZ F configuration! I started thinking – had I been op-upped? Did they confuse my booking class and was I going to be ruthlessly put back into my rightful place in Business Class? Did they just push everyone in C up to F? Either way, I just really hoped that I will end up flying in 2K because it was OZ’s new F configuration and I had not been able to fly it yet because they do not fly to Europe.
[Travel tip: If you are flying KE or OZ and making your way to the airport from the Kangnam area (South of the river, near the COEX) you can check-in for your flight, give them your luggage and also do the immigration check there. When you reach Incheon, you can use the crew lane for the x-ray and a dedicated lane for passport control which potentially saves a lot of queuing and waiting]
A very pleasant surprise!
As usual, I got very little sleep on the previous evening – barely 3 hours’ sleep, I think. On the morning of departure, after a very hefty breakfast at home, my parents dropped me off at the City Air Terminal and I brought my small mountain of bags to the check-in desk. I knew that the official cut-off for checking in was 3 hours departure, but I was only 10 minutes late so I hoped it wouldn’t be a problem. Alas, it was indeed a problem – in order to check in any baggage (which I was very eager to do, to get rid of them as soon as possible) the 3 hour deadline is very strict and they could only give me my boarding pass, not take my luggage. A bit frustrated at the inflexibility, I turned down their offer of still giving me my boarding pass and instead proceeded to the airport buses upstairs.
The traffic initially looked pretty bad (not enough to make me worry about missing my flight, but enough to eat into my time at the airport) and I dealt with my anxiety by catching up with sleep for the next hour or so. I woke up as we were approaching the drop-off kerb and gathered my numerous bags again on the trolley after getting off the bus, then looked for the Asiana check-in desks. Not having travelled on OZ for a good while, I didn’t realise that they had moved their check-in desks from island C-D to island L (two opposite ends of the terminal, really) so I ended up walking all the way from island K where I entered the terminal towards island C, and then all the way back to island L – the roundtrip walk must have taken at least 15 minutes. Note to self – check before trekking all the way across the terminal!
Once I reached the Asiana check-in desks, I walked up to the Business Class check-in. There was a queue-warden who wanted to see my ticket. When I fumbled around looking for my itinerary printout, she asked me “You are travelling business class, aren’t you?” and nodded to me to proceed when I replied yes. It was 0840 by the time I reached the check-in desk, only 1h20m before departure. The very competent and smiley agent who checked me in told me with a rather concerned expression – “There were very few people in Business Class today so we have put you in the First Class seats for this flight – I know you reserved seat 10A on the Upper Deck so I’m sorry for the inconvenience”. Inconvenience?? Was she kidding? Because I could definitely live with this sort of “inconvenience” every time I fly! She also checked my luggage through to my final destination, London City Airport, which would save me from touch my bags until I get off the flight in London.
With my mouth in a big grin, my boarding pass with seat 2K printed and my bags now finally handed over, I peered into the security checkpoint 4, nearest to the OZ counters. It was absolutely packed – the result of several OZ flights all departing around the same time. It looked to be at least 30 minutes of fun waiting in the queue for the x-ray firstly, and then passport controls. So I decided to use my initiative and walked 80m or so to checkpoint 3. It was practically empty.
Perhaps they should have some system of distributing the crowd evenly across the entrances, because I literally saved 25 minutes of extra queuing/waiting by walking 80m to checkpoint 3.
Once past security, I decided to skip the lounge (there was now only 20 minutes or so till boarding) and look for some souvenirs in the duty free for a few friends. I know, I know - a total rip-off compared to buying it in Seoul, but that is the price you pay for being disorganised! After buying a few bits and bobs, I proceeded to the gate and took a few photos of the B747-400 in the new Asiana livery that would take me to Tokyo today.
Registration of today's aircraft: HL7428 (thankfully not the ancient Combi!)
At 09:40, I boarded the aircraft and was warmly welcomed, then guided to my seat 2K. The first impressions for the F cabin was great – the colour scheme looked warm and easy on the eye, the cabin had a very spacious feeling and the flight attendants all seemed to be in a chirpy mood. One of the things that I didn’t really enjoy on my previous OZ F flight is that flight attendants were way too formal which made it difficult for me to relax, but on this flight they all had the right mix of charm and friendliness. After settling into my seat, I was offered a pair of headphones (still the rather poor Sennheiser PX200 which doesn’t offer noise-cancelling) and also a pre-departure drink. I opted for the orange juice and walked around for a while taking photos of the cabin. When I sat down after taking the photos, one of the flight attendants asked me rather nervously (but not at all in a challenging way) – “We usually get people asking us to take photos of them in the seat, but we rarely see anyone photos of the empty seats – may I ask what you’re taking the photos for?” to which I replied “I write a trip report after each flight and these photos go into the report – you can see it when I upload it, if you like!” She seemed happy with the answer and offered me a top-up of the orange juice on her way back to the galley which I took.
This set of flights is the return journey from my previous report, "Singapore Airlines 747 service to LHR – The end of an era". To continue the theme of saying farewell to 747s, I chose the NH flight NRT-FRA also operated by 747, since NH will also be phasing out their 747s soon.
Although I had tried ANA F in the 747 before, it was in their old cabin way back in 2001 (report here) and my other experience on NH F was last year on their 77W (report here). I had always wanted to try the "new" F cabin on the 747 as NH F is simply a wonderful product and the nose section of a 747 - well, it doesn't get any better than that! So when a space became available out of the blue, I decided to seize the opportunity and booked it. And made an early start of getting very excited for the flight!
There were a few noteworthy incidents on this journey back, including a pleasant surprise on the ICN-NRT flight, my first ever medical diversion and also the longest delay I have ever suffered in >15 years of flying. Read on!
My original schedule:
Flight 1: OZ102 16APR ICN NRT 1000 1210
Flight 2: NH209 17APR NRT FRA 1130 1635
Flight 3: LH4810 17APR FRA LCY 1810 1840
Index:
1. "A very pleasant surprise!" - OZ ICN-NRT
2. "A morning of sheer anticipation" - NRT and Lounge report
3. "Like a child on Christmas morning..." - NH NRT-FRA
4. The short hop back to London - LH FRA-LHR
==================================================
Flight 1: OZ102 ICN-NRT 16APR (TH), B747-400, Seat 2K
STD: 1000 (On Time) STA: 1210 (On Time)
Pre-flight
I was originally scheduled to fly on UA F for this first segment. Naturally I would have preferred OZ F over UA F (superior service and food/beverage offerings), but OZ had been unavailable in F and never became available up to departure. As the flight was only 2 hours, I thought UA F would be fine – but in a last minute change of mind, I decided to give OZ C a try instead as it had been a while since I last flew 747 Upper Deck. Three days before departure, after changing my ticket, I tried to assign my seat online but it gave me an error message saying that it could not allocate me a seat at this time – I then resigned myself to just turning up to the airport early.
Two days before departure, I was sending off a friend who was also flying to Tokyo and after she checked in at the City Air Terminal, I asked about my flight as well – I wanted to reserve a seat in the Upper Deck emergency exit if I could. The agent said “Well, I’m not officially supposed to help you reserve a seat two days before departure, but I’ll do it for you just this time” and booked me 10K. I was very much looking forward to the pleasant atmosphere of the 747 Upper Deck which is also quite different from the nose section.
In the vague hope that the seat assignment system was working again, I logged into the OZ online check-in system on the night before departure. This time, the seating chart managed to come up, and I was very surprised to find that I was actually booked on seat 2K instead. And the aircraft had the new OZ F configuration! I started thinking – had I been op-upped? Did they confuse my booking class and was I going to be ruthlessly put back into my rightful place in Business Class? Did they just push everyone in C up to F? Either way, I just really hoped that I will end up flying in 2K because it was OZ’s new F configuration and I had not been able to fly it yet because they do not fly to Europe.
[Travel tip: If you are flying KE or OZ and making your way to the airport from the Kangnam area (South of the river, near the COEX) you can check-in for your flight, give them your luggage and also do the immigration check there. When you reach Incheon, you can use the crew lane for the x-ray and a dedicated lane for passport control which potentially saves a lot of queuing and waiting]
A very pleasant surprise!
As usual, I got very little sleep on the previous evening – barely 3 hours’ sleep, I think. On the morning of departure, after a very hefty breakfast at home, my parents dropped me off at the City Air Terminal and I brought my small mountain of bags to the check-in desk. I knew that the official cut-off for checking in was 3 hours departure, but I was only 10 minutes late so I hoped it wouldn’t be a problem. Alas, it was indeed a problem – in order to check in any baggage (which I was very eager to do, to get rid of them as soon as possible) the 3 hour deadline is very strict and they could only give me my boarding pass, not take my luggage. A bit frustrated at the inflexibility, I turned down their offer of still giving me my boarding pass and instead proceeded to the airport buses upstairs.
The traffic initially looked pretty bad (not enough to make me worry about missing my flight, but enough to eat into my time at the airport) and I dealt with my anxiety by catching up with sleep for the next hour or so. I woke up as we were approaching the drop-off kerb and gathered my numerous bags again on the trolley after getting off the bus, then looked for the Asiana check-in desks. Not having travelled on OZ for a good while, I didn’t realise that they had moved their check-in desks from island C-D to island L (two opposite ends of the terminal, really) so I ended up walking all the way from island K where I entered the terminal towards island C, and then all the way back to island L – the roundtrip walk must have taken at least 15 minutes. Note to self – check before trekking all the way across the terminal!
Once I reached the Asiana check-in desks, I walked up to the Business Class check-in. There was a queue-warden who wanted to see my ticket. When I fumbled around looking for my itinerary printout, she asked me “You are travelling business class, aren’t you?” and nodded to me to proceed when I replied yes. It was 0840 by the time I reached the check-in desk, only 1h20m before departure. The very competent and smiley agent who checked me in told me with a rather concerned expression – “There were very few people in Business Class today so we have put you in the First Class seats for this flight – I know you reserved seat 10A on the Upper Deck so I’m sorry for the inconvenience”. Inconvenience?? Was she kidding? Because I could definitely live with this sort of “inconvenience” every time I fly!
She also checked my luggage through to my final destination, London City Airport, which would save me from touch my bags until I get off the flight in London.With my mouth in a big grin, my boarding pass with seat 2K printed and my bags now finally handed over, I peered into the security checkpoint 4, nearest to the OZ counters. It was absolutely packed – the result of several OZ flights all departing around the same time. It looked to be at least 30 minutes of fun waiting in the queue for the x-ray firstly, and then passport controls. So I decided to use my initiative and walked 80m or so to checkpoint 3. It was practically empty.
Perhaps they should have some system of distributing the crowd evenly across the entrances, because I literally saved 25 minutes of extra queuing/waiting by walking 80m to checkpoint 3.Once past security, I decided to skip the lounge (there was now only 20 minutes or so till boarding) and look for some souvenirs in the duty free for a few friends. I know, I know - a total rip-off compared to buying it in Seoul, but that is the price you pay for being disorganised! After buying a few bits and bobs, I proceeded to the gate and took a few photos of the B747-400 in the new Asiana livery that would take me to Tokyo today.
Registration of today's aircraft: HL7428 (thankfully not the ancient Combi!)
At 09:40, I boarded the aircraft and was warmly welcomed, then guided to my seat 2K. The first impressions for the F cabin was great – the colour scheme looked warm and easy on the eye, the cabin had a very spacious feeling and the flight attendants all seemed to be in a chirpy mood. One of the things that I didn’t really enjoy on my previous OZ F flight is that flight attendants were way too formal which made it difficult for me to relax, but on this flight they all had the right mix of charm and friendliness. After settling into my seat, I was offered a pair of headphones (still the rather poor Sennheiser PX200 which doesn’t offer noise-cancelling) and also a pre-departure drink. I opted for the orange juice and walked around for a while taking photos of the cabin. When I sat down after taking the photos, one of the flight attendants asked me rather nervously (but not at all in a challenging way) – “We usually get people asking us to take photos of them in the seat, but we rarely see anyone photos of the empty seats – may I ask what you’re taking the photos for?” to which I replied “I write a trip report after each flight and these photos go into the report – you can see it when I upload it, if you like!” She seemed happy with the answer and offered me a top-up of the orange juice on her way back to the galley which I took.
In any case, I started to eat the 2nd meal of the morning...
Looking forward to further updates. The cabin crew seemed really friendly!
Did they downgrade the Champagne??? We always had Tattinger Comtes de Champagne!
If I was in "proper" F, then I would have checked out the lounge - the PA escort is a nice touch, I agree. And F still has the Comtes de Champagne so you don't need to worry about such a steep downgrade of champagne - after all, this is not the SIN SKL F we're talking about 
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