Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015- Taking Korean Air to Korea

We booked our tickets pretty late, around Jan and therefore the prices were a bit on the high side at SGD910 each. That being said, the cheapest I ever seen for our timing is around SGD 50 lesser for each pax.

Between the 3 airlines which flies direct to Incheon (KAL,SQ & Asiana), SQ had the cheapest due to a promotion but the timing was a bit off with a departure at noon. KAL had the cheapest however at my desired timing.

We took a 1.30am flight to Korea, touching down at 8.30am (Korean time). As usual, I knocked out as soon as we boarded, waking up occasionally when the flight attendants passed.

The flight was quite empty and we got the whole row to ourselves and I got the extra pillow for my back.

One thing I love about KAL is the USB charging port next to the inflight entertainment. Since I am sleeping most of the time and listens to my own MP3, this is important as I can charged my phone at the same time.

It's been quite some time since I last took a full fledged carrier so I am not sure whether this is available on SQ or Asiana flights or not.

The inflight entertainment and catering was a bit on the disappointing side. Perhaps it is just not my cup of tea.

Inflight meal on our return flight

Ice cream served

Cabin crew were polite and friendly but I did not interact much since I was sleeping most of the time.

We found by chance that by producing your boarding pass of any Korean airlines that you took to Korea (KAL, Asiana, Jeju Air), you are entitled to 2,000KRW off the Express Arex train from Incheon to Seoul Main Station. The lady at the counter was however a bit surprised when we told her we flew in via Korean Air. Not sure why.

Besides this, 1 big perk that we found out is during our return leg.

We were checking with the information counter in Seoul station airport railway wing on where to purchase the train tickets. Again, the guy seems a bit shocked when I mentioned I am taking KAL home. It is later on the flight I realized there isn't much Singaporeans on board.

Anyways, we were told that those taking Korean airliners could do a city check in at Seoul station and it would saved us a great deal of time later at the airport. Not sure how but we followed the friendly guy who even helped to carry both our luggage.

My pork stew at the airport

Mr Love finally got to eat KFC in Korea

There is also discount on the return tickets to Incheon by showing them our booking tickets for KAL . The check in counter (at B2) is to the right of the train tickets counter, right at the end. We did a check in and were issued boarding pass. However, we did not check in our luggage as I would need to show the customs the items for tax rebate.

We were directed to the immigration counter beside the check in counter and had our passport chopped with the exit stamp. Was pretty surprised as it would have meant that we had officially exit Korea even though we are still in town.

The city check in we did in Hong Kong only allows us to check in our luggage but not the immigration part. So I am curious about this process.

Before we left the immigration office, I saw a sign instructing us not to join the normal immigration queue at the airport but instead take same route as Diplomats. I am still not sure what is in store for us.

Platform is at B7 and we are off to the airport.

After the collecting the tax rebate stamps, we proceed to check in our luggage at the KAL counters. There is a priority queue for those who had a boarding pass issued but need to check in luggage after the customs.

We decided to go into the departure gates to have lunch and was wondering what to do since we had an immigration chop already. The queue outside was pretty long and if we lined up with the normal queue that it makes no sense for us to go through the city immigration earlier.

Turns out, there is a small door by the side of the departure gates and we went in there. Told the personnel manning it that we had already went through the city immigration and showed them our immigration chop. They directed us to the express lane which was indeed used by diplomats and we cleared the check in 5min. Fast!!

Had we queued up with the normal queue, it would take us about minimum an hour given the large crowd.

We were pleased to have found this way and was able to avoid the long queues. Perhaps, those who are going to Korea can consider taking Korean Airlines if you want a fuss free immigration process.