Seoul to Hong Kong on Asiana Business Class – Almost Missed My Flight!

We landed around 6:00PM in Seoul and went towards the Asiana First Class Lounge.  We had to exit the terminal and go through security again.  I’m not sure if this was necessary, but we got a little lost.  Eventually we made it through with plenty of time (I thought) and headed to the Asiana First Class lounge while we waited for our flight from Seoul to Hong Kong on Asiana Business Class.

When I was on my flight from LAX-ICN, I set my time to Hong Kong time to adjust for jet lag easier. It ended up working pretty well, however, my biggest mistake was that my clock was on Hong Kong time instead of Seoul time!  Hong Kong time is one hour earlier their Seoul time.  We relaxed in the Asiana First Class lounge for a while eating some Haagen Daz ice cream and Korean fried chicken.

Our flight to Hong Kong was at 7:40PM and at about 6:20PM, a lounge attendant let us know that it was time to board.  I thought we had a good 1 hour and 20 minutes left so we took our time.  At about 6:35PM, the lady went up to us and told us to “Please hurry, the plane is leaving”.  She then showed me the time and it was 7:35PM, not 6:35PM!  I had set my time to Hong Kong time, which was an hour early!

We ran as fast as we could out of the lounge and down the long hallway to our terminal.  By the time we got there, it was 7:40PM.  As soon as we got on, they closed the plane doors.  Phew, made it!

We found our seats near the window and collapsed onto them from exhaustion.  I was so happy that we made our flight, things could have been really terrible if we missed our flight.   

The plane originally was a two-cabin plane, but switched to a 3-cabin 777-200 last minute.  I didn’t know that, so we ended up in business class (still great!).  I was surprised that the service was up to par with our previous first class flight to Korea.

Meal service started right away, and we both chose the Ssambap.  This Korean dish uses lettuce/veggies to wrap rice and meat.  Again the food was delicious, although the presentation was inferior to first class (not complaining, just stating the fact).

The flight route is quite interesting as it avoids flying over China airspace.  I’m guessing they are respecting China’s airspace, while we (USA) just fly our fighter jets over their airspace.  Ironically, we slept for a bit on these angled-flat seats instead of our lie-flat seats from our previous flight.

All in all, the Asiana First Class lounge is quite nice and has great food.  Asiana business class also does not disappoint in food and service. I would not hesitate to fly them again in the future.  I think I learned my lesson to always pay attention to the local time.  I was lucky to make my flight this time and learned an important lesson without suffering the consequences.