There are two ways to enjoy Korean Air 747-8 business class (officially known as Prestige Class):
Choose a seat on the upper deck for a more intimate and cozy experience
Choose a seat on the lower deck for a more spacious cabin (and the feeling of having more room to spread out)
No matter where you choose to sit, the seats are exactly the same. The following is a full review of my lower deck business class experience from Singapore to Seoul.
Flight Number:
KE644
Route:
Singapore, Singapore (SIN) – Seoul, South Korea (ICN)
Aircraft:
747-8
Registration:
HL7637
Flight Duration
5 hours 58 minutes
Seat:
10A (Business Class / Prestige Class)
Our route from Singapore to Seoul / Incheon this evening as KE644
Checking in at Singapore Changi Airport
The scheduled departure time for this flight of the Seoul was 10:30 PM. I arrived at Changi Airport (Terminal 4) at approximately 5 PM with the plan of lounging and eating (like a pig) before my flight.
Welcome to Terminal 4 at Singapore’s Changi Airport! If you’re wondering why there’s nobody here, it’s because they’re all inside enjoying the ice cold air conditioning. Can’t say that I blame them.
The Korean Air check-in counter wasn’t even open yet, but no matter – I already had my boarding pass from checking in online 24 hours before. I come prepared!
Just like everything else in Singapore, this place is spotless and perfect (things I’m striving for myself, but there’s still some work to be done).The intensity in which that woman is pointing leads me to believe there’s something interesting over there to the right. I wouldn’t know, because I was 100% focused on getting a picture of the departures board for the review. Nailed it!Pro tip #1: if you’re ever going to suffer a delayed flight, do it here at Changi Airport Terminal 4. Food, shopping, and people watching galore!Pro tip #2: Wear comfortable walking shoes. T4 is longer than a Monday that just won’t quit. Gate G21 (aaalll the way at the end). But I’m telling you right now, the walk was worth the effort.Here it is! This is the worst picture of a Korean Air 747-8 that you’ve ever seen the Korean Air 747-8 that will be taking me up to Seoul / Incheon tonight.
The boarding process
Boarding was 20 minutes late due to late arrival of the aircraft. They didn’t mess around once the process was underway however. It took them all of five minutes to board first class passengers (and any passengers needing assistance) before calling for Prestige / business class.
The pass which will allow me to board. It’s mobile too!Not very often that you’ll see an un-staffed boarding door on any Korean Air flight. Maybe they were all inside enjoying the ice cold air conditioning as well (which seems to be a common thing here in Singapore).
Korean Air 747-8 business class lower deck cabin and seat overview
Prestige Class (business class) on the lower deck of the Korean Air 747-8 is arranged in not so typical 2-2-2 layout. Most airlines feature a 1-2-1 layout for long haul business class, so this bucks the trend a bit.
That’s a lotta business class seats! There are 24 of them here on the lower deck to be exact, and if everything goes to plan, one of them will be mine for the next six hours.It’s all going to plan! That window seat (10A) is mine. If everything continues to go as planned of course.
Despite the fairly dense seating configuration, these are very private seats featuring privacy panels and tall divider walls. It’s much more private than, say, Aeromexico 787-8 business class.
I definitely wasn’t planning on a blanket this thick. This looks good.Yeah, these seats are a little narrow, but the legroom is incredible. I think it’s safe to say that the plan is coming together nicely. The window seat was definitely the right choice (something I planned for head of time). This nerdy white boy is going to hibernate like a bear all the way up to Korea this evening I think.Need to make some adjustments? Everything you need for a comfortable flight is accessed via this control panel. Not only can you adjust the seat from here, you can also raise and lower the privacy screen and toggle the light on and off until your hearts content.Those of you with thunder thighs might find the location of the in-flight entertainment remote control to be somewhat annoying. It likes being rubbed.110 V electrical outlets (I planned for this too).
Amenities
No amenity kits were offered on this flight (though they do provide them on longer flights to the United States, Europe, and Australia / New Zealand).
Kicking off the cabin service this evening was a pre-departure drink (your choice of water, orange juice, or champagne).
Straight vodka? Or ice water? I ain’t tellin’.Ok, it’s just water. I just don’t have the swagger to be able to pull off a huge shot of straight vodka.
Very plush blankets and pillows were on every seat upon boarding. Noise canceling headphones and slippers were located in the seat pockets.
Departure from Singapore
They pushed us off the gate at 10:49 PM. This was 19 minutes behind schedule, but the captain promised (vaguely kind of sort of) that we were still scheduled to arrive in Seoul on time. Noted!
Not a bad view of the engines from seat 10A, eh? It was all part of the plan.Hear that? That’s the sound of four big honkin’ GEnx’s spoolin’ up. At least I hope it’s four. Anything less would be detrimental towards the continuation of this review.Four lit engines confirmed! Blanket mode engaged.Oh God yes. I’m pretty sure that raising the privacy panel is the most satisfying thing in the history of mankind. Leave me alone! Unless you bring food of course.
The dinner service
I was not expecting a full dinner service for such a late night departure. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t even all that hungry. But I sure as heck wasn’t about to turn down a free meal.
The dinner menu. Don’t even pretend that you are not going to choose the Korean option. I’m pretty sure that it’s a law (punishable by imprisonment) that you have to eat Korean food on a Korean Air flight.Guess who isn’t going to prison? This looks good!To the pasty white folk (like me) who may be reading this from the Midwestern US: this is what they call Bibimbap. It’s delicious (and it’ll keep you out of jail). I don’t know what half of this stuff is, but there’s about to be a party in my belly.Wait! The proper way to eat Bibimbap is to mix it with rice. You won’t go to jail for not doing that, but don’t be surprised to end up with a stiff community service sentence instead.Don’t forget the sesame oil. They also included a little packet of hot pepper paste, but that sh*t is like kryptonite to this pasty white boy. Sesame oil was good enough.Oh God. What if they find out that I didn’t use the hot pepper paste??
I’ve never had a bad meal in Korean Air business class. The quality of the food is always excellent, and this was no exception.
In-flight entertainment
Honestly? These business class seats aren’t the best when it comes to in-flight entertainment. Of course the selection of movies and TV shows is pretty good (I have no complaints about that). The problem is that the video screen is so far away that it becomes almost too difficult to see if your vision isn’t perfect.
The noise canceling headphones are pretty nice actually. True audiophiles may wrinkle their nose at the sound quality, but it was good enough for me.“It’s good enough for me.”Here’s a quick glance at some of the movies available here in the in-flight entertainment system. The question is: do I stay up for a few more hours and watch Groundhog Day? Or do I do the responsible thing and try to get some sleep? Sh*t!It’s worth noting that even though these videos screens are very large, they’re also very far away. Which makes them seem small.
It is possible to navigate all of the menus and interact with the screen via the remote control. It’s a bit laggy though – so the user experience isn’t the best.
Testing the lie flat seat
As you might expect because of the dense 2-2-2 cabin layout, these seats are narrow. They do lie fully flat of course, but those of you who flop around like a fish out of water when you sleep might not find them to be all that comfortable. There’s not a lot of room to flop move around.
“Let’s see what this bad boy can do!”Your feet are gonna be fine if they’re not gorilla-like. Footwell space in these seats will be a non-issue for 90% of the population I think.
Despite how confined they are, these seats are very nice for sleeping. Privacy is excellent, and you won’t have to worry about anybody watching you (all creepy like) all night long.
Business class lavatories
Korean Air definitely went for the cheapest option possible in regard to the business class lavatories on the Boeing 747-8. Of course they contain all of the things you would need in a proper airplane bathroom (toilet, sink, soaps, towels, etc), but they’re extremely generic.
OK, yeah, it’s a lavatory. I’m not sure if this is nice (and large) enough to qualify as a business class lavatory, but it’s a good enough place to poop nonetheless.
The second meal service (breakfast)
Because of the fact that this was a relatively short redeye flight, they didn’t serve a full breakfast prior to landing. It was a simple continental breakfast instead. Which was fine. I wasn’t hungry anyway.
The continental breakfast. No hot pepper paste this time? Come on!This being a Korean airline and all, I did bite into this croissant very carefully. Who knows? Maybe they put the hot pepper paste on the inside. All that worry for nothing. Shoutout to the very kind (and thoughtful) flight attendants for giving this delicate white boy one of them non-hot pepper pasted croissants.
The descent and arrival into Incheon Airport (ICN)
True to the Captain’s word, we began the descent into Seoul exactly on time. Not only that, the weather was perfect for an early morning arrival.
Twisting and turning on our descent into ICN. Either that or we’re about to crash and die a horrible death. Gooooood morning Vietnam South Korea!Why does nobody here in business class seem to appreciate my witty and sophisticated commentary this morning? Oh well. On with the review…Interesting. I wonder how many times pilots had mistakenly tried to land here (instead of landing at Gimpo Airport) before they had to spell out “INCHEON” in large block letters at the threshold of runway 16R?
We touched down on runway 16R at 5:57 AM. This was one minute ahead of schedule actually, so props to the pilot in command of this aircraft for being so confident in his prediction. I wouldn’t even be able to tell you what time I’m having lunch today for crying out loud.
Welcome to Seoul! I mean Incheon!
The taxi over to Terminal 2 took 13 minutes and we parked on the gate at 6:10 AM. What an amazing flight!
The Boeing 747-8 is cool and all, but parking it must be a total b*tch. She’s a big girl.Aaand, we’ve arrived. Seems as if the guy at 9A isn’t ready for this to be over though.Honestly? I wasn’t ready either. This was far too much fun.
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