Flight: Asiana Airlines OZ 214 from Incheon to San Francisco
Equipment: B772 LR (Boeing 777-200 LR)
Class: Business
Seat: 4 A, Window/Aisle
Seat Specification: Full Lie Flat, 180 degree recline, Seat pitch: 78″. Seat width: 21 ”
Two words. Quadra Smartium.
Since this trip was my first time ever in international business class it was very easy to get amazed by the ample legroom, meal on actual plates, mostly angle and sometimes lie-flat seats and of course access to business class lounges. But even then, something tells me that it would be a while before I am going to have a business class experience that would beat this flight.
Asiana operates only a few select flights with its new full-lie flat Quadra Smartium seats in business class but this flight between Incheon-SFO consistently has them. If you are curious, other flights out of west coast that consistently have these Quadra seats are: Flight OZ 203 (LAX – ICN) and OZ 204 (ICN – LAX).
There are 24 seats in business class with 1-2-1 configuration. Therefore each seat in business class has direct aisle access and you don’t have to worry about climbing over your seatmate mid-flight to get to aisle. The window seats therefore are really good for solo travelers because you get a lot of privacy.
After seeing off Karen at the boarding gate for her LAX flight (which leaves 10 minutes before this one) I ran through the concourse to get to my boarding gate. After boarding, the first thing you see is the spacious business cabin (only 24 seats).
I liked the tan color of the seat (as opposed to maroon or blue in some airlines).
The cabin stewardess introduced herself and mentioned that she was going to be serving along with another stewardess on our side of the cabin. She had noticed that I was taking a lot of pictures and offered to take my picture.
Right after takeoff we were offered the dinner menu. I chose oven baked Sea Bass (much to my regret later).
The eggplant gets an A+ for both taste and presentation. It was really good.
I felt that the abalone was a bit rubbery. I took only a few sips of the minestrone soup.
I really like sea bass and whenever I order seafood at a restaurant its usually either salmon or sea bass. Little did I know this one is unlike any other I have ever had. It was extremely bland and did not taste that good at all.
After a very forgettable entree, the chocolate cake for dessert made up for some of the disappointment.
After dinner, it was time to take a good night’s sleep.
In full recline at 180 degrees, there is plenty of space for someone my height (5′ 8″) but someone who is 6′ might feel a little squished.
Another thing I noticed is that in this seat when you are laying down, you cannot see the rest of the passengers because the seat curves around. This made the seat appear private.
I must say that I slept really well on this flight. After about 6 hours of sleep, I woke up only when the cabin stewardess announced that they were serving breakfast.
I didn’t care too much for the omelette.
Pretty soon we were over San Francisco and from my window I could see the Golden Gate Bridge.
Bottomline:
Seat: *****
Service: *****
Food: **1/2
The seat was really comfortable. Besides the fact that it was full lie flat, I liked that each seat had direct aisle access. Moreover, the window seats on the even numbered rows were laid out in such a fashion that when in full recline mode, you couldn’t even see the rest of the cabin and it felt really private and secluded.
The service was really good. The cabin stewardesses came by quite a few times checking if I was comfortable. Now that I have traveled in both business class and coach in both Asiana and Singapore Airlines, at least in my limited experience, I felt that the service in Asiana is even better than Singapore.
The food unfortunately wasn’t that great (especially the dinner entree). Coincidentally, Karen had a similar experience regarding dinner entree on her ICN – LAX flight.