copes

just wondering if anyone as flown with korean airlines before to Australia
Thinking of booking tomorrow for October and they have come up with best prices so far. Any infro would be helpful
Many thanks

sunshine23

I am not the best flyer in the world and would only fly by the big airlines (singapore, qantas, british airways etc.)

Due to family reasons I had to get to Aus quickly from UK and could only get a flight with Korean Airlines. They were fantastic. very spacious planes, very clean, food like normal airline food, crew really lovely. Only thing against them was the entertainment was not individual, but the entertainment was being upgraded in the planes.

We also had a 23 hour stop over in korea and they put us up in the Hyatt hotel at the airport with dinner and breakfast included at no extra cost.

I would not hesitate to fly with them again.

Sunshine23

jad n rich

Pop korean airlines in the search box at top of page. They have been discussed many times, lots should come up good bad ugly safety whatever.

copes

Thanks for your replies this was very helpful, but still not sure to pay the £500 more and go with singapore airlines. Oh what to do!!!

wanderingwombat

Walked on. Took off. Landed. Walked off.

The poorly filmed 2 hour nature film on a bred of deer that lives on only one Korean island was definitely the highlight of the flight.

Soeul's main airport was nice enough.

WW

copes

So I take it was uneventful, I worry over everything because I don't like flying anyway. I dont watch the film anyway as I have my eyes closed

wanderingwombat

It was economical at the time. Fun once but not again by choice.

WW

SNH

The food isn't always good!!

I have lived in Korea, and even I couldn't stomach what they served!! We got a big bowl of hot water, with toothpaste tubes of sauce to squirt into it.

That was our dinner.



Also we had no screens in the seats on my flight to Australia.

However, the airline has recently had a makeover, and have basically copied Finnair in style and colours, and so maybe they are making improvements.

If you are willing to make a stopover, Seoul is great for shopping - as long as you have the courage to brave a city that now encompasses around twenty-five million people.

Mikeyc

Korean Airlines is actually one of the largest airlines in the world, serving over 130 cities in over 45 different countries, (Qantas only flies to 11 different countries). So Korean IS one of the “big airlines”.

I flew with them once, it was a last minute thing and I was not too keen on flying an airline that had a soft drink symbol on their tail (Pepsi) lol, but I was quite surprised and found them much better than Qantas or BA, their food was ok, seats comfortable, entertainment good, overall service good and they included a free 2 nights in Soul for us, would fly again no problem.

PS: They now have TV's in the back of every seat.

Good luck.

Mikey

swigski

I flew Heathrow to Sydney last year with them as they were the cheapest at time of booking. Comfortable enough but food was a bit on the strange side even if you ask for the European version. Seoul airport big and clean. Somehow my family an I managed to get in the Korean airlines lounge in Seoul and have a shower and have free food and drinks while travelling Economy!
Stopover on way back was good. 5 star hotel but if I were you I would pay for an evening meal in the choice of restaurants in the hotel. Breakfast next morning is fine as it is a buffet.
Cabin staff very nice and smiley even though I don't think they knew what you were talking about half the time but service impeccable!
Overall, worth the money but I will be travelling with Singapore in a few weeks so should be a good comparison.

bcworld

Safety - they nearly got banned from flying into the UK a few years back due to routinely arriving into Heathrow on reserve fuel supplies & only 3 running engines. The implication being that if they had to do a go around for some reason they wouldn't have had enough fuel to do it = an unscheduled landing in Hounslow or Windsor Castle!

Think they have cleaned up their act since then though.

copes

Thanks to everyone that replied to my thread, I have chicken out with flying with Korean airlines and have paid the extra and are flying with Singapore airlines to Brisbane on 20th Oct to validate my visa.
Many thanks Kay

Wol

KAL used to have a relatively poor safety record but IIRC several inquiries brought about a complete overhaul in their Flight ops department. It was previously run by ex military on military lines, with an Asian culture of fatalism - what was going to happen was going to happen.

I believe they now have a much more Western approach to the culture of safety being paramount.

I *still* don't like kimchi, though <g>.

Swerv-o

Must be why the Soviets shot them down for wandering into their airspace...

bcworld

Twice, in fact!