HND to ICN on Asiana Business





HND to ICN on Asiana Business -- Airbus 321(4/10/2013)

You may ask, why taking the long route instead of flying non-stop to Taiwan? It was because we had to redeem our US Air mileage for this trip. So, we took whatever they had available with the Star Alliance airlines to get us to our destination.

After a short rest at the ANA lounge, we boarded the Asiana flight at 6:10 from Haneda, Japan to Incheon, South Korea. April 10 was one of the dates that the experts predicted N. Korea striking S. Korea and of course we were a little worried but life goes on.



Again, this flight was pretty empty in the business section.

Pre-flight drink

Korean breakfast of shrimp and broccoli porridge

I think this is octopus

fresh fruit and kimchi

arriving Incheon Airport

Incheon Airport is like a great big mall, very modern

looking for the Asiana lounge

Found it!

We spent the next two hours here waiting for our flight out.

Instead of a noodle bar, they offered cup-of-noodle. Not bad, really.

Might as well walk around the airport a bit.

Back to the lounge--one of the massage chairs in the lounge.

A spacious and well-decorated lounge.

LAX to HND on ANA Business

**I have noticed that this is one of the popular posts on my blog. The information regarding the Star Alliance Lounge at Tom Bradley Terminal at LAX is not accurate any longer. After the reconstruction of Tom Bradley, they have a brand new Star Alliance Lounge, pictures here.

It has been quite a while since I last posted. I have spent much of my time in the last couple of months preparing for this trip. This was mainly a land vacation visiting families and friends in Taiwan and also touring the southwestern part of China, Yunnan, where we've never been before. With a promotional 8-day land tour that cost USD $99 (excluding airfare), it was a deal that we couldn't pass up. Of course, there were mandatory add-on tours and shows but still it was a steal. We used our USAir mileage for the flights on this trip and arranged our own transportation. I would say it would be painful to fly the routes if we take economy, but we handled it quite well in business and it didn't cost us that much more at the end.

LAX to HND -- ANA (4/9/2013)

I forgot about our last flight from HND to LAX November 2012, which was also a redeye flight, and booked another ANA redeye which was a big mistake. ANA is generally a good airline but their redeye flights just lack services. Their reasoning is that most people wants to sleep so they would rather reduce services and FOOD instead of 'disturbing' their passengers. Once I realized what I have done, it was too late to make changes. Oh, well...next time, I will remember...NO REDEYE FLIGHTS ON ANA!

LAX was busy as usual at that hour and going through security was a pain. We were ready to crash and relax a little after security check. The Star Alliance Lounge on the 5th floor at Tom Bradley is very basic but acceptable. We enjoyed the sandwiches, soup, cup ramen, drinks, etc. being offered.

This is the quieter part of the lounge--the back room. They only have drinks and chips here with most of the food in the main area.

Who would want to sit in these stools?

Main area at the far end

Midnight at LAX

ANA B777 business

a little snack was served on this redeye flight before they turn off the lights in the cabin

had to order a reuben sandwich midway

"Life of Pi" was shown on almost all the flights on this trip

two hours before reaching HND, a Japanese breakfast was served

decent breakfast with a good piece of grilled fish

I was most impressed with that tiny stick of tender ginger on the fish.

arrived at HND airport before 5am

ANA/Star Alliance Lounge (at this hour we were directed to the Suite Lounge instead of the Business Lounge)

noodle bar

a good bowl of hot noodle

sunrise at HND

Haneda Airport in the early morning

time to leave