Harbin to Seattle - 7 flights, 5 airlines, OZ award ticket

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Should finish this, shouldn't I?


Landed at the usual United area of LAX (T7&8) and found it as disappointing as ever. With a nine hour stopover before the next flight, I decided that there was only one thing to do: In-N-Out Burger! I'd heard about this phenomenon through things like the OMAAT blog and a wonderfully absurd trip report I remember reading here but can't find now (someone went to LAX on QF in first for a weekend to do an In-N-Out Burger run, from what I remember. Ringing bells, anyone?).

Anyway, it seems that some of the cheats for getting there from LAX, such as using the long term car park shuttle bus, have been cracked down on. So I decided to walk. With the help of Google Maps it wasn't too difficult, although it got a little confusing when I had to detour around the freeway on ramps. Anyway, after about 15 minutes walking with my carry on in tow, I'd made it to the fabled In-N-Out. It turned out I wasn't the only one after a late lunch as the queue inside was almost at the door while cars had encircled the restaurant waiting at the drive through. Given the crowd, service was reasonably quick (I suspect the limited menu helps with this) and I was soon enjoying a lunch of a cheeseburger, chips and a root beer. Overall, I liked the burger and it seemed to be made with decent quality, fresh ingredients. The chips were a bit greasy though, I felt. I'd never had root beer before, so I thought I should try it out. Seemed to be a cherryesque flavour, which I'm not a fan of.

One big plus of the LAX INO Burger is that LAX runway 24R is right across the road so plane spotters can sit at the outdoor tables and watch the planes coming in to land up close. Overall, I don't think In-N-Out was the best burger ever, but it is a decent thing to do if you're stuck at LAX for a while. I'd imagine that kids would love it (as long as they're not frightened by loud noises, of course! :shock.

The glamorous stroll to In-N-Out

The queue

The food

The view

So after the late lunch, it was time to head back to LAX. With boarding passes for my two OZ flights already in hand and the OZ counter closed in any case, I went to security. However, I was stopped by a staff member who told me that my boarding passes weren't correct and that if I decided to clear security now, I'd have to come back to get proper boarding passes. Slightly confused but not particularity taken with the charms of the TBIT check in hall, I decided to go through now rather than wait hours for the counter to open. The TSA didn't have any problems with the passes and I got through rather smoothly. Later at the lounge, I was told that I could just get them exchanged at the boarding gate. A bit odd, but overall it worked out.

This was my first time in TBIT and it's definitely a step up on the rest of LAX. Looks like there are some decent restaurants there and the general ambiance is a lot nicer than the United terminals. I would say that the shops tend a little too much towards luxury brands though. After a stroll to explore the new terminal and have a nice, albeit pricey cappuccino, I headed for the *A (NZ) Lounge. No photos (there're plentiful online anyway), but I quite liked the lounge. The range of food on offer was broad enough and there were plenty of seats to go around. Wifi was good and there were also lots of power points too. One problem was that the coffee machines were playing up. The staff though were very helpful and even brought a coffee to my seat after I'd given up trying to make it work. Very kind. They had said that the machines were new, so it seems there are teething problems.

Overall, the lounge was quite good and a step above my usual haunts (SIN KrisGold, SIN MEL, PEK CA ). Perhaps not quite as good as the TK lounge at IST, but still a good place to wait for a few hours.

 

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Los Angeles to Seoul Incheon

Flight OZ203
Route LAX-ICN
Time 00:20-05:20+1 (13h00m)
Distance 5988 miles
Aircraft Boeing 777-200 (HL8284)
Cabin Business
Seat 6A

So after a few hours in the lounge, it was time to bid farewell to the US and head back home. I left the lounge a few minutes early to sort out the boarding pass issue from the previous post. At the counter at the gate, the staff member took my old passes checked that my checked in bag had made the connection and then ripped up my thermal paper passes and presented me with a couple of proper, old fashioned cardboard passes. Took three minutes at the most and about two minutes later boarding commenced.

The plane for this flight was fitted out with the OZ Smartium J class product. Basically this means that the seats are genuine lie flat rather than the angled seats that are still on some of the older planes. In general the hard product/seat is pretty similar to the ANA J I flew on the 773, although the ANA seat is rather new and so the OZ seat and cabin feel a bit old in comparison. That said, there were no obvious faults or lack of maintenance clues with the OZ seat (e.g. sagging cushions or odd slopes when in bed mode) so by and large the main difference is aesthetic. However, it should be noted that the OZ seat configuration (1-2-1) is arranged so that in every second row, the middle seats are close by so that couples could actually fly together rather than the ANA setup where your partner is either a little behind, in front of or across the aisle from you. Therefore, although I (flying solo) preferred the ANA J over OZ, I would lean more towards OZ if flying with the (far) better half.

One thing I had been warned about over in the OZ forum at FlyerTalk is that OZ had stopped offering amenity kits on long haul flights to ICN. The FAs instead walked through the cabin and offered earplugs and eyemasks from a basket, while toothbrushes et al were in the bathroom. No amenity kit isn't a dealbreaker (see SQ J) but it's still a little odd to offer from ICN but not to. Surely not saving that much fuel?

Given the timing of the flight, the food wasn't as prominent as on the ANA service. A late dinner was served up pretty soon after entering cruise. As befits and with pleasant memories of a special Korean meal on OZ in Y a few years ago, I went for the Korean bibimbap. It was very good. Fresh ingredients and filling without being too much. The dinner course overall was quite good, although I'm not sure that I would have the Korean biscuits again. Worth trying though.

Legroom shot

Starter of turnip vegetable rolls (served with some sort of grape juice )

Bibimbap!

Fruit course

Coffee and traditional Korean walnut and flour biscuits

The IFE is on a rather large screen, again similar in size to the ANA version. The range on offer is sadly also similar to ANA, although OZ did have Selma, which I had been meaning to see but hadn't, so I watched that during the meal. Pretty good film about a issue that is still sadly an issue today. Four stars from me, Margaret.

After the film, I decided to go to sleep. OZ doesn't have the comforter that ANA does, but the seat by itself is comfortable enough, in my opinion. Overall I got a decent five or six hours of sleep and felt pretty reasonable when I woke up. A couple of hours before landing, breakfast came around. Three options were on the menu: chicken and mushroom porridge, omelette and crepes. I went for the crepes.

Crepes filled with mango and cream

This was wonderful and I want to know how I can make it at home! A clear champion in my personal "best breakfast in the sky" contest, triumphing over an Aer Lingus Irish fry breakfast (in Y!) from 1996 (oh, to have the pre-Ryanair days back at EI!). So, after getting me all rather satisfied with OZ, the pilots rather rudely decided to land the plane on schedule. After doing what seemed to be a lap of honour around ICN for completing a safe landing in an OZ aircraft, we made it to our gate and it was time to check out ICN.

 

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Seoul Incheon to Harbin

Flight OZ339
Route ICN-HRB
Time 12:20-13:30 (2h10m)
Distance 565 miles
Aircraft Boeing 767-300 (HL7514)
Cabin Business
Seat 3A

So, after getting off the plane, I followed the signage for transferring passengers which led to a security checkpoint, similar to that (although much larger) encountered in Narita. Thanks to the early hour and the checkpoint being properly staffed, I was soon swiftly through and back in the main terminal of ICN. ICN regularly finds itself on the podium in the best airport listicles and it's not hard to see why. While I still think that SIN T3 is better, especially given the ease of popping into town on the MRT, ICN is still quite a nice place to spend a few hours even without lounge access. After walking around the terminal for a while looking at the shops that were just opening up with nothing taking my fancy, I headed to the lounge.

Despite being OZ Diamond/*G for about three years now, this was actually the first time I'd been inside any OZ lounge. After hearing some iffy reviews on FlyerTalk, I wasn't expecting much but I actually thought that it was pretty good. It reminded me a fair bit of the ANA lounge at NRT. Quite a large lounge with a long bar facing the tarmac. Also had pretty decent food selection including some pretty good potato wedges! As I entered the lounge, I asked about the showers. The clerk took my boarding pass and handed me a buzzer which would tell me when a shower was available. While the showers were very nice, contained in a reasonably large bathroom which included a toilet, sink and other bells and whistles, there seems to be only three such rooms in the whole lounge, so I had to wait about 90 minutes for my turn. No problem for me as I had a long wait for my next flight anyway, but obviously those with sharper connections during peak hour might miss out.

After a few hours of relaxing and stuffing my face, it was time to get on the last plane of this trip. After getting rid of some Korean coins I had from a previous transit by buying a cappuccino at the cafe next to the boarding gate (told you ICN was good! ), I was told that I had to drink it before I could board the plane, which I thought was a little strange. While doing so, I noticed at the counter irrefutable evidence of Chinese tourists coming back from the October Golden Week: a stack of foreign rice cookers and other appliances. I assume that many were bought at the duty free shops in ICN. I can't remember seeing so much stuff at a boarding gate counter before.

Potato wedges!

Rice cookers galore

On board, there was a family in business class who spent much of the flight wandering around the cabin trying to fit all their shopping into the overhead bins. They were a bit of a nuisance and a potential safety issue and with the amount of stuff they had, they should have been forced to check it in at the boarding gate.

On the 767, the hard product was a regional style business class with recliner seats in a 2-1-2 configuration. In general it was pretty similar to the Air Japan plane I took from TPE to NRT, although the OZ cabin looked newer and had a better TV with seatback monitors rather than ones coming out from under the armrests. IFE selection was the same as the previous flight (i.e. mediocre) although that was OK since I only wanted to see one thing: the flight map. See, the shortest route to HRB from ICN flies right over North Korea, so I was rather intrigued to see what route would actually be taken by the pilots. Turns out that we headed west out of ICN until there was enough of a buffer to head north towards HRB.

Blurry legroom shot

The direct path for ICN-HRB

The path actually flown

Given that ICN is the home port of OZ, I was actually a little disappointed with the food. The rice was poorly cooked and the rest of the meal didn't really make up for it. Strange too since I'd really liked my previous meals on OZ, even in Y.

The meal

Soon enough we landed in HRB. Currently HRB has a token international terminal that is really just a very small building that contains a bare bones immigration counter and a luggage belt. Honestly, I think I've been in 7-Elevens that are bigger and more spacious. Hopefully the current renovations will include a proper international terminal that is connected to the main domestic terminal. We were put on a bus and dropped off at the "terminal". Being small, we at least got through quickly. The "terminal" is nowhere near the main terminal with its taxi rank, so in the end I managed to get a "black" taxi (i.e. some guy with his own car) to my apartment for Y150 (about the same as a regular taxi anyway) after waiting for the driver to fill the other seats in his car. Although I've never departed from the international terminal, my first experience of the terminal was less than impressive and left my hoping that HRB builds a serious international terminal as soon as possible.