The Pointiff: The Iggy Itinerary: Asiana Business Class - Shanghai-Pudong

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This was my very first flight on Asiana, and I was pretty excited. I knew the plane wouldn't have the fancy intercontinental business class configuration with lie-flat seats, but it's still considerably better than domestic first class.

Our plane (Boeing 767-300)

Asiana 368, Shanghai-Pudong > Seoul-Incheon

Business Class, Seat 1A

Business class is in a 2-1-2 configuration - the middle seat in the front is sort of Jean Luc Picard-y.

Business Class cabin

Business Class seat

Fully reclined

The Picard Seat

Seat controls

Flight entertainment screen

Legroom

The flight attendants offered pre-departure beverages of orange juice or water, and distributed slippers and headphones. (The headphones were terrible).

Orange juice

Slippers

Not exactly Bose noise-canceling headphones

There was an American man sitting in 1F whose carry-on was too large for the carry-on bin, but the flight attendants tried valiantly to make it fit. Eventually, one of the flight attendants gave up and politely asked if he wouldn't mind checking the bag in. He refused rudely.

With great effort, one of the flight attendants managed to get the carry-on bag into the bin, although the latch barely held on - it seemed precarious. One of the stewards came by to investigate, which made the American furious:

"You should stop worrying about the bags and start worrying about training your pilots. Your pilots are not very good. I fly planes. I saw what your pilot did in Los Angeles. Train them better. I saw what happened in Los Angeles."

The flight attendants smiled politely, but one of them exchanged a surreptitious exasperated eye-roll with me.

(By the way, jerk: nothing happened in Los Angeles. You meant San Francisco, but why would you bring that up with the flight attendants?)

The boarding door closed with just 6 of the 15 seats occupied.

Wide-body aircraft at Shanghai-Pudong

There was relatively heavy turbulence as we climbed out, but eventually flight attendants came by to take our orders. In the meantime, I started watching Tammy on the entertainment system (the selection was very limited).

The breakfast menu was short (but so is the flight, at 1:50 - the fact that they do a full meal service is pretty impressive.)

Breakfast

Fresh Fruit

Yogurt

Main Courses

Frittata

Served with Sausage and Potato

Grilled Sole Fillet and Stir-fried Prawn

Seasoned with Bulgogi Sauce

Served with Pak Choi and Steamed Rice

Coffee and Tea

Airplane egg dishes are generally not my jam, so I tried the sole. It was delicious, and the rice was perfectly cooked. They brought everything out one one tray - for such a quick flight, that probably makes sense.

Sole and Bok Choy (white rice underneath the cabbage leaf)

Fruits

I went to the restroom to brush my teeth after breakfast. (Yes, Lisa, I brush my teeth). They don't distribute amenity kits on such a short flight, but the bathroom has an amenity stand with combs, toothbrushes, cologne, lotion, and moisturizing spray.

Restroom amenities

A short while later, we landed at Seoul's Incheon airport. The pollution was abysmal.

Conclusion
I would love to fly Asiana on a long-haul flight. I was a bit ambivalent about flying on Asiana because I had heard that the flight attendants' English abilities aren't great. But every flight attendant on this flight spoke perfect unaccented English and delivered excellent service.

Also, Seoul is much closer to Shanghai than I thought.