A relaxing morning work out in the Hotel gym, distracted by spotting before breakfast and after breakfast from the gorgeous views from my hotel room at the Hilton Narita. After getting distracted and almost missing the shuttle to the airport, I got my butt in gear, checked out and was on the shuttle to the airport a little early to get some spotting in with the morning traffic.
However plans as usual for me failed. I was unable to drop off my bag immediately upon arrival, even though being a newly appointed *G, I was unable to check in as they did not open for another 45 minutes. O well, time to drag my suitcase up to the observation deck and not spoil my morning of spotting I had been looking forward to since the observation deck is so easy to spot from.
With the observation deck at Terminal 1 overlooking the active departure runway, I was hoping to get some good shots and boy did I. Unfortunately out of the time I was up there, I could not get what I was chasing though (JAL new colours and a Retro Jet of course). As it got closer to 10am, I packed up my gear and lugged it all back down to the check in area, which as I approached it, was fully open and I walked straight up to the counter.
With check in slow and not really all that difficult except my boarding passes would not print to business so took a good 6 or 7 attempts to get them on the right boarding card stock before they were happy. With two freshly minted boarding passes in hand, 2 lounge invites for both Tokyo and Incheon (not that I needed them) it was time to do a bit more shopping around the upstairs area hunting for wierd flavoured Kit Kats and some airline goodies for friends back home. I did this and then headed down to security.
Security took a little time for me as usual as I have so much stuff to strip down and pull out and then reassemble on the other side, however I am getting better at the routine, people were starting to queue up behind me and i just told them to go past me it was easier this way. Once through, immigration was a breeze and I was the only person there. Once through, I decided to do a bit of lounge hopping (although I could only visit 3 lounges total). First up, ANA in Satelite 5, the furtherest away.
Off I trudged to Satelitte 5 where the ANA lounge was located for this area, a nice small lounge with some good views, but sadly, it was blocked of the active and only a barely used Taxiway connecting the two runways. So I just grabbed a quick drink and headed off to the other ANA lounge which I hoped would have better views. It didn’t This lounge in a different satelite (closer to the action though) was on the Ground floor and did not even have a single window. But I was in dire need of a snack, so sat down for a little bit, grabbed a drink and some rice crackers and did a touch of blogging. After this was done, I decided it was time to head off to the Red Carpet Club. The last lounge I could access, the closest to my gate and hopefully with the best views.
On my way to the Red Carpet club I ran a few errands, changing currency, doing a little shopping and just generally wandering my way down to the lounge. Once inside, this lounge was huge, but OLD. The seats had some wear and tear but meh, I didn’t mind, they had fantastic views of the runway and some edamame 😀 I grabbed a big heaping bowl of the beans and settled in by the window for some spotting.
As I was setting up though I noticed something out the window, a nice big giant Korean Airlines Tail. Could it be… yes it was! My last A380! The fresh and new Korean A380 was sitting just blocked from view, so it mean that once this plane moved, I could get a fantastic shot. So i checked to see what time Korean had departures and made sure to see what I could do about it getting that final shot.
With luck there was a departure around 1300 which was sure to be the A380 and that meant I just had to leave the lounge a little early for that perfect shot but I was not fussed, so after wandering around the lounge a little, I saw the A380 push back, quickly packed up and jumped outside the lounge to a good vantage point where i scored a perfect shot! I was happy as larry!
After the A380 departed I wandered around a little more before heading towards the gate area and waiting for boarding which was a little late.
Asiana Airlines
OZ103
Tokyo Narita to Seoul Incheon
1410-1630
Boeing 767-300 (HL7514)
Business Class – Seat 2A
Boarding: 1350 (Gate 35)
Push Back 1412
Take Off Roll: 1424 (Runway 16R)
Top of Descent: 1553
Touch Down: 1614 (Runway 34)
Shut Down: 1623 (Gate 47)
With boarding called a little bit late and a throng of *G travelling in Economy pushing their way to the front of the priority boarding queue, I was about the 10th person onboard. The flight was fairly empty really with only 5 people (plus an infant) in a 15 seat business class cabin and the back of the plane I did not see. The seats for Business were not lie flat or flat at all, but they were comfortable enough for what was to be a 2 hour flight. I can cope.
One passenger in 2K seemed to be getting pretty much all the attention from the Cabin Crew, at one point he had about 6 or 7 crew around him, pointing, chatting talking about something. I have no idea who he was. The couple with the infant got the rest of the attention with myself and the other passenger in business pretty much left alone it felt. A predeparture beverage was not offered till the doors were closed and then it was only water or juice (I was happy with water anyway). No entertainment system on the ground but I just read through the Wired magazine i appropriated from the RCC.
By the time we started to push back and taxi, I was off in La La land, enjoying myself and not worrying at all about anything, just the way I should be right? We taxiied pretty quickly and did not even stop at the end of the runway or taxiway, just turned onto the active and blasted down it, the same way a 767 does anywhere. We rotated pretty quickly (must be a light load for this short hop) and were heading skyward through the cloud.
Menus were distributed shortly after the seat belt sign came off, and the options were either Western or Japanese. I was hoping for Bibambap but that must have to wait for the next flight I guess, so chose the Japanese for one last hurrah. Shortly after ordering the meal was brought out and it looked beautiful. I did not want to destroy what was such a beautiful presentation. But I was hungry and this was lunch… o well!
After enjoying my Japense lunch while watching NCIS, and then promptly losing the menu that I was going to keep, I asked for another one and was gladly given one so that was ok. After enjoying one last final Red Bean sweet with some coffee, I was content to sit back, read my magazine and listen to some music and pretty soon (10 minutes or so) we were given a pre descent warning by the flight deck. The flight just sped through and did not feel like 2 hours at all.
Soon enough we started descent into a very hazy and glare filled Incheon where photo taking was just difficult, so I tried not to unless it was something good (which most of the planes on the ground were). We taxiied to the gate and was soon parked. However as the seat belt sign came off, the business class section filled with economy passengers pushing their way to the front, even pushing the Cabin Crew out of the way as they tried to block them from coming forward.
Once the doors were open and disembarking began, I noticed one thing, Incheon is HUGE! However the transfer security was only a minute or so stroll from the gate and I was shortly through, up into Incheon’s cavenous airport, where I had to walk what felt like almost a kilometre to get to the lounge.
Once inside the Asiana lounge I scoped it out for a while, was warned that no departure announcements were made, so decided I would leave early again to go scope out the airport really and tried to find a powerpoint to plug in the laptop which was MUCH harder than it seemed really. Not much in the way of food was on offer mainly some salads, noodles and a few soft drinks and beers. I wasn’t worried as I had a pretty good lunch so found a good spot and just camped out to blog on the free wifi.