Asiana Airlines

I flew to China on Asiana Airlines (a Korean company) and was so impressed by every aspect of the experience that I felt compelled to advertise for them a little. If you are looking for an international flight to East or Southeast Asia, I recommend you consider Asiana!

Advantages:

++Cheap!: My one-way ticket cost $800. Round-trip would have been comparable to American Airlines or United. There are even sometimes specials where you can get international flights for roughly $400! It is crazy!

+extensive markets: Asiana flies to many destinations in East and Southeast Asia. I can guarantee you a flight to Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lampur, etc. But you can even get flights to places within China. I could have flown to Guilin or Xi'an through Asiana.

++Convenient: The flight from Chicago to Shanghai left at 1:00 am on Thursday mornining. That might not sound like an ideal time, but consider the logic. It's not the rush hour... in fact, that flight was the only flight leaving from Terminal 5 at that hour. Thus there was minimal traffic at O'hare, easy parking, and no crowds in the entire terminal. It was clear where the ticketing booth was because it was the only one with people at it! (in the daytime, a passenger might not know that Asiana tickets are to be picked up at the Swiss Air counter) Going through security was a breeze. And there were plenty of seats to sit in and outlets to plug electronics into while waiting for the flight. I much prefer being in O'hare when the rest of Chicago is sleeping!

+++no jet lag!: Because you depart at 1:00 am, you are very tired when you get on the plane. I actually got some sleep! And by the time you arrive at your destination, it is just becoming morning, so it is quite perfect. I felt absolutely no jet leg... my exhaustion came from waiting in the airport for so long (I purposely chose a long layover because I didn't want to miss the connecting flight)

++good food!: We had steak, potato wedges, broccoli, and carrots! Now it wasn't of the Lone Star or Outback standard, unfortunately, but it was tender and it was good. We also were also served salad and a cake. To honor the Korean flavor of the flight, there was even salted salmon (or some kind of fish)... and although it did not appeal to my tastes, my Asian neighbors in Seats B and C thoroughly enjoyed it and it certainly looked nice on the tray. Oh, that dining ware is all glass by the way!

++great service: The flight attendants were very friendly and yet not obnoxious. They served drinks at your request... as oppossed to the flights where the flight attendants take their little cart up and down the aisle ever 15 minutes, thus blocking the restrooms for a majority of the flight. None of that here, thank you.

+++++++great entertainment!: If I wasn't so tired, I could have spent all 13 or 14 or 15 hours enjoying the entertainment options. They had a good selection of recent (as of August 2008) American blockbusters, including Iron Man and Kung Fu Panda. On top of that, they had blockbusters and classic movies from all over Asia. You could watch movies from China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Same with the music. They had blockbusters and classics from all over the world... including many "best hits albums"... for example, Michael Jackson's Thriller 25th Anniversary collection, Purple Rain, Best of the Doors, Best of Whitney Houston, Best of the Carpenters... they had so much.... and THEN there was all the music from Asia!!! Their audio selections even included books-on-tape and "learn Chinese," "learn Korean," and "learn Japanese" lessons for practical conversational speech. In addition, they had television shows from America and the Pacific, including both popular shows and documentaries. Travel documentaries were particularly well-represented. And then, as if all of this wasn't enough, they even had video games, which you could play with your remote control. The games were simple, but fun and even rather addicting. Of course they had the standard, "flight information" options to view as well if you were interested in the outside air temperature, or current altitude, or Greenwich time, or whatever. They had stuff for children and shopping options as well, but I didn't explore them. All of this was FREE... F-R-E-E... FREE! The only thing that required payment was using the phone in the remote control to either call/chat with another person on the plane (yes!, you could use the remote to talk to other passengers on the plane!) or to call landlines on the ground. I'm sort of sorry that I slept for those hours... I would have liked more time with my remote!

Fly Asiana!