Asiana OZ134/OZ133 business class review: Incheon to Fukuoka with a baby
For this Fukuoka trip, I flew Asiana business class round-trip.
I’m currently collecting Korean Air miles,
but now that Korean Air and Asiana are being integrated,
the flight miles convert 1:1,
so at this point I can pretty much book whichever airline works best.
You can also use the Korean Air lounge, which is a nice bonus.
That said, if you fly Asiana economy,
you won’t get Korean Air Morning Calm benefits.
On the outbound flight, it was just me and the baby.
On the way back, it was the baby plus both parents.
Asiana has now moved to Incheon Airport Terminal 2,
and the check-in counter was at J.
It’s on the complete opposite side from Korean Air.
Asiana Business Class Review on OZ134: Incheon to Fukuoka, Japan
Asiana flight OZ134 from Incheon to Fukuoka
departed at 1:55 PM, and the actual flight time after takeoff was 65 minutes.
I use a Joolz Aer+ travel stroller,
so I can push it all the way to the aircraft door,
fold it right before boarding, and store it in the overhead bin.
A lot of people like gate-check stroller service,
but honestly, nothing is as convenient as bringing it onboard.
On the way there, the aircraft was an A350,
which meant I lucked out with a Business Smartium seat.
The Fukuoka route is so short
that I doubt they operate Business Suites very often, if ever.
I had seat 1A, and somehow getting the first row always feels extra nice.
This is what the seat map looked like.
The 1-2-1 layout felt spacious.
And this is what it looked like in real life.
My little one was 13 months old, and this was her fourth international trip.
She’d already done six flights round-trip across our previous three trips,
and honestly, she had been a total unicorn baby.
No crying, just sitting calmly,
drinking formula, eating meals and snacks,
and even napping right on schedule, which made flying so easy.
But this time? She had clearly entered a new phase, and wow… it was hard.
The amenities in Asiana business class were
basically disposable slippers and a not-great headset.
I didn’t use either one, so I can’t really judge beyond that.
Carefully reviewing her own boarding pass.
They also gave her a gift for infant passengers.
Technically, these kids’ gifts are usually meant for children
24 months and older who occupy their own seat,
but in business class, or even in economy,
if they have extra stock,
the crew will sometimes give them to younger babies too.
So if your under-24-month-old is flying free as a lap infant,
please don’t make a scene if they don’t offer one.
Lately she can’t sit still for even a second
and keeps trying to climb onto anything high,
so before the aircraft door closed,
I let her stand in the open space in front of the seat for a minute.
Business class was completely full,
but it honestly felt better than letting her start crying.
Sorry to everyone around us.
A quick look at the OZ134 business class meal menu.
There were a few alcohol options, plus coffee and tea.
I was tempted to order a decaf coffee,
but drinking coffee on a plane while solo-parenting a baby
was basically impossible. Please just nap, baby.
The menu on the left was for the outbound flight to Fukuoka,
and the one on the right was for the return to Incheon.
Both were sandwiches, just with slightly different components.
Since the flight is only 65 minutes,
once you reach cruising altitude,
the meal service starts almost immediately.
You eat fast, they clear fast,
and then it’s basically time to prepare for landing. You really do have to eat quickly.
A bassinet can be installed in front of seats 1E and 1F,
but my baby was already over both the height and weight limits,
so we couldn’t use it anyway.
And honestly, on the Fukuoka route, even if you did get a bassinet, you’d probably only have about 20 minutes to use it.
Since I was flying alone with the baby,
the flight attendants seemed to feel for me a little
and were very proactive about helping out,
which made the flight much easier overall.
Asiana’s cabin crew really are great.
Before the trip, I ordered one new toy she’d never seen at home,
and when I brought it out for the first time on the plane,
she was completely fascinated and played with it really well.
The only problem was that she kept throwing it on the floor.
We were finally in the air and meal service was about to start.
Honestly, it was already hard enough just taking care of the baby,
so I briefly considered skipping the meal altogether.
But the blogger in me wanted the photos,
so I accepted it anyway.
If I wore the baby on my back,
I at least had both hands free.
The downside: there was no way to sit and eat.
Here’s the sandwich that came as the in-flight meal.
It also came with salad and fruit,
but don’t expect a leisurely meal.
You need to keep putting bites in your mouth as fast as you can.
It was a chicken Bolognese sandwich.
It wasn’t amazing, but it was perfectly edible.
I just ate one piece to take the edge off my hunger.
Even then, the plain bread parts without sauce
ended up being offered to my fussy daughter behind me.
Oh, and there was also an infant meal,
which I think included milk, juice, and some kind of grain stick snack.
It didn’t seem like something I could feed her right away,
so I asked them to pack it separately, and they kindly put it in a bag for me.
Up until now, across all six of her previous flights,
my daughter had seemed completely unfazed by ear pressure during landing.
I honestly wondered if she just didn’t feel it at all.
But this time, she got fussy on descent,
so I’m pretty sure her ears were bothering her.
I worked hard to soothe her,
and then, right when we were almost down,
she finally fell asleep. Classic little contrarian. Still adorable, though.
We made it to Fukuoka.
Honestly, it feels closer than driving from our house to southern Gyeonggi-do.
When we got off the plane, two flight attendants
helped bring down the stroller,
double-checked that I wasn’t leaving any of my bags behind,
and even cheered me on.
I was so grateful.
Fukuoka to Incheon on Asiana OZ133
On the day we flew home,
we were back at Fukuoka Airport.
The Asiana counter was at G.
There was a Korean staff member and a Japanese staff member,
and the Japanese agent spoke Korean so well that check-in was incredibly easy.
We spent some time in the lounge and watched the plane we’d be taking.
A lot of people use gate-check stroller service,
and if your stroller doesn’t fit in the overhead bin,
that’s definitely an option.
But because staff have to manage multiple heavy strollers,
and because it’s not their personal item,
they can sometimes handle them a little roughly.
I’ve heard damage happens fairly often.
That’s why, since we plan to travel often,
I bought the Joolz Aer+ from the start because it fits in the cabin.
The Joolz Aer, Aer+, and Aer2
are all designed specifically as carry-on strollers,
so they fit in overhead bins regardless of aircraft type.
I mean, it’s literally called the Aer.
This time the aircraft was an A330,
so it wasn’t Smartium, just the regular business class seat.
But even if it had been Smartium, it wouldn’t have mattered much,
because on the return flight I didn’t even recline the seat once.
During the times when I could have reclined it,
I was standing the whole time holding the baby,
so that business class seat never really got used like a business class seat.
After taking the return flight, my honest takeaway was this:
if I’m going to spend the whole flight standing anyway,
I should probably just book economy on the Fukuoka route next time.
I couldn’t even properly enjoy the meal in business class.
This time again we had seats 1A and 1C,
which meant we were in the front section of business class
with the most open floor space, so that helped a lot.
We basically got three windows to ourselves.
It was an older seat, so aside from the recline,
there weren’t many extra features, and as far as I know it wasn’t fully flat.
There was a cup holder that popped out from the center armrest,
and my baby loved pushing it in and pulling it back out.
This time she got an origami gift,
but when we got home, I realized it was gone.
I must have left it tucked into the seat pocket.
The meal menu was the same as the outbound flight.
The meal itself was also the same as the return menu I shared above.
This time the sandwich was a chicken panini.
I don’t even want to imagine how dirty an airplane carpet-style floor really is,
but she insisted on staying down there, so what could I do? Maybe it’ll build character… or immunity.
For some reason, she kept wanting to cry,
so I had to keep making her laugh nonstop to head it off.
Goodbye, everyone.
This flight was so exhausting.
It was exactly the kind of time when she should have been sleepy, and yet she absolutely refused to sleep.
Once again, I accepted the meal for photo purposes.
I skipped my husband’s tray and only took mine.
I tried one piece of the panini,
and this one was a little better than the sandwich on the outbound flight.
There was also a Japanese wagashi sweet,
but I was so busy watching the baby that I forgot to taste it.
So I have no idea what it was like.
At least I got a photo of it.
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