Korean Air KE171 KE180 Economy Review
My dad had quite a lot of KAL miles expiring this year,
so we booked a last-minute Hong Kong ticket with miles.
It cost 25,000 miles,
plus 153,000 KRW (about $110) in fuel surcharges and taxes^^
The flight time from Incheon to Hong Kong is about 3.5 hours!
My husband had only been once as a kid,
and it was my very first time visiting Hong Kong.
I’d heard June is brutally hot and humid,
so I was equal parts excited and nervous..^^
Since we were flying Korean Air, we used Incheon Airport Terminal 2,
and because our flight was at 8 a.m., we stayed near the airport
at ibis Styles the night before and got to the airport around 6!
I thought it would be quiet that early,
but somehow it was already absolutely packed at 6 a.m.^_^
Still, with priority check-in
and Smart Pass,
we made it through to the duty-free area pretty quickly, thankfully.
My mom-made passport case is still the cutest thing ever.
Another aircraft I spotted on the way to the gate.
The aircraft type to Hong Kong was an Airbus A330-300
and the return flight to Incheon was on an A321-neo.
Korean Air KE171 KE180 Economy Review: Incheon to Hong Kong on the A330-300
First, the A330-300 seat map.
For this aircraft, Korean Air’s economy cabin
has a seat pitch of 79–84 cm (31–33 inches)
and a seat width of 46 cm (18.1 inches).
We booked pretty late, so all the decent seats
were already taken. We ended up choosing row 58 in the center
(58D, 58E).
The front section is 2-4-2, but the rear changes to a 2-2-2 layout,
so the aisles on both sides felt wider than usual, which was actually pretty nice.
Of course, the downside is being among the last to get off, which is annoying,,
Korean Air boards by zone,
so I can usually get on early enough
to snap photos of the cabin before it fills up.
This is the row 57–60 section I mentioned above.
The aisle is wide enough that even when the cart comes through,
you don’t have to tuck your elbows in.
If the better seats up front are completely sold out,
I honestly think it’s better not to pick some awkward middle seat
and instead go all the way to the back
for a roomier setup like this.
On the way to Hong Kong, they gave us a blanket, headset, and a small bottle of water. Toothbrush and toothpaste sets were stocked in the lavatory.
For reference, on someone around 170 cm tall,
this is how much legroom was left when sitting comfortably.
I wouldn’t call it super spacious,
but it didn’t feel especially cramped either.
The monitor looked a little dated, but it was usable.
We’d been up since the crack of dawn,
so I was way too busy sleeping on the plane to watch anything.
Hong Kong trip, here we go.
As soon as we reached cruising altitude, meal service started.
We were seated right in front of the galley, so it was nice getting our food early.
The choices were chicken curry or ssambap,
which is rice with spicy stir-fried pork and lettuce wraps, so I picked the ssambap! For my drink, I went with Coke Zero.
After trying Korean Air’s ssambap,
I’d say it wasn’t as good as their bibimbap, but it was still perfectly decent.
There was dessert too: Cledor strawberry ice cream.
Only one flavor, so no choice there.
After a solid breakfast, I brushed my teeth and went straight into a deep sleep.
FYI, the seat charging port looked like this.
I didn’t actually use it, so I can’t say how well it worked.
But when I flew business class in April,
I tried charging with a USB cable and it was painfully slow,
so I never expect much from in-flight charging anyway^_^
Almost there!! At around 3.5 hours,
it really wasn’t a difficult flight.
If you look at Hong Kong weather forecasts in June and July,
it seems to call for rain almost every day, so I expected
it might be raining the second we landed, but it was actually clear.
Hong Kong to Incheon KE180 Korean Air A321-neo
Next up, the return flight.
There was an airport bus stop right next to our hotel,
so getting to the airport was incredibly easy.
This time, our flight was a late-night one after midnight^^;
Since we were trying to find Hong Kong award tickets with miles,
both the outbound and return ended up at pretty rough times.
After check-in, we went to grab dinner,,
Hong Kong International Airport is huge, but thankfully
our flight was departing from nearby Gate 1, which felt like a major win.
We’d already been walking 20,000 steps a day, so I was beyond happy not to trek across the whole airport,,
The return flight was on the newer A321-neo.
But when I checked in the app, it said neo,
while the safety card in the seat pocket said A321-200.
Same thing? Similar thing? Honestly, I’m not sure.
With just 8 business class seats and a 3-3 economy layout,
this is a pretty small aircraft.. and yes, it was completely full.
On the A321-neo in economy,
seat pitch is 79–81 cm (31–32 inches)
and seat width is 45 cm (17.8 inches),
which makes it 1–2 cm smaller than the A330-300.
That doesn’t sound like much, but you can definitely feel the difference.
That seat color, though,,
Our seats on the way back were 53D and 53E.
I picked them thinking that since the row next to us was for passengers traveling with pets,
this might be the last area with any chance of an empty seat.
But in the end, the flight was totally full and a Chinese passenger sat next to us^_^
Very neo-looking lighting, I guess(?)
I took one photo to show the spacing by the aisle seat.
On the return flight, they didn’t hand out bottled water, just earphones.
They told us to take a pair while boarding if we needed them.
There was only a blanket waiting at the seat.
Honestly, it kind of felt like flying a low-cost carrier.
This was the knee room for a 170 cm-tall human.
The charging port looked like this.
Again, I didn’t actually use it, but since this was a newer aircraft,
I had a feeling it might work a little better,,
And the in-flight entertainment was actually excellent!
The movie lineup on the outbound flight wasn’t great,
but on the A321 there were way more movies
and a lot more worth watching. The only problem was that I was way too sleepy,,
So instead of a movie,
I found a one-hour piano album by Seong-Jin Cho in the music list
and fell asleep listening to that.
Takeoff~!
There was even a do-not-disturb setting,
so I turned it on and went to sleep because I wasn’t planning to eat.
But the flight attendants still asked if I wanted the meal;
which made me wonder why that feature exists in the first place.
My husband had his turned on too, and they still woke him up.
They served one meal on this flight,
but by Hong Kong departure time, it was 2 a.m.
And instead of something light like porridge, it was bibimbap..
I was so sleepy I could barely keep my eyes open,
so I skipped the meal and kept sleeping.
So that wraps up
my Korean Air round-trip review from Incheon to Hong Kong—
a ticket that wasn’t especially bad, but wasn’t especially amazing either.