Our connection within Asia after a wonderful Airbus A380 flight was also on Asiana Airlines on their older Boeing 767 product. One of Asiana Airlines best features is the consistency of their in flight service. It is always flawless in execution, even if the hard product is not. While we had a bit of an older aircraft on this route, we drifted off after we took a shortcut from North America to Bali.

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This post is one chapter on our trip to Bali and Singapore. This trip was redeemed through Lifemiles, AAdvantage and through Starwood Preferred Guest (Marriott Bonvoy) loyalty programs. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.

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This post is one chapter on our third Round the World trip via South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, the Maldives and India. This trip was redeemed through Air Canada’s Aeroplan and through Starwood Preferred Guest (Marriott Bonvoy) and Hyatt Gold Passport (World of Hyatt) loyalty programs. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.

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Review: Asiana Airlines Business Class B767-3, Seoul Incheon – Denpasar Bali Ngurah Rai International Airport

“Asiana Airlines allowed us a short cut from North America directly into Bali by offering a unique direct flight from South Korea into Indonesia. As a regional flight, it was served by their less inspiring Boeing 767 business class product, paired with their world class service”

After arriving off of Asiana Airlines Business Class Los Angeles – Incheon on the Airbus A380, we had a hassle free connection and a minimal line at the connection security screening area. Heading up to the main concourse, we had a quick look through the Korean Cultural Experience booth but my son didn’t find it too interesting. We ended up opting for the Asiana Business Lounge Incheon on my son’s request. We had happened to have passed through the lounge a few months ago, so I won’t review it again as there was no substantial changes.

My son found the airplane model in the lobby quite interesting. It’s not every day that you get to see models of this size in school.

We had a quick stop here to use the washroom, have a coke and download some emails. I checked the volcano advisory since there was no mention of any flight delays and it seemed we were looking good. Overall, it’s not too exciting a lounge but it’s better than being parked out in the main concourse with everyone else. The fact that you can feed and snack up your kid with a fizzy drink without paying high street airport prices is a bonus as well.

We left the Asiana Business Lounge and arrived to our gate at T-30, just as the priority board was finishing. There was a large economy line with proper segregation and line management. As a result, we were able to get on really quickly in the business class area. My son was intrigued by the fact that we were headed to “Dispenser” (Denpasar). 

There was single door boarding today at L2. As a result, there was a stream of people through bus on the economy side. We also happened to be flying on the Asiana Star Alliance livery plane; one of the five Boeing 767’s that Asiana Airlines operated at the time.

On Board Asiana Airlines Boeing 767 Business Class:

The Asiana Boeing 767 business cabin was a small 3 row business cabin in a 2-1-2 configuration. It’s a pretty odd configuration and there aren’t too many carriers that have such a set up. With the three of us, I took my son in the aisle seats and MrsWT73 took the sole center seat.

The plane was outfitted with angle flat seats that were probably state of the art about 20 years ago.

The seat offered angle flat recline positions, including a lumbar support.

The cocktail table in between the seat offered a main table and pop open tables.

Pre Departure Services:

There was a pre departure beverage offered of water, sparkling or orange juice. Indonesian Immigration cards were immediately passed out. My son opted for orange juice, while MrsWT73 and I had sparkling.

While we settled in, I played with the flight map. The flight track for today’s flight took us away from the usual coastal routes up and down the heavily tracked east coast of South East Asia, and out over the open ocean of the South China Seas, over the Philippines and down over Borneo into Bali.

My son immediately located the game feature on the in flight entertainment and proceeded to attempt to set some new high scores. It was a strange snake egg shooting type of game that involved destroying the jewels prior to the serpentine getting to the centre. While I enjoyed this, there was a nice sunset outside through the old school B767 square windows. . . 

While my son enjoyed the gaming, otherwise the in flight entertainment was pretty tired. There were about only about 8 hollywood movies in the catalogue with nothing but NCIS to watch on TV for others. Asiana really falls down compared to its competitors here. 

In a first for me, there was a health and caution about sexual harassment announcement for flight crew. There was no mention about any volcano issues from the flight crew so we kept our fingers crossed and hoped that Mt Ruang wouldn’t cause any additional havoc. Our same flight, per flight tracker, just 2 frequencies ago, diverted in the last hour of flight to Jakarta. I hoped that we would not have the same result. 

While we were on the ground, the dinner menus were distributed. As with other medium haul Asiana Airlines flights, no amenity kits were offered. However, in the truest asian traditions, slippers were provided.

For one reason or another, we lost our departure slot and had to wait on the ground for about 20 minutes. Once we had climbed to altitude, it seemed like it took forever to get comfortable in these seats. It was a pretty stark comparison from the state of the art Asiana A380 seats on our last leg. I am sorry to report that the seats were not really comfortable for lounging, or sleeping. 

The Meal: A Full Dinner

As the flight got underway, dinner service was offered. Taking a closer look at the menus, there were different wines offered than on our last flight. Asiana Airlines typically offers a Western and Korean menu on its flights and this regional flight was no exception. The menu was slightly different, although the beef tenderloin western menu offering from our long haul flight was still present on the menu.

A decent wine list for the Asiana Airlines medium haul flight. They offered one champagne, two whites, three reds and a port and ice wine offering.

The starter was the lobster with white balsamic pearls.

I was feeling a bit boring today and went with another beef tenderloin.

The meal service concluded with some pleasant vanilla Haagen Dazs for the dessert. While it was available, I ended up skipping the cheese offering.

After the meal, I dozed off and slept a bit thanks to all the time zone changes. My son also crashed out quickly. Asiana Airlines had loaded chicken nuggets as a child meal, but WT73Jr ended up not having any despite my efforts as a parent to keep his stomach full while travelling. 

Landing at Ngurah Rai Bali International Airport:

Thankfully, we had a straight in arrival with a round and about descent into the newer Ngurah Rai International Airport at Bali and we were off without any issues. It seemed that we had a bit of a break in the ash. Indeed, no flight announcements or any deviations from the flight plan and we were safely on the ground

Getting off the plane, we had a long walk from our arrival gate in the new Ngurah Rai International airport though a space that didn’t have any personality. It was surprising for a new airport designed for tourist arrivals. The halls were punctuated with some very short moving sidewalks.

In the arrival’s hall, there was some banner advertising for visa fee entry for citizens of 26 new countries but the Indonesian consulate and website wasn’t updated in Vancouver, Canada prior to our departure so we went with getting a visa in advance from the Indonesian Embassy in Vancouver. For what it was worth, there was no line at the Visa On Arrival counter at our arrival time at 1 AM. 

The bags took forever to come out and of course we had an X ray exam before leaving the building. There were heaps of Jetstar flights that had arrived from all areas of Australia filled with college aged kids and their friends. In true Indonesian style, the bags came out on a belt at the opposite end of the baggage hall without any sign or display posting. My son, who was running around the baggage hall, checking all the belts, happened to spot our bags. The bags were on belt 6. He had the pleasure of hauling off the first of our bags as they turned up on the claim belt. A quick check for baggage chalk (the Indonesian authorities used to chalk bags when contraband was suspected in it) and with comfort that there were none on ours, we were headed for the exit without any unnecessary issues. 

As we exited the secure side of the airport, we went through what we initially thought was a duty free outlet before heading to the public side, but it was after customs control so it was likely high street pricing. Wine here was $30, which was fairly priced compared to resort pricing. We stocked up on some water and Pocohari Sweat Ion drink to take to the hotel. 

Conclusion: Our experience with Asiana Airlines Boeing 767 Medium Haul

Asiana Airlines was an interesting way to get to Bali from the Americas. At the time of writing, they offered 2X weekly service from Seoul Incheon. It was terrific as if you were redeeming on Star Alliance, it saved you from having to route through Singapore or Bangkok. It was pretty easy to find reward space and the flight times were aligned to easily connect from North America (unlike the Singapore Airlines times which are terrible for connecting to Indonesia).

The downside is that the product is quite dated with the seats being very uncomfortable, especially after coming off their flagship A380 aircraft. Ultimately, the savings in time is probably worth the discomfort. The LifeMiles ticket worked great, although we didn’t have to have any interactions with any humans in order to change the ticket. I can’t say that I would rely on their offerings all the time as a result of their funky IT issues.

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If you’ve flown Asiana Airlines Regionally within Asia, did you find it a competitive product?

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