I just got off my Asiana First Class Suites on their new closed-door suites on their 777-200ER from New York to Seoul, which is part of a trip to Hong Kong with US Airways Dividend miles. The plane that I flew was less than half a year old so it still had a slight new plane smell which was nice.
Asiana 772
Asiana First Class Suites
The Asiana First Class Suites just might be one of my very favourite products. The hard product is just extremely stunning, and very spacious. It features the largest personal TV monitor on a commercial passenger plane, at 32″, which is as good as it gets, although I think a lot of the screen content wasn’t HD which was too bad. Here’s a picture with a set of Bose headphones for comparison.
Huge TV
The amount of personal space that you got in the seat was also extremely good. Storage space was plentiful, the seat was nice and long, and wide enough for most people. I’ve yet to fly Singapore Suites, so I can’t compare it to that. But in my opinion it was much more spacious than all of the F products I’ve flown, including LH Old First on the A346 and 747, CX F on the 77W, TG F on the A380 and 747, and UA F on a 777. The width of the seat is fantastic and I’d guess around 30″ as it’s definitely wider than the TG A380 which SeatGuru lists as 26.5″. The suite is also very long in that your feet don’t feel cramped when you’re sleeping if you’re tall.
Aisle Seat
To top that off you have doors, which are really nice especially if you want to open/close shades and lights when the cabin is dimmed. I als0 felt that there was a lot more privacy when I slept.
Sliding Doors!
There was also a lot of personal lights including one behind the seat, an LED-like light panel, and two oversized reading lights. The stars on the ceiling also really complemented the coziness of the seat.
Stars
This all contributed to the homey feel that I got without being cramped, which is why I like it so much, as I don’t think I’ve gotten this feeling from many other premium cabins I’ve flown. It really made it seem not so much like an airline seat but definitely a feeling that you’re at home, even more so than CX F.
Surprisingly one of the things that I had been looking forward was the amazing soft product that many people rave about. The FA’s were perfectly nice, but they didn’t go above and beyond. Or perhaps I just set my expectations too high. Perhaps it was the 7/8 load but the onboard service didn’t blow me away. Certainly it was an excellent flight but definitely a very standard one. The other thing that could be improved in my opinion is the bedding which was not as nice as on Lufthansa of Cathay.
But overall, the food was quite good, the Bulgari amenity kit was nice, and the plane was nice. I had an amazing flight. This should be a product on the top of your list if you like stellar first class products, given that it’s probably the nicest product fairly accessible with most star alliance miles (UA, AP, US). For example there are two F seats every day on the flight if you book around 10 and a half months out.
Good Award Space
Given that their A380 will likely feature the same product as on this plane I’m really excited for Asiana to start flying their A380’s! Full trip report coming soon!
Asiana’s own page on their First Class Suites can be found here.
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I stepped off my first Asiana Suites Class experience almost 3 weeks ago today. I was amazed. I’ve flown OZ in both their Quadra Smartium and plain ol’ Economy and have never been disappointed. Spot-on with the hard product, including your comments about bedding. I feel like a mattress pad – not just a cover – would’ve been nice as the seats were perfectly plush for sitting but not so much for lying down. The fact that I’m a side-sleeper exacerbated that firmness issue. However, I would definitely give the hard product a 9/10 for all that you mentioned, plus the large storage space under the ottoman.
My pax load out ex ICN was only 4/8 so I feel I may’ve experienced a fair bit more personalized service from the FAs than did you. From other trip reports, I had heard of the FAs snatching a quick peek over the closed doors of the suite every few minutes, so I kept an eye out for them. They did not disappoint. While eating, relaxing, or sleeping, if they so much as thought I’d made eye contact to alert them of a need, someone was right there to assist me, sometimes two or three FAs. My beverage glasses never went empty, regardless of the drink of choice – and I think I may’ve polished off a bottle or two of champagne on my own. The food was incredible and I can’t get enough of their ramen. In all, the service was perfect and on-par with what I experienced on my EK A380 flight in their suites – and EK truly does have a better amenity kit. Can’t beat it, aside *maybe* from the oft-touted Rimowa kits sometimes available on TG or other airlines.
The one thing I did find a bit odd, and maybe you can confirm if this happened on your flight…my “gift” was a booklet of 10 $1 bills and a little fabricated tale about money books or something of that nature. I’m wondering if it was timed for Christmas as this was mid-December. Either way, I’d read of people receiving iPhone cases or Ferragamo candles or something else of that ilk, so I was expecting a knick-knack of sorts. To be handed a booklet of cash seemed awkward to me. While I’d never turn down “free” money, I think it a little crass and lacking in the personal touch that exemplified everything else about the flight.
I would not fly them… Considering their pilots even could not land a plane manually.
That’s a huge generalization.
I am hoping they upgrade from the 747 to the 777-200ER
( with suites) by next sept when we go with asiana first class lax/icn.
what are the chances?
I would say it’s more likely that asiana will have their a380’s then.
Sounds nice Jeff. I was booked to try it a few months ago but the downgraded the equipment and switched me to Korean Air flight. Loved it. I was the only person in FC from Seoul-Chicago
FYI I’ve looked at this flight before. ANA is coding the flights in late October/early November as 772, which is OZ’s code for the old F equipment. OZ use 77W to denote the FC suites product. I’m not sure what’s going on next November but the code changes at some point to 772 so…..
FDW
Yeah, I read that in an FT thread somewhere. Make a paid dummy booking and see what seat config they give you?
Asian carrier always delivers! Glad you liked it like I did here: http://www.tprochina.com/2013/03/asiana-airlines-new-first-class-icn-ord.html
too bad asiana web site is so difficult to check reservations booked with united miles
It’s awful… to select seats I called their LAX office.
What is that booking engine in the screenshot taken above?
That’s the ANA (All Nippon Airlines) Tool. Probably the best non-third party free Star Alliance award search around.