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TRIP REPORT: Kevin Gets a Little Seoul and Tokyo – To Asia with Air China, Air Premia, British Airways and KLM

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TRIP REPORT: Kevin gets a little Seoul and Tokyo
A long-haul adventure with lots of premium (and non-premium) cabins with Air China, Air Premia, British Airways and KLM 

Seoul, Tokyo and Stockholm Trip Report - Kevin gets more Seoul and Tokyo - Header image

It’s time for a new trip report – with your author trying some new airlines to some long-unvisited destinations. Lots of passenger experiences and travel experiences – so join me for an adventure of a summer.

Buckle up, kiddos. It’s a long list of contents.

Editor’s Introduction

Well, this is… unexpected, to put it mildly. Welcome aboard for a new trip that wasn’t on my agenda at all. Honestly. Until I got creative and remembered the joy of the world.

It’s come at a time when I’ve got more uncertainty than I’d like in the world (as the real world, as we all know, remains a pile of ****). And sometimes, we all need to get away.

So here we go with something a little fun and certainly different from what you’ve seen before on this blog… unless you were around 11 years ago. Or longer.  In which case, thank you, regular reader, for hanging around all the shenanigans and writing I tend to do.

A quick note on some segments. As this is a long-haul with lots of adventures, I will bundle some bits into larger segments together; otherwise we’ll be here till Christmas with this trip report.

As usual, whilst I am using Grammarly a lot more than I should (dyslexia is a pig and gets me most days of the week), my usual detractors who moan about my spelling and grammar can read this press release I wrote a few years ago about this inconsistency and how I deal with it.

Right. To the beginning.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Get Gin, Tonic, and a Knife to cut the lemons. Make the Lemons rue the day…

Cave Johnson’s methods of dealing with lemons are acceptable at this point, too.

So it’s time to do what we all do best when life throws some idiot curveballs. That’s right – run away for a while and recharge the personal battery.

Because if the past few months have taught me anything, change is a pain up the backside, given the number of comings and goings I’ve seen in my real-world job, and everything around it.

I swear one day, I’ll have enough IT support stories for a book, with chapters entitled “Oh, it just worked”, “Microsoft Outlook is a pig” and “What the hell did you do to that poor computer?”.  And those are the simple stories. The Human interfacing with the laptop can be … equally challenging.

Anyhoo.

With a season of high fares and uncertain times, we all know what happens next: That’s right, Fire up Google Flights and see where both the map and I ended up.

I targeted the last week of August for entertainment value and went scrolling through (and maximise free days off). At least it’s a different sort of doomscrolling compared to some of the usual pains.

As usual, my search starts at Western Europe Hubs (eg, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and so on). Then my eyes drift northward to the Nordics.

Because that’s where most of my big adventures have started from, it seems – be it Stockholm-Arlanda, Helsinki or Oslo.

I am also more open to different places after last year. Whilst I’m not strongly ABBA (not the Dancing Queen type, but more the Anyone But British Airways), I prefer to keep my options well and truly open. Because that way, bargains appear.

I’m looking east for this trip, with Asia in mind. However, as much as I love Singapore, I’m happy to give that city a rest for a little bit. But there are plenty of places I haven’t set foot in – and some that I haven’t been to for a long time.

For some reason, Seoul started nagging in the back of my mind. That’s a place I haven’t wound up in years (since when I flew British Midland, if I was honest). It would be interesting to see how things have changed.

As usual, I fired up Google Flights and let the clicking take over. Because sometimes, clicking on city pairs can lead to interesting results.  As a baseline, KLM wanted £922 return without luggage between Birmingham and Seoul. And that’s overpriced, but we’ll use that as a baseline.

Initially, I focused on Western European hubs (CDG, FRA, AMS, etc.), with some interesting prices in Economy Class that screamed: “book me now”. But I am a patient person, sometimes.

Scrolling up to the Nordics, there’s normally some fun to be had. And then it popped out. Air China was offering an economy return for under £500. 

I sat on it until I talked to a coworker, then accidentally changed the class of service from Economy to Premium Economy… where it started pricing up around £950. For fun, I priced it at business class, with fares starting at £1050 return. I did a little tweaking with timings (whilst long layovers are fun, I also had to consider how to get into Central Seoul without selling my soul to a taxi firm). In the end, I chose times that would be convenient for travelling, yet not have long layovers in Beijing. That bumped the price to £1148. For a business class ticket to Asia, that’s excellent. Considering it would have been near £1100 with KLM in Economy Class… I can take that.

To add some fun (and considering it was “around the corner”), I added a side quest to Tokyo too. This was fraught with fun (and if you’ve read the blog entry about Air Seoul, you’ll know why). With a choice of airlines, I went with Air Primea.

Air Premia Boeing 787-9 pushing back at Seoul Incheon - Image, Economy Class and Beyond

And given the pricing, I went for one of their “wide seats” as opposed to their normal economy package. With a price difference of W30,000 (and in some cases the same price), it was a case of just book it and be done with it.

Topping this was an outbound flight from Heathrow to Stockholm Arlanda. And yes, we fly to serve here. Well, I might as well use my Avios that I supposedly earn for something useful on the way out, with a cheap redemption for a number of Avios and £15 with British Airways. Well, it’s cheaper than Ryanair and avoids an overnight when one isn’t needed.

On the way back, there were minimal flights, and those flights that were available were in the £180 range and only heading up. I therefore came up with a new plan – overnight near Alaranda and take a cheap option the next day. That cheap option happened to be a KLM flight to Amsterdam, then back home to Birmingham.

And with the private stay place I found… it would come to under a good £20 (which would have been spent on things like rail fares or coach tickets).

Let’s move on to hotels and such. I skipped my usual chains, mainly as I was tempted to try something else.

For Seoul, there’s plenty of stock there. But it’s the type of hotel and what a person wants. Me? Whilst a bed, power and wifi are good starts, a little bit of space is welcome, as well as some home comforts. But I’m not against good value.

Just hostels that pretend to be hotels. I’m too tired these days to share a space like that and be social. Give me my own door, my own amenities and my space.  It’s also why I grimace dealing with Hotels.com and Booking.com – those sites can create headaches without trying.

For the main Seoul Hotel, I chose the Shilla Stay in Gwanghwamun, based on its location, but also because it was cheaper than the Ibis in Itaewon (which was my benchmark property). And as part of the Shilla group, it has to be at least “reasonable”.

For Tokyo, rather than my usual haunt of the InterContinental in Shinagawa, I’ve decided to go a little more local and go for the APA Hotel in Asakusa, mainly as that’s the part of Tokyo I want to be in, with good access to various places. That, and it’s half the price, which is kind of the point for me.

Whilst its founder is… less than ideal, it’s one problem I could deal with, given the Toyoko Inns were all snapped up for the weekend I was travelling.

For the one-night stop in Seoul, I needed something close to the rail station (whilst a 10 am flight might sound a rather good time, Incheon Airport is over an hour away. Add messing around time, and you’re soon enough on an early bus or train. Thus, I chose something off-brand with the Hotel ZIYOLK around a few minutes’ walk from Seoul Station through Hotels.com. Whilst I could have stayed near Incheon, it didn’t appeal, as I suspected I had a lot of unfinished business to do in the city.

Turns out I was right.

For Stockholm overnight, I needed something simple. In the end, I went to the Forenom ApartHotel with a basic room through Hotels.com.

Whilst it would have no bathroom or shower (with a shared one offered), for the price, I can put clothes on and go to the small room, provided it’s not too much of a hike away. Besides, it’s literally for 13 hours. I’m not going to need all the facilities in the world (and Arlanda could really do with opening its own pod hotel, rather than the full-service ones they have).

For transportation, I’m sticking with mostly public transport. That’s to say, I’m going to rely on coaches, buses and trains where appropriate, with the odd rideshare here and there when needed.

So, let’s go and get some Seoul. And Tokyo. And more.

Next:

A FlixBus. But you guessed that much.

Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond. Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, in-depth coverage, unique research, as well as the humour and madness I only know how to deliver.

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