We woke up at the unearthly hour (for us) of 6:15 and caught the shuttle bus back to the airport. Again, even at this early hour Sydney was very busy, but this time the trip was only about 40 minutes. At the airport we were dropped off about as close to our check-in counter as you could get, purely coincidence but a good one anyway. Check-in went very smoothly, this is the first time we have flown with a Far Eastern airline, so I was interested to see whether the service was all it was hyped up to be.
As we were flying business class we got to see the best of the service. When we checked in all our paperwork was already printed and was in a folder for us. The customs and border control forms had been partially filled out for us by the staff!
Next stop was the Border Control which was quick and painless thanks to the Express Pass that took us to the front of the, somewhat long, line. Thanks to the same pass we got to the head of the security line as well. The system was working well, unlike back home! We had a bite to eat in the Air New Zealand then settled back and waited.
We headed down to the boarding gate when called, only to see a couple of hundred people scrambling to board. There was a separate and empty line for business class passengers that we took. Again this got us to the head of the line where an agent then stopped the rest of the passengers to allow us to board. Getting to like this. On board it turns out that there were only 6 of us in the front cabin which could hold 30 people. We had 4 flight attendants to look after us.
After takeoff we climbed out to the North, over Papua New Guinea, where it began to get nice and bumpy. We had our first meal, a SIX course lunch. Depending how you look at it this was either served at 1130 (Sydney time) or 0930 (Korean time). Either way it was good, the service was excellent almost bordering on too much. The flight attendants wanted to do everything they could for you and I almost got the impression that I was infringing upon their duties if I offered to take something from them before they placed it in its exact place on the table.
We are now back in the Northern Hemisphere having just crossed the equator, we are now just at the halfway mark of this 10hr 40min trip with 2700 miles left.
Food is going to be optional for the next few days, we just asked for a coffee. It came with a bowl of fruit and 3 small pastries. It would have been too offensive not to eat them.
We landed in Seoul after a 10 hr 40 m flight. We knew which bus to get, but made it to the bus stop just after it pulled out. Half our later we were on the next bus. These buses depart exactly on time, amazing. The bus is run by Korean Airlines and is very spacious and comfortable. Even had a TV, but trying to watch the TV with no sound and Korean and Japanese subtitles was an exercise in futility. 70 minutes later we were at the hotel. We checked in, and thanks to a little trick I learnt from one of the forums we were given the Royal treatment. Our free (bought on points) room was upgraded to a 2 room suite, massive in size on the 15th floor (Normal rate $600) per night. We also qualified for club access giving free breakfast and free evening snacks and booze. Might as well finish the trip with a bang!