Korean Air 759 : PUS-KIX

Sometimes, short flights are the best flights. Especially those with a meal served on board for all passengers as flight attendants know they need to be efficient to complete the meal service before the call to secure the cabin for landing. Of course, efficiency doesn't exist in North America and nor do such meal services. 

Today’s flight is Korean Air 759 aboard HL8246, a next-generation 737-800 with the sky interior that I am such a fan of, flying from the southern Korean city of Busan on a short hop to Kansai international airport. 

There’s nothing really remarkable about this flight or about the city of busan or why I’m really here - the only thing that was interesting was getting myself comfortable in the lounge for what I thought would be a lengthy two hour wait to only realize my flight began boarding in the next minute. This hopefully will be the last time that I confuse the departure time with the actual arrival time at the destination. Whoops.

Boarding the aircraft was less than desirable - no gate boarding in PUS meant we were stuck on a bus and driven out to the plane. On the other hand, such boardings are great opportunities for super cool plane photos reminiscent of days gone by. Luckily, I had some super nice light to try to take a neat shot - I think it turned out well. 

Onto the food. As this was a short flight, the meal service was simply a handout of meal trays. On my plate was a bowl of soup, a roasted beef and grilled vegetable sandwich, and to finish, a small plate of seasonal fresh fruit. 

I decided to accompany my meal with umeshu, a Japanese fruit liqueur and tt did not take me very long to finish my meal. Overall, each item was delicious and the mint on top of the fruit cup was a very nice touch to a refreshing dish. 

I've had many bad experiences with airplane sandwiches in the past but I was surprised the sandwich bread was not stale whatsoever - it seemed freshly baked and topped with thinly sliced almonds.

Here’s a shot of my demolished tray - and rightly so!

Onto the menu shots for your perusal. Note the liquor selection on a 1.5hr flight…which in terms of whisky/scotch selection is very impressive especially when comparing to United…

United Airlines 1568: PVR-SFO

After three short days vacationing in beautiful Puerto Vallarta, United flies me home to SFO, an upgrade clears, and a blog post is written.

United is such a mixed bag of quality. Some flights are utterly atrocious, others put them in front of many of the top airlines of the world. Today’s flight was the latter. UA1568, flown on this day by a 737-900ER from PVR to SFO. A relatively new (month old) aircraft with tail number N69840 and Boeing’s rather pleasant Sky Interior. The day that all airplanes switch to this new interior will be a great day. The hard fluorescent lights one suffers through at a window seat seem archaic in the era advanced LED technology mixed with a tad of color science.  

Onto the food. Warm nuts were served post-takeoff alongside the first drink. I opted for a soda water, unusual, but after several days at an all-inclusive resort amongst friends, my liver needed a break. 

The food choices on this flight were a salmon dish with vegetables, a chicken something with some sort of jambalaya and an indian vegetarian dish that was repeated twice to me from the flight attendant, but the only words I can remember were vegetarian and paneer. 

Regardless after I made my choice and the flight attendant removed herself from my presence, I was consumed by indecision with my choice. Especially knowing that it would be an indian-resembling dish, I knew it would be served with rice. And when I’ve talked about rice served aboard airplanes before, I am bringing up memories of pain and disdain for what i’ve called “adventure in texture”. I experienced such adventures on my flight down on US Airways from Pheonix. 

Upon being served the dish, I was honestly shocked. Yes, there was rice, but the food was just aesthetically perfect. Each grain of rice that was visible on that plate looked like it was perfectly cooked - plump, moist, and juicy. There were no adventures in texture whatsoever in this meal, only bewilderment if I was actually on a United flight and not Singapore Airlines. The food was as delicious as it looked. Again, each bite was just absolute bewilderment. Was United -Actually- trying now? Were the PVR caterers just rockstars within their game? How was this food quality actually obtained from an American carrier, especially aboard a narrow body plane? Here’s the tray shot - 10/10 for presentation. 

And the money shot close up of the dish below. Wow. I can’t vouch the dish for being anything close to authentic indian, but I’m slightly thankful. The aircraft is a mostly closed system that is to be shared for just over 167 people for a couple hours. I’m ok without the authentic indian flavor and the smell that comes along it. Granted, I’m a huge fan of indian dishes - I have naan in my freezer right now for times of indian cravings, but I’m mindful that there is a time and more critical, a place for authentic indian food. A plane is not one of those places. This bowl was clean by the time the tray was retrieved thanks to the bread bun. 

Onto the closeup of the salad. Fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh!!! I wasn’t too keen on the cheese, it wasn’t quite feta, and seemed more like parmesan, but wasn’t quite parmesan. The balsamic dressing was thick and hard to spread, but still tasty. 

UA1568 departed in the early evening, 6 PM from PVR. Sun streaming into a cabin on a sunset flight is one of my favorite things, as it provides vital vitamin D which my desk job does not provide during the week. Passengers on this flight were treated with an absolutely stunning sunset - here are some shots below.