Traveling through South Korea

[Rachel + Will = Together Forever]

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to my own question about whether or not Chinese Citizens can leave the Incheon Airport... the answer is no. US Citizens can, however, stay in South Korea visa free for up to 90 days.

Anyway, I'm not going to go wandering around in Seoul alone with my Sweetie sitting in the airport. I guess we'll just have to skip out on the sightseeing.

We're flying Asiana Airlines, we got a really good deal. From our local city airport here all the way to Chicago. The only catch is the layover in Incheon is from 5 am to 6pm. Reeealllyyy Boring. I hope Incheon is an interesting airport!!

I was wondering if there's anyone who's flown with Asiana before? This is my first time. The website looks nice... esp. if it's true that each passenger in economy really does get their own tv to flip through... lol

[warpedbored]

My wife flew Asiana when she came here from China. She didn't have any problems. She laid over for 3 hours at the Incheon airport

[HongKong2LA]

I just flew Asiana in November from Los Angeles to Hong Kong with a connecting flight in Incheon. It was a very pleasant flight and yes, you will get your very own personal tv with all of the latest movies. Its a long flight so I was able to catch up on many movies I had not seen yet...hehe..the food is pretty good too. No complaints at all.

 

The airport itself is great. Modern, clean with all of the convienences. Very similar to Narita or Hong Kong.

 

One tip since you are connecting to continue on to USA - when you de-board you will have to go through customs again, people tend to bunch up at the first customs gate, if you walk past it and continue towards the main terminal, there is another customs gate that is much faster to go through because you won't be standing in line behind so many people.

 

Have a great flight. Welcome back to the goood ol USA.

 

Jeff

[Sam and Fen]

There are only 6 airlines that qualify as a "5 star" airline. Asiana is one of them.

I have flown them twice and would not fly any other airline if I had a choice.

 

Incheon is one of the best airports I have seen, even better then HK. If you look at their website you can even get a room at the airport.

[a2784]

There are only 6 airlines that qualify as a "5 star" airline. Asiana is one of them.

I have flown them twice and would not fly any other airline if I had a choice.

 

Incheon is one of the best airports I have seen, even better then HK. If you look at their website you can even get a room at the airport.

Agree with this. Asiana is a very good airline (similar with Korean Air).

 

You can get a room at the airport only for the day. Also there are places to get shower and massage for reasonable price. The airport is the best (IMO based on the airports I have seen including HK) I have seen. Everything will start opening up around 6-7AM. When you first get there it will be very quite but will soon be busy.

 

If you are flying Asiana all the way back to USA and have your tickets for the SK-USA flight and baggage checked to USA then you do not need to go through customs. You can go through the transit screening line by-passing customs. If you need to check baggage/get tickets then yes you need to go through customs.

 

They also have some 4-6 hr day trips around Seoul that are available, as I understand it, to all transit passengers. You can check this out on the airport website.

[Rachel + Will = Together Forever]

I just checked the Freedom Transit Tour link off of the Incheon airport website, and this is what I found:

 

Tips for travel

 

1. You may want to leave your luggange with Transit Tour Personnel after having gone through

the immigration and customs for your convenience.

 

2. If you hold a passport issued by U.S., Japan, Canada, or NewZealand, or any other countries that

have the visa waiver agreeement with korea, you may enter Korea even if you don't have a visa.

 

3.While you are on the departure floor, you may inquire at information desk to be able to use Transit

Tour Services.

 

BTW, from the website, I'd say that Incheon does look even nicer than Hong Kong. And hey, a shower sounds like a nice idea. waiting 10+ hours in the airport and then 10+ more hours to Chicago is going to be itchy

 

It would be great to skip going through customs too... yes, we're going straight onto Chicago from there.

[Sam and Fen]

I just checked the Freedom Transit Tour link off of the Incheon airport website, and this is what I found:

 

Tips for travel

 

1. You may want to leave your luggange with Transit Tour Personnel after having gone through

the immigration and customs for your convenience.

 

2. If you hold a passport issued by U.S., Japan, Canada, or NewZealand, or any other countries that

have the visa waiver agreeement with korea, you may enter Korea even if you don't have a visa.

 

3.While you are on the departure floor, you may inquire at information desk to be able to use Transit

Tour Services.

 

BTW, from the website, I'd say that Incheon does look even nicer than Hong Kong. And hey, a shower sounds like a nice idea. waiting 10+ hours in the airport and then 10+ more hours to Chicago is going to be itchy

 

It would be great to skip going through customs too... yes, we're going straight onto Chicago from there.

 

 

There are two transit lounges at the airport that have showers for about 6 USD. This area also has free computers with internet access.

WIFI is available free across the airport.

Asiana has the most leg room in economy that I have ever seen.

 

Good Luck guys and have a safe trip.

[Carl]

When we went through Incheon on Asiana and had a great trip. Ying was still a Chinese citizen back then, but as long as we stayed in the international terminal she did not need a visa. Now she is a USC and need not worry. We went through Incheon on this trip because they had a direct flight to Yanji thus avoiding the zoo in Beijing. We had to go through an x-ray and metal detector once we got off our flight from LAX. We had a lengthy layover and since it was early morinng there was not a whole lot open. but eventually there was a few restaurants opening where I could get some food. They accepted credit cards and American cash at the current exchange rate. In the waiting area the only internet access was the pay sites and all the plugs were those huge 220 types that you need a special adapter for, but I was to tired to mess around so Ying and I took a nap waiting for the flight.

 

On the trip back I came alone and coming from China I didn't have to go through the metal detector, but went directly into the terminal. This time the terminal was bustling so I went to a nearby bar to get a beer. The bar had the standard electric outlets so I plugged in and set up my computer and found out I was close enough to the Delta VIP lounge that I could glom onto their free internet. Once I went back to the waiting area I noticed that my laptop battery was beginning to drop but I noticed another westerner using an adapter to charge his laptop. I asked him where he got it and he told me that they had them at the customer service kiosks. I went there and they told me I had to surrender my boarding pass to get the adapter. Since I had about five to six hours till my flight left, I agreed, found a plug close enough to the waiting area and recharged both my laptop and cell phone.

 

One huge difference I noticed in leaving China from Yanji over Beijing was in Beijing they had a special line to process folks going to the US where the customs officer confiscated my denture adhesive. Leaving Yanji they only took cigarette lighters, matches and any other flame producing items, so if you smokers have a Zippo lighter, leave it at home and buy a disposable bic.

Edited December 18, 2009 by Carl (see edit history)

[Minister]

My sweetie looked into this when she came over here. I remember her telling me that the ticket included an overnight stay and that she would maybe get to see Seoul for free.

 

Yes, she's that cheap. But I love her!

 

Anyway, her parents and I managed to convince her that she would be locked in an airport hotel room all night after a meal in the cafeteria. My logic (expressed more elegantly than this, of course) was that, if they let Chinese people leave the airport on those overnight stays, then anyone with $1200 for a plane ticket could effectively emigrate to South Korea.

 

Anyway, I told her to just spend the extra $100 for the direct flight. Finally, she agreed. @_@

 

B)

[Rachel + Will = Together Forever]

 

 

There are two transit lounges at the airport that have showers for about 6 USD. This area also has free computers with internet access.

WIFI is available free across the airport.

Asiana has the most leg room in economy that I have ever seen.

 

Good Luck guys and have a safe trip.

thanks a lot for that info, we'll have to check that out!

We've got only 9 days left here, and I'm a little frazzled with baggage weights... When I came to China it was on United and they allowed a 70lb free baggage for two checked in... Asiana apparently only allows 50lbs per checked baggage. I'm putting stuff in.. then taking it back out... getting out the bathroom scale again... repeating the scenario five million times. Ugh. Everything we've got ready to go I really want to take, but it seems like I'll have to mail some books via China Post or something...

 

I was wondering if anyone who's flown with Asiana can tell me how thoroughly they weigh/check your baggage, esp. the carry-on... if the carry bags dimensions are within the guidelines, can we pretty much pack the stuff in there? Or do they weigh the carry on too?

As far as I can remember, most airlines don't weigh carry-on, do they?

 

I've got my checked bags at like 48-49 lbs., trying to be on the safe side... but this is kind of frustrating. Any ideas??? Thanks!

[Sam and Fen]

 

 

There are two transit lounges at the airport that have showers for about 6 USD. This area also has free computers with internet access.

WIFI is available free across the airport.

Asiana has the most leg room in economy that I have ever seen.

 

Good Luck guys and have a safe trip.

thanks a lot for that info, we'll have to check that out!

We've got only 9 days left here, and I'm a little frazzled with baggage weights... When I came to China it was on United and they allowed a 70lb free baggage for two checked in... Asiana apparently only allows 50lbs per checked baggage. I'm putting stuff in.. then taking it back out... getting out the bathroom scale again... repeating the scenario five million times. Ugh. Everything we've got ready to go I really want to take, but it seems like I'll have to mail some books via China Post or something...

 

I was wondering if anyone who's flown with Asiana can tell me how thoroughly they weigh/check your baggage, esp. the carry-on... if the carry bags dimensions are within the guidelines, can we pretty much pack the stuff in there? Or do they weigh the carry on too?

As far as I can remember, most airlines don't weigh carry-on, do they?

 

I've got my checked bags at like 48-49 lbs., trying to be on the safe side... but this is kind of frustrating. Any ideas??? Thanks!

 

Every time I have flown Asiana they have weighed the checked in bags and given a piece of paper that you hand in during check in.

They did not weigh the carry on...but then all I had was a laptop.

[Spekkio99]

Asiana actually go by Kilograms instead of Pounds.

Yea theres a person that comes to you while your waiting on the line for check-in and roll your bags over to the side and weigh it, then comes back and give you a piece of paper with the weight for each bag. The limit is 23 kg, which is about 50.7 lb, so as long as you don't go over 50 lb, you should be good.

 

There is also a limit on the carry on, altho most of the time they dont check it. But if you look like your struggling with your carry on, they will ask you to weigh it. The weight limit for the carry on is 10 kb or 22 lb. I've seen a guy in front of me exceed the weight for the carry on and they made him take out some of the stuff and put it in a plastic bag, and he was still allowed to take it onto the plane with him. The reasoning for this is that its unsafe to have excessively heavy carry-on's in the overhead bins during the flight.

[Shanghai John]

I got into this discussion late, but yes, Asiana is a fantastic airline. I took Asiana flights from JFK to Seoul and onward to Guangzhou last summer.

 

They didn't weigh my carry-ons. I was carrying both a laptop bag as well as a backpack. The backpack probably weighed about 30 lbs, but I just had it slung over my shoulder and it looked pretty normal, I think.

 

The flight attendants are so on top of things, it's really great.

 

They don't assign seating until you check in at the airport, so I was able to get an exit row on the 747 (with about 6 feet of leg room!) since I checked in very early at JFK due to my long layover.

 

On the way back, I had a normal seat next to the window in economy, and it was still very comfortable, compared with United (where you are packed in like sardines).

[Sam and Fen]

 

They don't assign seating until you check in at the airport

 

 

I have always had seat assigned as part of the booking process.

[Shanghai John]

 

They don't assign seating until you check in at the airport

 

 

I have always had seat assigned as part of the booking process.

 

That's possible, but I do know for certain that I was moved into an exit row at JFK when I checked in! I guess they took pity on the "tall" Westerner. (I'm all of about 6'1 on my tallest day)