Reflections on the Epic Flight-Long Layover-Long Flight Combo

Date: August 10, 2010

It was my plan to sleep through about the first 8 or more hours of the flight. So I enter the plane and dose off fairly early. I wake up suddenly and immediately wonder how much time has passed. I check my watch: 1.25 hours. Next thought, “Oh man, I’m in big trouble”. I stepped on that plane at Hartsfield-Jackson International hoping for mediocre and expecting the worse. I was a 6’2 man on a 14-15 hour flight on Korean Air, an airline whose target market is a notoriously short population of people; will there be any legroom for me? I’m happy to say my expectations were exceeded. And Korean Air became a favored airline in the process. Although there was no way such a long flight was going to be comfortable, the first Korean Air flight definitely helped me maximize the time. There was a fair amount of legroom; thank goodness opted for an aisle seat also. Although I did do some reading, I did not need most of the books, DVDs, and handheld games I brought to occupy flight time; their free in-flight movie service was ample. The service was operated via a touch screen in the back of the headrest in front of your face. I watched fairly new releases that I missed when they were in theaters (“She’s Outta Your League”, “Green Zone”, “Iron Man 2”, “Youth in Revolt”, etc.) for most of the trip. The in-flight meals were good quality and size for the in-flight variety. The flight attendants, in their trademark bright teal jackets, neck scarves and hair bows, were very pleasant and served drinks (including beer and wine, all for free) several times during the flight. When you weren’t watching a movie, you could press a button and the screen would show you where on the globe you were and how the much more time you had left in your flight. Surprisingly, rather than crossing over California and the bulk of the Pacific Ocean, the flight path went from Atlanta diagonally into Canada over Alaska to Russia, angled down over Japan and finally to South Korea. Although undeniably long, the flight was not nearly as bad as I’d feared, much thanks to the Korean Air experience. So I get back to the airport in just enough time to see an older Korean woman with purple hair and board my flight. The 5-hour flight seems short (even though it would go from Atlanta to California back home) and I actually get some sleep this time. I wake up as we are descending into Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Let the Malaysian experience begin…