I’m a big fan of Korean Air — a good product and great award availability, and plenty of US routes. They also do more intra-Asia flying with a first class cabin than other carriers as well. Whereas most airlines limit their first class to long haul routes, you can fly Korean first class even on many short routes.
Korean’s old first class was comfortable, but generations behind.
The current long haul first class seat, which I flew the Sunday after Thanksgiving a couple of years ago thanks to their unprecedented award availability, is extremely comfortable, though not especially private.
They now have a new first and business class product, and it’s installed in the first few aircraft.
Here’s the new business class. They call it Prestige Suites and all the seats have direct aisle access, are 21.6 inches wide with 74 inches pitch.
There’s no indication at this time that these seats are going to go into existing aircraft. I’ve not uncovered any plans for a retrofit, although I’ve asked for comment.
These are, however, the news seats for A330 aircraft that are being delivered — and they appear to have 747-800s, 777-300ERs, and 787s on order.
While these won’t be the world’s leading seats, they’ll be good and up to world standard and even Asia Pacific carrier standard. Combined with good food and service (even if somewhat lackluster ground experiences) will make Korean flights even better.
And as I observe, they have probably better first class award availability than any other airline and they’re the Asian carrier with more routes to the US than any other.
That all makes me anticipate even more the return of Korean Air Skypass as a Chase transfer partner.
(HT: Jeff W.)
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Aren’t those the same seat? What makes one first class and the other business class?
@Conway That’s what I was thinking. Maybe someone messed up and used the wrong image for the first class seat
What suggests that these first class seats are going into new deliveries? I’ve read that the A330 fleet is getting the updated first class (The page you link to is even called “A330 first class seat” in the HTML title.), but I can’t imagine that they’d go from the 1-2-1 Kosmo Suite to this 2-2-2 configuration on their long-haul fleet like the 748 and 77W, even for new deliveries. It would be nice to see this new business seat installed on all new deliveries and retrofitted onto the existing fleet, however, as the 2-3-2 configuration with 3 of 7 seats not having direct aisle access needs to go. Even the 2-2-2 on the Airbus fleet is behind the times.
@Conway: Your reaction is also part of why I think this first class seat is only for regional aircraft (plus the occasional A330 that they fly to North America, Europe, or Australia). Right now, the first class seat on the A330 is not really that much different to the prestige sleeper seats. You get a bit of an ottoman/shelf and a bigger IFE screen, but that’s about it. Similarly here, the screen’s bigger, and I suspect maybe the ottoman area is a bit larger so that the bed is a bit longer than in Prestige, but that’s about it.
agree with Conway… seats look identical.
btw, did they just copy JAL biz class seat?
@Andrew: Look carefully. They’re similar, but not the same. F is more of a teal fabric, while J is more of a sea green. Also, the ottoman is clearly different: In the F picture it’s rectangular, while in the J picture, it’s got an angled edge.
if that’s the real new F that would be a major downgrade from the current product
sure you’ll get a bit more privacy, but that’s very much a super-J seat and not a F seat.
I think that the second set of seats is the new REgional F class seat.. it’s listed on the A330 page. Not sure if there is a new long haul F suite (777/A380s) anywhere…
FDW
This is the first class seat on the A380.
https://www.koreanair.com/global/en/traveling/classes-of-service/first-class/kosmo-sleeper/komo-sleeper-details.html
doesnt look all that impressive for F class but business is a major improvement
Agree that there may be some confusion here. Thanks for posting that A380 link, @Danny.
True that many Business and First seats are similar and both good but your also going to get a better service level (in theory).
looks like the still have a ways to go to match Asians’s set up.
I don’t think that is the right first class seats because Korean says first class has enclosed private suites doors like Emirates. That’s what I heard