This article was reprinted from the WeChat public account of a WeChat group reader, Lazy 33’s Food, Drink, and Fun. Original link.

Trip Planning

After four years, I finally got to go back to China this year. For families with kids, summer vacation is the best time. Earlier, in December and January, there were actually quite a few business class award seats for summer connections, but I was naively hoping direct flights would resume and missed them. It wasn’t until March, after watching the situation and realizing the chance of direct flights resuming was slim, that I started looking at connecting flights instead.

This year’s strategy for returning to China from the West Coast was: for northern China, connect via Japan or Korea; for the Pearl River Delta or central/southern China, connect via Hong Kong; for Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai and similar areas, direct flights were an option. Because flights usually route over the Arctic, flying to Hong Kong from the northern U.S. means several extra hours in the air. And the longer the flight, the more exponentially unbearable it becomes.

Our overall route was:

  • Seattle–Vancouver: drive there in a rental car
  • Vancouver–Seoul: KE 72 business class
  • Seoul Incheon Airport: overnight layover
  • Seoul–Beijing: OZ331 economy

Buying Tickets

For a long-haul transpacific flight, business class is of course the first choice. But by late June, there were already no award seats left in business class on the U.S.-Asia route. After waiting for a while, we decided to buy tickets with cash. Prices in late June were sky-high; even one-way economy tickets cost well over $1,000 each. Just when I was stressing out, I kept checking Google Flights every day and found a WestJet codeshare ticket, WS6062, operated by Korean Air as KE072. The business class fare was only a few hundred dollars more than economy, so I gritted my teeth and bought it.

It was cheaper, yes, but the WS and KE codeshare was really poorly handled—we couldn’t choose seats until we checked in at the airport counter, and by then there were no adjacent seats left. We ended up swapping with other passengers so the whole family could sit together. Between buying the ticket and check-in, I called WS and KE a total of N times. Both sides kept bouncing us back and forth, saying they couldn’t see the seat map, couldn’t assign seats, and couldn’t arrange a child meal for our kid. In the end, the day before departure, KE customer service even told me we needed to check in at the WS counter at YVR, which was incredibly unprofessional. After that I filed complaints with both airlines. KE came up with all kinds of excuses, while WS simply never replied. We only put up with it because it was a cheap business class fare.

Rental Car

Once the tickets were settled, the next question was how to get from Seattle to Vancouver. In our case, when we returned to the U.S. we would go straight back to Seattle and not continue on to Vancouver, so driving our own car to Vancouver was out. We also considered getting dropped off, but since we have Nexus and wanted to be safe by using the Nexus Lane for land border customs, that option was out too. In the end, we decided to rent a car to Vancouver. After searching around, I found that only Avis offered the Bellevue rental car / YVR airport return option, and availability was very limited. Late June was absolutely crazy, and even with a reservation made three months in advance, I could only get the shortest possible two-day rental. Using the company rental code made it reasonably priced, so that part was taken care of.

The rental process went smoothly. At the land border, the officer asked where the car came from; we said it was a rental. The officer asked why we rented a car, and we said we were just trying to catch a flight. The officer didn’t say much and let us through.

It was even a Florida car we rented... and we hauled it all the way to Canada again...

check-incheck-incheck-inGoogle Flights

YVR Airport

Compared with SEA, which so many people complain about, YVR was genuinely a great experience. First of all, rental car return doesn’t require a shuttle—you just walk across the street, which is incredibly convenient for a family like ours heading back to China with a lot of luggage. There was also live music in the airport, which made the whole rush-to-catch-a-flight experience feel much more relaxed.

At KE check-in, they checked our Korean visas and our ticket from Korea to China. It took a while, but everything went smoothly.

At YVR security, if you have Nexus, you can use the empty lane next to it; there’s no sign, just ask the staff. If you don’t have Nexus, you can use YVR Express to make an advance reservation, similar to SEA’s Spot Saver. After booking, you can also use the Nexus lane. Security lines were still fairly long that day, so if you don’t have Nexus, I’d still recommend making a reservation in advance. Business class also does not have a separate security lane.

After security, we headed straight to the lounge. KE had put us in the SkyTeam Lounge, and PPS also gets you in. It’s very close to KE’s gate.

There’s a whole wall with a large fish tank, like an aquarium, which immediately caught our kid’s attention.

The food at the SkyTeam Lounge absolutely beats the lounges in the U.S. The freshly made noodle soup and cold noodles were both pretty good, especially the noodle soup—add a little spice and it was pretty close to a noodle shop in China, with hardly any wait. The self-serve buffet area was a little less impressive. Too bad I was lazy and didn’t take photos...

The airport was also pretty nice to explore, with nearly every major luxury brand represented. The strong dollar lately has also made Vancouver’s prices feel less expensive. So before we even boarded, we were already in full shopping mode. The gift shop even had a dancing robot, and our kid had a blast. Once again, I couldn’t help thinking: when will SEA learn from other airports?

Onboard KE 72

Business class and economy boarded through the same jet bridge. Business was on the left side of the door and economy on the right. That’s better than ANA’s 787 setup, because passengers in the back of business class can slowly gather their things in the aisle without having to make room for economy passengers.

check-in

The seat layout on this flight was 2-2-2. On the same 787, ANA’s staggered 1-2-1 layout clearly offers much more space and much better privacy. On Korean Air, the middle seats can only be separated by raising a divider, and that divider isn’t very high. On the other hand, that setup is actually more suitable for travelers with small children.

Korean Air’s flight attendants’ English seemed even worse than ANA’s. I had arranged with the woman next to me to switch seats, but the flight attendant took forever to understand what we were talking about...

Also, Korean Air doesn’t provide a mattress pad, so the lie-flat comfort is a bit worse than ANA’s. The amenity kit only had an eye mask, with no earplugs. Attention to detail still has to be learned from the Japanese.

BLACKPINK is Korean Air’s recent brand ambassador, and they played a welcome video before departure. The safety briefing was recorded by a boy group; this country bumpkin had no idea who they were...

The menu wasn’t just a simple choice between Korean or Western food—it was a choice among three dishes. My travel companion and I both ended up choosing bibimbap. Later, looking at other people’s posts, it seemed like economy class also got roughly the same bibimbap, so there wasn’t much difference. Korean Air’s meal service was much faster than ANA’s; as soon as one course was finished, the next one came out.

This shrimp dish was actually pretty good.

The salad was... nothing special.

Bibimbap didn’t look great, but it was actually pretty tasty, mainly thanks to that toothpaste-tube-style chili sauce, which tasted much better than the one you buy at U.S. supermarkets.

After the meal there was fruit/dessert. The flight attendants also came around holding two bottles of wine and asked whether passengers wanted any, but unfortunately we don’t know much about wine and don’t drink it...

Maybe because I was too excited about finally going back to China, I barely slept the whole flight. Since I get motion sickness, I couldn’t really watch movies either, so most of the time I just lay there, dozing off and on while listening to the in-flight BLACKPINK music. Our kid, on the other hand, took a solid three- or four-hour nap and was pretty impressive.

Halfway through the nap, our kid spilled a drink on the seat, soaking both clothes and the seat. The flight attendant helped pile on several blankets and made a bed for the kid again.

For dinner, we both chose the beef rice bowl, and it was really not very good...

The chocolate mousse was also quite sweet, so my travel companion and I split one.

Lying down, sleeping, and eating—those 10-plus hours passed fairly quickly. The flight had some pretty rough turbulence, and one person in business class got airsick and ended up vomiting...

We had so much stuff that we got off the plane late. Fortunately, ICN immigration makes accommodations for families with children. Because we were pushing a stroller, we were taken to a separate small room where we could sit down and complete immigration formalities, and the arrival experience was actually pretty good. Departure is a different story, though... stay tuned.

2023 Return-to-China Series

About the Author

This article was reprinted from the WeChat public account of a WeChat group reader, Lazy 33’s Food, Drink, and Fun. They’re all original good articles, so if you’re interested, feel free to follow them.