Advice on dealing with luggage at S.Korea’s Incheon Airport

June 15, 2010 on 3:43 am | In Frequent Flyer, Korea | No Comments

Earlier last week I posted my account for the recent flight on Korean Air and how incredibly weird the handling of carry on luggage is with that airline. Now I wanted to continue with another idiosynchrosy of Incheon airport. As I was leaving for Narita on a JAL flight, I checked in at the JAL counter, verified that I have only carry on luggage and proceeded to security for screening. At the Incheon airport (similar to the process at Hong Kong airport), you first have to go through a couple of folks sitting outside a door leading to the security screening area. As far as I have been able to assertain, the sole role of those folks is to
(a) check you have a valid boarding pass and passport
(b) ensure that no large suitcases make it through…

So after checking in at the JAL counter and ensuring that I can proceed with my carry on luggage (my usual / trusted 22 inch roll on-board suitcase) I proceeded to the entry of the secure area. Needless to say I was stopped by this Korean lady who inspected my ticket and proceeded to tell me in broken English — “check in counter…” and pointed at my luggage. I told her “Yes, I was there :-) And they approved of me bringing my luggage on board”
To which she replied “Check in counter” and pointed for me to go back.

I quickly got annoyed as after I explained to her in as slow as possible english that I was allowed to bring my luggage by JAL, she did not register any cognition of having understood me — so finally in exasperation I just stated “No, I am not going back…”

Surprising for me she capitulated — and let me go forward….! Surprise — being pushy actually paid off. So word of advice — as much as you think it is worth — when you encounter these situations DO NOT GIVE UP. If you believe you are in the right, and you probably are (otherwise the counter personnel would have stopped you before getting to security) — just insist on your position and do not take NO for an answer!

Happy travels! (I certainly was happy I did not have to deal with checked in luggage on two consequtive flights)

Advice on how to NOT check in your carry on luggage - How to save yourself the hassle of lost luggage

June 6, 2010 on 3:52 pm | In Frequent Flyer, Korea, Observations | No Comments

Flying on some airlines around the world is an “interesting” experience. Why? Well, here are two recent experiences:

* just this week I needed to take a flight from Taipei to Seoul. The airline which was my carrier this time was Korean Airlines. I had not flown on Korean for a very long time - about 3 years (previous flight was Seoul to Beijing). So here I was at the airport check-in counter and once my boarding pass was ready, I was asked if I had luggage to check in. I always use my trusted 22inch roll-aboard suitcase as I prefer if at all possible NOT to check-in my luggage… (Believe me - it takes only once for your luggage not to make it with you and you start packing as efficiently as possible to avoid check-in luggage).
Well, this time my suitcase which has traveled over 1M miles by now, was deemed “must check-in” - so the big commotion started — a manager was called etc. as I did not want to relent… There was no way I was going to arrive in Seoul at 11pm and look for a lost suitcase. I made that point to the manager on duty and after about 5 min of air sucking and head scratching and once I made a comment to the effect of “Please give me your name card and you can check in my bag, but if it is lost I will be using you as a reference in a complaint to Korean Air”… That worked like a charm — the manager quickly decided that he can make an exception :-)
What worked me up was the fact that I have flown on tons of different airlines and unless I am in a small regional jet my suitcase works perfectly in the overhead bins — any Boeing 737 or Airbus A310 and above jet is just fine….Yet the Korean Air manager kept telling me “This is a small plane — a Boeing 737 — no space to put your suitcase”
Once I got on board — there was absolutely no problem — I put my suitcase even with wheels first fashion — the most challenging way — into the overhead bin and it closed just fine….

So word of advice — as long as you have a suitcase that was built for roll-aboard (i.e. not to exceed 22 inch) do not give up. You can win the argument. Remember — always use the card of “Who will be responsible for my lost luggage” or something similar….
What I have observed is that I am yet to find the manager who is willing to be the person who gets pointed to in a passenger complaint…

In my next posting I will summarize my other observation about how to deal with overzealous airport employees who want to separate you from your carry on luggage… Stay tuned

The World is Becoming a really small place; Travel in Seoul

May 9, 2006 on 12:20 pm | In Korea, Travel Outside of China | No Comments

On a recent business trip to South Korea, I had an interesting experience. But first let’s set the stage. Once immigration and customs are cleared, the next task ahead of a business or pleasure traveler is getting to their destination in the city they are visiting. If you are traveling to Seoul, South Korea, most likely you will arrive at Incheon International Airport. The airport is a long way away from downtown Seoul so you need to figure out a way to get there. There are several options: Continue reading The World is Becoming a really small place; Travel in Seoul…

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