New United Club at Seattle International Airport

Last week, I had a chance to visit the new United Club lounge in Seattle International Airport (using those complimentary one-day passes from the Chase United card) for a 4-hour layover. Although this was my first time to an airline club lounge, my expectations weren't high as this was a US lounge so I wasn't expecting too much.

My initial impressions were not great heading to the lounge as it is located near gate A9 which was a decent walk even from the center of the terminal. It would have been much more convenient for passengers had they found a more central location in the airport (say near A1 for instance) as the airport has very few moving walkways or trains linking one end of the airport to the other.

Incheon Airport Review

Having travelled for a little bit, I've been at numerous airports around the world and it is truly refreshing when you come across an airport like Incheon, one of the most pleasant airports I've had the pleasure of visiting. Most airports are quite functional, serving as an area where you need to go through security and customs before milling around in the gate seating area before getting herded onto the plane. To be fair, some airports have gone the extra mile to make the wait a bit more pleasant but I'll leave those for another time.

Incheon's approach is multi-pronged (I should point out this review was based on my trip back at Christmas 2010 although not too much has changed since I visited a few months ago in the fall of 2011). Upon arrival at the gate, a number of interesting pieces of furniture including some medicine chests and cupboards line the corridor welcoming visitors and people in transit alike with some cultural artefacts.

Cathay Pacific Economy (SFO - HKG - ICN)

Back in May, I had applied for a Chase British Airways Visa card with a 100k point bonus and was lucky enough to be able to use some of the points for my trip to Seoul in September.  Based on the British Airways partner chart at the time (ie. before the transition over to their new 'Adios' points), I was able to snag an 'almost' free flight from San Francisco to Seoul for just 50k points, passing through Hong Kong both outbound and inbound.  This Oneworld award redemption was awesome as flights to Asia on almost all airline alliances require 65k - 75k points for a US-Asia flight, not to mention that this was on Cathay Pacific, one of the few Skytrax-rated 5-star airlines in the world.

As this was my first time flying Cathay, I was pleasantly surprised soon after boarding to receive a menu for the trans-Pacific flight: