Canada Fall '24 - Ep. 01
Six Babies on the 13-Hour Flight
“Is there a problem with my reservation?” I asked the check-in agents behind the counter who seemed to be trying to solve an issue on the screen in front of them. One of them was still holding my passport in her hand while the other was hovering above her murmuring instructions. Both of them looked up to me and gave me a slightly nervous smile, making me start to worry that there really was a problem with my reservation.
15 minutes ago, I arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport for my flight to Toronto. Despite arriving right in the middle of the airport porter’s shift change which resulted in not one porter was in sight at the departure drop-off area, I was lucky enough to met one porter who’s just about to load his customer’s luggages to their car. This service is actually one of the thing I’m grateful for at our airport. For IDR 75,000 (≈$4.85), I got the convenience of not having to carry my two 23 kg suitcases, one carry-on and backpack. Pretty helpful especially if you’re not that strong and have a back problem like me.
When I was inside the departure terminal, I immediately went to the ‘Morning Calm’ lane at the Korean Air counter. There was one person in front of me who was immediately called to one of the open counters for the airline’s frequent flyer members. I’ve been flying Korean Air the last couple of years and their service is usually pretty quick. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any long lines before and today was no different. Another counter opened up quickly after the last one and my porter immediately pushed the cart with me towing behind.
While he was loading my suitcases to the baggage belt, I handed my passport to the check-in agent who then reconfirmed my details and destination after she pulled up my reservation on the screen in front of her. We had a bit of a small talk while she’s still processing my check-in and everything seemed to be going normal. But then, I noticed that it took longer than usual for me to receive my passport back and my boarding pass. Shortly after, the agent called out for her supervisor who came over and looked at the screen with her. And now here we are, with me trying to find out what seemed to be the reason for the delay.
The agent who has my passport spoke up, “Well, for your second leg of the flight from Seoul to Toronto, it seems like there’s going to be a baby sitting next to you. So now we’re trying to find you another seat that is away from the baby since it might be uncomfortable to be sitting next to a baby.”
Not gonna lie, my heart dropped a little at the new information I just heard. The flight from Seoul to Toronto is about 13 hours and 20 minutes long. And of course my overthinking mind went straight to imagining the worst-case scenario: the potential of having to sit next to a crying baby for the duration of the flight. That’s not good. Not good at all. Even so, I tried to think of the best-case scenario as well, which is sitting next to a very calm baby which wouldn’t be a problem at all.
“Oh no! That’s not good,” I said light-heartedly voicing out my concern with a laugh. “How many babies are there on the flight?”
“There are actually six babies on the flight,” the agent responded.
My eyebrows shot up immediately, surprised that there were so many babies flying from Seoul to Toronto. And it’s not even holiday season. Or at least that I knew of.
“In that case, please do continue with your search. It’d be awesome if I can get seated away from the baby.” I replied with a grin, hoping that there’s available seat somewhere else for me.
“That is what we’re trying to do. But it seems like the open seat options are all at the back of the plane. Would you want us to move your seat to the back?” She asked.
Now there’s a new dilemma: sitting in front of the plane next to a baby or sitting in the back of the plane not next to a baby. One additional factor that I took into consideration was I did pay extra for the seat that I’m currently in. And when I asked the agent if I can get refunded for the fee if I move to the back of the plane, they couldn’t say for sure.
So in the end, since I feel like I already paid anyway and didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting a refund or waste the paid seat, I decided, “That’s fine then. I’ll just stay at my current seat and pray that the baby next to me is super calm and behaved.”
The two gate agents smiled at me and the one holding my passport said, “We sure do hope so. We’ve also made a note on your reservation saying that if there’s a seat open at the front of the plane, you’d like to be moved to that seat. So when you get to Incheon, you can check with the gate agent there and see if they can help you out.”
I nodded and threw them a grateful smile, “Thank you. I’ll do that. And thank you for informing me. I really appreciate the effort to get me a new seat.”
They really didn’t have to inform me or go that extra mile trying to find me a seat. But they did and I really did appreciate that. One of that small things that matters you know. I have to say that I’m (once again) impressed with the service at Korean Air.
After that conversation, the gate agent finally handed me back my passport and two boarding passes with my luggage tags stuck behind one of them while informing me the boarding gate and time. I thanked her before walking away from the counter and silently worrying and wondering what kind of baby I’d sit next to tomorrow morning.
The Walk to the Gate
40 minutes before the boarding time, I made it pass immigration and inside the departure area. And as usual, I was greeted with warm air around inside Soekarno-Hatta Terminal 3. I think most of you who’ve been to this airport probably agree on how the air-cons need to be improved, given that the temperature inside this airport has never been cool. Although since it’s night time now, at least it’s not as hot as it is during day time. Also, I don’t know if this was new or they’ve always been there before and I just failed to noticed them but the bright, bright lamps they use around the airport really didn’t help with the temperature. They’re emitting more hot air inside the airport, practically cancelling out the cool breeze from the air-con. But hey, at least there are air-cons. Better than nothing right?
While walking to my gate, I did find the gate change surprising this time around. Having been flying to Seoul countless of times from this airport, my flights to Seoul with Korean Air usually departed from one of the gates that are near the escalators down from immigration. Gate 9 or Gate 8 were the ones I usually departed from which both are only a short walk from the escalator. But this time, Gate 5 was written on my boarding pass which is pretty far down from the main entrance of the departure area.
The 10-minutes long relaxing walk to Gate 5 was probably my longest walk in this terminal ever. The area around the gate felt less busy and the air-cons were actually cooler than the ones on the previous gates. Also, I found out from one of my cousins that mid-term break was the following week and some families might’ve started their holiday early this week, thus why the airport was busier than usual. I guess that made sense seeing how there were a good number of traveling families around the airport.
First Leg: Jakarta (CGK) to Incheon (ICN)
The boarding process started around 9:10 pm with all the priority passengers boarding first and then followed by Zone 1 which was my boarding group. I made it to my seat exactly 13 minutes later and found out after the plane doors were closed that the middle seat next to me was empty. Yeay! It’s one of those little wins in life that brings me joy, you know. So I buckled up and ready to kick-off the first leg of my trip, a 7-hours flight to Incheon, South Korea.
KE628 In-Flight Meal
45 minutes after take off, the meal service started. Thanks to Korean Air app recent new feature (definitely recommend to download the app if you travel with Korean Air because they actually put up useful information for you flight including check-in counters locations at airports, meal service option, baggage tracking, etc), I actually was able to find out about the meal options before the flight, which was really nice too because it helped eliminate the stress of not being able to hear what the flight attendant is saying when they recite the menu options.
For this flight, the choice is between Bibimbap for the Korean option and Roasted Chicken Breast with Rosemary Sauce for the Western option. I chose the Bibimbap because I haven’t had it for a while and my favorite thing about this meal is that they come with Korean rice and seaweed soup. This time, it was also served with pickled onion and custard cake (I think) for the dessert.
The Flying Bibimbap Bowl
I was pretty excited for the meal and grabbed the instant rice to open the plastic cover on top of it. If you’ve ever had one this instant rice, you know that the plastic cover is a bit snug and it takes a little bit of force to pull it from the container. I was doing exactly that and when I have pulled the cover halfway with my right hand, it suddenly just tore off from the bottom part resulting in me accidentally knocking off my Bibimbap bowl. The bowl containing the vegetables literally flew from my tray and landed upside down on the carpet in the middle of the aisle, essentially making it inedible.
I was pretty mortified but other than the quick glance the lady sitting across the aisle from me gave to the upside down bowl on the floor before she went back to her movie, I don’t think nobody around me actually noticed, sparing me from my embarrassment. I quickly grabbed the top plastic cover of the bowl and used it as a scooper to scooped the vegetables back into the bowl. For good measure, I also used my napkin to pick up the small remnants of the veggies that were still on the carpet. Minutes later to my relief, the carpet looked as good as nothing was spilled on it. And so no Bibimbap for me on this flight. But at least the rice and seaweed soup were safe and I ended up eating those. Also, good thing I already had dinner with my parents earlier before the flight so I wasn’t that hungry.
Movie Night During Red-Eye Flight
Sleeping has always been hard to do for me during red-eye flights. This time was no different. I ended up staying up for the full duration of the flight, listening to music, playing games on my phone and managed to watch two movies.
The first one was Citizen of a Kind (시민덕희) starring Ra Mi-Ran, Yum Hye-Ran, and Jang Yoon-Ju, faces that have been appearing on recent K-dramas. The movie is based on a true story that happened in 2016 where a housewife in her 40’s became a victim of a Korean voice phishing group based in China. She chased after the group’s leader to get her revenge after the guy who scammed her volunteered to give her tips about the organization as his attempt to get out of the organization he was forced into.
I thought the movie was quite funny and entertaining with an interesting insight into how voice phishing organizations work. It managed to bring hope and light-heartedness to a pretty serious crime that happens often these days, especially to the older generation. My rating: 8/10.
The second movie I watched was Troll Factory (댓글부대). Based on true events and witness accounts, Troll Factory explores how the media and social media outlets manipulate and drive public opinion about real news as well as fake news.
This one started pretty slow, but once I got passed the first 15 minutes, it got really interesting. Even though fake news issue is nothing new, this movie gives you a glimpse into how a trend, narrative and manufactured-fact are created on traditional media and social media. Very interesting subject matter that left me wondering even more about validity and bias of what I see on online. My rating: 9/10.
2 movies later at 3 am Jakarta time and 5.5 hours into the flight, I’m still awake.
Hours later, we touched down in Seoul at 6:21 am local time. Landed 44 minutes early than the scheduled time of arrival which is pretty normal with Korean Air from my experiences. All and all, the flight to Seoul was pretty normal and relatively peaceful.
