Flights

When is the best time to go to South Korea?

The most popular time to travel to Korea is between late March and late May, because of the milder spring weather. However, I’m from California and we have beautiful weather practically every day, so spring weather doesn’t really impress me. If you have no problem with mosquitoes, then I recommend going anytime during spring, but if you are like me and have an allergy to mosquitoes, then I have some tips for you.

Tip#1 – Check the online weather forecast for the exact location of where you’ll be staying. Mosquito season is unpredictable. The best time to go is after the weather has dropped to below 50°F (10°C) and before it hits 80°F (26°C). In other words, after the winter season has just passed and before it gets really warm. If you risk getting bitten, then you need to do some online weather watching before you book your tickets. Personally, I think the best time to go is between mid-March to mid-April.

Tip#2 – Don’t take any risks; pack allergy medicine and strong mosquito repellent. (Korea carries allergy medicine and itch cream/gel in every pharmacy–both cost me only about $8 in total, but it’s really hard to find effective repellent). Korea is home to some of the largest mosquitoes I have ever seen. Because I’m insanely allergic to mosquito bites, every time I get bitten, the bite swells up the size of a golf ball. If I get bitten near a joint, where there is less elastic skin, it will spread across other parts of my body. It’s itchy, it burns, it’s easily irritated, and it looks disgusting. It’s incredibly uncomfortable to wear clothes and shoes over swollen, itchy skin and I have to take allergy medicine and itch-relief gel for weeks for it to die down. Anyone susceptible to mosquito bites should steer clear of the most humid and warmest months May – September.

Cherry blossoms tend to bloom anywhere between late March to late April, but they only last for a about 10 days, so check the official forecast here Cherry Blossom Forecast

Tip#3 – If you are traveling between April and September, triple check that your hotel room comes with an AC. While booking hostels might be the cheapest way to go, I do not recommend it if you are sensitive to mosquitoes or hot/humid weather. It is very common for hostels to have heaters or an electric blanket, but not functional air conditioning. To keep costs low, even hotel rooms don’t have AC systems. I’ve been on the 15th floor of a “hotel” and had to keep the hallway door open to prevent myself from heat exhaustion. It was either that or open the windows and let the mosquitos in. The result, a long sweaty night with lots of cold 10-minute showers. Don’t put yourself through that. Go with a nice hotel room that specifies an AC in the type of room you want to book! Then email them to make sure you have it in writing. It’ll cost you $20-$30 more a night, but an AC is a must!

When is the best time to book a ticket to Korea?

At least from California, a roundtrip ticket to Korea will typically start around $800. There are discounts and ticket sales throughout the year, so if you check regularly on google flights, you’ll probably be able to book one for around $600-$700.

My friend and I booked our roundtrip tickets from LAX to PUS in late November during Cyber Week. We chose the cheapest economy flight possible, which translated to a 17-hour flight with a 3-hour layover in Shanghai (PVG). The airline was China Eastern and although they’re not the best, they aren’t all too bad either. Would I fly with China Eastern again? I’d rather not… the food isn’t very good, some seats smell like pee, and there’s often trash left behind from previous flights, but the price was unbeatable at only $395 per seat!!! Can you beat that?

My number one tip for booking flights to Korea is to fly into PUS (Busan). It is almost always cheaper than flying into Seoul.

China Eastern Review

Check-in and Boarding at LAX

We tend to bring only carry-on baggage when we travel, because it can saves us a lot of time. If you only bring carry-on, you can skip the long luggage check-in lines and go straight to the carry-on only line. It saved us at least an hour wait at LAX.

If you fly economy with China Eastern, you will be allowed up to 1 check-in, 1 carry-on baggage and 1 personal item per person. We didn’t bring aboard any check-in, but the maximum weight for a carry-on is 22 lbs (10 kg) and the allowable dimensions are 22in x 17.7in x 9.8 in. The personal item can be a bag, purse, camera, etc. Just make sure it’s smaller than your carry-on and you should be fine.

After checking in, you’ll take the escalators up to the second floor. You’ll go through security and then use your boarding pass to locate your gate number. There will be two lines: priority and economy passengers. They will have priority passengers and mothers with babies board first. It’s best to get in line as soon as they form, which is usually about 5 minutes before the actual boarding time. I like to be near the front of the line, because the overhead storage gets filled pretty quickly.

Trash in the back seat compartments weren’t cleaned out and my pocket was torn up.

The leg room is tight, but sufficient. The seats we had were right in front of the partition, so they didn’t recline. We chose these seats ahead of time online when we booked our tickets, but there was nothing to indicate that these seats were right in front of the wall. Luckily, the seat next to us was empty, so we made good use of the extra space.

Every seat comes with its own screen and remote control. You’ll have access to free full-length movies, episodes to tv series, music, games and live flight info. For a long flight, movies are a must. They have a decent mix of older movies and newer releases.

China Eastern Airplane Food

Our flight left LAX around 1:30 AM in the morning, so I expected to get some sleep for the next 4-5 hours. It felt like we had only been in the air for a couple hours, but already it was time for breakfast. Yes, we were served breakfast abruptly around 3:00 AM. I was confused how this all worked, but nevertheless, one should eat when food is served. So we did. I had the dumplings over the omelette.

It came with a cup of Dole mixed fruit, real cut melons, and a bread bun. For your drink, you get to choose from water, apple juice, orange juice, coffee, sprite, or coke.

I forgot to take a picture of the actual food. I have it on video, so here is a snap shot from the video. Sorry it’s so blurry. The 2 pieces of dim sum were good, but the thin noodles wasn’t tasty. I ended up leaving my noodles. Luckily, I wasn’t that hungry this early in the morning.

After about 4 hours or so, they served lunch. I think they ran out of the other option, so we had to have the chicken noodles. Kind of a downer since I just had noodles for breakfast.

Okay, let’s cut to the chase. It was not good. I didn’t like the chicken, the noodles, or the veggies. I didn’t like the texture or taste of the chicken and the carrots were kinda tough. I’ve had Chinese noodles before, but this left a weird after taste on my tongue.

The salad was not bad. I wish they served more of it. The tomato was sweet and crunchy. The greens were tasty and the black olive was a nice touch. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the stomach for ranch dressing. I don’t think turbulence and ranch go well together. But it tasted just fine without the dressing–not too dry.

The raspberry cake square was my favorite part of this meal. It was crumbly on top and moist on the inside. Just the right amount of sweetness. So delicious!

We noticed butter on our tray, so we knew they would serve us bread, but we didn’t realize it would be after we finished our meal. They always do this on China Easter and I don’t get why. I usually like to have my bread and butter before I eat the main dish, but here they serve it with tongs after people are basically done with their food.

LAX to Pudong Flight

Overall the flight was smooth. It wasn’t too cold in the airplane and I was able to get some sleep. The restrooms were disgusting, but when are they not? There was quite a bit of turbulence, but nothing too crazy. When we landed in Shanghai, it was windy and raining pretty hard.

Shanghai Pudong Airport

Upon landing in Shanghai, you’ll find yourself amongst 5 or so different queues. It’s overwhelming and confusing where you should go next. There’s a foreigner queue, but that’s not where you should line up. If you look to your left, there should be two entries–for Domestic Transfer and International Transfer (one blue and one red).  Follow the red sign that reads “Transfer to Int’l & HongKong-Macau-Taiwan.”

Unfortunately, the self-serive transfer machines haven’t been working, so the wait is a bit long. I’d say it took us about 20-25 minutes to get through immigration.

We expected a 3-hour layover in Shanghai, but since our initial flight was delayed, we only waited about an hour. I personally don’t like layovers in Shanghai, because there’s no wifi, the bathrooms are disgusting and the airport food is horrible. After scanning all of our options, we narrowed it down to either Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, or this place called Korean Traditional Restaurant.

They have a Dunkin Donuts, but their menu is sad. There are no flatbreads or wraps like in the Korean airports, (which by the way are pretty good–I really liked their Chicken Mushroom Cheese Flatbread). The Dunkin in Shanghai only had bagels, so we passed. We ended up getting a Black Milk Tea Latte at Starbucks, but it tasted more like coffee than milk tea. So we headed to the Korean Traditional Restaurant near Gate 22.

We ordered the scallion pancake and seafood ramen. Let’s just say the food looks better than it tastes. I love Korean food and this just didn’t hit the spot. The scallion pancake was a bit smaller than I expected and the seafood ramen didn’t have much seafood.

26¥ – Green Onion Pancake 파전 (pa-jeon)

89¥ – Seafood Ramen 해물라면 (haemul ramyun)

We didn’t buy any drinks here and ended up spending a little less than 116 yuan. At the time, we had no idea how much they charged to our visa, because their receipts don’t include the dollar conversion. We later googled this and found the meal cost us about $17.

After we ate, we proceeded to one of the boarding information screens. If you look at your boarding pass, you’ll notice it has no GATE #. That’s because everything here is last minute. In order to find out which gate you’ll board through, you’ll need find a boarding information screen and locate your flight number. There you’ll find your GATE #. If you’re too early, you may need to wait around before the gates are updated.

My number one tip is to get to the gate an hour early in case there is a gate change. If there is a change, make sure to check with the attendant first, before leaving. It’s rare, but the screen can be updated incorrectly. It happened to us.

Flight from Pudong to Busan

Even though the flight from Pudong to Busan was only 2.5 hours, it felt like forever. It was the last stretch and I was really feeling it in my neck, shoulders, and entire back. I couldn’t wait to lay down in an actual bed and take a long nap. We didn’t have those individual screens anymore. We just had to stick it out for the next few hours.

There was a lot of turbulence yet again on our flight to Busan, but that was because of the stormy weather. If I remember correctly, I could hear the ice building up against the double windows. The flight attendants asked everyone to close the window shutters. In the end, we had a smooth landing in Busan.

Conclusion

Would I fly with China Eastern again? Yes, if the price is right. But if I could fly with a better airline for only $50 more… I’d probably just pay the difference.

Would I recommend China Eastern to friends and family? Probably not… there was nothing stellar about this airline. I’d also prefer a layover in Japan or anywhere other than Pudong.

Benefits of flying with China Eastern? Lowest flight prices.

Disadvantages of flying with China Eastern? Less comfortable. Our seats could have been cleaner. The back seats are a bit smelly.