Experiences – Life – Inspiration 🇨🇭🇯🇵

I am writing this somewhere between Incheon and Amsterdam. There is not much to do on an airplane, so I decided to use the time for my daily blog post. For 18 Euros I bought airplane WiFi, and I have to say it works surprisingly well. It has never been easier to stay online during a flight.

This also reminded me of my past experiences with Chinese airlines, where airplane WiFi hardly ever worked. It was unreliable at best and often didn’t connect at all. That alone already makes me glad I booked this trip with Korean Air. In one of my earlier posts I said that paying a little more for a shorter route and avoiding long layovers over China is worth the extra cost. So far, that decision has proven right.

The Korean Air aircraft itself feels new and modern. The entertainment system has more movies and shows than I could ever watch on a single flight. Even the meals surprised me. On the second leg they offered three different options, which felt almost nostalgic in an age where most airlines give you one. In the first leg I chose beef with rice. In the second, I went with beef and potatoes. At that point my Swiss–Dutch meat-and-potato instincts took over. Maybe the airplane was already easing me into the Netherlands.

There was one unexpected moment during my transfer in Incheon. As I was about to board the flight to Amsterdam, the gate scanner flashed a red alert on my boarding pass. I had to step aside and talk to the ground staff. They explained that during baggage screening they found camera batteries in my checked luggage and had removed them for safety reasons. This caught me off guard. I knew batteries shouldn’t go in carry-on, so I had taken them out of my DSLR and packed the camera body in my backpack. I didn’t know placing batteries in checked luggage could trigger an alert right at the gate. Apparently it can.

There wasn’t much I could do except accept it and continue boarding. Thankfully, none of the flights were delayed. Both legs — from Nagoya to Incheon and then to Amsterdam — were on time. The connection was tight enough that I had to run between gates, but I prefer that over hours of waiting.

Overall, the trip has been smooth. Good airline, working WiFi, surprisingly good meals, no delays and no unnecessary stress. The battery incident was strange, but it didn’t slow anything down. At this point, I am simply glad everything is going well. I’ll see how the rest of the journey unfolds.