The Journey Begins

Today, we embarked on the physical part of our journey to Alex.  The journey has been going on for 25 months, but today we got in the car, drove to Milwaukee and started the actual journey.  I awoke this morning at 4:00am without an alarm.  I was hoping to sleep until 5am, but I haven’t slept well for weeks.  Between daylight saving time ending and the anxiety over traveling, sleep has been less than optimal.  So rather than lay in bed, I decided to go for a run – 3 miles in the cold, dark air lit by the nearly full pumpkin moon.  I was out the door by 4:30am and Ian was taking my place in bed shortly thereafter – I guess we’re not the only anxious ones.  When I returned from my run, Dana was in the shower and a giggling Cami and Ian were goofing around in our bed.  Ben woke a little later and we got some breakfast and got out of the house by 6:10am headed to Milwaukee.  

For this trip, we booked an itinerary on Delta.  It wasn’t our first choice, or even our second choice, but economics really dictated our choice.  Our hope was to fly Korean Air, a Delta partner.  We both had some Delta Skymiles so we applied for the Delta American Express to build up our miles.  We built up some decent mileage balances, but when it came time to book, there were no Korean Air flights available for booking with Delta Skymiles.   So we settled on a Delta flight from Milwaukee to Detroit, then non-stop to Seoul-Incheon.  We saved a fair amount of money because we were able to use our points to pay for a little more than one ticket.   That was the bonus, but our flights were booked near capacity so the downside is that we didn’t have seats next to each other.   So on our flights from Milwaukee to Detroit,  Cami and Ian sat next to each other,I sat one row in front and Dana swapped seats with a kind gentleman so she could sit next to Ben.  Ironically, one row ahead of us were five seats in a row, but when we inquired about  moving up so our family could be together, the flight attendant sternly reminded us that those seats cost extra so they should remain empty.  

After arriving in Detroit, we took the tram from the far end of the A concourse to the middle for our flight.  It was boarding when we arrived at the gate.  We asked about getting our seats changed because our family was in a column of middle seats rather than a row.  One lady apologized and said there was nothing she could do, but another gate agent realized that wasn’t going to work, so she managed to get three seats in a row and one close by in the same row.  But Dana was five rows ahead of us.  A very kind man swapped seats with Dana giving up an aisle seat for Dana’s middle seat on a 14 hour flight.  He’s a saint and we thank him for his kindness!

Our plan is a Boeing 777-200, with room for 269 passengers.  I think almost every seat is filled.  As we boarded, we got to see the first and business class travelers lounging in their lay flat beds.  I’ll admit, there’s a twinge of jealously  that passes the mind when you realize they might actually get some sleep on the flight.  The plane is equipped with personal seat back entertainment units.  The devices are touch screen and have a lot of movies, tv shows, music, games, etc. loaded.  Interestingly, the flight attendants made an announcement shortly after take off advising us not to use the games on the device as that seemed to cause the system to lock-up.  Then a little while later, they flight attendants made an announcement that they would be rebooting the entertainment system.  All of our systems were working fine, but after the reboot, Dana’s system wouldn’t load a movie or tv show without crashing.  Luckily, the kids system was working fine and they were glued to their screen for the first couple hours of the flight.  After a while, I switched with Dana so she could watch a movie.  I tried to listen to the music and it was like a sample.  I could get about 10 seconds and then it would stop.  Interesting side note, Taylor Swift is on the cover of the November Delta Sky magazine, but her music wasn’t in their library.  

Kids enjoying their personal entertainment systems on the flight

So I wonder what drives their media entertainment system?  A Windows server?  If a reboot was the fix, then that’s my first bet.  Where do they store the server and how are the displays powered?  Are they virtual pc’s all controlled by the main server?  I feel bad for the flight attendants who maintain the system – there’s no calling for tech support when you’re at 30,000 feet.  And the techs must have fun trying to maintain the system.  The plane has to be on the ground in order to access the system as remote access is not an option because these flights don’t have Wi-Fi.  

Not too long after we were up in the air, lunch was served.  The menu had three options, chicken bulgogi, chicken breast with pesto, and tortellini.  But by the time they got back to us, the chicken bulgogi was gone. 

Delta hasn’t exactly endeared us with their experience to this point.  But we kept reminding ourselves that flying isn’t what it used to be and we did save a bunch of money on our flights.  The of idea of “you get what you pay for” does apply though.

There was a very kind Korean flight attendant who took to our family.  She told us a few stories and then later offered us some bonus mileage for the inconvenience of the system not working.  

The kids each got a short nap on the flight.  It was odd since we took off in daylight, then it became dark after a few hours of flying, and then we emerged into daylight again.  Most people had their window shades down so it was hard to tell.  Our route took us over Eastern Russia/Siberia and it was just cold frozen land with no real trace of people.  We also flew over a part of China which was snow covered, but there was signs of civilization.  We landed in Incheon a little after 4:30pm in full sun.  That was our first flight where we landed in daylight.  By the time we cleared customs and boarded our shuttle bus, it was 6:00pm and dark again, but the orange moon was rising above Seoul.

"Who needs a room?  I'll just sleep in the lobby at the Millenium Hilton Seoul," dreams Ian.

We are now settled into our temporary home, the Millenium Seoul Hotel, where we’ll be for the next five days.  We’re then heading to Jeju Island for a three day, two night tour, and then we’ll be back at the Hilton before heading to Gangnum (in style!) to meet Alex.

View from our hotel room - Seoul Tower in a full moon.