Stormy Travels: Back to ATL

At 2am Hunter woke me up from my oh-so-comfortable sleeping spot so we could go get our tickets for T'Way. We went to the transfer desk that was stated on the departure signs but no one seemed to know what T'Way even was or where we could check-in despite them being beneath a sign saying that T'way transfer was here. Hunter's blood sugar went low so he had to run off to 7-11 and get more gummy bears while I tried to get more information. They told us to go to the gate, so that's what we did. In Singapore, we have to go through security at the gate which only opened 1 hour before departure, so we waited and were the first two to go through the checkpoint once it opened. Of course, despite being 10,000 miles from home we still had to chug our waters before going through. We then headed to the agents and started explaining what happened. They said that we needed to go check in at the counter landside, which we were told we did not need to both online and moments before by the other agents. Thankfully, we didn't have any checked bags so they allowed, albeit grudgingly, us to check in with them. We had all the documents they needed to check - negative covid test, visa - and were given a whole row of seats to ourselves. I told them their website or someone in the airport should be given more information on how to direct people in transferring situations, but they didn't seem to care much. Hunter and I were just very grateful to have been given seats and make the flight!

Finding out what gate and transfer desk to go to for our flight

Eventually getting boarding passes but it was a bit frightening not having tickets initially

The flight was ~6 hours long and it was clear it was a low-cost carrier. There was no meal service or even water passed out, but Hunter and I both had water bottles we filled up at the gate and because it was a 3am flight, we slept most of it, me more than Hunter though. The flight was pretty turbulent, but overall it was a fine experience. We think in the future if it was a flight around normal awake times, we would pick a regular carrier to have better service. Hunter is not sure how much longer T'way will be in business as the entire middle section of the plane was empty... the flight probably had a load factor of 20% with over 200 seats open and our last-minute tickets were still half the price of the competition. Nonetheless, it was fun to experience flying as "Tee-way-er's" as the flight attendants called us, especially since their IATA code is TW which is much more famously known for its historical use by Trans World Airways (TWA) before either of us worked in aviation.

Boarding out plane

10 seats wide! Thankfully we had a row to ourselves

We landed in Seoul at Terminal 1. We followed the signs to transfer and cleared security into Terminal 1. We then started the surprisingly long journey to Terminal 2 from Terminal 1 where we arrived. It was quite interesting how they have the airport set up where you actually can't go back so you have to be certain you know where your departing flight is going from. On our way through Terminal 1, we saw an interesting parade. It was representative of the Korean imperial family 100's of years ago, complete with real swords and spears... in the same airport we could not take our water into. We then proceeded downstairs to a needlessly complicated one-way train system and saw some really cool art displays. Despite being in the same airport the train ride probably took 10 minutes underground and was not a slow train. This airport is a massive engineering project and it is definitely interesting to see how it compares to the US. Once we got to T2, we tried to go to the transfer desk to get boarding passes so we could enter the lounge, but they said they could not give us any and to go to the gate, except the flight wasn't leaving for hours so there was no one at the gate. Hunter noticed there was a tech stopping Delta flight from Shanghai that was headed to DTW and headed to that gate to see if they could print our tickets. The Korean gate agents were not really willing to help, so then we explored if we could get on the flight, but after talking with some of Hunter's coworkers it seemed that the agents would be the deciding factor on that and they told us no. After a while of sitting there, Hunter figured out how to get us the QR boarding passes and then we headed to the lounge. Once checked in we took showers and got changed. It was immensely refreshing. Hunter and I then had some food and drinks while we waited for our flight.

T'Way plane

Making our way to the transfers

Asiana 747

Ceremony parade thing

Cool art between the escalators

Looking up into the art

Music being played outside the cultural center

A350-900 to ATL

The shower in the lounge

Snacks and blogging

An hour before departure we headed to our gate. We checked in with the agents and did the little interview to get our security stickers for entry to the US, and then waited till our seats were assigned. Hunter and I were seated in 2B and C for the 14-hour flight directly to Atlanta. We were thrilled to be on a direct flight to where our home was and not have to land and have 2-4 more flights to take or another night in a hotel. It's such a cool experience to have direct flights. We are so lucky!

When we were ready to take off, we found out Hunter's shoulder strap wasn't working. The shoulder strap is only needed during take-off and landing though so he just had to go sit in the back for that and then returned to the nice seat once we hit altitude. Once we were up in the air it was meal service time. Hunter and I both ordered the vegetable lasagne for dinner and an ice cream sundae for dessert. After that, we settled in and had a nice long nap!

Hunter had to sit in premium select for take-off and landing. He said it was a nice product.

Diet coke and cheese/nuts/fruit mix

Pumpkin soup to start and salad with asparagus

The lasagne was tasty

Icecream is a must on long haul flights

Nap time

Just under half way there

When we woke up for arrival service I ordered the coconut pudding and Hunter had the chicken rice dish. Both were tasty. Sadly we had slept through a mid-flight meal as we were both exhausted but the sleep was wonderful. We arrived shortly after around 7pm, used our global entry for the first time, and were curbside in minutes. It was really nice to finally experience what we had applied for over 3 years ago. From there, we retrieved our car, and then headed home! The perfect conclusion to an amazing trip!