A trip to Sokcho, Korea 🇰🇷🍂

On the way back, we stopped by the Kim Yujeong Rail Bike! 🚲🌿

Half Korean, half international visitors. 🌏

Welcome to Korea! 🇰🇷

Hope you get to enjoy and experience lots of Korea’s beautiful nature. 💚

My story begins on the morning of October 5th. It is 5am. I am lying in my hotel room, hungover from my brother's wedding the day before. My alarm goes off, reminding me I have a flight to Incheon that is supposed to depart at 10:50am. I drag my unwilling body into the shower, wake up my cousin, and we pack our things so we can leave. As we are in the car to LAX my phone alerts me that our flight has been delayed to 2pm. I am annoyed but unsurprised. Delays are common with budget airlines I tell myself. This is fine.

It was not fine.

The plane was on fire. When we made it to the waiting area we could see the wind turbines spinning as literal smoke came out of it. And yet, the desk agents continued to tell us our plane would leave at 2pm. Until 2PM arrived, and we, of course, did not take off. The flight attendants tell us nothing. Everyone is losing their minds until at about 4pm, when they start making an announcement in Korean. (We are not Korean).

"The flight has been canceled."

I understand nothing. A flight attendant is holding up a sign, again, in Korean, and begins walking away. The crowd follows. I ask the nearest Korean person what is happening and they explain our dire situation. We are only given 2 options. To fly out tomorrow morning at 7am, or to cancel and they will give us a refund. I turn to my cousin in horror. We had plans. Hotels that need to be alerted, facials and appointments that we will miss.

But at this point, what can we do? Switching to another flight would cost thousands of dollars and there was no guarantee we would make it once we sorted out this mess with Air Premia. There was only one realistic option. We would take the flight at 7am.

We make our way back through security and retrieve our bags. I have been on the phone with Air Premia for the last 2 hours trying to get a human. There are no humans. We are given a voucher for a hotel and told we have a $20 credit per meal per person that will be reimbursed later by Air Premia.

It is now 6pm. We have made it to the hotel where we are given 2 rooms. Mentally, I am exhausted. I sleep, only to wake up at midnight. I ubereats some dinner, making sure I stay under the credit threshold. I shower again while I contemplate what I did wrong to deserve this. I read, repack my things, and we once again head back to the airport around 3am only to receive another notification that the flight has once again been delayed to 10am.

There is no one at the check in desk. There is no one to question. We wait until the airport wakes up. Signs of life begin to appear. At around 8am, someone appears at the desk. I am third in line to question the agent. He tells me they are still working on the plane.

I leave the line and ask a second agent who is walking by what is happening with the plane. He says the part they were waiting for just came in and they are sure the plane will take off today.

I find a third agent who is directing traffic and ask them about our plane, and he claims they have sent a 2nd plane from Korea for us. I understand, deep in my soul, all three of them are lying. There is no part. There is no plane. We will not be taking off.

I report this to my cousin. She is in tears. She asks me what we should do. I make an executive decision. I run over to the Zipair desk and ask them if they have seats left to Narita. They do. I immediately buy them for $700 each. We once again check our bags and go through security. This time, we make it onto the plane. When we are in the air, I buy us flights from Narita to Incheon. As I am checking out, I get another notification that our original flight with Air Premia was, once again, canceled.

It is now, 10/26. A full three weeks later. To this day I have not been reimbursed for the canceled flight or the meals from that night. When I email AirPremia I get no response. My cousin is traumatized.

TLDR: Air Premia YP102 flight kept getting delayed. Ruined my korea trip. Agents wouldn't tell us anything. Never got a refund. Dogshit airline. Will never fly again.

Curating a portfolio of the places & streets in Seoul. Thanks for taking the time to look!
IG: geeos.jpegs

No one gave me relevant info on how to do it so I did it myself.

The blue dots are all regular fare bus stops and metro stations.

Lately, whenever I have some free time, I’ve been trying to travel to all the different regions of Korea. Right now, I’m exploring Seoul.

Wish me luck, plz.

Hello all!

Me and my partner are deciding on hotels to stay in late December for 7 days. We'll be using the AMEX FHR program.

So far we are in between, The Grand Lotte Seoul, Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, The Westin Josun Seoul, Le Méridien Seoul Myeongdong, Park Hyatt Seoul, Signiel Seoul

I think location wise, the Grand Lotte, Four seasons, Westin, and Le meridien are the best.

Four Seasons and Signiel are obviously the most expensive.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Hiked along the Cheonbuldong Valley trail in Seoraksan National Park this week, and the autumn scenery was absolutely unreal:

​Massive granite peaks and sheer cliffs rising straight into the blue sky.

​Mountain streams running crystal-clear over boulder beds, with sunbeams piercing right through the canyon.

​Fiery red and golden autumn foliage framing the entire rocky trail.

​Definitely one of the most rugged, majestic mountain landscapes in South Korea. If you're visiting Korea in autumn, Seoraksan is an absol

ute must!

Hi, Let's say you arrived at your hotel in myeongdong on a saturday at 2pm after a longggg flight. What would you do and where would you go?

Let's say you are happy to travel anywhere within seoul but want your 1st day to be slow paced after a long flight.

Asking for a friend ;)

Would love any recent trip experiences and must try’s?

From December 25th to November 7th, It's burningtime on the flat ground of Seoraksan National Park! Don't miss......bus no 7 or 7-1 to Park entrance no 1: bustop-entrance-biseondae-geumganggul cave-temple-bustop no 2:bustop-temple-ulsanbawi-bustop no 3:bustop-towangseongfall observatory-bustop-yeongrangho Starbucks observatory-floating bridge

Seoul viewed from Mt. Bukhansan was foggy in the morning and looked mysterious. Autumn foliage showed its last color before falling. Hiking Bukhansan today was amazing experience.

So since nobody watches my pics on instagram @no.salaryman I’m sharing them with you guys.

I started photography a few months ago and practiced a little bit in South Korea.
Mainly Seoul and Busan.
Spend half a month in South Korea and I can only say that South Korea won a big place in my heart.

South Korea just has this certain vibe.
It was just great what more can I say.

Locations:

1. Euljiro
2. Ikseon-Dong
3. Busan Sky Capsule
4. Busan Gwangalli Beach
5. Cheonggyecheon Stream
6. 6&7. Busan Gamcheon Culture Village
7. Changsin-Dong Seoul
8. Near Banpo Bridge Seoul
9. 10-12. Near Dongdaemun Seoul
10. 13-15. Near Yongsan Station (Famous Location from the K-Drama My Mister)
11. Namsan Tower Trail Seoul
12. Near Myeongdong
13. Itaewon Grand Hyatt
14. Near the Hanriver Seoul

Thank you 🫰

I recently purchased supplements at The Shilla Duty Free in Incheon Airport on October 25. I selected 3 bottles of CoQ10, and the salesperson offered another 3 bottles for free as a promotion. I also purchased 2 bottles of fish oil.
After leaving Korea, I checked my receipt and discovered something strange: None of the CoQ10 bottles were listed on the receipt. The receipt instead listed 3 bottles of fish oil, even though I only received 2. It also listed 2 bottles of Korean red ginseng extract, which I never purchased or received.

Both fish oil bottles expire in November 2026, just weeks after my purchase. The short expiration date wasn’t disclosed to me.
The total charge was approximately $190 USD.
The salesperson never explained why different products were being scanned or how the prices were calculated.
I’ve contacted Shilla Duty Free requesting an explanation and refund, and I’m waiting for their response.
Has anyone experienced anything similar at Shilla Duty Free or other Korean duty-free stores? Is it normal for promotional bundles to appear under completely different product names on receipts?
I’d appreciate any advice on resolving this from overseas.

Hi

Does anyone know of an EV charging company that works with foreign credit cards?

We have an electric car and need to charge.

None of the charging stations we've tried have worked for foreign cards. For example, we have tried Happe Charger and Chaevi.

visiting busan for the first time, and i know some of the attractions included in the pass require reservations. do the following attractions require a reservation or have reservations available to avoid long waits? couldn't find anything on the websites that indicated so but my mom wants to be sure

- songdo marine cable car

- arte museum

- busan x the sky

Hi everyone,

I’m flying Air Premia from LAX to Seoul soon, and I ran into a strange issue with online check-in.

When I selected the option to load my basic and passport information from my Air Premia profile, my date of birth seemed shifted by a day earlier.

I also noticed a similar issue with my passport expiration date:

• When I updated my passport information in my membership profile, the expiration date shifted by one day.
• When the system imported my information for online check-in, the expiration date was off by two days

My Air Premia profile has the correct information, so I am certain this is a system error.

I canceled the check-in process before completing it. I’ve emailed Air Premia support asking them to verify that the passenger information on my actual flight reservation matches my passport (still waiting to hear back), just to be cautious.

I have a regular Economy ticket, and I’m also concerned about whether waiting to check in will leave me with a bad seat.

My questions:

1. Has anyone experienced incorrect dates when Air Premia imported passport or profile information?
2. If I wait until airport check-in, how likely am I to end up with a middle seat or a less desirable seat?

I want to make sure my passport information is correct and avoid any boarding issues, but I also don’t want to unnecessarily lose my seat options.

Thanks for any advice

So...I feel I thoroughly messed up the timing. I am visiting Busan first with my early 60s year old mother. I felt we needed 3 full days to explore Busan and besides those 3 days I was originally planning to visit Gyeongju before moving up to Seoul in the evening of Feb 3. The thing is if we do that we only have Feb. 4 to go to the urban areas: Myeongdong, Hongdae, or really any areas with smalls stores open such as the food markets, teashops in Insadong, lotte mart zetta, etc, before they shut down the next day.

Being realistic it's impossible to visit these on just one day...should I skip Gyeongju or just take two days in Busan so we can have more time before Seollal festivities in Seoul?

I had Samgye tang yesterday and it was pretty good cause the chicken meat was really soft and basically just melts off the bone. Korea has so many soup varieties that its tough to know whats what.

I think Samgye Tang would be better for winter though cause it comes out really hot and stays pretty hot for a long time.

Anyone have One All Time personal favourite Korean dish? I personally like Jjim-Dak (Steamed Chicken?) the best

Apologies if this is not allowed for this sub but I am concerned and confused about this. Curious to know if anyone else has experienced this.

I was alone waiting for a friend in Jongno 3ga at night and realised I was being followed by an older non-Korean man (we crossed paths 3 times). Eventually he tried to talk to me and I confronted him and told him to stop following me. He insisted he wasn’t but said he’d seen me multiple times. Tried to ask my name but I refused and told him to stop following me again.

Noticed him loitering in the area for a while afterwards.

A few hours later I had left and my friend was waiting for a taxi and the same man approached her and tried to get her name. She said she felt scared - thank god her uber arrived quickly. I know it was him because he was wearing a green hoodie and I took a photo of him from behind just in case.

Again, apologies if this isn’t the right place for this. It is worrying and I am concerned for the safety of other women in this area - especially if they have been drinking

I just got off the bus… tapped my card when I got on. It showed my card balance, letting me know I paid. When I tapped to get off, it gave me a red x. I tried twice. I don’t read Hangul and as it was my stop, I just got off. Can anyone tell me what happened on the bus?

How hard is it to get tickets for the finals? Me and wife land the day before it starts and would love to attend. All advice is appreciated! I tried to search and didn’t see anything for playoffs so sorry if I missed the post!

Headed with a few friends to Seoul over New Years' Eve this year - would love to soak in the atmosphere and saw that that Lotte Tower has the best fireworks display.

Ideally we'd be outside the tower watching the fireworks, but given that it's gonna be freezing, instead I'm hoping to find an indoor bar / chimaek restaurant that would give us a good view of the fireworks and skyline + have a great atmosphere.

Any suggestions? Latitude32 looks like an option but a bit too fancy for us. We're looking for a chill vibe (hence why I thought a chicken + beer place maybe)

Hi there

I'm looking for the timetable for the busan to fukuoka ferry - the 6 hour journey. All I'm finding is the overnight sailings. Can somebody point me in the right direction please? Thanks!