A love destiny .....

Thinking of what she needs to accomplish this week overwhelms her since she needs to learn the basic Korean alphabet by Wednesday thus she spent her days studying the Hangul characters. In addition to the Hangul letters she already learned, there are also 11 additional vowel combinations. These are combinations of the base Hangul vowels. The pronunciation of some of the Korean vowel combinations is exactly the same. These vowel combinations can be tricky because they don't follow as structured of patterns as the rest of the consonants and vowels.

Driiiiin. Driiiiin. Driiiiin.

Amor missed the sound of the old alarm clock and she hoped she had booked and arranged their travel well. "I will only be going to Manila not abroad no need to worry," she thought. She chose to wear a yellow-white striped strappy mini dress tailored in classic stripes which features a strappy neck and a fit-and-flare cut and a pair of tan flats to complete the look.

Standing outside unit 1203, she straightened her dress and lightly knocked on the door thrice then David opened the door.

"Good..... good morning Mr.....," Amor stuttered but only the children were there. "Good..... good morning young masters," she greeted the children instead. She saw Mila sitting on the sofa thus she sat beside her. After the children have finished their breakfast, Mila took notice of what happened earlier. "I didn't see the couple joined their children during breakfast."

"Uhm..... that I don't know."

Mila suddenly stood up but before Amor could give her greeting Do Yun came out from their room and headed out to the door thus Amor hurriedly followed.

As soon as they arrived at the airport, Amor presented their plane tickets, company IDs and have their baggage checked in. They were at their assigned Boarding Gate at least 30 minutes before the flight. They boarded through the second set of doors, where they were directed left into the business class cabin once their boarding passes were verified. The airline has a variant of the Thompson Aero Vantage XL seat on their A350s, which can be found on several other airlines. The airline has a total of 30 business class seats, spread across eight rows in a 1-2-1 configuration. As is standard with these staggered seats, in each row seat configurations alternate, as the footwell for a particular seat is to the side of seats in front. Along with the windows, in even-numbered rows seats are closer to the aisles and further from the windows.

"These wouldn't be my preferred seats, since they lack privacy and it's hard to look out the windows," said Do Yun. "That's why I recommended window seats in odd-numbered rows since they are much cozier— they're close to the windows, they're further from the aisles, and they feel like they have more privacy. I selected seat 7A, the last "true" window seat on the left side, in the second to last row for you."

"Ah..... thank you, Mr. Kim."

To the side of her seat was some exposed storage space, as well as the seat controls, entertainment controls, a 110v outlet, a USB outlet, and headphone jacks.

"The tray table slid out from the side console, and couldn't be folded over in half, or anything. If it's extended, there's no way you're getting out," said Do Yun who is seated in front of her. "The one major downside to staggered seats is that the footwells can be restrictive, though these footwells were on the more spacious side as far as staggering configurations go. It wasn't as restrictive as a "throne" seat, which I can find in some staggered layouts. A350s have cool-looking overhead consoles, though unfortunately there were no individual air nozzles to be found here."

Already waiting at their seat upon boarding were a pair of headphones, which were decent quality, though certainly not Bose or B&O. There was also some half-decent bedding, including a pillow and blanket. The bedding isn't bad, but it's not great either.

Amor was able to grab an extra pillow from an empty seat nearby, "Oh..... Mr. Kim here's an extra pillow".

Also waiting at their seats was an amenity kit, with products from ACCA KAPPA. There was body lotion, lip balm, socks, eyeshades, a dental kit, a comb, and some fragrance. Just a minute after settling in, the flight attendant who would be taking care of them, introduced himself. The airline proactively offers champagne as a pre-departure drink— the flight attendant showed up with a glass and a bottle of champagne and poured it into their seats.

"That's a cute touch!" Do Yun said.

A few minutes later they were given a warm towel on a tray. About halfway through boarding, they were presented with the menu for the flight. A few minutes after their lunch order was already taken, including being asked what they want to drink with the meal. What made this flight pretty special for Amor apart from it is her first airplane ride is how empty it was in business class, even though it was packed in the economy and premium economy. There were nine passengers in business class, and they all chose to sit in the first few rows. It was a bit surreal that they had the back half of the cabin all to themselves.

At around 11:45 am the captain introduced himself and his three co-pilots, informing them of their flight time. At 11:50 am the main cabin door closed, and then five minutes later they began their pushback. By 12NN they were cleared for takeoff, had a long takeoff roll, and a gradual climb out. As they climbed out Amor browsed the airline's extensive A350 entertainment system. They had 150 movies and 120 TV shows, which she never expected. She also took the opportunity to connect to the Wi-Fi. The seatbelt sign was turned off about 10 minutes after takeoff, and a few minutes later really flimsy slippers were distributed. A few minutes after that free Wi-Fi cards were distributed. Business-class passengers get 100MB of free Wi-Fi.

"I didn't realize this when I purchased the pass for Wi-Fi, though realistically I was planning on using significantly more than 100MB of Wi-Fi, so I guess it wasn't a big deal one way or another," said Do Yun. "I do find it interesting that the Wi-Fi pass talks about the way you can redeem your 100MB, including making a call to loved ones for over 10 minutes. Don't most airlines ban talking on the phone through Wi-Fi?"

The meal service was quick to get started after takeoff. 25 minutes after takeoff they were served canapés, consisting of chorizo and shrimp. They had a glass of champagne, and they were serving Louis De Sacy Grand Cru. About 35 minutes after takeoff tablecloths were brought out, and then five minutes after that the starter was served. The airline serves the entire meal directly on their tray, rather than bringing out a tray. There were two appetizers to choose from, and they selected the laswa soup, with shrimp-flavored consommé with local vegetables. They were also offered a selection of bread from the breadbasket. Given the light load in business class, service was customized, and everything was brought out as each passenger was ready. There were four main course options and they selected the coco cream prawns in fresh turmeric sauce, stewed prawns in coconut milk with fresh turmeric served with sautéed kailan and crab fat fried rice.

"Frankly the menu sounded much better than it tasted. These are just two small shrimp, and the whole dish was surprisingly tasteless," said Do Yun.

Dessert was served about 10 minutes later and they selected the yogurt cheesecake with milk crumble and creme anglaise.

"This is very good," Do Yun said.

They were then also offered a cheese plate.

"This is good as well," said Do Yun.

Service throughout the meal was friendly and efficient, and their trays were cleared right away. There were two lavatories in front of the cabin and two behind the cabin, and they were pretty standard for the A350 and didn't have any special amenities. Do Yun got tired, so he reclined his seat and tried to get some rest. At that point they had about 1 hour remaining, and he was happy that he slept really well. He woke up just over 30 minutes before landing in Manila, so he got nearly 30 minutes of sleep. Even though there were no individual air nozzles, the cabin was kept at a reasonable temperature. He ordered a cappuccino, which was tasty and beautifully presented on a tray, with chocolate. The crew wasn't proactive with service between meals, but when a call button was pushed they'd appear pretty quickly. He decided to order a hot snack from the menu at this point. He ordered the Thai prawn cakes with pad thai, consisting of fried minced prawn cakes in sweet chili sauce served with bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, and pad that. This was served with a side of fruit.

"This dish is lousy— it's not hot, the fish cakes are hard, there is just way too much sauce on it, and the flavor is off," Do Yun said.

There was a snack basket that the crew passed through the cabin with at some point, and Amor took one of the chocolates. At around 1:10 PM local time the captain announced that they will be landing in 5 minutes, and the seatbelt sign would be coming on soon. They touched down in Manila at 1:20 PM and arrived at their gate at 1:25 PM.

"I was fairly pleasantly surprised by the airline's A350 business class— the cabin was spacious, the seats comfortable, and the entertainment good," said Do Yun while waiting for the hotel concierge service to pick them up in the airport lounge. "The service was also attentive and friendly, though, in fairness, the cabin was less than a third full. There were definitely some areas for improvement though— I thought the food was hit-or-miss, the map feature was broken for the entire flight, and Wi-Fi was broken for most of the flight. I wouldn't hesitate to fly the airline's A350 business class again, though I also wouldn't go out of my way to fly with them."

"He really is difficult to please," she told herself.

Will this be one of the places they will soon reminisce together?