Well, everyone, the trip has been made, and somehow I've survived the ordeal. Not necessarily the type of trip I'd like to do again, but I'm sure I will at some stage of the game.
A few observations:
1) Korean has switched from their modern 777s to their not-yet-modernised 744s on the AKL-ICN run, so no personal IFE. And 11 hour flight with 2 cheesy movies and a lot of "Sleepy Time." The food and cabin service was at its usual good level, though.
2) The flight from Seoul to Narita was on a 747-300 (let me re-emphasize -300), with a training crew on board (cabin and flight, as noted to me by the purser), and a Captain who barely spoke "Engrish" (
www.engrish.com for explanation). No offense to our Asian bretheren out there (hey, my step-son's half Japanese), but this gave me a little cause to worry. What also worried me was flaps full and gear down at 15 NM from Tokyo, leading to high nose pitch and high engine power for about 5 minutes while on approach. Not going to say I was in fear for my life, but I'd never seen it done that way before (and I've flown 500,000 miles as pax). Boy, did I breathe a sigh of relief when we finally reached the glideslope and pitched down to a more decent angle.
3) Just as nwaflygirl had said, the NW flight was great! The cabin crew was both attractive and attentive, the food was good, and they even gave all the Business Class passengers an overnight kit with toothbrush, soap etc. The headphones were the airtight noise-blocking type, and the personal IFEs had games, music, and about 8 different movie choices. Now THAT'S more like it. If there was one thing that detracted from the experience, though, and that was the seat was rock hard, like sitting on a park bench (and even trying the trick of sitting on the blanket didn't help). Sure, you can sit in nearly any position in these seats, and even get a back massage(!), but the solidity of the seat kind of took away from the overall enjoyment of the flight. Still, it was a 9 out of 10. The people at DTW were also kind enough to let me into the NWA World Club (which is indeed nice, as is the one at NRT) to wash up a little bit between flights, even though I was connecting onto a Delta flight.
Thanks for the info, all!
RD