Five weeks in East Asia for our honeymoon = five different budget airline flights around Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. I’ve probably flown just about every European budget airline at this point, but the Asian ones are new to me — so I was interested to see what they would be like!
Our third flight was with Jin Air, from Busan to Jeju Island, South Korea. Here’s what it was like to fly with Jin Air and my overall Jin Air review.
Booking Your Jin Air Tickets
Jin Air is a South Korean budget airline based in Seoul, with major hubs at both of Seoul’s airports (Incheon and Gimpo) as well as “focus cities” Busan and Jeju.
While we were able to book most of our flights for this trip through the CapitalOne portal, knowing that it would earn us 10x points with our purchase, we were not able to do that with this flight. Instead, we had to book directly with the Jin Air website. However, the direct flight from Busan to Jeju Island was $22 USD per person, so I really can’t complain about not getting the credit card points because it was already so cheap. 😂
Note: When you book your tickets with Jin Air, be sure to put your name exactly as it’s listed on your passport, and include your middle name if you have one. More on that later…
We booked our flights back in January and traveled in September. I didn’t remember choosing my fare class — the options are Super Low, Flex, Jini, and JiniBiz — but apparently we chose “Flex.” (I think that Super Low either doesn’t really exist, or it sells out instantly.) But something interesting I’m noticing about the fare classes now, is that all of them include a free carry-on AND a free checked bag!
An example of the fare classes you can book with Jin Air
I did not realize that before going to the airport, so we just showed up with our big carry-on bags and hoped we’d be able to bring them onboard without having to pay to check them. (Spoiler alert: we were!)
Jin Air Check-in Logistics
Knowing that we wouldn’t be able to check in online — it’s not like we’re in the Schengen zone in Europe, or flying within the U.S. — we decided to head to the airport in Busan fairly early, arriving about two and a half hours before our flight. It turned out that since we were flying domestic, and Busan has a small domestic terminal separate from the international terminal, that was plenty of time.
Especially once we found out that we could self-check-in at the kiosk! It was really easy and printed out our boarding passes for us, and then we went to get in the line for our boarding passes to be checked before entering the security area. The worker looked at my passport, asked me to say my name, and then let me through.
As I was going through security, I kept waiting for Matt, who had been right behind me. When I finally was through and had the chance to check my phone, he had sent me a text: “I have to add my middle name to my ticket.” This was extremely dumb because my middle name was also not on my boarding pass.
The workers told him he needed to go to the Jin Air desk to add it, but the Jin Air desk wasn’t going to open for another hour!
I decided to leave the secure area and go back out with him to wait. A security officer checked my passport and boarding pass before he let me out, and he said “My colleague must have made a mistake — they shouldn’t have let you back here without changing your boarding pass to include your middle name.”
So we waited an hour for the Jin Air desk to open, and we had to stand in line behind all the people who had big bags and things they needed to check. When we finally got to the desk, the worker “added” our middle names to the ticket by hand-writing them herself, and then stamping the boarding pass.
We went back to the start of the security line, where we had our passports and boarding passes checked again. This time, the worker had a new problem with my boarding pass: my last name is so long that my first name, Catherine, was cut off to “CATHERIN”. They said I needed to go back to the Jin Air desk again to get it fixed. I was very annoyed by this because we had literally just been at the Jin Air desk, and you would think they would have fixed it then if that was a problem. But this time, they gave me a red badge for “priority support” and we talked to the same guy who had let me leave the secure area before, and he let us through.
Security at Busan Airport
The domestic terminal at Busan Airport is fairly quiet, and it didn’t take long to get through security at all. (Either of the times I went through security.) Like less than five minutes. It’s nice because you don’t have to take your laptop all the way out of the case, and you also don’t have to take out your liquids.
Also, in case you didn’t know, you can take food through security. (As long as it’s not liquid.) I’ve been carrying around a big plastic bag full of gluten-free snacks for me and not only does security not care, but gate agents never say anything about it to you either.
Jin Air Experience
The flight was so short that there’s hardly anything to say about the flight itself — it was literally less than an hour from takeoff to touchdown.
The plane seemed pretty old, the seats were super plush, and it was comfortable enough for a short flight. There was plenty of space in the overhead bins thanks to the fact that apparently everyone got to check their bags for free.
Jin Air Value
I’m annoyed by the whole situation about our names on the boarding passes, but other than that I really can’t be mad about a $22 flight, lol. I also am in disbelief about the fact that you get a carry-on on board with you, as well as a checked bag, for FREE! Europe could never — I swear they would charge you for oxygen if they could.
Considering that Jin Air was the cheapest flight we took on this trip, and there was no risk of needing to pay to check our bags, I would absolutely give them another chance and fly with them again in the future. But next time, I’ll make sure my reservation has our middle names when I make the booking!
Key Takeaway: Jin Air Review
Jin Air baggage allowance: One personal item + one carry-on bag (max weight 12kg) on board; free checked bag (max weight 15kg)
Anyway, those are my thoughts about my experience with Jin Air! Of course, your experience may vary and I can’t promise you’ll have the same positive experience that we did.
Have you ever flown with Jin Air, or are you thinking about it? Let me know in the comments.
-Cathy
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