Busan Travel Forum

I will be traveling from the eastern united states to Gimhae. Any recommendations of where I should fly out of?...JFK(in New York), Baltimore, Philadelphia. And also, if you have traveled this 20 hour flight before...where is the best place to layover? Any help and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Check around. Baltimore can be a bargain and so can Newark, NJ.
Philly is usually a little higher, but every carrier runs specials for certain aiports.
Newark International Airport is very easy to get to just off the New Jersey Turnpike.
wayne

First, I have made this flight MANY times (it is actually about 23 hours from east coast). Many military personnel take this flight commercially all the time. It doesn't really matter where you fly out of; it is going to cost about the same. It depends on the time of year ho much it's going to cost; August is the most expensive as this is when the Koreans vacation. Boston and Atlanta are actually cheaper thanthe other suggested airports for carriers going in that direction. Second, you cannot get a direct flight for anywhere in the US to Kimhae. You will be flying into Incheon and then take a domestic flight down to Pusan and then a bus over to Kimhae. Therefore, to make it easy on you I suggest you use American Airlines if possible as they code share with Asiana; one of the Korean airlines or use a Korean airline the whole way (ticket will be cheaper). That said, your second question about a layover...I have never found it necessary or reasonable. Most of the flight is over the Pacific and to avoid jet lag (and the 14 hour time difference) I sleep the whole the way (the movies are never really that good anyway). When you wake up, your body will be adjusted to the local time in Korea. If you do plan to layover, it depends on your routing, but there are only 2 or 3 possible places that make minor sense. These are Seattle or LAX which are only 5 hours into your flight or Tokyo (if routed that way). Tokyo is only a 2 hour flight to Seoul, so it really makes no point to layover there unless you are just totally exhausted; you are almost there anyway. Is this your first time to Korea I assume? Are you military? If you are, e-mail me for more details.

Just an addition to what OD said... You may not want to bother with a layover. There really isn't anywhere at the halfway point that won't cost you dearly. The only one I can think of is Hawaii, and it just isn't worth it to stop, as it will likely jack your ticket price up quite a bit. Sleeping on the plane is probably your best bet.

As he mentioned, you may want to take your layover in Japan, if you absolutely need one, but it is only another 2 hours to Busan.

Have fun, Busan is an interesting place! Amanda

I am very sorry. I misread your post and mistakenly thought you were going to Chinhae (which is 30 minutes west of Gimhae). So you don't need a bus. Also, you do not need to be routed through Incheon either. Gimhae is an international port of entry and there are flights from Tokyo (where you will probably change planes) and Fukuoka daily on Korean Air, JAL, and NWA. Each one of those flights is about 80 minutes so again, there is no real point to having a layover. Here is a link about Gimhae airport.

http://gimhae.airport.co.kr/eng/index.jsp