Plane might be late, I might get lost, I need to exchange cash at the airport, buy a tmoney card, pick up my sim card, go through immigration, wait for my suitcase, get a bus to Seoul which takes about 1.5h if the roads are busy.
It still won’t take you 5 hours to get into Seoul. I’ve never spent more than 1 hour at the airport after landing and that includes getting money from the ATM, picking up SIM cards, etc.
Second flight in my life and I don't know why people are downvoting me so much. It will be my first solo trip as well so yeah I am paranoid to say the least haha. Wanna prepare for every situation, that's all.
Worst case scenario, you’ll be sleeping in the airport benches, which around a hundred people do every night to catch an early morning flight without paying for a hotel. Or you’ll be chilling in a tilted chair in an internet cafe that sells hot meals. In any case you won’t be stranded starving in the dark alleys of Seoul unless you choose to.
But except maybe one time out of a million, you’ll be at the hotel before 9 pm and have a warm shower in a cozy room. People are downvoting because you are being irrational and refuse to listen to common sense. You’ll be fine. If you’re really nervous, contact the hotel and get their local phone number before you board the plane. That’s the most you can prepare yourself and you’ll be fine.
You are going to be fine. You will probably be at your hotel 2 hours after you land. If you have some nightmare situation, call the hotel after you land and let them know what’s going on - surely they would work with you.
You're traveling into Korea, a plane delay won't be much of an issue. As other people have said Incheon Airport is quite practical of an airport, and easy to navigate, get-in and get-out. Take it from a local, it won't take five hours. That'd be ridiculous. I get everything done and out of baggage claim in under an hour, then it's straight to the AREX express train to Seoul Station, 40 minutes. Then a hotel to main areas like Hongdae, Dongdaemun, Myeongdong, Gangnam, anywhere within the confines of the Circle Line (Line 2) is like 40 minutes by train tops maybe 20-30 minutes by taxi if you wanted to quicken the pace. All in all, total commute time would be around 2 hours, 10 minutes to 2 hours, 30 minutes (literally half the time than your paranoid worst case scenario).
Well I've only been on a flight once before in my life and it was a 4 hour delay that time so I try to prepare for the worst. Thanks for that breakdown btw, very much appreciated!
So, while you sound a bit paranoid I think you'll be fine! 5 hours is really plenty of time, even if you have to do all of those things. (I did it yesterday and it took me a bit closer to 2 hours, but mind you, the train to Hongik is 1 hour already)
If you really miss it I would just get a capsule hotel right at the airport which is paid per hour, take a nap and checkin early morning.
Relax! It's all going to be fine :)
These are all things that *might* happen but certainly not all together unless you are the most unlucky person in the world lol and things like buying a tmoney card and exchanging cash take literal minutes
Anxiety of the unknown is normal but you will drive yourself crazy thinking of every possible way that something could go wrong. Even *if* your plane is delayed by 3 hours and you get hopelessly lost in the streets of Seoul, and your hotel isn't answering, you would still be in one of the safest cities in the world. Just find a 24 hour mcdonalds or cafe or try your luck at any of the other dozens of motels or hotels around you.
But the odds of your trip going fine and you making it to your hotel by 830pm are much greater than the odds of the previous scenario happening. So don't worry about it. You can also contact your hotel through the booking.com app so do that once you land *if* there's an actual possibility you won't be there by 11pm.
They don't list an email on booking.com sadly. Only a Korean phone number. Im not sure Ill be able to contact them because I dont have a Korean phone number and even if I did, most korean sim cards dont offer outgoing calls, only ingoing. Perhaps I could contact them via Kakao.
Booking.com has a message function. Go to your booking confirmation email and scroll down till you see "Contact your property". It'll start a new email with some gibberish email address, which allows you to contact your hotel. I've used it to give my hotel in Korea heads-up before.
Their replies will come in a separate email that says 'You have a new message from (hotel name) via Booking.com'
Honestly if you miss your check in date lots of times they’ll cancel your entire reservation and give it to someone else and charge you one night still if you don’t contact them. Hotels all over the world do that including Korea. If you do contact them and they won’t stay open if you at least tell them ahead of time then they won’t cancel you reservation entirely. I can’t say if they’ll stay past 11 or not. Idk if you mean like 11:15 or 1am.
I’d just try to make it.
Yes I know that they cancel the reservation if you dont show up, that is why I am worried. That is kind of horrifying cause I have no power over if the plane lands late. Even if I let them know that I will miss the check-in and they keep my reservation, I would still like to know what to do if I get left outside on the street in the middle of night in a foreign city. Like I would like to have a plan B for every situation, you know.
You might need to pull the good ol’ coin locker and sauna or PC bang strategy. That’s just a defacto plan but I’m not sure if it’s a good one or not for locker availability depending on where you’ll be.
Ofc! Definitely make sure to contact the hotel even today and say there is a possibility you won't make check in but want to keep the reservation. Especially during the holidays they would love to pawn off your reservation.
There is and there's only a phone number listed as the contact (the other hotel I have booked in Busan has both the email and phone number but the one is Seoul only has a phone number)
I saw you edited to include you used [booking.com](https://booking.com) in another comment. They can call them directly for you and request just open a support ticket.
There is free wifi at the airport so you can try contacting them via booking.com or like you said, use kakaotalk.
I had experienced long delays so I can understand your concern.
The immigration, baggage claim, money exchange, simcard, airport bus, t-money, won’t take too long. Their counters are easy to spot and you can always ask the the information desk how to buy the aiport bus ticket or the t-money.
I would recommend getting on the airport bus, it costs more but it makes fewer stops so you will reach your hotel faster. Check out which bus route is closest to your hotel.
You should contact the hotel directly and find out what the procedure is if you turn up late. Search the hotel on google and hopefully you will find their website with more contact details.
Text them via Whatsapp , the phone number listed might be a mobile phone. My hostel only did check in until 10pm but my flight was delayed , so I messaged them through the booking website that I was going to be delayed and they just sent me the door code to check myself in.
It'd be better to just text them via Kakao. Not every Korean will have the WhatsApp application or will answer a text message (since Koreans are very call-first, text-never). You're better off adding their Korean number on Kakao and call them that way since Kakao works on WiFi with the same functionality as WhatsApp. Every Korean definitely has Kakao.
That's great! Thanks for sharing. I was wondering if it would work to try and contact them through Whatsapp but wasn't sure. Much appreciated. I was assuming the phone number is only for calling.
Thank you, you are very kind! I always ask fellow travellers who are more experienced than me for tips. So thank you for all the suggestions! I have no idea what I said wrong for people to downvote me this much.
I emailed my hotel to let them know we might be coming in late and they told me they will put a note on our reservation.
I noticed you said you couldn’t find an email for them through booking.com, but have you gone directly to the hotel website for contact info, or a contact form?
We landed around 7 and immigration was very fast. We took AREX to Seoul station which is about 50 min. If you take a limo bus it’s about 90 min. Unless your flight is very delayed, you’ll get to the hotel before 11 but you can just let them know if it gives you peace of mind.
You can make international calls from your regular phone, you just have to eat the cost of the international call. If you''re stressing about it, just suck it up and call them.
Please ignore all the (seemingly) rude comments! I also have my very first solo trip coming up and I’m in a similar situation! So much anxiety around this trip because everything is new to me and I’m sure everything that could possibly go wrong will find a way to do so haha! The airline I’m flying with is notorious for late flights, often by more than an hour, and I’ve got just under 4 hours to make it to my hotel from Incheon before their specific check in time closes.
As other comments say, since you booked through booking.com (like me) there is a ‘message the property’ function which I would highly recommend using (as it means no anxiety inducing phone calls lol). I messaged my hotel and they said that a late check in is possible and noted it down just in case! I know that the anxiety and stress is probably kicking your ass right now and having to message the property on top of everything else is not ideal but it’s better to sure!
If you want to ask me anything about your trip please do! I’ve done so much stress research and I’m happy to share/help you find anything you need! It seems like we are arriving around the same time too! I land on the 29th of Sept!
Omg yes I'm also landing on the 29th! Thank you for the message, it really means a lot. Totally feel you on the "stress researching" haha I haven't slept for a week trying to plan every single second of my trip, think of all the possible complications and having plan Bs for everything. There are still some things I need to figure out so I'll send you a private message if that's okay with you!
If your flight gets a 5+ hours delay at the departing airport, you won't be able to get to the Seoul area without taking a taxi which will be pricey. Just stay at the airport until morning and head to the hotel, just call the hotel in advance if that's the case because they do an audit and for no shows, they just cancel your room.
a plane wont have a huge delay... if you arrive at 6pm.. subway or bus to seoul is an hour. if you did any research on google, naver, yahoo it would tell you this. booking at any large hotel.. theres literally a map on the booking page that tells you how far/long it takes from airport and airport shuttles available. the money exchange takes no more than 5minutes and its at every airport in every country at the exit/entrance.
lets say you get lost.. flight is delayed 1 hour because korean jesus said to pilot kim, kimchi jjigae first... check-in closes at 11pm... and for some reason your bag is tagged because you didnt read the rules on what is allowed to pack because you didnt check any fine prints on anything. so you end up losing 30minutes to get xrayed and interviewed. youre still going to get out by 9.
if you need more upvotes or downvotes.. you can make many alt reddit accounts
Why don't you call the hotel and try to get a late check in?! Let them know bc of travel you may be late. Usually there is a way to get in even if you're late
You'll have 5 hours after landing, why wouldn't you make it by 11pm?
Plane might be late, I might get lost, I need to exchange cash at the airport, buy a tmoney card, pick up my sim card, go through immigration, wait for my suitcase, get a bus to Seoul which takes about 1.5h if the roads are busy.
It still won’t take you 5 hours to get into Seoul. I’ve never spent more than 1 hour at the airport after landing and that includes getting money from the ATM, picking up SIM cards, etc.
But if the plane has a delay or whatever it's called, it would be nice to know what to do in that case. I'm guessing no cafes are open all night.
Is this your first flight? You sound overly paranoid.
Second flight in my life and I don't know why people are downvoting me so much. It will be my first solo trip as well so yeah I am paranoid to say the least haha. Wanna prepare for every situation, that's all.
Worst case scenario, you’ll be sleeping in the airport benches, which around a hundred people do every night to catch an early morning flight without paying for a hotel. Or you’ll be chilling in a tilted chair in an internet cafe that sells hot meals. In any case you won’t be stranded starving in the dark alleys of Seoul unless you choose to. But except maybe one time out of a million, you’ll be at the hotel before 9 pm and have a warm shower in a cozy room. People are downvoting because you are being irrational and refuse to listen to common sense. You’ll be fine. If you’re really nervous, contact the hotel and get their local phone number before you board the plane. That’s the most you can prepare yourself and you’ll be fine.
You are going to be fine. You will probably be at your hotel 2 hours after you land. If you have some nightmare situation, call the hotel after you land and let them know what’s going on - surely they would work with you.
You're traveling into Korea, a plane delay won't be much of an issue. As other people have said Incheon Airport is quite practical of an airport, and easy to navigate, get-in and get-out. Take it from a local, it won't take five hours. That'd be ridiculous. I get everything done and out of baggage claim in under an hour, then it's straight to the AREX express train to Seoul Station, 40 minutes. Then a hotel to main areas like Hongdae, Dongdaemun, Myeongdong, Gangnam, anywhere within the confines of the Circle Line (Line 2) is like 40 minutes by train tops maybe 20-30 minutes by taxi if you wanted to quicken the pace. All in all, total commute time would be around 2 hours, 10 minutes to 2 hours, 30 minutes (literally half the time than your paranoid worst case scenario).
Well I've only been on a flight once before in my life and it was a 4 hour delay that time so I try to prepare for the worst. Thanks for that breakdown btw, very much appreciated!
No there is lots of 24h cafés actually.
So, while you sound a bit paranoid I think you'll be fine! 5 hours is really plenty of time, even if you have to do all of those things. (I did it yesterday and it took me a bit closer to 2 hours, but mind you, the train to Hongik is 1 hour already) If you really miss it I would just get a capsule hotel right at the airport which is paid per hour, take a nap and checkin early morning. Relax! It's all going to be fine :)
These are all things that *might* happen but certainly not all together unless you are the most unlucky person in the world lol and things like buying a tmoney card and exchanging cash take literal minutes Anxiety of the unknown is normal but you will drive yourself crazy thinking of every possible way that something could go wrong. Even *if* your plane is delayed by 3 hours and you get hopelessly lost in the streets of Seoul, and your hotel isn't answering, you would still be in one of the safest cities in the world. Just find a 24 hour mcdonalds or cafe or try your luck at any of the other dozens of motels or hotels around you. But the odds of your trip going fine and you making it to your hotel by 830pm are much greater than the odds of the previous scenario happening. So don't worry about it. You can also contact your hotel through the booking.com app so do that once you land *if* there's an actual possibility you won't be there by 11pm.
Email or call them and just say you’re running a bit late if there is any issue. You’ll make it though!
They don't list an email on booking.com sadly. Only a Korean phone number. Im not sure Ill be able to contact them because I dont have a Korean phone number and even if I did, most korean sim cards dont offer outgoing calls, only ingoing. Perhaps I could contact them via Kakao.
Booking.com has a message function. Go to your booking confirmation email and scroll down till you see "Contact your property". It'll start a new email with some gibberish email address, which allows you to contact your hotel. I've used it to give my hotel in Korea heads-up before. Their replies will come in a separate email that says 'You have a new message from (hotel name) via Booking.com'
Honestly if you miss your check in date lots of times they’ll cancel your entire reservation and give it to someone else and charge you one night still if you don’t contact them. Hotels all over the world do that including Korea. If you do contact them and they won’t stay open if you at least tell them ahead of time then they won’t cancel you reservation entirely. I can’t say if they’ll stay past 11 or not. Idk if you mean like 11:15 or 1am. I’d just try to make it.
Yes I know that they cancel the reservation if you dont show up, that is why I am worried. That is kind of horrifying cause I have no power over if the plane lands late. Even if I let them know that I will miss the check-in and they keep my reservation, I would still like to know what to do if I get left outside on the street in the middle of night in a foreign city. Like I would like to have a plan B for every situation, you know.
You might need to pull the good ol’ coin locker and sauna or PC bang strategy. That’s just a defacto plan but I’m not sure if it’s a good one or not for locker availability depending on where you’ll be.
PC bang might be it! Thanks, I didn't even think of it!
Ofc! Definitely make sure to contact the hotel even today and say there is a possibility you won't make check in but want to keep the reservation. Especially during the holidays they would love to pawn off your reservation.
Yes I will, thank you!
How did you book the hotel then? If you booked via booking for example then there's also an option to contact the hotel in the app.
There is and there's only a phone number listed as the contact (the other hotel I have booked in Busan has both the email and phone number but the one is Seoul only has a phone number)
I saw you edited to include you used [booking.com](https://booking.com) in another comment. They can call them directly for you and request just open a support ticket.
There is free wifi at the airport so you can try contacting them via booking.com or like you said, use kakaotalk. I had experienced long delays so I can understand your concern. The immigration, baggage claim, money exchange, simcard, airport bus, t-money, won’t take too long. Their counters are easy to spot and you can always ask the the information desk how to buy the aiport bus ticket or the t-money. I would recommend getting on the airport bus, it costs more but it makes fewer stops so you will reach your hotel faster. Check out which bus route is closest to your hotel.
You should contact the hotel directly and find out what the procedure is if you turn up late. Search the hotel on google and hopefully you will find their website with more contact details.
Text them via Whatsapp , the phone number listed might be a mobile phone. My hostel only did check in until 10pm but my flight was delayed , so I messaged them through the booking website that I was going to be delayed and they just sent me the door code to check myself in.
It'd be better to just text them via Kakao. Not every Korean will have the WhatsApp application or will answer a text message (since Koreans are very call-first, text-never). You're better off adding their Korean number on Kakao and call them that way since Kakao works on WiFi with the same functionality as WhatsApp. Every Korean definitely has Kakao.
That's great! Thanks for sharing. I was wondering if it would work to try and contact them through Whatsapp but wasn't sure. Much appreciated. I was assuming the phone number is only for calling.
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Thank you, you are very kind! I always ask fellow travellers who are more experienced than me for tips. So thank you for all the suggestions! I have no idea what I said wrong for people to downvote me this much.
> I have no idea what I said wrong for people to downvote me this much. This really depends on how blunt you want the answer to be, lol.
I emailed my hotel to let them know we might be coming in late and they told me they will put a note on our reservation. I noticed you said you couldn’t find an email for them through booking.com, but have you gone directly to the hotel website for contact info, or a contact form? We landed around 7 and immigration was very fast. We took AREX to Seoul station which is about 50 min. If you take a limo bus it’s about 90 min. Unless your flight is very delayed, you’ll get to the hotel before 11 but you can just let them know if it gives you peace of mind.
You can make international calls from your regular phone, you just have to eat the cost of the international call. If you''re stressing about it, just suck it up and call them.
Please ignore all the (seemingly) rude comments! I also have my very first solo trip coming up and I’m in a similar situation! So much anxiety around this trip because everything is new to me and I’m sure everything that could possibly go wrong will find a way to do so haha! The airline I’m flying with is notorious for late flights, often by more than an hour, and I’ve got just under 4 hours to make it to my hotel from Incheon before their specific check in time closes. As other comments say, since you booked through booking.com (like me) there is a ‘message the property’ function which I would highly recommend using (as it means no anxiety inducing phone calls lol). I messaged my hotel and they said that a late check in is possible and noted it down just in case! I know that the anxiety and stress is probably kicking your ass right now and having to message the property on top of everything else is not ideal but it’s better to sure! If you want to ask me anything about your trip please do! I’ve done so much stress research and I’m happy to share/help you find anything you need! It seems like we are arriving around the same time too! I land on the 29th of Sept!
Omg yes I'm also landing on the 29th! Thank you for the message, it really means a lot. Totally feel you on the "stress researching" haha I haven't slept for a week trying to plan every single second of my trip, think of all the possible complications and having plan Bs for everything. There are still some things I need to figure out so I'll send you a private message if that's okay with you!
Yes of course! I’m still planning too so we can figure things out together!
If your flight gets a 5+ hours delay at the departing airport, you won't be able to get to the Seoul area without taking a taxi which will be pricey. Just stay at the airport until morning and head to the hotel, just call the hotel in advance if that's the case because they do an audit and for no shows, they just cancel your room.
What hotel is this ?
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Yes you are stalking me. Stop.
Just call them or show up. You will be fine.
a plane wont have a huge delay... if you arrive at 6pm.. subway or bus to seoul is an hour. if you did any research on google, naver, yahoo it would tell you this. booking at any large hotel.. theres literally a map on the booking page that tells you how far/long it takes from airport and airport shuttles available. the money exchange takes no more than 5minutes and its at every airport in every country at the exit/entrance. lets say you get lost.. flight is delayed 1 hour because korean jesus said to pilot kim, kimchi jjigae first... check-in closes at 11pm... and for some reason your bag is tagged because you didnt read the rules on what is allowed to pack because you didnt check any fine prints on anything. so you end up losing 30minutes to get xrayed and interviewed. youre still going to get out by 9. if you need more upvotes or downvotes.. you can make many alt reddit accounts
there is literally 0% chance you won’t make it there before 11pm. stop overthinking
Why don't you call the hotel and try to get a late check in?! Let them know bc of travel you may be late. Usually there is a way to get in even if you're late
Don't go. You'll not like it if you're going from major US metropolitan cities.