Booked my cheap Australia flight with Korean via Seoul, with a little trepidation.

Working in the aviation industry I was all too aware of KLA's abysmal safety record. I had also read some damning reports about cockpit crew in light of the 747-300 that crashed in Guam.

Trust me if you are flying KAL, ignorance is bliss.

That said the flight from LHR to SEL was on a decent looking 747-400, with generous seat pitch. The food was OK, but not great by the standards of other Far East carriers. The cabin crew hardly understood English at all, which I found amazing for an LHR flight, where over half the plane was full of Brits. With English the international aviation language, this seemed poor.

The captain was thankfully from New Zealand, and conducted the flight in a very calm, assured manner, with a superb touchdown in Seoul. I only knew we had landed when I saw the wing spoilers open.

The in-flight entertainment was dire. No seat back TV here... some dull films on tiny TV sets up on the roof, and even more dull Korean TV programming. Luckily I had 3 seats to myself, so sleep was in order!

The SEL-BNE flight was on a 777. Remarkable aircraft, so quiet. The seats were much more cramped than on the 744, and just to ruin the experience completely a drunken Aussie (No seriously) sat next to me, and proceeded to annoy me all flight by falling asleep on me and leaving drool on my shoulder... God save me. A sharp jab with my right elbow into as many parts of his body as I could find, saved me this fate for the final 5 hours or so. Still not KAL's fault.

Cabin crew again seemed to have as much capability with English as they did with Esperanto. Most English speakers seemed to give up trying to get anything from them... I ventured up to the galley area and helped myself to what I wanted.

The return flight was on a 744 on both legs, the first BNE-SEL was packed, however it was through the night so I could sleep and ignore the again useless cabin crew and in flight "entertainment".

Due to some wonderful planning by KAL, the BNE flight did not connect with a return LHR flight, so I had a nightstop in Seoul... which was fine.

The SEL-LHR flight was horrendous. Once again cabin crew did not understand English... the food choice... no sorry there was none. By the time I got served, the steak had "none left"... Damn. I thought 12 hours on this thing and I get nothing to eat. However to the eternal credit of the head steward, he got me a steak from business class. So credit there.

The films were even more B list on this flight, so I slept all the way. Not helped by the fact that I had an aisle seat (I HATE not having a window), and that the two women next to me seemed to want to spend all flight getting up and down to go to the loo.

The landing at Heathrow must have been quite spectacular from the viewing terrace, as we impacted the ground, and immediately the left wing began dropping towards the ground. The port side engines must have only escaped a strike by inches. Let's just say I was glad to be back on the stand... Korean pilots this time round.

You kinda get what you pay for with KAL... the service is average, the aircraft are average and the whole experience is average. You can't help feeling too that another major accident is not far away. They still seem incapable of getting past the traditional Korean vlaues that the captain is in charge and woe-betide anyone who disagrees. The whole concept of crew resource management has evaded them. Maybe this is why Delta stopped code-sharing with them and they were thrown out of the Sky Team alliance.

Cheap... yes

Safe... not so sure

If you want to go to Oz, take my advice and spend a few extra £'s on Malaysian, Singapore, Cathay, Emirates and the like.