Conrad Bangkok Deluxe Suite: “Burn Avios, Burn” Cathay Pacific First Class and Amazing Conrad Suites

Index:

We pulled up to the Conrad and were immediately assisted with our bags and directed to the front desk.

Upon identifying myself, the woman at the desk went for assistance. I had a momentary panic — I had booked the room on a mistake rate of sorts, when Hilton HHonors introduced cash and points awards the Conrad Bangkok published all room types other than the Presidential Suite with the cash and points rate plan. So I got a discounted award, and I was able to book the next suite down from the Presidential. I thought perhaps I had a problem…

But no such worry, another woman came over and said that since I had already booked a suite they wouldn’t be able to upgrade me further, and would I like the 1000 point Diamond amenity in lieu of upgrade? Then they proceeded to simply escort us to the suite in order to handle check-in formalities there.

Tired as I was, I had the presence of mind to hand the woman my Chase Sapphire Preferred card. I do have a Hilton Surpass American Express which earns 9 Hilton points per dollar, but also charges a foreign currency conversion fee. The Sapphire earns 2 points per dollar on hotel spend, and has no such foreign currency fee, so saves me cash and earns double points, a far better choice in my view when traveling internationally — even when staying at a Hilton when I have the co-branded ‘premium’ Hilton card.

We walked into the living room, which contained a sofa area, desk/workspace, and small dining area.

Here’s the bedroom:

And the bathroom, to the side of which is a walk-in closet and luggage storage area.

There was a separate toilet room, the shower was excellent with both nozzle and rainshower, and the tub had a little plastic elephant:

This is the view from the room:

We went up to the lounge for breakfast in the morning but found the place deserted of guests and staff explained occupancy was very low, there were only some pastries out and complimentary buffet breakfast was available in the restaurant. So we sat and had some coffee and a croissant before heading downstairs.

On this visit to Bangkok, just two nights and one full day, we decided to get out of the city for some sightseeing. In Bangkok I’m comfortable getting around on my own, but since things like the floating market and train market would require driving I made arrangements with Tour With Tong, whom I used for my in-laws visit to Bangkok by cruise ship in April.

Traffic was really bad, though, what should have been an hour’s drive took two hours, largely because of the Bangkok floods. We weren’t traveling on any flooded routes. Rather, much traffic was re-routed onto a limited number of arteries because of the flooding causing major backups. My limit for touring is reached after six hours in a day, it isn’t supposed to be work, so we didn’t do as much as planned.

Here we are feeding bananas to long tail macaque in Klong Klon, about 90 minutes outside of Bangkok.


On our way back another boat was bringing tourists to do the same thing. I felt so derivative. These monkeys are well fed. And well trained. A simple call and they know they’re getting bananas, they all come running.

Took the boat back to the nearby village and wound up with a tasty lunch.

Back at the hotel in the evening we stopped by the club lounge, the offerings were substantial and varied both hot and cold, though none of it struck me as especially noteworthy so I didn’t indulge much. Too much good food in Bangkok to just eat what’s ‘there’.

We did get up in the middle of the night, still a big jetlagged I supposed, and more than a little puckish. There’s something fun and super indulgent about order room service in the middle of the night, so we ordered up some nasi goring, laksa, and larb gai.

Probably the best nasi goring I’ve ever eaten!

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. FYI: You have a habit of typing “puckish” when you mean “peckish” – search your trip reports, you’ll see. 😉

    Pity I couldn’t score the same “suite” deal at any Conrads or Hiltons when I booked a bunch of cash and points rooms recently. I’m envious.

  2. Gary, it’s Nasi GORENG (Indonesian fried rice)!

    The one in photo looks delicious, but every time I am in Thailand, I can never get enough of Thai food! But I might try Conrad’s nasi goreng next time…

  3. Gary,
    Those monkeys look like so much fun to feed! We have the same 2 night, 1 day layover in Bangkok. This is our 1st time here and after looking at your guide service, we think it’s probably the bet way to see a lot in a short time. What would you suggest as “must see” on our tour?
    Thank you!

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