Our flight from Toronto landed just a few minutes early, but that meant before 5 am. And Hong Kong is a ghost town at that hour. We quickly went through transit security and found our way over to the Wing. It opens at 5, but the first class side doesn’t open until 5:30 am. We waited and wandered — most parts of the lounge, the Game Room for instance, were deserted. But the main sitting room was jam packed. Once 5:30 rolled around we went upstairs, and immediately asked for a Cabana. We shared one, which was perfectly fine, and in my opinion this makes for one of the nicer shower facilities after a long overnight flight. My wife and I aren’t separated, which means we can mill about and meander slowly given our four-ish…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for April 2010.
CONTEST/GIVEAWAY: Tom Bihn Empire Builder Laptop Briefcase
Back in January I blogged that the Tom Bihn folks offered to send me some sample products to try. I was in the market for a laptop bag in particular, so I asked to try both their Checkpoint flyer and Empire Builder bags. I fell in love with the Checkpoint flyer, I’ve been using it as my primary bag ever since, and it’s logged a ton of miles. What then to do with the Empire Builder? It’s a very nice bag. But I don’t need it. I thought about making it an every day bag while using the Checkpoint flyer TSA friendly bag for travel. But I don’t like switching, and I’m perfectly happy with the Checkpoint flyer for every day use. It’s a $170 retail bag, and that’s just for the base bag. And…
Toronto – Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific First Class — A continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant”
After months of anticipation and significant stress making it up to Toronto to start my trip, it was finally time to get underway. The KLM lounge in Toronto was disappointing to say the least. They did announce boarding, at least, and walk around letting everyone know it was time to head off. I couldn’t help thinking, though, that they were really just shooing us out of the lounge so they could close down rather than being helpful. So off to the gate where things were a bit of a madhouse. We lined up for boarding (boarding call was made rather prematurely in the lounge) and finally made it onboard. All the unpleasantness and stress melted away upon entering the aircraft. A flight attendant walked us to our seats, showed us the closet for our carryons,…
On the Cusp of Lifetime Platinum Status with American
As most of y’all no doubt know, American Airlines AAdvantage is unique in its lifetime status qualification — miles from all sources count, not just flown miles. One million miles earned = Lifetime Gold Two million miles earned = Lifetime Platinum I’ve never been a regular American customer. I’ve long leaned much more towards the Star Alliance. I don’t think I’ve done more than 25,000 or 50,000 total qualifying miles on paid oneworld tickets in my entire life. But stay around these programs long enough, watch the promotions, chase after some of them, and the miles build up. And with all the partners and promotions that American has had over time, they’ve been great to build mileage balances up with. In particular, churning Citibank co-branded credit cards over time was very good to me with…
Starwood Free Weekend Night Offer Coming
Details were made available on Flyertalk, but registration won’t open until May 1. The skinny is this — One free weekend night for every three stays between May 1 and July 31. These nights will need to be consumed by 19 December 2010 at properties up through Category 6 (so excludes Category 7 properties). Hyatt’s offer is a free night every two stays, valid all week long, but with a shorter redemption period. Hilton’s offer is a free night every four stays (or 10 nights) with a slightly longer redemption period. So this offer hits a sweet spot in terms of how easy or hard it is to earn a free night. And the free nights are valid for a reasonable period of time. But they’re only redeemable Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. This is a…
Up to Quadruple Goldpoints for Multinight Stays
Radisson et al’s Goldpoints program is offering progressively more bonus points for longer stays through May 28. Registration is required. Stay 2 consecutive nights and earn Double Gold Points Stay 3 consecutive nights and earn Triple Gold Points Stay 4 consecutive nights and earn Quadruple Gold Points
Will United Do a Deal With US Airways or Continental?
Hint, don’t think it has anything to do with whichever makes a better match (which is clearly Continental). Holly Hegeman nails it. [A]n eventual deal will depend heavily on the role current members of upper management at United Airlines take in any deal. Particularly United Airlines Chairman and CEO Glenn Tilton. As I wrote this week in PlaneBusiness Banter, one of the big factors in the failure of the Continental deal, and a complicating factor in a proposed US Airways’ deal was Tilton’s insistence upon keeping control in both deals. But at the same time, Tilton knows that both US Airways and Continental would like to link up with United. And pressure is building on Tilton to get a deal done. He’s only been talking about doing one since he took his position with the…
Two False Alarms in One Day? bmi Diamond Club Isn’t Being Folded into Miles & More After All… Yet
If true, April 14 was a huge day for web glitches or incorrect statements on program websites. First, Delta took their close-in booking fees off their website but then later in the day put them back. Then the british midland Diamond Club website said accounts were being migrated over to Miles & More. But just a few hours ago, joanna from Diamond Club posted on Flyertalk that this is all just an IT glitch: Please don’t worry, Diamond Club is NOT being closed. However, since we no longer operate flights to and from The Netherlands, Israel and Ukraine, and in response to member requests, we’re transferring our members in these countries into Miles & More. These members can then continue to enjoy ffp benefits when flying on other Lufthansa sister airlines as well as with…
Delta Close-in Award Booking Fees are Back!
That was fast! This morning I blogged that Delta had eliminated close-in booking fees for awards. No longer would Delta charge its customers to book awards less than 21 days in advance, following the move United made last summer. But now the fees are back! They’re waived for Platinum and Diamond elites and for American Express co-branded Delta Platinum and Reserve credit card holders. But everyone else will pay the fees. And the fees have gone up, they’re now as much as $150. Should’ve known that there wouldn’t actually be a customer-friendly move coming out of Delta.
Will the British Midland Diamond Club Be Folded into Miles & More… on May 16?
For almost two years there’s been speculation that the bmi program would be ending, folded into Lufthansa. It’s seen some changes, like increases in the cost of first class awards and a premium for first class on Lufthansa (likely because Lufthansa First was so darned available). The speculation really heated up of late, although it was mostly centered on increased costs for the award chart. But today there’s a fast-moving Flyertalk thread which caused me to log into my own (elite) bmi account. When I log into my bmi Diamond Club account, there’s a link on the left hand navigation that says “Miles and More” — click on it and the text reads: Thank you for registering for the status match and miles transfer offer, from the Diamond Club frequent flyer programme to the Miles…
