Chase, which issues the United Visa, is sponsoring a redemption option. 5000 miles per person buys you a 5-course dinner with wine and conversation with the chef. A Night at Aureole Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Las Vegas Thursday, July 30, 2009, 7:00 p.m. Your unique dining event includes: * Wine reception with passed hors d’oeuvre * Five-course dinner prepared by Chef Charlie Palmer, one of the most highly regarded chefs in America today * Wine pairings from the prestigious Sonoma County winery – Papapietro Perry * Tableside discussion of the menu and pairings from Chef Palmer and Winemaker Ben Papapietro This special evening is available to select Mileage Plus Visa cardmembers for just 5,000 miles per person. As of this writing there are 37 seats left. I have no problem flying for a meal.…
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W Seoul Walker Hill
Hotel: W Seoul – Walkerhill 21 Gwangjang Dong, Gwangjin Gu Seoul 143 708 Korea Phone: (82)(2) 465 2222 Fax: (82)(2) 450 4989 Cash & Points Rate There wasn’t much traffic out of Incheon and I was hopeful, but I was leaving the airport around 6pm on a Friday and that couldn’t possibly yield a quick trip. On the other hand, I was heading into Seoul and not out, I thought perhaps that would help. And indeed it did, the traffic in the other direction was worse, but while the freeway was pretty clear for the first part of the trip once we crossed the river we were pretty much in a standstill. In all, the drive took about 100 minutes. Someone was immediately available to assist with our bags, and I walked up to the…
Securing Travel Credits Instead of Free Tickets on United
Lucky offers advice on how to get United to give you travel credits instead of free tickets when you take a ‘bump’ or voluntary denied boarding. Travel credits are much more flexible and tickets purchased when them earn miles, so in general far more desirable. Bottom-line is to be nice, be discrete, and not make the gate agent’s life more difficult so it’s easy for them to give you what you want.
United Twitter Bonus Revealed
Those of you who registered for the United Twitter Bonus — which was up until now a mystery — will receive 1500 miles.
25% Off Hilton with Visa Signature
First they ask you to authenticate with the first 8 digits of a Visa signature or Visa infinite card, and then they take you to a booking page. The 25% discount is off of the Best Available Rate rate plan, which of course may not be the best available rate. Still, on a few random tests it appeared to be the lowest price room – lower than advance purchase rates and this rate is cancellable per the reservation’s cancellation deadline and not prepaid. The rules do require payment at the hotel to be made with a qualifying Visa card, though that’s like a “your mileage may vary” requirement. Offer is valid on bookings made by September 30.
Intercontinental Hotels Group / Priority Club Friends & Family Rate Offer Extended to September 30
The Priority Club Friends & Family Rate offer, which can be utilized by anyone, has been extended for bookings made by September 30. Excellent news, as these rates have been really great, this has been one of the most useful tools in my arsenal the past few months. Note that technically stays booked on these prepaid rates do not earn points, though in practice they frequently do.
Inox Restaurant, Tysons Corner
Finally got out to Inox in Tysons Corner, the new Jonathan Krinn place. Very good for DC, but not quite living up to its potential, at least on our visit. Sweetbreads were oversalted. Vennison Rossini was really outstanding. (They clearly aren’t trying to do ‘seasonal’). Desserts were well-designed on the plate but mediocre, made up for by excellent petite fours. Service tried to be nice – very friendly, attention to detail in descriptions of the dishes, but the kitchen had a hard time getting both of our entrees out at the same time and the sauce on my wife’s plate had dried under a heat lamp. Bread was a good, though less interesting, than it was at 2941 [choices were garlic, olive, or pumpernickel and they did continually bring around plenty of it). Complimentary valet,…
Sheraton Annapolis, Not So Much…
I checked into the Sheraton Annapolis yesterday afternoon. I turned up at 2:40pm, was told they had me in a club room with two double beds. Umm, my wifeand I are still only a few years into our marriage, could we have one bed? 😉 This place was busy, busy, busy. They told me they had no king rooms available, sorry. Could you downgrade me off the club floor and give me a king? “Nothing’s ready, you know it isn’t even check-in time yet.” Ok, when could I have a king? “Check-in time is at 3pm sir, please come back in 20 minutes. I will block you into a king room on the 5th floor.” I return at 3:30pm. They had me in … a club room with 2 double beds. I mentioned that I…
Asiana Business Class, Hong Kong to Seoul
1:10 pm Hong Kong, Hong Kong (HKG) to Seoul, South Korea (ICN) Asiana Flight 722 Business Class Boeing 767 1,269 miles traveled The Thai Airways agent brought the three of us across the terminal, dropping her off at immigration and us at the transit desk where another staff member was waiting for us – he already made sure that Asiana had printed our boarding passes, they just needed to enter our luggage information into their system and assured us that our bags would make it onto the aircraft. He then escorted us through transit security. We wanted to make a stop in some of the shops, so we excused him from further service. Then we made our way down towards the gates and lounge. Asiana issues a lounge invite for the Dragonair lounge near gate…
Thai Airways First Class, Bangkok to Hong Kong, Part Two: Flight Experience
We were approached in the lounge and introduced to our escort who would take us through security and to our flight. The Hong Kong flight was close-in, so no golf cart today. Instead, a short walk to the flight. We boarded and were immediately offered some pre-departure champagne. Thai was serving the ’99 Bollinger, I had been expecting some 2000 Dom Perignon but Bollinger is still a respectable bottle. I assumed this was just for the Hong Kong flight, but some colleagues subsequently flew Beijing-Bangkok-Shanghai in Thai first and had the Bollinger on both segments, so perhaps this is provisioned for intra-Asian first these days. The ‘new’ Thai First seat is nice, certainly an improvement over their old first class (beware the dreaded Thai aircraft swap!) but there’s no privacy to it at all. Perfectly…
