Japan’s StarFlyer Airlines has this as its slogan: Blazing like a mother comet producing meteor showers throughout the world (Via the Upgrade Travel blog.)
About Gary Leff
Where to Put Your Miles When Flying Paid First Class
The Global Traveler reports that bmi British Midland is now offering up to 625% mileage earning for miles flown in paid first class. Normal bmi is already generous on these fares — 300% miles for first class and 200% miles for business class plus Gold members earn a 25% status bonus. Now once you reach 55,000 status miles in a calendar year excess status miles get converted to redeemable frequent flyer miles at a one to one ratio. In total, after passing 55,000 status miles, first class fares would earn 625% of flown miles and business class would earn 425% of flown miles. Not bad. Not bad at all. (Of course, membership in bmi’s frequent flyer program is only open to residents of the UK, Ireland, Belgium, France, Netherlands and Spain. So you may need…
The Nicest Hotels in Bangkok, or Two Places I Didn’t Stay
I had a decent enough place to stay when I was in Bangkok, but it wasn’t at one of the generally-accepted nicest hotels in the city. The top honor usually falls to the Peninsula, followed by the Oriental and the Metropolitan. I went to dinner one night at Sala Rim Naan, the Thai restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental. The Oriental has part of its property across the river, right next to the Peninsula, and this restaurant is part of that across-the-river outpost. You take the hotel’s boat to get there, naturally. Here’s a view of the restaurant’s outside seating Here a view of the Mandarin Oriental from the restaurant My appetizer sampler My lobster entree The next day we had late afternoon drinks at the Peninsula. You can either arrive at the hotel on the…
Starwood is Considering Devaluing its Awards
Starwood is currently surveying some of its customers on how to increase the points required for awards in the least objectionable way. The following survey was passed along to me by a reader I trust. Hilton Hotels has “raised their prices” to redeem a free night. Starwood Hotels and Resorts is considering changing its redemption program. If Starwood were to “raise their prices” we want to know what would be most acceptable to you. In thinking about the “price increases”, please review the following option below and rank them in order from 1 to 4 with 1 = the most acceptable and 4 = the least acceptable. 1 = highest ranking …4 = lowest ranking Raise the award redemption level on all six tiers of hotels in the Starwood Hotels program. For example a hotel…
Alaska Airlines Updates
May
05
2006
A Flyertalk member posted a summary of Wednesday’s Alaska Airlines MVP Gold lunch in Anchorage. (Alaska regularly hosts gatherings for their top tier elites.) Key points:A new Platinum top tier will be introduced in 2008, requiring 70,000 to 80,000 miles. MVP Gold “Guest Upgrade” certificates will be going electronic in 2007 (bye bye, eBay). Alaska’s website can now book partner awards on Delta. Alaska will be introducing a new destination that members “will really like.” Rumors have been flying for a long time about Hawaii, but this is hardly confirmation of that. (Alaska’s 737s can make the jaunt…)
A Look Back at 25 Years of Frequent Flyer Programs
The cover story (free) of the May Inside Flyer is a fun piece on the history of frequent flyer programs. These programs are 25 years old this month, and publisher Randy Petersen has the story on how the programs came into being. A good read.
25 Days, 25 American Airlines Bonuses
May
03
2006
American is celebrating 25 years of their AAdvantage program this month with 25 separate offers, one available each day for 25 days. Today is the third day, and the offer is that you can register for 25% bonus miles on your spending with the Citibank American Airlines Mastercard posted on your May, June, and July statements (up to 2500 bonus miles, that is based on up to $10,000 in spending). The spending cap reduces the potential value of the offer, but it’s still worthwhile, and the daily offer website is worth checking, well, daily.
Sheraton Pattaya Resort
April 19-22, 2006 Sheraton Pattaya Resort We were walked outside the terminal by a representative of the Sheraton while the Thai Airways porter pushed our bags. He opened the door to the resort’s BMW M5 and we were off. The car had cold waters, packaged fresh wipes, magazines, and the day’s Bangkok Post. Of course at 10 o’clock at night it was too dark to read, and I was too tired in any case after sleeping 3 hours on my flight from Tokyo. At this time of night there was no traffic at all and most of the drive is freeway. It was dark and we didn’t much of Pattaya on the way to the resort. The entry way to the Sheraton was well-lit and there were plenty of staff to greet us despite the…
Thai Airways First Class, Tokyo to Bangkok
Wednesday, April 19 Narita – Bangkok Thai Airways International Flight 677 First Class, Boeing 747 Departs: 4:55pm Arrives: 9:25pm We checked out of the Hilton Tokyo using the temporary lounge on the 30th floor. I used my remaining yen to pay the hotel bill, which was just some room service coffee and the transfers back to Narita. I asked when the executive lounge would reopen and was told summertime, June or July. “It will be much larger, we are very excited.” Then went downstairs to the front of the hotel for the 12:10pm Airport Limousine Bus. Turns out this was a bit of a mistake, there was no traffic whatsoever and I we could easily have taken the 1:10pm departure. Instead we’re at Narita around 1:40pm. After the perfunctory passport check upon the bus entering…
Kozue at the Park Hyatt Tokyo
I went to lunch at Kozue, the Japanese restaurant at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. The restaurant is made up of rich amber wood walls, floors, and tables. The tableware is all unique. The restaurant has a breathtaking view out towards Mt. Fuji from its 40th floor perch. The menu, much more affordable at lunch than dinner, offers both individual choices (to which you can add rice, miso soup and Japanese pickles) and set course meals (beginning at JPY3900 at lunch and I believe JPY12000 at dinner, our meal was JPY6200). Our first course consisted of several items: Kelp Flavored Snapper and Fresh Seaweed with Vinaigrette Soy Sauce; Marinated Tofu, Konnyaku and Deep Fried Puffy Bread; Simmered Short-neck Clam, Yachiazami and Fuki Greens; Conger Eel and Seri Greens with Sesame Sauce. Everything was delicious, especially the…
