Category Archives for Trip Reports.
The new Alila Marea Encinitas is a fantastic hotel and a great spot for Hyatt loyalists to redeem points. It’s available as a category 6 hotel for 25,000 points per night. And I was able to confirm an upgrade at booking into an ocean suite that runs of $2000 per night.
The property combines a nice spot on the ocean, great service, and fantastic food – all to go along with fantastic value through the World of Hyatt program.
Ritz-Carltons don’t provide the same level of elite benefits that many Marriott brands are supposed to, but I lucked into an incredible suite upgrade anyway.
It was the perfect hotel for seclusion amidst the chaos of Florida during Spring Break, with available services that exceeded what most other properties have been offering during the pandemic. I had beach and pool access without difficulty and didn’t see many other guests despite the property being completely full.
I had several reports on recent travels started but I’ve put those aside. I’m not sure it adds a lot of value to anyone right now to write about award travel to Bora Bora, or why I love to go to Paris over the winter (contrary to popular wisdom December and January are my favorite months).
Now though my trips to report on revolve around the grocery store, part of an ongoing series on the world’s most extreme staycation. Instead of a city trip report, I can write a home one. And instead of room service, there’s Doordash, Postmates, and UberEats.
My wife, daughter and I spent the night at the Santa Monica Proper hotel in late November. It was stylish, staff were friendly, and the location was fantastic for our needs.
For us it was an airport layover hotel without staying by the airport, a place that gave us a sense of place and allowed us to take advantage of a walkable neighborhood with our daughter.
My wife and I were thinking of going back to the Maldives for Thanksgiving. We’ve cancelled stays at the St. Regis there several times. I’ve still only stayed (5 times) at the Park Hyatt. We even had a redemption stay booked at the St. Regis at the old 60,000 point level, and Etihad First Apartment awards – although at the time there was a problem booking infant tickets in conjunction with AAdvantage redemptions on Etihad that’s since been fixed.
The idea, though, of traveling all the way to the Maldives with our daughter was daunting. At three months we took her to Paris. At five months we took her to Sydney. She’s a great traveler but she’d be over a year old come Thanksgiving and wanted something a bit easier to manage. That’s when business class awards on Air Tahiti Nui popped up and I booked those to give us another option. We were meeting friends for Thanksgiving and had to coordinate those plans as well.
Here’s a brief synopsis of what to expect, with reports coming describing each leg of the journey from booking and cost to the actual experience.
Five years ago reader Doug Hess shared his experience flying African low cost carrier: Fly540. Since this was something I haven’t done, but I enjoyed hearing about it, I asked if he wouldn’t mind briefly writing up the experience so that I could pass it along.
Now Doug is back with his experience flying an Air Tanzania Airbus A220 from Lusaka, Zambia to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Oh yes, and he did redeem points for the flight.
I was super excited for this flight because it’s an aircraft and a first class I hadn’t ever flown before. This would be the second of three Gulf carrier Airbus A380s I’d get to sample on this trip, which was exciting in itself for me. It wasn’t just one airline, it was all three of the Gulf carriers and sampling literally the best of what each had to offer over the course of about a week.
This would be the shortest of the flights, costing 45,000 miles and $22.35 in taxes apiece. Bangkok – Doha is less than seven hours. Qatar Airways only offers first class on their A380, and has only regularly scheduled the plane on medium-haul routes like London and Paris in the past. (There’s an A380 scheduled to Sydney starting in mid-September, but Melbourne and Auckland remain on Boeing 777s and US routes are either on 777s or Airbus A350s.)
The Thai Airways first class lounge that most people are familiar with is on the airport’s D concourse and it’s right across the corridor from the airline’s spa.
Qatar Airways arranges lounge access through Thai, but their flight departs from the E concourse. As a result they arrange first class lounge access in the E concourse first class lounge — which is basically a big deserted room inside the Royal Orchid (business class) lounge.
The flight was sort of a ‘freebie’ since I was already booking Houston – Dubai anyway under Alaska Airlines’ pre-devaluation pricing it was only 10,000 miles more to go to Bangkok. And I was getting that in first class. On an A380.
I decided to test booking planeside meet-and-greet through Bangkok Flight Services with a golf cart from the plane to immigration. Here’s what they offer:
I’ve been remiss in writing the details of my trip to the Mideast and Asia redeeming miles for first class on the Airbus A380s of all 3 of the big Gulf carriers: Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar.
It’s was a great quick trip to eat in Bangkok and see the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, and I’m determined to return to sharing it with you.
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 »
