Friday night my boss emailed me, “You must go and get his sour bamboo shoot curry, and the fermented fish curry, possibly the best dishes yet…! (not available every day, though)” He didn’t have a subject line, didn’t mention the restaurant, he didn’t have to because it was obvious. I was planning to go to Elephant Jumps for lunch on Saturday anyway. Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide has an updated review: This place has improved so much I feel it deserves another review. It was already one of the best places on this list, nowadays it is probably the very best place. It has consistently original and authentic Thai food which is refined and improved on a regular basis. …If you are ever upset that I am not writing more restaurant reviews, the answer is…
ASIA
Search Results for "ASIA".
What Additional Changes Can You Expect from American and US Airways?
With the changes American announced to its frequent flyer program last week many members are wondering what shoe is next to drop. There are going to be many more changes for sure — for the frequent flyer program, and for the airline — simply as a matter of going down the list of differences between American and US Airways. And there are going to be members who don’t like the changes no matter which version of a policy, American’s or US Airways’, they decide to go with in any given instance. But here are some of the changes I expect to see as US Airways and American harmonize their programs and their airline operations. This list is by no means exhaustive, but several readers have asked me for some of the changes I expect and…
Free Hotel Night Just for Joining a Loyalty Program
MeliáRewards is a hotel loyalty program with most of its properties in Europe, and the largest number in Spain. The next biggest region for them is South America. There are 3 hotels in the U.S. as well, in New York, Atlanta, and Orlando. They have a current joining offer of 12,000 points, enough for a free night with many of their hotels. Here’s the detail: 2000 points is the normal signup bonus, and it’s enough to get a discount on a hotel booking (cash and points). The current promotion gives you an additional 10,000 points — for a total of 12,000 points as a signup bonus. The catch is that the extra 10,000 points expire at the end of April if unused. So you need to book an award night right away (within the next…
US Airways Targeted Buy Miles Bonus is Back for the Rest of April
Now that the US Airways 100% bonus on shared miles (the best offer for purchased miles generally made by any airline loyalty program) is over, they’re apparently back with a version of their usual bonuses for purchased miles (which isn’t nearly as good a deal). (HT: Loyalty Lobby) The buy miles offer page is again asking you to verify your name and account number at the outset, which means it’s checking on what your targeted offer is. The offer runs through the end of the month, not everyone is eligible, and the bonus you’ll be offered will vary. It turns out that none of the accounts I manage were targeted for a purchased miles bonus this go-around. Even if they were, I wouldn’t be a buyer — certainly not at any amount under a 100%…
The US Airways Twitter Team Gives Us the Greatest Gift We Could Ask For
Someone on the US Airways twitter team committed career suicide today by posting a pornographic image of a woman playing with a Boeing aircraft in a manner not intended by the manufacturer. US Airways offers the following explanation, Our investigation has determined that the image was initially posted to our Twitter feed by another user. We captured the tweet to flag it as inappropriate. Unfortunately the image was inadvertently included in a response to a customer. We immediately realized the error and removed our tweet. This seems plausible, at least if by “initally posted to our Twitter feed by another user,” US Airways means that “our twitter team was surfing for airplane porn and cut and paste from the wrong broswer window when replying to a tweet.” If you want to actually see the highly…
My Predictions and Fears for American’s Coming New Award Chart
American will be the only North America carrier that doesn’t allow stopovers on its awards of any kind (unless they bring back stopovers later), and the only North America carrier to add fuel surcharges to US-originating itineraries on their primary partners. While American hasn’t devalued its award chart in many years, it is already quite expensive to many regions so that it is more or less on part — for all except first class redemptions — with where the industry already is with last year’s round of devaluations. There are a few regions where they’ve got headroom to increase award prices. And the fact that Delta doesn’t offer international first class awards, and their primary competitor United increased their so much, makes it thinkable that we could see first class increase a good bit. But…
Last Day to Buy US Airways Miles at 1.1 Cents Apiece With 100% Share Miles Bonus
Today is the last day to ‘share’ US Airways Dividend Miles with 100% bonus. That means effectively buying miles at ~ 1.1 cents apiece. Limited time offer: Give up to a 100% bonus when you Share Miles! Share miles from April 7th until April 13th 2014 and your friend or family member will get up to 100% MORE in bonus miles – up to 50,000 miles. The bonus is actually tiered, you need to share at least 30,000 miles to get that bonus. Lower amounts receive a lesser bonus according to the following schedule: You transfer 50,000 points from account A to account B at a cost of $567.50. Account B receives 100,000 miles. If you have a spouse or significant other, transfer 50,000 points to them and they receive 100,000 miles; then they transfer…
One Change American AAdvantage Now Must Make
American is going to have to change its award ‘routing rules’ — a perhaps unintended consequence of yesterdays announced changes. Without changes, members are going to face some absurd results. As American and US Airways integrate, they’re looking at each element of both frequent flyer programs to figure out what to keep and what to change. While I’m not surprised at the loss of distanced-based oneworld explorer awards, one thing that now must change as a result are American’s award routing rules. One of the more arcane rules of AAdvantage award travel is that you cannot connect in a third region — award travel between two regions cannot touch a third region unless a specific exception is in place. So you cannot fly from the US to Asia via Europe.. You have to fly direct…
A Big Lesson Learned for American: Respect Your Members
Now that I’ve had a day to reflect on the changes American announced to their frequent flyer program (not to mention to the US Airways award chart and to checked baggage allowances), more and more I think the lesson in all of this is about member respect. A lot of readers gave me flak for not recognizing the gravity of the changes themselves. And while I will personally miss stopovers at a North American gateway city, and the hidden value in distance-based awards, I just wasn’t that surprised to see them go. My frustrations remain with the lack of notice, and with how that sets the stage for all of the other news that is still to come.
Huge No-Notice Changes to American AAdvantage Awards You Probably Don’t Ever Book
Without any advance notice, American is increasing the price of “AAnytime awards” for travel effective June 1. This is the price when regular award seats aren’t available. They are also eliminating their highly valuable, but complicated, distance-based oneworld awards. US Airways also changes their version of AAnytime awards for travel effective June 1 as well, going to a four-tier redemption chart. (US Airways has had a three-tier award chart for years.) That applies only to the US Airways award chart and not to the partner redemption chart. There are no changes at this time to American’s saver awards, which is what most of us book and care about.
