ASIA

Search Results for "ASIA".

Maximizing Miles in the Maldives: Cathay First, Eating in Singapore, and a Park Hyatt Water Villa – American’s Chicago Flagship Lounge and the Final Journey Home

Introduction Positioning flights to San Francisco, Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf, and Some Dim Sum for the Day Cathay’s New San Francisco Lounge Cathay Pacific First Class, San Francisco – Hong Kong The Wing and Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Singapore A Grand Suite at the Grand Hyatt Singapore Eating in Singapore Dinner at Waku Ghin, Marina Bay Sands Singapore Airlines Business Class: Singapore – Male Transfer to the Park Hyatt Hadahaa, Maldives Park Hyatt Maldives – Part I Park Hyatt Maldives – Part II Park Hyatt Maldives – Part III Maldivian, Kaadehdhoo – Male Singapore Airlines Business Class, Male – Singapore Cathay Pacific Business Class, Singapore – Hong Kong Conrad Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Chicago American’s Chicago Flagship Lounge and the Final Journey Home Off the flight and to…

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Maximizing Miles in the Maldives: Cathay First, Eating in Singapore, and a Park Hyatt Water Villa – Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Chicago

Introduction Positioning flights to San Francisco, Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf, and Some Dim Sum for the Day Cathay’s New San Francisco Lounge Cathay Pacific First Class, San Francisco – Hong Kong The Wing and Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Singapore A Grand Suite at the Grand Hyatt Singapore Eating in Singapore Dinner at Waku Ghin, Marina Bay Sands Singapore Airlines Business Class: Singapore – Male Transfer to the Park Hyatt Hadahaa, Maldives Park Hyatt Maldives – Part I Park Hyatt Maldives – Part II Park Hyatt Maldives – Part III Maldivian, Kaadehdhoo – Male Singapore Airlines Business Class, Male – Singapore Cathay Pacific Business Class, Singapore – Hong Kong Conrad Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Chicago American’s Chicago Flagship Lounge and the Final Journey Home We went downstairs and the…

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Maximizing Miles in the Maldives: Cathay First, Eating in Singapore, and a Park Hyatt Water Villa – Cathay Pacific Business Class, Singapore – Hong Kong

Introduction Positioning flights to San Francisco, Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf, and Some Dim Sum for the Day Cathay’s New San Francisco Lounge Cathay Pacific First Class, San Francisco – Hong Kong The Wing and Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Singapore A Grand Suite at the Grand Hyatt Singapore Eating in Singapore Dinner at Waku Ghin, Marina Bay Sands Singapore Airlines Business Class: Singapore – Male Transfer to the Park Hyatt Hadahaa, Maldives Park Hyatt Maldives – Part I Park Hyatt Maldives – Part II Park Hyatt Maldives – Part III Maldivian, Kaadehdhoo – Male Singapore Airlines Business Class, Male – Singapore Cathay Pacific Business Class, Singapore – Hong Kong Conrad Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Chicago American’s Chicago Flagship Lounge and the Final Journey Home Off the Singapore flight, a…

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Maximizing Miles in the Maldives: Cathay First, Eating in Singapore, and a Park Hyatt Water Villa – Singapore Airlines Business Class, Male – Singapore

Introduction Positioning flights to San Francisco, Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf, and Some Dim Sum for the Day Cathay’s New San Francisco Lounge Cathay Pacific First Class, San Francisco – Hong Kong The Wing and Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Singapore A Grand Suite at the Grand Hyatt Singapore Eating in Singapore Dinner at Waku Ghin, Marina Bay Sands Singapore Airlines Business Class: Singapore – Male Transfer to the Park Hyatt Hadahaa, Maldives Park Hyatt Maldives – Part I Park Hyatt Maldives – Part II Park Hyatt Maldives – Part III Maldivian, Kaadehdhoo – Male Singapore Airlines Business Class, Male – Singapore Cathay Pacific Business Class, Singapore – Hong Kong Conrad Hong Kong Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – Chicago American’s Chicago Flagship Lounge and the Final Journey Home We walked up to the…

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News and Notes for the Evening of April 3, 2012

AAdvantageGeek links to an American Airlines double elite qualifying miles offer between Dallas and Boston. Register prior to travel, the offer is valid between April 3 and June 30. A strike against new market entrant JetBlue! Lucky points out that Delta has apparently resolved the ‘glitch’ that made it impossible for Skymiles members to book Air France or KLM business class award seats that those partner airlines were offering. Strangely, the problem had been resolved at the Asia call centers days earlier. But certainly good news that there’s no need for the Singapore and Hong Kong workaround. New Girl in the Air says that Hertz will waive under 25 year old driver fees through June 30 using code 144314.

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25% Bonus on Transfers from Membership Rewards to Virgin Atlantic

Membership Rewards transfers to Virgin Atlantic will come with a 25% bonus from April 1 through May 15. The offer should appear on the site and tell you how many miles you’ll receive for your transfer, inclusive of the 25% bonus. As I post this it isn’t up quite yet but should be working within a few hours. Virgin has pretty darned good availability from most of its North American cities (New York-JFK, Newark, Boston, Washington Dulles, Miami, Orlando, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vancouver) to London, and also really good availability on to Africa as well. Its business class seat is excellent and will be refreshed as well. The downsides to Virgin are the very high fuel surcharges, which the mileage program assesses on award redemptions (as do most European and…

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Deals and Updates for the Morning of March 30, 2012

Radisson has introduced Club Carlson points purchase, $7 per 1000 points up to 40,000 points annually. Not worth it for its own sake but useful to top off towards awards at the margin. Live from a Lounge says Jet Airways is offering 20% off on mileage redemptions through September 30 for awards booked on Jet metal using their website. Priority Club’s new PointBreaks list, valid through May 31, are now available. The lists are in the process of being updated, e.g. as of this writing the Asia list still shows hotels available through March 31 only, but I’m told that interesting properties in Asia include the Intercontinentals in Manila and Ho Chi Minh City for the new period. PointBreaks offer redemptions at 5000 points per night. Mommypoints says that the US Airways Debit Card from…

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Booking Air France Business Class Awards with Delta Miles: IT Glitch Workaround

For the past few weeks Delta has been unable to book otherwise-available business class seats on Air France. That’s been true systemwide, and their only advice is to try to find Delta flights instead. Good luck with that (even if Delta serves your planned destination, Air France business class availability is generally good, Delta’s very much is not). Delta Points notes that the Asian call centers for Skymiles are now able to book these awards again, even though US call centers won’t see the availability. He suggests calling Hong Kong at 011 852 2810 4288. I’ve had good luck in the past with the Singapore call center, English is quite good: 011 65 6336 3371. Ask them to waive the telephone booking fee because the award cannot be booked online, some folks have been successful…

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When an Agent Says Award Seats Are Unavailable But You Know They Are…

Back in the era of United’s Starnet blocking — programming computers to say that frequent flyer award seats on partner airlines weren’t available, even when those partners were offering the seats, because United didn’t want to pay for the tickets — things got pretty silly. Agents would say, “I’m sorry, Lufthansa doesn’t fly to Frankfurt that day.” Or, “It doesn’t look like All Nippon flies from Washington Dulles to Tokyo.” Excuse me? “It’s call ANA flight number 1. I was at the party they held in DC to celebrate 20 years of continuous service.” See, at one time United’s computers ‘blocked’ award seats by simply not showing the flight existed. In the very beginning, the most common thing to block was Lufthansa seats inside Europe, the connections simply wouldn’t show up. Then Lufthansa transatlantic space,…

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In an Era of Airline Consolidation, Elite Status Matters More Than Ever

It’s a rare publication that will listen to me opine endless, and then quote my rants extensively. So I have to give credit where credit is due. Financial site Minyanville.com ran a piece on consolidation in the airline industry and what it means for elite perks and miles. They quoted me extensively, and began by suggesting that fewer planes in the air, and planes that are more full, makes upgrades more difficult — it shifts those upgrades upwards to only the top elites. (Unlimited complimentary domestic upgrades does this, too.) Indeed, it’s a simple matter of supply and demand with regards to seat upgrades. With airline consolidations, there are now fewer planes and thus fewer seats on many routes, making upgrades scarce commodities. As such, both Raja and Gary Leff, co-founder of the frequent flyer…

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