Bali Central Mountains Tour: On the advice of several Flyertalkers, we booked a tour with Wayan Sueta (who has a very nice website). We had him take us up to the Central Mountain region, saw a coffee plantation up in Munduk, and naturally some temples. Here was another glitch in our trip. We had booked him for March 21, we were supposed to meet him in the hotel lobby (and I had re-confirmed just days before). He didn’t show. I called him on his cell and it seems that he had gotten confused. He knew I had booked the 21st, but wrote it in his calendar for the 22nd. Since he lives up in Ubud it was really too late to get started for the day. Not a huge deal, we just rescheduled a spa…
Intercontinental Bali Resort & Spa – Jimbaran Bay
We landed just after 9:30 pm, and I expected the hotel to meet us on the walk from the plane to immigration, apply for our visa on arrival, escort us to their lounge, take our passport and luggage tags, and collect our bags. But there was no one waiting. Now, the above service is a published benefit of a club booking at the Intercontinental in Jimbaran Bay. And there really shouldn’t have been any confusion. Back on January 17th – right after I made the booking — I emailed my flight arrival information to the hotel. On January 18th the hotel confirmed Quote: we have updated your flight details in our system. The transfer from and to the airport will be included as a Club InterContinental guest and you will be greeted by our club…
Delta’s Round of Junk Fee Increases
Lots of new fees in the airline industry, limited only by the creativity of the folks coming up with them. United, USAirways, Delta, and Northwest now have $25 fees for second checked bags, with various exemptions for various passengers. None of this is big news, it’s been written about ad naseum elsewhere. I’ve offered detailed explanations of the economics and motivations behind tacking on fees rather than straightforwardly increasing prices. For example here, here, here, and here. But a new Flyertalk thread yesterday shows Delta raising the ante to a new level. CRC one-visit pass to go from $25 to $30 Unaccompanied Minor fee to go from $50 nonstop/$100 connecting to $100 for all Pets in cabin fee from $75 to $100 Pets as checked luggage to go from $150 to $200 Curbside checked bags…
Singapore Airlines Short-haul Business Class: Singapore – Denpasar (Bali)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 We arrived at Singapore’s Terminal 2, and the Lufthansa arrival gate was right next to our Singapore Airlines Denpasar flight’s departure gate. We went to the Silverkris lounge in Terminal 2, alas the business class side since we were connecting to a 2-cabin Singapore Airlines flight. I heard my name paged over the loudspeaker, and I went to the service desk just inside the First Class section of the lounge. It seems that I had left a DVD on the Lufthansa flight. The Lufthansa staff offered to bring it to the lounge, but since we’d be departing for Bali around the same time that the Lufthansa plane made its way onward to Jakarta, I just met them back at the gate prior to departure. But for us, Lufthansa had certainly redeemed itself from an otherwise unspectacular First Class flight.…
Departing for Singapore, I Can Almost Taste Our Destination of Bali…
Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) to Singapore, Singapore (SIN) 10:10 pm Lufthansa 0778, Boeing 747, First Class, Seats 81C, 81A Scheduled flight time: 11h 45m Our Mercedes van arrived planeside, up a staircase into the terminal and down the jetway where we were handed over to the FAs and led upstairs once again to the upper deck of a 747. And once again to my pre-selected bulkhead seats. This time the load was 8 out of 16, so 6 other people instead of just two. And the FAs, which weren’t all that memorable on the first segment, were downright disappointing on this one (with one redeeming piece of assistance, in a moment). Service was rushed. Now, it’s a 10pm departure so passengers may want to sleep. But I’ll let them know when I want their “Dreamer’s Delight”…
Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt
First Class Terminal For those who haven’t been, or might be visiting for the first time, the First Class Terminal is on the upper, departure level in a separate building, just west of Terminal 1. The building has a large “First Class Terminal” sign. There’s a pretty sharp turn-off, though, as you approach, which can be easy to miss. (It’s also walkable back from the Terminal 1 arrivals level where the hotel vans pickup and dropoff.) Our car pulled up and a personal assistant met us out front. She asked for our passports, and I handed them over along with our boarding passes. She asked about luggage to check and I noted that our bags were already checked. She took our bag tags in order to check on them. We were quickly through a perfectly…
500 Bonus Starwood Points Per Night at Participating Properties
Starwood is offering 500 bonus Starpoints per night, up to 1,500 Starpoints per stay, at participating hotels throughout the Southeast, Midwest, New England, Caribbean and Eastern Canada. Registration is required and the bonus can be earned with each Sunday through Thursday stay between April 1 and May 31, 2008.
A Complimentary Day Room at Frankfurt
Tuesday, March 18, 2008Kempinski Hotel Gravenbruch Frankfurt Lufthansa First Class passengers are entitled to a complimentary day room at the Kempinski hotel. I found the details on the Lufthansa website. I emailed the hotel when making arrangements for the trip, mentioned I was a Lufthansa first class passenger (but didn’t mention the free room benefit) and they replied with a discount rate of 79 euros. Well, if I was going to pay for the room I’d just book the airport Sheraton! A quick email back with a link to the LH website, and they replied with apologies – yes you are right.We are very sorry about that fault. We do not remember about that possibility, because we don not had this very often. We send you a confirmation for the requested day use room free…
Lufthansa First Class: Washington-Dulles to Frankfurt
This is the second post of my trip report, since the posts start from the beginning of the trip you’ll need to scroll down and read posts in reverse order. Or just take the post-modern approach and just dive into the middle! Monday, March 17, 2008Washington, DC (IAD) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) 7:00pm Lufthansa 0419, Boeing 747, First Class, Seats 81A, 81C Scheduled flight time: 7h 40mI took the metro to work today with my bags loaded into my wife’s Acura. She came by the office to pick me up around 4pm. We were at Dulles just after 4:30pm, waited about 5 minutes behind just a single customer at First Class check-in, and were told we’d have to pick up onward boarding passes at Frankfurt… except our boarding passes all the way to Denpasar spit right…
North America to South Asia via the Atlantic: a Tale of First Class Seats, Suites, Spas, and Terminals
This post contains a bit of background to the trip report that I’m working on, sitting here in the Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt. It contains 4 long-haul Lufthansa First Class segments, a Singapore business class short-haul segment, Thai Airways in business and First Class, a lovely suite at the Intercontinental Bali Resort, the Westin Beijing, and much, much more.. plus lots of photos of lounges, food, and activities along the way and a bit about award booking techniques. When thinking about whether this was worth a trip report, it first struck me “I’m not flying Singapore Airlines first class, there’s no Airbus A380 involved, what could be more pedestrian than what I’m about to write up?” But I also thought, perhaps I can offer some specific suggestions of the hows and whys I chose to do certain…
