Tuesday, March 25, 2008 Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) to Beijing, China (PEK) 11:05 am Thai Airways 0614, Boeing 747, First Class, Seats 2J, 2K Scheduled flight time: 4h 25m We left the Novotel around 7:45am and took the shuttle over to the airport. Another couple was on the shuttle with us, heading to a domestic destination, so we were both dropped off at the same point – Royal First/Royal Silk checkin comes first, right before domestic. We got out of the shuttle, had only our carryons, so none of the porters stirred. We approached the Royal First check-in room and as soon as we entered we were greeted and brought inside to sit down. We turned over our passports, paid our departure tax (they dispatched a staff member to pay it and brought us our receipts),…
bmi Wants You To Know That They Don’t Operate Out of Heathrow Terminal 5
bmi is gloating over British Airways’ problems with the new Terminal 5 at London-Heathrow. bmi, London Heathrow’s second largest airline, is continuing to operate all flights as scheduled from its main hub at Terminal 1 despite disruption at the newly-opened Terminal 5. Problems at Terminal 5, which opened to passengers yesterday (Thursday 27 March), have resulted in significant delay and disruption to BA flights operating from the new facility. In contrast Terminal 1, which now has 40 per cent less passengers to accommodate following BA’s move to Terminal 5, is running like clockwork as is bmi, the principal competitor to BA at Heathrow. New bmi Diamond Club members receive 4,500 miles just for enrolling. That’s enough for a one-way flight within the U.K. or betweek the U.K. and Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, or…
Bangkok Overnight at the Airport Novotel
Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport With the time change it was about 9pm local time when we got out of the BKK airport. We were heading back to the airport for a morning flight, wanted to get there early enough for the first class spa, and so decided not to head into the city and instead spend the night at the Novotel on the airport grounds. While the in-room materials describe the walkway from the terminal, that isn’t built yet. Instead there’s a shuttle that runs every 15 minutes. After clearing immigration and customs, there’s a Novotel representative standing by door 4 ready to assist you into the hotel’s van. A quick loop around the airport access roads and you’re at the hotel. Contra several reports, check-in was a breeze although there were curiously many forms to…
Thai Airways Business Class: Denpasar, Bali to Bangkok
Monday, March 24, 2008 Checked out in the club lounge, and the hotel car was ready for us this time with our bags ready to load into it. A quick drive over to the airport and airport porter’s met us at the curb (there’s very few as aggressive in Bali in search of tips). This is one of those ‘failure of the last mile’ sorts of moments. The club lounge experience at the Intercontinental Bali – small issues aside – really is quite sublime. They provide you with complimentary transportation back to the airport. I understand they may not be able to leave the vehicle on the curb and come inside, but it seems easy enough to provide an extra staff member who could help you with your bags, through security, and to the checkin…
Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay Balinese Cooking Class
Four Seasons Bali Cooking School Experience: One of my pet peeves with travel is the last day in a resort destination. If your flight leaves too early, it’s a hectic morning rushing to get things together and get off to the airport… defeating the very relaxation you’ve been trying to accomplish. But a flight departing in the afternoon inevitably means waiting around and pining, “we have only X hours left” rather than relaxing. So I’ve found it’s helpful when taking a late afternoon flight to book activities during the day. We decided to book a cooking class over at the Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay roughly next door to the Intercontinental. Monday morning is the Balinese cooking class (other days feature different cuisines, but when in Bali…) The day started off at 8am in the lobby…
Bali – Dinner at Mozaic
We had one dinner off-property. With the suggestion of some on Flyertalk, we sought out the most acclaimed restaurant in Bali … Mozaic. It’s in Ubud, and nearly an hour and a half’s drive each way from our hotel, but was a nice experience. On the whole a lovely dinner, with wonderful service (though in a very practiced, memorized Balinese way). An advance booking is pretty much required, and then the restaurant requires same-day confirmation (and they also maintain a waitlist) so we had the club lounge staff ring them up the morning of our reservation. And then rather than taking a cab up to Ubud we had a hotel car drive us there, wait, and drive us back. It’s just so impossibly inexpensive (even with the current value of the dollar, and even at…
Bali – Central Mountain Tour
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.…
