Finally got out to Inox in Tysons Corner, the new Jonathan Krinn place. Very good for DC, but not quite living up to its potential, at least on our visit. Sweetbreads were oversalted. Vennison Rossini was really outstanding. (They clearly aren’t trying to do ‘seasonal’). Desserts were well-designed on the plate but mediocre, made up for by excellent petite fours. Service tried to be nice – very friendly, attention to detail in descriptions of the dishes, but the kitchen had a hard time getting both of our entrees out at the same time and the sauce on my wife’s plate had dried under a heat lamp. Bread was a good, though less interesting, than it was at 2941 [choices were garlic, olive, or pumpernickel and they did continually bring around plenty of it). Complimentary valet,…
Sheraton Annapolis, Not So Much…
I checked into the Sheraton Annapolis yesterday afternoon. I turned up at 2:40pm, was told they had me in a club room with two double beds. Umm, my wifeand I are still only a few years into our marriage, could we have one bed? 😉 This place was busy, busy, busy. They told me they had no king rooms available, sorry. Could you downgrade me off the club floor and give me a king? “Nothing’s ready, you know it isn’t even check-in time yet.” Ok, when could I have a king? “Check-in time is at 3pm sir, please come back in 20 minutes. I will block you into a king room on the 5th floor.” I return at 3:30pm. They had me in … a club room with 2 double beds. I mentioned that I…
Asiana Business Class, Hong Kong to Seoul
1:10 pm Hong Kong, Hong Kong (HKG) to Seoul, South Korea (ICN) Asiana Flight 722 Business Class Boeing 767 1,269 miles traveled The Thai Airways agent brought the three of us across the terminal, dropping her off at immigration and us at the transit desk where another staff member was waiting for us – he already made sure that Asiana had printed our boarding passes, they just needed to enter our luggage information into their system and assured us that our bags would make it onto the aircraft. He then escorted us through transit security. We wanted to make a stop in some of the shops, so we excused him from further service. Then we made our way down towards the gates and lounge. Asiana issues a lounge invite for the Dragonair lounge near gate…
Thai Airways First Class, Bangkok to Hong Kong, Part Two: Flight Experience
We were approached in the lounge and introduced to our escort who would take us through security and to our flight. The Hong Kong flight was close-in, so no golf cart today. Instead, a short walk to the flight. We boarded and were immediately offered some pre-departure champagne. Thai was serving the ’99 Bollinger, I had been expecting some 2000 Dom Perignon but Bollinger is still a respectable bottle. I assumed this was just for the Hong Kong flight, but some colleagues subsequently flew Beijing-Bangkok-Shanghai in Thai first and had the Bollinger on both segments, so perhaps this is provisioned for intra-Asian first these days. The ‘new’ Thai First seat is nice, certainly an improvement over their old first class (beware the dreaded Thai aircraft swap!) but there’s no privacy to it at all. Perfectly…
Thai Airways First Class, Bangkok to Hong Kong, Part One: Ground Experience
8:00 am Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) to Hong Kong, Hong Kong (HKG) Thai Airways Flight 600 First Class Seats 2J, 2K Duration: 2h 45m Boeing 747 1,063 miles traveled We got up early for our 8am departure, wanting to take as much advantage of the Thai Airways Bangkok departure experience as possible. We caught the shuttle over to the airport just before 5am, and had the driver stop at the first dropoff area, the First/Business Class check-in. The driver took our bags out of the back of the van, I nodded over to one of the waiting porters who came over, I told him first class and he loaded up our bags and brought us over to the first class checkin lounge. We had a seat, handed our passports over to the Thai Airways agent, and…
Continental Won’t Block Star Alliance Award Availability
And other useful tidbits in the new Upgrd podcast. No starnet blocking, a likely expensive award chart (naturally, from the people who brought you the 285,000 mile first class award on Wantas – up from 135,000 a year ago), first class awards will be offered, they recognize the problems in partnering with United but not offering real international upgrades and yet unusable upgrade certificates aren’t helpful, and much much more.
Funny emails of the day
First, I think the economy may be picking up, at least travel vendors have hiked their spending on PR consulting firms, I received five pitches today. My favorite? “Would you like a travel source? Let me know if you need some amazing deals to write about.” Umm… if you have some amazing deals, maybe pitch those to me? But don’t promise me amazing deals and tell me about United’s latest “fare sale.” My second favorite? Bank of America wants travelers to know you can do banking from your phone to – get this – check their balance to see whether they can afford to spend one more day in paradise. Great, haven’t banks felt enough heat for encouraging irresponsible financial management lately? “Gee, honey, let me check our bank balance on my phone. Wow, I…
Delta Shuttle 2500 Mile Each Way Bonus
Through July 26, Delta is offering 2500 miles each way (no roundtrip required) on the Delta Shuttle between DC, New York, and Boston. Registration is required, and all standard paid fare classes qualify (even L, U, and T fares). That’s 5000 bonus miles roundtrip, and I’m seeing weekend fares under $150. Since it’s “per segment” a shuttle flight in conjunction with a longer itinerary should count, at least that’s my read, so (especially if you live in a shuttle market) you may want to add connections onto your larger Delta itineraries to include shuttle flights. Sadly, for those with Northwest elite status, you’ll need to credit to a Delta Skymiles account in order to earn this bonus.
Novotel Suvarnabhumi (Bangkok Airport Hotel)
Hotel: Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport 999 Suvarnabhumi Airport HotelMoo 1 Nongprue Bang PhliSamutprakarn – 10540 BANGKOK – THAILAND Tel : (+66)2/1311111 My recollection from past stays was that the airport Novotel had a representative outside of door 4. This time as we headed over there two Thai ladies were at a desk inside the door, checking guests against an arrivals sheet. She asked my name but I wasn’t on the list. I showed her my printed confirmation for my prepaid rate, and we invited me out the door to the waiting hotel shuttle bus. We pulled up to the front of the hotel, grabbed our bags, and went upside. One of the staff members was ready to assist me, and it turns out that I walked in just in time because a sleuth of guests queued…
American AAdvantage Mileage Earning to Cease on Air Tahiti Nui
A minor note for most, to be sure, but after November 1 it will no longer be possible to earn American miles flying Air Tahiti Nui. I don’t know the backstory here. For years Air Tahiti Nui was a redemption-only partner of American. Then they added Northwest as a redemption partner, there was talk of linking up with Delta for redemptions, and they began offering mileage accrual with American as well. Now the notice says that redemption will conitnue, but no more accrual. Of course, it will still be possible to accrue miles in Air Tahiti Nui’s program. But they don’t really have too many partners, most people flying Air Tahiti Nui will only do so once (roundtrip). For those who can build up a decent stash of their miles, though, upgrades are pretty easy…
