Starwood is offering up to 50% off of bookings made by July 20 for stays between July 16 and October 20. Now, this is up to 50% off of rack rate, which means it will sometimes be a small savings off the rates you’ll otherwise find from Starwood’s website. But it’s worth checking rates under this promo. The rates are available in North America, South America and Asia Pacific. Some hotels place a 4 night maximum stay under the rate, and seven nights generally at resorts. They’re advance purchase, non-cancellable rates. Another interesting offer is Starwood’s $100 spa credit per night offer for hotels in the Southeast, Florida, and Carribean. Bookings must be made by July 31 for stays through September 30. Rates will likely be a bit higher than booking without this package, but…
ASIA
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These World’s Best Hotel Lists Drive Me Nuts…
I don’t know why I read these things, they always make me want to throw my laptop, but the 2009 Travel & Leisure World’s Best lists are up. The Hay Adams is not the best hotel in DC. The Marriott in Budapest is not better than the Four Seasons George V in Paris (neither is the Westin Milan, which was a perfectly respectable city hotel when I stayed there two years ago — but the 4th best city hotel in Europe? That’s absurd.) Perhaps I’m most offended by three “Couples” resorts — and for that matter a Sandals — on Jamaica being rated above the Aman resort property in Turks & Caicos, which doesn’t even make the list of best resorts in the Carribean. But then the Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort gets ranked as the…
Priority Club Extends Free Night Promo Through August 15
The Priority Club stay 2 earn a free night promo which I discussed here has been extended through August 15. The promo website doesn’t say that. It was leaked in Asia but nothing online. Now folks who registered for the offer previously show it in their online accounts with the new expiration date. No need to re-register. Update: Offer extension doesn’t appear to be automatic for everyone, some folks still see an end date of the promo of July 3. And re-registering for the offer doesn’t appear to be working at the moment, either, though folks seem to be successful calling in. I imagine this should all sort itself out in a few days, the key will be to determine in your online account whether you are in fact registered for the promo with an…
Bonus for Transferring Hotel Points to Air Canada Aeroplan Miles
Aeroplan is offering 5000 bonus miles for converting hotel points into 20,000 miles or more. Registration is required, and the bonus can be earned once per hotel partner. With this promo, 20,000 Starwood points become 30,000 Aeroplan miles. The offer also allows 1000 bonus Aeroplan miles for converting hotel points to 5000 Aeroplan miles. This is valid for transfers through August 31. Aeroplan really is one of my favorite programs. They have a favorable award chart for most destinations, no blocking of partner award inventory, and favorable routing rules as well. It takes 120,000 Aeroplan miles to book a roundtrip in first class from North America to Asia. You can make two enroute stopovers (or one stopover and an open jaw) and you go either via the Atlantic or the Pacific or cross one ocean…
Fighting Corruption in Kathmandu
The Nepalese government plans to issue pants to airport workers that have no pockets. A spokesman said trousers without pockets would help the authorities “curb the irregularities”. The move comes after the prime minister of Nepal said corruption was damaging the airport’s reputation, AFP reported. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) said it had sent a team to the airport to “observe the growing complaints about the behaviour of airport authorities and workers towards travellers”. “We discovered that the reports were true,” spokesman Ishwori Prasad Paudyal told the AFP news agency. “So we decided that airport officials should be given trousers with no pockets.” He said the Ministry of Civil Aviation had been instructed to put the measure in place as soon as possible. “We believe this will help curb the…
Priority Club 50% Off Any Hotel Anytime Gift Card Redemptions for Australia Residents
Yesterday it was United extending double elite qualifying miles to residents of Australia. United of course is competing with several carriers now in the US-Australia market (no longer just Qantas, and no Air Canada via Vancouver, Continental Micronesia to Cairns via Guam, and Hawaiian via Honolulu do not count). Today, I see that Priority Club is introducing Any Hotel, Any Time cards in the Australia market and offering them at half price. You have to have an Australia address on your Priority Club account to take advantage of the offer, and can only ship the cards to an Australia address, so you do need to know someone in Australia. Priority Club introduced the concept that you can be loyal to them, and take your rewards anywhere. Normally not a good deal, though, a $250 card…
A Summary of Posts from My 2009 Star Alliance First Class Award Trip: 5 Different International First Class Products and Visits to Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Chiang Rai, and Seoul
Washington-Dulles-Tokyo, ANA First Class Tokyo-Hong Kong, ANA Business Class W Hong Kong, Fantastic Suite Hong Kong-Ho Chi Minh City, United First Class Sheraton Saigon, Towers Suite Touring Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok, Lufthansa First Class Royal Orchid Sheraton, Junior Suite Bangkok-Chiang Rai, Thai Airways Business Class Le Meridien Chiang Rai – Room and Resort Le Meridien Chiang Rai – Food Le Meridien Chiang Rai – Gym, Pool, and Spa Le Meridien Chiang Rai – Photos Around the Resort Touring the Golden Triangle Le Meridien Chiang Rai Northern Thai Cooking Class Chiang Rai-Bangkok, Thai Airways Business Class Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel Bangkok Thai Airways First Class Departure Experience, Lounge and Spa Bangkok-Hong Kong, Thai Airways First Class Hong Kong-Seoul, Asiana Business Class W Seoul, Junior Suite Asiana First Class Lounge, Seoul…
United Starnet Blocking Reaches New Levels of Absurdity
I realize it’s getting towards the end of a quarter. United is probably afraid of overspending its award redemption budget. So they’re massively blocking awards being offered by their Star Alliance partner airlines. When searching for awards later in June and early July: Lufthansa to Frankfurt, via Dulles, Chicago, Newark, and JFK? They’re publishing award inventory all over the place, every other Star Alliance airline besides United can book them. But United? Blocked. All Nippon Airways intra-Asia flights, from Tokyo to Bangkok and to Taipei? Blocked. Thai Airways intra-Asia flights, from Bangkok to Hong Kong and to Tokyo? Blocked. On several days both ANA and Thai are offering business class award seats on each and every one of their flights between Bangkok and Narita. United won’t book a single one of them. They see only…
W Seoul Walker Hill
Hotel: W Seoul – Walkerhill 21 Gwangjang Dong, Gwangjin Gu Seoul 143 708 Korea Phone: (82)(2) 465 2222 Fax: (82)(2) 450 4989 Cash & Points Rate There wasn’t much traffic out of Incheon and I was hopeful, but I was leaving the airport around 6pm on a Friday and that couldn’t possibly yield a quick trip. On the other hand, I was heading into Seoul and not out, I thought perhaps that would help. And indeed it did, the traffic in the other direction was worse, but while the freeway was pretty clear for the first part of the trip once we crossed the river we were pretty much in a standstill. In all, the drive took about 100 minutes. Someone was immediately available to assist with our bags, and I walked up to the…
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…
