Wednesday, April 15 8:40 pm Hong Kong, Hong Kong (HKG) to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (SGN) United Flight 869 First Class Seats:04F, 04E Duration: 2h 30m Boeing 747-400 935 miles traveled After checking out of the hotel we grabbed a cab down in front of the W. The hotel staff member assisting us on our way was a little bit concerned that we were heading off to the airport ‘only’ 2.5 hours before our flight, but I wasn’t in the slightest. There was a bit of traffic heading in the opposite direction but the roads were all clear for our drive. We pulled up to the airport and headed inside, strangely there wasn’t anybody in either the business or first class checkin lines ahead of us. I say strangely because even though I knew…
Adding a Free Domestic Roundtrip to an American International Award
In the discussion of American’s new one-way awards with stopovers permitted in international gateway cities, a Flyertalk member pointed out that members living in gateway cities can book themselves a free domestic roundtrip when booking an international roundtrip. If you live in New York and are booking a roundtrip to Tokyo, why not also book yourself a trip to Miami as well? From the Flyertalk post: Here’s what I was thinking of doing: Newark – Jackson Hole ($219 in Y / Purchased Ticket) [Stop] Jackson Hole – Newark (F Award Ticket #1) [Stop] New York – Hong Kong (F Award Ticket #1) [Stop] Hong Kong – New York (F Award Ticket #2) [Stop] New York (LaGuardia) – Eagle, CO (F Award Ticket #2) [Stop] Eagle, CO – New York ($219 in Y / Purchased Ticket)
W Kong Kong 1 Austin Road West, Kowloon Station, Kowloon Phone: (852) 3717 2222 Fax: (852) 3717 2888 Cash & Points Rate We arrived at the W Hong Kong around midnight and no one from the hotel was there to greet our cab at the entrance. There were two staffers standing inside the door but we turned up and nobody moved. We brought our bags inside ourselves and then the bags were taken from us (not delivered to our room very quickly either, I might add). The lobby of the hotel is a bit confusing, we came up the driveway and had to take the elevator upstairs, the checkin desk was down the hall and around the corner to the left. I was tired, and it would have been nice had one of the staff…
Washington-Dulles to Narita in ANA First Class
Monday, April 13 Washington, DC (IAD) to Tokyo, Japan (NRT) All Nippon Airways Flight 1 First Class Seats 1D, 1G Departure: 12:20pm, Scheduled Duration: 14h 5m Boeing 777 6,752 miles We arrived at Dulles around 10:45 a.m. and walked up to the check-in counter. First and business were more or less being taken care of together, and we waited for the first available agent. Boarding passes issued, bags tagged to Hong Kong. Lounge passes issued for Dulles, which strikes me odd as at this time of day it’s a dedicated lounge for ANA, no lounge pass printed for Tokyo which also seemed odd because passes are much more common in Asia. Headed down the underground walkway and up to Terminal B, the ANA lounge is opposite gate B46. During the late morning it’s an ANA…
Connecting Flight, Tokyo – Hong Kong in ANA’s Club Asia
We arrived at Narita right on time around 3:25pm. After a quick transit security screening we headed up towards the ANA lounges. We weren’t given a lounge pass at check-in, and were continuing in two-cabin business class on ANA subsidiary Air Japan’s 6:40pm Hong Kong flight. I decided to walk towards the First Class lounge, even though ANA treats their lounges as departure rather than arrivals lounges and thus technically I would only be entitled to use the business class lounge. I approached the woman standing outside the lounge to greet passengers, ostensibly looking for directions, and showed her my first class boarding pass stub from my arriving flight. That was the only thing I showed her, she saw first class on it, and indicated I was in the right place! She escorted my to…
Fitting (5) International First Class Products into a Single United Star Alliance Award
I’m just back off of a two week trip, our annual Asia first class redemption. Prior to the gutting of the United award chart I booked two first class awards that combined five different Star Alliance international first class products, and managed to work around Starnet blocking for my transpac segments. After much time with agents who insisted that All Nippon Airways doesn’t serve Washington-Dulles (funny, I attended their party celebrating 20 years of service, and they only refer to the flight as NH 1) I did secure ANA three-class first, which I hadn’t flown since 2006. One sad note however is that I believe in July three-cabin service will leave DC, meaning I’ll have to hop over to Chicago if I want ANA F. On the return I fought agents who didn’t believe it…
American Introduces One-Way Awards and the End of Most Stopovers
As discussed at Traveling Better, One Mile at a Time, and Flyertalk, American has introduced a significant change to their award redemption rules. American AAdvantage now offers one-way awards for half the price of a roundtrip. So far, so good. But they no longer allow stopovers on awards, except international awards originating in North America and only then at the international gateway city. In other words, if you were flying DC – New York – Tokyo you could have a stopover in New York only. (No word yet whether stopovers will be allowed at, say, the international gateway city on itineraries originating in Europe.) This means that you cannot book New York – Tokyo (stopover) – Hong Kong (destination) – New York as a single award. Instead, you’d have to book three one-ways. This change…
Alaska Double Redeemable and Elite Qualifying Miles through June 30
Alaska’s Mileage Plan is offering Double Miles (and double Elite Qualifying Miles) from May 6, 2009, through June 30, 2009. Registration required.
Big New Priority Club Visa Signup Bonus
This Flyertalk thread discusses an offer for the Priority Club Visa that’s especially worthwhile: 45,000 points with first purchase 15,000 additional points after spending $3000 10,000 more points after spending $15,000b This is better than the standard 30,000 point signup bonus, although that card waives the annual fee for a year and usually comes with a $20 statement credit while this card offers neither. My view is it’s worthwhile putting $3000 spend on the card and not a penny more. The offer amounts to a 45,000 mile signup bonus and 6 points per dollar on all spend for the first $3000 if you hit that spend threshold. But since the earning on the card itself its otherwise weak, I don’t find the additional spending threshold of 10,000 more points for $15,000 in spend (10,000 points…
100 Free Continental Miles
There’s 100 free Continental miles just for entering your Continental frequent flyer number by June 30. The offer appears meant for Continental co-branded credit or debit-card holders, but the terms and condititons don’t say that it’s limited to such, we’ll see if the miles post (likely they won’t check accounts against previous miles posting from credit card activity). (Hat tip to Gary Steiger.)
