Search Results for "ASIA".
There’s reporting that the Citi Prestige Card is about to reduce its signup bonus next Tuesday. Now is the time to get the card if you’ve even been on the fence about it.
The Qatar Airways first class lounge in Doha is one of the strangest, most stunning, and most exclusive lounges in the world. Someone on my Facebook feed said it ‘looked like a museum’. Indeed, it actually has hundreds of years old pieces on display from Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art (!). There are some real quirks to it, though.
The W Doha hotel is a great property, much more in line with the Ws of Asia than the US. It’s gorgeous, with friendly staff, and they treat Platinums well.
Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum members regularly receive upgrades to suites here. The breakfast benefit is the hotel’s full Market restaurant buffet. And the property is one of only 2 W hotels I know of with a club lounge.
This morning American announced the launch date for their brand new Boeing 787-9 to go into international service. These are the first planes from a US airline with an international premium economy cabin.
Service will commence to Madrid and to Sao Paulo on November 4 with the following schedule. Dallas – Madrid is the inaugural international flight. These flights will be available for booking starting July 10.
Here’s what you want to know.
American Express is offering a 50% bonus on transfers to Plenti through December 31.
You earn points with Plenti partners. You can also spend your points (at 1 cent apiece in value) on those partners. A 50% bonus means getting 1.5 Plenti points per Membership Rewards points — valuing those Membership Rewards points at 1.5 cents each when redeemed to pay those bills.
Most non-U.S. frequent flyer program add fuel surcharges to award tickets, and some US programs add them to some redemptions. That means your ‘free’ ticket can wind up costing several hundred dollars — or more. Here’s an American AAdvantage award with a surcharge of over $1000. And that’s for one person traveling.
All things equal you want to minimize fuel surcharges when you can!
My favorite thing to do in Bangkok is eat. Last time I wrote about eating during the day in the Bangrak district.
While there’s fantastic restaurants in Bangkok, an increasing high end dining scene that’s surprisingly affordable, probably half what you’d pay for fine dining elsewhere, there’s really no replacement for hole in the wall eateries and street vendors. And most of the action comes out at night.
Bangkok is city where it’s difficult for me to pick hotels. Most everything is above average. Even the Holiday Inn Bangkok, at Gaysorn Plaza, is attached to the Intercontinental and practically the same hotel.
On the other hand there are very few properties that are so good they’re clearly better than all the others. It’s not a city where I stick to Hyatt, either, because while the Grand Hyatt Erawan is fine I don’t find it special.
The St. Regis was priced extremely reasonably for my dates and although the hotel is known for being great with suite upgrades, I decided not to just chance it or use a Suite Night Award but to pay for the suite. Long odds, as reported by others, but I hoped for a further upgrade.
Star Alliance airlines including United, ANA, Singapore Airlines, and Air China are all running super cheap airfares roundtrip to Singapore. Fares are so low you’d almost think Singapore had just withdrawn from ASEAN!
The country a great jumping off point for travel throughout the rest of Southeast Asia and worth a trip of its own.
Fares are generally available September through March and from a host of cities including San Francisco, Chicago, Newark, and Los Angeles. What’s odd is that usually cheap airfares like this are dropped into competitor hubs but you can fly United from its own hubs.
Japan Airlines has a fantastic first class product. Getting to Australia on miles, let alone for more than two passengers, is hard. So while there are only a subset of readers who will use this, it’s worth knowing when Japan Airlines award space becomes available for four or more passengers in first class between Tokyo and Sydney.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
