Reader Troy R. passes along a tip that I think I noticed back in November but never fully internalized the significance of. He was reading my trip report on burning Hilton HHonors points at the Conrad Koh Samui — one of the really aspirational properties in the Hilton portfolio, and a great redemption value at 50,000 points per night through March 28 when the bottom falls out of the best redemptions in the Hilton program (this property becomes 95,000 points per night for 10 months of the year). All the rooms at the resort are standalone ocean villas with private pools. The food and service are good. The two downsides I note are that the hills are such that you have to take golf carts pretty much everywhere (golf carts are always at the ready…
ASIA
Search Results for "ASIA".
Marriott Adds Possibility of Suite Upgrades for Elites at Asia Pacific Hotels
In May, Marriott Rewards reduced their minimal elite upgrade benefit language with the condition that Golds and Platinums were entitled only to a one category room upgrade. This likely didn’t change much in practice, but it was disconcerting to see the language of their benefits being reduced at a time when other programs were becoming more generous. Marriott has the toughest top tier to qualify for at 75 nights. Hilton recently removed the suites exclusion from Diamond upgrades, though Diamonds at Hilton aren’t entitled to suites. Starwood has long given their top tier Platinums the right to standard suites that are available at check-in, and now they’ll confirm that upgrade a few days in advance giving Platinums who earn their status by nights (rather than stays) 10 nights a year where they can express priority…
Good Lie Flat Business Class Award Space to Asia Using Delta Skymiles
Delta Skymiles partner China Southern is introducing an Airbus A380 on the Los Angeles – Guangzhou route starting October 12th. They’ve got a new lie-flat business class product, and award availability (per Expertflyer) appears to be wide open. You can fly to destinations beyond Guangzhou without too much difficulty, as intra-Asian award space tends to be pretty good. Delta does add fuel surcharges onto China Southern award tickets, but they’re usually pretty modest — under $300 in most cases rather than $500 per ticket (in addition to taxes). And if it gets you business class award space using Delta miles, you’re already way ahead of the game. Of course, this does require you to find a Delta call center agent that has heard of China Southern, believes that China Southern is a Skyteam member, and…
Asiana’s New First Class and Virgin America’s New Elite Levels
This isn’t quite ‘bits ‘n pieces’ with only two items that I’m sharing, they struck me as worth noting but also not things I was inspired to offer longer treatments on. Still, worth passing along. Asiana is introducing a new first class seat – true suites with doors and a 32″ television. This is apparently going into their 777 aircraft, and the Chicago – Seoul route is having first class re-introduced and award space appears possible. I really enjoy the food, service, and amenities on Asiana but the seat is a full generation behind so this is really good news. Lucky links to a video in Korean that shows off the new seat. Wandering Aramean reports on Virgin America’s new silver and gold elite levels. The co-branded credit card lets you get halfway to silver…
Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles Added as American Express Membership Rewards Transfer Partner
Lucky writes this morning about Cathay Pacific’s AsiaMiles being added as a transfer partner in the U.S. American Express Membership Rewards program. He does a big ‘meh’ arguing that since you can claim the same flights through Amex transfer partner British Airways Avios as you can through AsiaMiles, there’s not much to get excited about. As it stands you can redeem British Airways Avios points for travel on Cathay Pacific (or any other OneWorld partner), and while their award chart isn’t especially lucrative for longhaul flights, Membership Rewards is offering a 50% transfer bonus for British Airways through May 31. Still, even without the bonus their award chart is still more lucrative than Asia Miles’ in most instances. I think he’s missing the boat here, AsiaMiles is a great addition to the Membership Rewards program.…
United Award Tickets on Asiana Sometimes Cancel Themselves – How to Make Sure You Don’t Get Shafted
Prior to merging with United, Continental Onepass awards booked on Star Alliance partner Asiana would sometimes disappear. It was rare, but occasionally Asiana segments would drop out of a reservation. Continental wouldn’t notify customers. They’d either check online and see the segment gone, or they’d go check in and they wouldn’t have a reservation. Continental was already pretty good about fixing the situation, to the extent they could. They wouldn’t be able to get the Asiana flights back if there was no award availability on those flights. But they’d go to great lengths, generally, opening up seats on their own aircraft to use instead. Sometimes it would take a call or two to get someone who was helpful and would escalate this to the level necessary. But in the end things usually worked out, albeit…
Philippine Airlines All You Can Jet Within Asia for $270 EARNS MILES
On the heels of JetBlue introducing BluePass, this year’s more limited version of ‘All You Can Jet’ where they’ll let you fly as much as you’d like from either Boston or Long Beach, Philippine Airlines is offering their own an All You Can Jet Pass (so to speak), a “Fly Asia” pass which allows unlimited travel to 12 cities for 7 weeks for only US$270 + taxes/fees. (Unlimited business class is $1070 + taxes/fees.) And it earns miles. Travel from Manila, Cebu and Davao to Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Macau, Saigon, Shanghai, Singapore, and Taipei. They’re seling the unlimited travel pass through August 7 and all outbound travel must be between August 15 and November 30, with all travel complete by December 10. Within two weeks of purchase you must redeem all your travel…
Has Delta Increased the Price of their Asia Awards, and Are More Increases Coming?
TM Travel World reports that Delta has apparently increased the price of a whole bunch of awards. It’s always something that’s really difficult to verify, much of Delta award pricing is shrouded in mystery. They do not publish an actual award chart for flight redemptions that don’t start or end in North America. But Troy says that they’ve broken Asia into two separate regions. I remember when Asia was all just one region, and business class within Asia was 30,000 miles roundtrip. Now it’s apparently 25,000 miles just for economy within North Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan) and 45,000 miles for business class. With a new separate region for North Asia and South Asia, instead of just a single region for Asia, flights between the two regions — or even just…
All Nippon and Asiana Long Haul First Class Award Availability
I’m stuck flying nothing but domestically for the next couple of months, I have an India trip coming up (my first time in India!) but I’ve been still itching to at least book something internationally. So I did some research and put together a first class award to Asia, something I do at least once a year. It’s still about six months off, but I booked it anyway just to satisfy my wanderlust. Remember that planning a vacation is what brings the most happiness. And I’m pretty happy with what I came up with, flying All Nippon, Singapore, and Thai. I thought I’d share some of the comprehensive availability searching that I did yesterday, in case it’s useful to any of y’all in planning your own first class awards. In all cases I searched beginning…
Hidden Value Awards from Alaska Airlines: US to South Africa via Asia on Cathay Pacific for 140,000 Miles in First Class
Yesterday I booked two passengers from the US to South Africa via Asia and thought it was an especially valuable award. Alaska Airlines partners with Cathay Pacific. They charge 140,000 miles for first class between North America and Asia. They also charge 140,000 miles roundtrip for first class between the US and Africa. So these folks who live in San Francisco I routed SFO – Hong Kong – Johannesburg and return. Now, it’s 30% more flown miles than a one-stop via Europe. But it was available on their preferred dates, it got them to South Affirca with a single connection. And it was Cathay Pacific First Class, a total of four long-haul flights. American Airlines requires routing from the US to Africa via Europe, so they would have charged for US to Asia and a…
