It was a quick 10 minute cab ride over to the Westin Resort in Coloane. The hotel does offer a complimentary shuttle to the Venetian and ferry dock, but a cab was inexpensive so we didn’t wait for it. The Westin is a grand older hotel on the beach, far away from the action of Macau but not really more than 10 minutes away. The property reminds me a bit of the Westin Puerto Vallarta, each floor set back slightly from the one below it and all rooms offering balconies. It’s a beautiful, old, quiet property and seemed fairly unoccupied throughout our three day stay. We were assigned a suite looking out on the beach on the top guest floor, I didn’t ask how many suites they had but there didn’t seem much competition for…
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Marriott’s New Free Internet Elite Benefit Gets a Little Bit Better
Back in March 7 Marriott announced a limited free internet benefit for Gold and Platinum elites to start May 7: only in the U.S. (excluding Hawaii and US territories) and Canada. Yesterday they announced on Flyertalk that the benefit will be extended to Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Not Europe, Asia, etc. It’s progress. It doesn’t match Hyatt’s worldwide offering for all elites or Starwood’s worldwide offering for Platinum elites. But it’s progress. And they’ve also annonced free local calls in the US and Canada for anyone that doesn’t own a cell phone for Golds and Platinums.
Philippine Cooking Class: a continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant”
Philippines Cooking Class in Cebu: I try to take cooking classes when I travel, and bring back the food and lessons to my own kitchen at home. I love Thai cuisine in particular, perhaps because I’m most familiar with it and it’s actually pretty easy — I can always fix mistakes (add a little more chili paste? Some more fish sauce?) and there’s not so much precision required. I’ve done both Southern and Northern Thai and Balinese cuisine. So naturally I wanted to take a stab at Philippine cuisine, both to learn to cook but also to better understand the culture through its cuisine. I emailed my hotel to ask for a recommendation, and they suggested the Caro & Marie cooking school. But it turns out that their classes were all featuring international dishes. I…
Philippine Airlines Manila – Cebu and Hilton Cebu Resort — a continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant”
A quick ride over to the airport and we were walking into the terminal. Documents checked upon entering, then all bags screened prior to reaching the checkin counter. We each checked a bag and then they weighed our carryons. So we checked two bags. These were not heavy rollaboards — two 20″ bags, not pushing a size limit by any stretch — and there was plenty of space on the flight. Then we had to stand in line to pay the airport usage tax. They give you a receipt, which is then immediately collected. Then men and women stand in separate security lines. Computers didn’t have to come out, but everyone got a pat down. And off to the mediocre lounge downstairs. Couldn’t get the wireless internet to work, and didn’t bother trying to convince…
Intercontinental Manila Presidential Suite — a continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant”
On arrival at the Intercontinental Manila we waited for the bomb sniffing dog at the entrance to give us the all clear. Not bringing any bombs into the hotel, so we were cleared to head to the checkin desk. After a long overnight flight I didn’t want to think about, “where is the club?” to handle checkin there, a waiting staff member at the main desk in the lobby would do just fine. Now, it was still a bit shy of noon. As a Royal Ambassdor I’m entitled to 8 a.m. checkin, one of the great unsung elite status benefits out there and one which no other chain matches. However, I was told my room wasn’t ready yet. After all, there was only one of my room… the Presidential Suite. I had actually wanted to…
Hong Kong – Manila in Cathay Pacific First Class — A continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant
Our flight from Toronto landed just a few minutes early, but that meant before 5 am. And Hong Kong is a ghost town at that hour. We quickly went through transit security and found our way over to the Wing. It opens at 5, but the first class side doesn’t open until 5:30 am. We waited and wandered — most parts of the lounge, the Game Room for instance, were deserted. But the main sitting room was jam packed. Once 5:30 rolled around we went upstairs, and immediately asked for a Cabana. We shared one, which was perfectly fine, and in my opinion this makes for one of the nicer shower facilities after a long overnight flight. My wife and I aren’t separated, which means we can mill about and meander slowly given our four-ish…
Toronto – Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific First Class — A continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant”
After months of anticipation and significant stress making it up to Toronto to start my trip, it was finally time to get underway. The KLM lounge in Toronto was disappointing to say the least. They did announce boarding, at least, and walk around letting everyone know it was time to head off. I couldn’t help thinking, though, that they were really just shooing us out of the lounge so they could close down rather than being helpful. So off to the gate where things were a bit of a madhouse. We lined up for boarding (boarding call was made rather prematurely in the lounge) and finally made it onboard. All the unpleasantness and stress melted away upon entering the aircraft. A flight attendant walked us to our seats, showed us the closet for our carryons,…
Trip Report Prelude — Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant
I recently returned from Asia, an American Airliens First Class Oneworld award. This is just a bit of background before I begin sharing some of the details of my travels. When the KVS Availability Tool introduced Cathay Pacific award availability (really just an interface with the Cathay website) it seemed like a good time to start searching Cathay award availability. And with the economic downturn and fewer first class tickets being sold, Cathay first was pretty widely available. I’ve long been more of a Star Alliance guy, I have plenty of American Airlinesmiles but haven’t flown much Oneworld. So this would be my first time in Cathay First. And with the Oneworld distance-based awards, you can fly pretty much any routing you wish (the longer it is, the more miles they charge) as long as…
What in the World to Do With Those Delta Skypesos?
After yesterday’s post on award booking lessons, several readers posed questions about Delta Skymiles that amount to, “if Skypesos are so darned useless, what in the world can I do with them?” Now, the only time you should actually accumulate Skymiles is if you are hub-captive to Delta and fly enough to earn elite status. Even if you live in a Delta hub, fly Delta, but aren’t earning status then consider crediting your flight miles to Alaska. And for goodness sakes, don’t credit any other sorts of miles to Delta, unless it’s somehow benefiting your quest for elite status — because you might well value upgrades more than awards. The other time it makes sense to accumulate Skymiles is when the deal is just too crazy good, that even if you have to spend double…
Answering Your Award Booking Questions
This morning’s post on award bookings generated several questions and interesting comments in just a couple of hours. I thought I’d pull out a few and offer some followup. Jeremy asks several questions: I would like to hear a Singapore riff for sure. Also the deal with NZ on LAX-LHR using Alliance points. [T]he lack of UA one-way awards on partners must be killing more folks than just me… That’s a lot of questions! Singapore Airlines rarely offers more than a single premium cabin seat long-haul as an award at the same time. Sometimes once a seat is booked a second seat will immediately appear, than usually not. Long-haul that’s true for both business and first class. Intra-Asia that’s usually only true for first, it’s certainly possible to find multiple business class award seats at…
