ASIA

Search Results for "ASIA".

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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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Thai Airways First Class, Bangkok to Hong Kong, Part One: Ground Experience

8:00 am Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) to Hong Kong, Hong Kong (HKG) Thai Airways Flight 600 First Class Seats 2J, 2K Duration: 2h 45m Boeing 747 1,063 miles traveled We got up early for our 8am departure, wanting to take as much advantage of the Thai Airways Bangkok departure experience as possible. We caught the shuttle over to the airport just before 5am, and had the driver stop at the first dropoff area, the First/Business Class check-in. The driver took our bags out of the back of the van, I nodded over to one of the waiting porters who came over, I told him first class and he loaded up our bags and brought us over to the first class checkin lounge. We had a seat, handed our passports over to the Thai Airways agent, and…

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Northern Thai Cuisine Cooking Class at Le Meridien Chiang Rai

Chiang Rai Cooking Class at the Le Meridien: On our last morning at the resort we scheduled a cooking class. I don’t like early morning departures, I’m tired and I’m not relaxed and that really cuts against the whole point of the resort stay. But afternoon departures can leave us feeling antsy, basically just waiting around and killing time until it’s time to fly. So we always try to schedule an activity for the last morning, and on Southeast Asia trips in particular that usually means a cooking class. I enjoy cooking Asian dishes, and usually do bring back what I learn in the class to prepare at home. In advance of the stay I e-mailed Le Meridien to find out whether they offered classes. I did look into what else one might do in…

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50% Bonus on Hotel Points Transfers to US Airways

Via One Mile at a Time, US Airways is offering a 50% bonus on hotel and rental car activities through July 31. Hotel points transfers are included in the offer, too, and registration is required. This is pretty exciting for Starwood points transfers — for example, 60,000 Starwood points normally transfer to 75,000 US Airways miles (since they give you 5000 bonus miles for each 20,000 points transferred). With this promo the same 60,000 Starwood points yields 112,500 US Airways miles. Make the transfer 65,000 Starwood and you wind up with 120,000 US Airways miles — enough for a first class Star Alliance award from North America to North Asia. For example, you could fly ANA first class from Chicago to Tokyo, connect on to Shanghai, and then fly Asiana first class Shanghai to Seoul…

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