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…
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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…
Lessons from Scores of Recent Premium Class International Mileage Award Bookings
As many folks know, I probably book more award tickets than anyone else in the world. And I develop a really good sense for the value and ease of using different sorts of mileage and what routes offer the best availability. So for those looking to do it themselves, or just thinking about what’s possible and wanting to set expectations accordingly, I thought I’d offer a bit of stream of consciousness on award availability. It occurred to me yesterday that the conventional wisdom changes frequently, at least in terms of available routes. That’s because I noticed first class award seats available on Thai almost every day during the summer from Zurich to Bangkok and back. I assume this will tighten up quickly, but it really struck me because the Zurich route was perhaps the most…
A Nice Endorsement from Frugal Travel Guy, and American Airlines Oneworld Awards
Frugal Travel Guy offers up the following gracious endorsement of my award booking service: I contacted Gary at the View from the Wing blog and he was very helpful with his award booking suggestions. He knows more tricks than I will ever remember. I did this one all myself, and I went a different way than he suggested (my vouchers were expiring), but it was great to have a real pro as a sounding board. He really knows his stuff and I can assure you if you are at all hesitant to try something like this, his award booking service will be worth every penny you spend on it. Gary will save yo money and miles Rick was planning a trip through several cities in Europe, and has a boatload of American Airlines miles. One…
US Airways 100% Bonus on Transferred Miles
US Airways has brought back their 100% bonus on mileage transfers through May 31. The cost is 1 cent per mile plus a $30 processing fee, and up to 50,000 bonus miles can be earned. Transfer 50,000 miles to someone for $530 and they receive 100,000 miles, enough for business class from the US to Europe.Transfer 45,000 miles to someone for $480 and they receive 90,000 miles, enough for business class from the US to North Asia. This bonus is on top of the 25% bonus for elites who transfer miles. So for elite members of US Airways Dividend Miles this is a really outstanding value.
The Star Alliance Award Search “Killer App” Just Got Better!
The All Nippon Airways award booking engine is the best way to search Star Alliance award inventory. Get yourself an ANA Mileage Club account and you have a pretty darn good gauge of what’s available as an award to Star Alliance partners. It pretty much never shows Singapore Airlines business and first class availability (what few seats may exist) from the US to Asia. But otherwise it’s pretty much a match for what everyone has access to, other than United Mileage Plus (because United often ‘blocks’ award seats being offered by their partners when United doesn’t want to pay for the seats; you could book the same flights with Continental or US Airways miles for instance that United claims are unavailable). There are really only two drawbacks to the tool, and one of them has…
