Thailand Trip Day 1 – flight cancellations
Thailand Trip Day 2
Thailand Trip Day 3
Thailand Trip Day 4
Thailand Day 5 Island Hopper Excursion
Thailand Day 6 – Rain
Thailand Trip Day 7 – the local market
Thailand Trip Day 8
Thailand Trip Day 9 – Jim Thompson shop, Temples, and Gulati
Thailand Trip Day 10 – A Chill Day and going to the movies
Thailand Trip Day 11 – home in first class

We landed in Taipei after a long, but comfortable flight. We had a lot of time before our flight to Bangkok so we headed to the China Airlines lounge. The lounge was huge. They had lots of free food and drinks there, including noodles and soup made to order, dim sum, and pot stickers. It was delicious.

We left the lounge to wait for our flight and saw this sign that was a bit interesting.

We boarded the flight to Taipei heading for Bangkok. Another comfortable flight. We now had to wait for our Thai Airlines flight to Phuket. At this point, we were really getting tired.

I couldn’t believe how huge the plane going from Bangkok to Phuket was and the plane was filled to capacity.

We arrived to Phuket and went to the Hilton booth at the airport. Our driver was waiting for us there and whisked us off to the other side of town to the resort.

They had a covered drop off point for all passengers as no cars are allowed onto the resort for safety purposes. A covered roof shuttle picked us up and took us to the front desk area. This resort is massive!

At this time, we were Gold members of the Hilton Club. We were hoping for a free upgrade, but not expecting it.

We went to the Hilton Honors desk where we were asked to take a seat in the lounge. Two fresh fruit drinks were brought to us while we waited.

We were brought our room keys and we were escorted to our room. He walked us to the Lotus Wing. We took the elevators up to the 9th floor. We had received an upgrade and would have lounge access as well. The room was big and very nice.

It’s been exactly a year since we took our second dream vacation to Phuket and Bangkok, Thailand paid for by airline miles and hotel points.

I thought it is finally about time that I do a proper write up of our adventures.

Thailand Trip Day 1 – flight cancellations
Thailand Trip Day 2
Thailand Trip Day 3
Thailand Trip Day 4
Thailand Day 5 Island Hopper Excursion
Thailand Day 6 – Rain
Thailand Trip Day 7 – the local market
Thailand Trip Day 8
Thailand Trip Day 9 – Jim Thompson shop, Temples, and Gulati
Thailand Trip Day 10 – A Chill Day and going to the movies
Thailand Trip Day 11 – home in first class

Day 1
My wife spent some serious time on the phone with the Delta desk and the Hilton desk booking our trip. Our plan was to fly first class to Phuket, Thailand and stay at the Hilton Arcadia Resort & Spa for 7 days and then fly to Bangkok, Thailand and stay at the JW Marriott for 3 days.

We were trying to decide between the Hilton Arcadia Resort Spa and the JW Marriott Phuket Resort and Spa. Based on all the reviews we read, the JW would certainly be nicer but more out of the way. We decided on the Hilton Arcadia.

After several hours, my wife had all of the routings set up and hotels booked. We would fly SLC – LAX – TPE – BKK in first class on China Airlines. From there, we would take Thai Airways from Bangkok to Phuket.

Luckily, I had 9000 BMI miles from a previous promotion to join their frequent flyer club. I was able to redeem these miles for a free one way ticket from Bangkok to Phuket on Thai Airlines.

We arrived to the SLC airport in plenty of time for our first flight. As we waited in the First Class line, we overheard a couple of people mentioning that the last flight from SLC to LAX has been cancelled. We started to feel a little bit panicked. We finally had our turn at the counter where the agent informed us that indeed the last flight from SLC to LAX had been cancelled. He said the best that he could do at that time was to book us on the following day.

This was problematic since we had purchased non-refundable Thai Airline tickets from Bangkok to Phuket.

We stayed calm and talked to the agent about our extensive travel plans. He turned out to be about the best agent ever. He started to type in his computer to see what he could do. After a while, he found a way to change our reservation from SLC – LAX – TPE to SLC – SFO – TPE hitting the same connections. We would only be in business class from SFO – TPE but at this point we were just happy to still be going this day.

We ran to the gate and made the SFO without any problem in First Class.

We arrived in SFO and tried without success to get them to change our reservations from Business Class to First Class. China Airlines just wouldn’t budge. We decided to give up and headed to the lounge. I was really surprised how awful the China Airlines lounge was in San Francisco. The food was subpar and the seats quite hard.

We boarded the SFO – TPE flight and sat back for our 14 hours flight to Taipei in business class. We were on the upper deck of the plane. The seats were nice but definitely a little old. The service was superb.