Introduction
TPA-MIA-JFK on American with a visit to the MIA Flagship Lounge
The Andaz Wall Street
JFK-SFO on American Flagship Service with a visit to the JFK Flagship Lounge
SFO-HKG on Cathay Pacific with a visit to the BA F lounge
The Wing and HKG-DPS on Cathay Pacific
The Grand Hyatt Bali
The InterContinental Bali
DPS-HKG on Cathay Pacific
The Hyatt Regency Hong Kong Sha Tin
The Wing and HKG-SFO on Cathay Pacific
SFO-JFK-MIA-TPA on American

—————————————————–

We were picked up promptly at noon from the Grand Hyatt in the InterContinental’s S-class Mercedes. As a club guest an airport transfer is included, so it was very nice of them to extend this benefit to being picked up from a different (competing) hotel.

After a 30 minute drive we pulled into the very familiar looking InterContinental, which I find to be one of the most beautiful and relaxing places on earth. This might be a good time to mention that I stayed here a couple of years ago. I won’t make this report quite as detailed, so I suggest checking out my original review of the property, so I can focus mostly on the differences. It’s also worth noting that we paid around $300 all-in per night for a club room through InterContinental’s Friends & Family rate, which is a great value given how phenomenal the club experience is at this hotel.

Airport transfer

As we arrived at the hotel we were escorted to the club lounge where we were promptly checked in. As the agent processed our check-in we were offered drinks and cold towels. The agent then explained to us all the benefits of being a club guest, the resort amenities, etc.

Drinks and towels

We were walked to our upgraded room, a club duplex suite. As you may remember from my last review, I got lucky and got an upgrade to a Jimbaran Suite thanks to high occupancy, which was beyond amazing. Not only was the room huge, but the views were spectacular.

As we were being walked to our room the agent asked whether we had been to the hotel before, and I indicated I had. He asked whether I stayed in a club duplex suite last time, and I said “no, I stayed in one of the Jimbaran Suites, actually.” He then asked me whether he should check if they have any available they could move us to. Um, sure, why not? I couldn’t really tell whether they were just moving me up because I was a Royal Ambassador (a club duplex suite is a single level upgrade, while Royal Ambassadors typically get a two level upgrade), because I’m a returning guest, wanted to upsell me, or what.

We got to our room and after the guy was on the phone for a few minutes, he indicated one was available. Great, right? He then indicated he would give us a special rate of only $300 extra per night, as opposed to the usual $400. Not a very tempting offer, and actually left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. First of all, if a room is otherwise sitting empty you should do better than offering a 25% discount, and you should indicate up front that you were looking to upsell us, in my opinion — something like “would you like me to check if a Jimbaran Suite is available as a buy-up?” Maybe I was naive, and hell, we might have paid an extra $100 per night, but not $300.

Fortunately that was the only even slightly sour point in our stay. This hotel was just as awesome as I remembered it.

I’ve gotta say, I really love the club duplex suite. The room is two floors and very nice, with a large living room, desk, guest bathroom, couch, chairs, table, patio, and upstairs bedroom with large bathroom.

View from door of room

Our room

Bedroom upstairs

Looking down from second floor

View from bedroom to bathroom

Going down the stairs

Living room

View from entrance

TV

As far as the room itself goes, I almost prefer the duplex suite to the Jimbaran Suite. It’s kind of cool to have a hotel room with two floors. What sucks about the club duplex suites are the locations and the views. They’re all located on the fourth floor, and because of the high railing on the outside patio, you really can’t see anything other than the top of palm trees. Compare that to the view and location of the Jimbaran Suite from my previous stay.

View (or lack thereof) from the patio

Patio

Bathroom and tub

Sink

Bathroom

Shower

Guest bathroom

Chocolate and fruit

I appreciated the fact that there were at least a dozen bottles of water scattered around the room (in addition to the minibar) which were refilled a couple of times a day.

As far as the resort itself goes, it’s exactly how I remembered it. The hotel was virtually empty, so there was plenty of space at the pool, the club lounge was never full, and it had an all around relaxing atmosphere.

Club building

Grounds

Beautiful pool

Club pool

Club pool

Now one of the most spectacular parts of the resort has to be the club lounge, which is worth every penny. There’s a steep premium for it and they never upgrade Royal Ambassadors to club rooms, so it’s something special. As I mentioned earlier it includes roundtrip airport transfer, and if you were so inclined you could easily not spend a dime on food otherwise.

Club lounge

Club lounge

In the mornings you can have breakfast either in the club lounge (6:30AM-12PM), in one of the restaurants, or even room service, all at no additional cost. We had breakfast in the club lounge both days, and the spread was spectacular. They had made-to-order omelets along with anything else you could want. Hell, they even had sparkling wine.

Tables set for breakfast

Breakfast

Throughout the day they have nine menu items available made-to-order. They’re by no means huge portions, but are perfect for a light lunch or snack. You can order as many as you want, so….

Snack

Then there’s afternoon tea, although we never took advantage of it. The evening spread is what’s most impressive, really. It’s available from 5PM till 8PM and consists of a variety of hot and cold options along with a variety of alcoholic beverages.

Evening spread

Evening spread

Evening spread

Still trying to decide if this is the most brilliant or idiotic display ever… I’m going with brilliant

Evening snacks

What really sets this hotel apart, though, is the service. Indonesians are some of the friendliest people in the world to begin with, and the service at the InterContinental is so polished. While the service at the Grand Hyatt was good, this hotel takes it to a different level.

I’m convinced there are few places in the world nicer than Jimbaran Bay in the evenings. With the incredible sunset, palm trees, bands playing, and seafood restaurants set up on the beach, it’s quite the scene. Another cool thing is that the approach course and even runway are visible from Jimbaran Bay. Makes for quite some plane spotting!

Evening overlooking Jimbaran Bay

Evening

Sun getting ready to set

Pool in the evening

That’s the airport runway in the distance…

Seafood restaurants set up on the beach in the evenings

Sunset

Evening

By the end of our stay I felt truly relaxed for the first time in at least a year. No stress. No cell phones. No computer. Just relaxing. It’s kind of nice every once in a while, since I’m usually more of a city person.

The InterContinental Bali remains one of my favorite hotels in the world. The grounds are great, the service is incredible, and the club experience is worth every penny. On the last day of our stay we were driven to the airport in the hotel car once again and slowly began our homeward journey.

Instead of the usual Saturday night on a redeye, I’m spending my Saturday night at a hotel not too far from home. It’s quite nice, actually, and it couldn’t have been a more beautiful day. I even spent most of the day playing “spot the off duty flight attendants,” since the crews from one of my favorite airlines happen to stay here.

Earlier this afternoon I went to the Costco not far from the hotel to buy $1,000 worth of Hyatt gift checks for $800. It was quite an entertaining experience. First I had to sign up for a Costco membership, which was $50 (but it’s worth noting that they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so you can get a refund at any time). They made me fill out a form, at which point the agent entered all the information into the computer. Half way through entering the information she started laughing hysterically and said “your birthday is on 4/20. I celebrate your birthday every year.” Hah, classy!

Then, as I checked out with a grand total of $799.90, the check-out agent felt bad for me. “Ouch, that’s gotta hurt.” Actually, for the first time ever I didn’t feel bad spending $800, because it was that phenomenal of a deal.

I’ll break down the math when “Big Welcome Back” season is over, but I’m actually earning one free night for every $100 I spend. That’s even better than what I was expecting. Not bad when I can redeem these nights at top end Hyatt hotels all over the world. So you can bet it’ll be a fun summer of travel.

My Costco purchase

Not a bad view…

Introduction
TPA-MIA-JFK on American with a visit to the MIA Flagship Lounge
The Andaz Wall Street
JFK-SFO on American Flagship Service with a visit to the JFK Flagship Lounge
SFO-HKG on Cathay Pacific with a visit to the BA F lounge
The Wing and HKG-DPS on Cathay Pacific
The Grand Hyatt Bali
The InterContinental Bali
DPS-HKG on Cathay Pacific
The Hyatt Regency Hong Kong Sha Tin
The Wing and HKG-SFO on Cathay Pacific
SFO-JFK-MIA-TPA on American

—————————————————–

As I mentioned in the introduction post, we booked the Grand Hyatt for $160 per night and decided to use a suite upgrade, which confirmed us into a 141 square meter (about 1,500 square feet) “Grand Suite Twin.” Given that we’d also get access to the club lounge and free internet thanks to my new Diamond status with Hyatt’s Gold Passport program, it was quite the bargain.

It was about a 30 minute ride from the airport to Nusa Dua, the area that the Grand Hyatt is located in. Last time I stayed at the InterContinental, which is in Jimbaran Bay. While the InterContinental as such is pristine, the surrounding areas are a bit more local, while Nusa Dua was just a bunch of resorts with very clean sidewalks, streets, etc. There’s even a “car check” at the entrance to Nusa Dua, where guards look in trunks, inside the car, etc. There was yet another “car check” at the entrance to the hotel, along with metal detectors while walking into the lobby, as is the norm in Bali.

E-class Mecedes

When we arrived at the hotel there were two people waiting to take us to our room. They already knew us by name. Not sure if this is because we ordered a car service or because I’m a Diamond, but it made the check-in process rather painless. As we entered the hotel I loved the open air lobby and immediately remembered why I love Bali — the open aired lobby overlooked a pond which overlooked the pool which overlooked a garden which overlooked the beach which overlooked the ocean. Ah….

Lobby

Lobby

We were escorted straight to our suite with no sort of registration (hell, I didn’t even need to show my ID). All the features and benefits were explained to us as we  were brought to “building three” of this massive resort.

Entrance to the Grand Hyatt

The suite was huge, with a large living room with sofa and and chairs, a desk area, a table with four chairs, a bathroom near the entrance, and then a good sized bedroom with huge bathroom. The patio was a decent size and had a few chairs on it.

Entrance to suite

Hallway with bathroom to left

Living room

Table

I couldn’t help but laugh at what they called two twin beds, which just happen to be in the same “honeymoon bed” type frame.

Bedroom

View from bedroom

Vanity mirror

Sink area

Bath tub

Huge shower

Patio

Patio

View from patio

Guest bathroom

Floor layout showing size of our suite compared to other rooms

This was my first stay at a Grand Hyatt as a Hyatt Diamond, and I noticed a few differences between my stay here and my stays at InterContinental hotels, where I’m a Royal Ambassador. First of all, I was impressed by the fact that all the benefits were explained to us, when far too often I have to follow up at other hotels. At the same time I was a bit disappointed by the “Food and Beverage” amenity I received for being a Diamond. At InterContinental hotels I’m used to receiving some “local” gift, a bottle of wine, a box of chocolate, etc., along with a bowl of fruit, which is actually somewhat useful. The only “amenity” I saw here was a bowl of fruit. Guess it’s food OR beverage, and not food AND beverage? Anyway, that wasn’t a huge deal, but just one of those little nuances I picked up on.

The resort itself was typical of Bali. It was very well kept with exceedingly friendly people and a very relaxing atmosphere. On the plus side, the beach was very nice, much nicer than the one in Jimbaran Bay (where the InterContinental is). The water was actually clear and the sand very clean. At the same time, the resort just didn’t feel as “fresh” and modern as the InterContinental. It’s kind of tough to describe, but the InterContinental feels a lot more like a five star resort than this place. Not that the Grand Hyatt is run down or anything, but it’s just not anything spectacular. I guess it felt a bit like a four star hotel in Hawaii, unlike the InterContinental which feels distinctly different.

Walkways

Well maintained property

Pool area

Pool

Pool

Pool

Grounds

Pool

Just because…

We spent the first day roaming around the resort (only arrived in the afternoon) and the second day decided to go to the beach. Bad idea for me, since I actually liked the beach for once. I spent at least three hours in the ocean “turtling” around (I realize I just made up a word, but my movements did resemble that of a turtle), which was a VERY bad idea. There goes the rest of my vacation! I was sunburned as hell for the rest of the trip. It was also hot. Really hot. Like, really really hot and humid.

Anyway, let’s talk a bit about the club lounge. On one hand I loved it, given that it felt very “Balinese.” On the other hand I usually like to “cool off” in the club lounge after spending most of the day outside. Unfortunately the club lounge was outside. Nice in theory, but in 100 degree weather, not so much. It’s also worth noting that it was located on the other side of the resort, a good 10 minute walk (although after all the food on Cathay, it was much needed exercise).

Entrance to club lounge

Club lounge

Club lounge

The service in the club lounge was very good. As I’ve said many times before, I find Indonesians to be among the most hospitable people in the world, and the people working the club lounge were no exception. At the same time, they weren’t nearly as polished as at the InterContinenental, but then again I wasn’t expecting that.

Breakfast was served in the club lounge from 7AM till 10:30AM and was fairly “continental.” Plenty filling, but there weren’t any hot options aside from bite sized omelet samples.

Breakfast

The evening spread, which was served from 5PM till 7PM, was a bit more substantial, featuring several hot options, along with the usual club lounge fare — nuts, cheese and crackers, veggies, etc.

Evening snacks

On our second night we asked the concierge for restaurant suggestions, and I was rather peeved when he kept suggesting the hotel restaurant. We clearly stated we wanted something else, but he kept mentioning how good the hotel restaurant was. We did some research on our own online, and decided on Bumbu Bali. It seemed reasonably priced and local, so we went down and asked them to make a reservation for us. They even told us the restaurant would pick us up and drop us off.

The whole dinner experience seemed a bit surreal. We were still jetlagged so took a nap before dinner, waking up 30 minutes before we were to be picked up. You know how sometimes real life seems a bit like a dream, with your eyes processing “frames” of reality slower than it’s really occurring? Well, that’s kind of what it felt like, in a good way.

We were promptly picked up at 8PM, as promised, and driven to the restaurant. We entered through what basically looked like someone’s garage, and as we walked in all the employees loudly exclaimed “welcome to Bumbu Bali,” much like we hear “welcome to Moe’s” here in the Southeast US (if you have no clue what I’m talking about, nevermind).

The food was quite good, but the atmosphere was even better. They had Balinese dancers and music, and I loved the food presentation. We had a satay appetizer, and then shared a chicken and beef main course. The whole dining experience was great, and after dinner we were driven back to our hotel. The total came out to about $40USD, which is quite reasonable by international standards.

View from our table

View of the kitchen

Menu

Chicken satay

Main courses

We checked out at about noon after two nights at the Grand Hyatt, at which point we were picked up by the InterContinental, where we would be spending the next two nights.

Would I return to the Grand Hyatt? Well, at $160 with club lounge access, internet, and a huge suite, it was a real bargain. Were I a non-status guest, I wouldn’t spend $160 on a normal room. Basic rooms are cheaper at the InterContinental, and I find it to be much nicer. Nonetheless when I return to Bali I’d consider spending a few nights here due to the reasonable rate and great benefits.

While it’s not quite time yet, I wanted to give anyone that might be interested a heads up on a pretty nifty auction that’s coming up, which Captain Denny told me about. On May 1, as part of the Birding Festival (if you’d like to attend, click the link), a one hour ride in a United simulator will be auctioned off. The proceeds will go to the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund (which, by the way, is a fantastic charity; Captain Dahl was the Captain of United 93 on September 11, and this scholarship fund gives some lucky people the opportunity to take flight lessons when they wouldn’t otherwise be able to).

Anyway, it’s going to be a silent auction, and bidding will start at 10AM mountain time on April 30 and ends on May 1 at 5PM. I’ll post the phone number you should call if you’re interested in bidding the day before.

As far as the simulator ride goes, it’s good for you and up to three friends for an hour long ride in the simulator, along with a tour of the training center in Denver. It’s valid between May 2010 and May 2011.

Anyway, if you’re able to, this really is a nifty auction. It’s a fantastic charity, and there’s nothing cooler than being able to take a ride in a sim.

If you have any questions in the meantime feel free to email me or post here and I’ll get you an answer. And even if you’re not interested in the sim ride, consider making a donation to the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund (they accept donations via Paypal in the link to the website above).

This is hilarious:

(Tip of the hat to Fozz)

Registration is now open for Hyatt’s “Big Welcome Back” promotion. I just registered for the free nights option in anticipation of my first mattress run tomorrow. Even if you’re not a Hyatt person, you really should get in on this if you have reasonably priced local Hyatt properties.

It’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to Hendrik for sending in this one.

Correct Answer: Toys R Us New York City
Winner: Azi Ronen

If you’d like your photo featured, please email it to me at onemileatatime@hotmail.com, along with the correct answer.

United’s outsourced call centers never cease to entertain me. In the past I’ve been thanked by them for being “a loyal hundred million mile flyer,” which I’m pretty sure is hard to top, but I had something equally funny this evening.

I was calling regarding my brother’s itinerary to “San Jey-wan” (as the agent pronounced it), and I was trying to switch his mileage number on file from Mileage Plus to bmi Diamond Club. As we finished up the call the polite agent exclaimed “and I wanted to thank you so much for being a Star Alliance Silver, we appreciate your loyalty… to the airline industry.”

Ah, yes, I’m certain this particular agent appreciated my brother’s loyalty to American and Continental.

Hey, kudos to the agent for trying!

You have three days left to win a trip to Australia’s Gold Coast. Be sure to enter in the official entry thread (NOT this thread) by midnight on March 28 and you could be off to Australia, earning miles and points the whole way courtesy of Boarding Area and the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card.

I’ve posted my opinion about The CW’s new “reality” show, Fly Girls, in the past, which revolves around the lives of a handful of Virgin America flight attendants that live in a $1.5 million crashpad (where’s the reality in that?), but I couldn’t help but cringe at the new preview and interviews they’ve released.

Two of them seem somewhat normal, but the other three, well, I’m pretty sure if you combined their IQs you wouldn’t hit three digits. This looks like so much of a train wreck that I actually want to watch….

And I’ll say it again, if I were a “normal” flight attendant I’d be pissed about this show. From watching this show there’s no way in hell I’d ever have any sympathy for flight attendants. I mean, you all live in ritzy crashpads, visit “exciting” destinations all the time, can afford to shop in New York all you want, and never get old, right?