Via the Huffington Post:
The Burj Al Arab, the “world’s only 7-Star hotel” is redefining the boundaries of the absurdly luxurious by issuing every guest their own 24-carat gold iPad.
In fairness, the hotel really didn’t have enough gold as it is…
(Tip of the hat to Mike)
While hotel chains have loyalty programs to take care of guests that are loyal to the brand as a whole, it’s not unusual for individual hotels to go out of their way to take care of frequent guests. For example, if you frequent a particular property they may upgrade you to a suite ahead of an elite member, or offer you free lounge access or breakfast even if you’re not otherwise entitled to it. It all depends on your individual relationship with the hotel, though it can be just as rewarding as elite status (if not more).
Hyatt House made an announcement today that’s interesting because it doesn’t reward those loyal to Hyatt as a whole or those loyal to a particular hotel, but rather those loyal to the Hyatt House brand. The recognition is called “Very Important Resident,” and is for those staying a total of 30 or more nights at Hyatt House properties. The benefits include the following:
Admittedly there’s quite a bit of fluff in there, like “personalized service” (don’t they offer that to everyone?), a “VIP Key Card” (can’t wait to see entitled guests start slapping down their room keys), and a “VIP Tour” (might be useful if you run out of Ambien). But there’s also quite a bit of substance to the benefits, like the grocery shopping service, $10 food and beverage voucher, voucher for a washer and dryer cycle, and a welcome amenity of your choice (sounds a whole lot like Kimpton).
Kudos to Hyatt House for the innovation and while I doubt I’ll qualify, I think it’s a really smart move on their part.
Now if only they’d start a similar program for Park Hyatts… 
Introduction
Aloft San Francisco Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge San Francisco
Cathay Pacific First Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to Singapore
St. Regis Singapore
Singapore Airlines Silver Kris Lounge Singapore
SilkAir Business Class Singapore to Koh Samui
Conrad Koh Samui
Bangkok Airways Economy Class Koh Samui to Bangkok
Le Meridien Bangkok
Royal Jordanian Business Class Bangkok to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to San Francisco
Bangkok is one of my favorite cities in the world as far as luxury hotels go. I can’t think of any other city with as many reasonably priced five star hotels as Bangkok. So while I would have loved to sample another great luxury hotel in Bangkok, the purpose of this stay was a bit different. We were in Bangkok for just a night, and when it comes to not-so-classy nightlife the location of the Le Meridien is tough to beat, as it’s close to Patpong Night Market.
I’ll keep this review pretty short, as I’ve stayed at the Le Meridien before, and wrote an extensive review of my stay here, so check that out for full details of the hotel. Instead I’ll just focus on what was different this stay.
We had booked the Le Meridien the day of our arrival and it cost a bit over $100USD for the night, a rate at which it didn’t make sense to use points. The website wasn’t showing any suites available, so we had no expectations of a suite upgrade.
Check-in was efficient and we were informed that we had been upgraded. I wasn’t expecting any sort of an upgrade, so I was impressed. We were assigned room 2218, which was a “circular” room on the 22nd floor.
The room was just under 400 square feet and featured a king size circular bed, a couch with seating for three, a desk, and a flat screen TV.
Circular room
Circular room
Circular bed
Desk Read More…
While Hyatt and Starwood do a lot to differentiate between mid-tier and top-tier status, Hilton and Marriott are kind of the opposite — they don’t do enough to differentiate between mid-tier and top-tier status.
Last year I got the Citi® Hilton HHonors™ Reserve Card (affiliate link), which comes with Hilton HHonors Gold status for as long as you have the card. That’s a huge benefit for a $95 annual fee, given that Gold status gets you complimentary internet and breakfast/lounge access. As far as I’m concerned those are the single most valuable hotel benefits, and justify the annual fee after just one or two stays.
Conrad Singapore Executive Lounge
But the card also offers Diamond status after spending $40,000 on the card in a year. While having the card for Gold status is a no brainer, for the better part of a year I’ve been pondering whether it makes sense to put $40,000 of spend on the card for Diamond status. As far as I’m concerned the two most valuable benefits of Diamond status are as follows:
In retrospect I should have probably just been happy with Gold status, though I had started working towards the $40,000 of spend before the HHonors devaluation was announced, and at that point figured I might as well go all the way, and now I’m a Diamond member. If it proves worthwhile, great. If it doesn’t, at least I can report back and suggest others don’t go for Diamond status.
I’ve actually had very good luck as an HHonors Gold member. I’ve never been denied lounge access. That being said, I can appreciate the peace of mind of knowing it’s guaranteed. But the suite upgrade benefit is what confuses me, and what I’d love to hear from existing Diamond members about. I also have top tier status with Hyatt and Starwood, and their room upgrade policies are straightforward. Hyatt upgrades you to the best available non-suite, though also gives you four confirmed suite upgrades annually that can be used to lock in a suite at the time of booking. Meanwhile Starwood upgrades you to the best available standard suite at check-in, meaning if a suite is available you’re entitled to it (not saying it always goes that smoothly, but that’s the policy). If you get 50 elite night credits with them, they also give you 10 suite night awards, which can confirm a suite upgrade five days out.
Then you have Hilton, which has this confusing benefit (bolding mine):
Complimentary room upgrades for Gold and Diamond HHonors members may include the next-best available room from the room type booked. Upgrades may also be rooms with desirable views, corner rooms, rooms on high floors, rooms with special amenities, or rooms on Executive Floors, as identified by each property. Room upgrades, for Diamond members only, may also include suites.
The suite upgrade benefit is actually new as of last year. So if my interpretation is correct you receive suite upgrades at the hotel’s discretion. It doesn’t matter whether there are 100 suites available, what matters is the mood of the front desk agent. So, Diamond members, how do you approach suite upgrades at Hilton hotels. Do you:
a) Not care and let them assign you whatever they want?
b) Ask nicely at check-in whether they might have any suite upgrades available?
c) Be a bit more suggestive and say “I noticed online that you’re still selling suites for tonight, do you have any suite upgrades available?”
d) Pull out your Diamond card and pet giraffe, and refuse to move until they give you the presidential suite and waive the pet cleanup fee?
And how often do you actually get suite upgrades?
Staying at my first Hilton abroad as a Diamond member next week, so I want to be sure I’m using the right approach.
Introduction
Aloft San Francisco Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge San Francisco
Cathay Pacific First Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to Singapore
St. Regis Singapore
Singapore Airlines Silver Kris Lounge Singapore
SilkAir Business Class Singapore to Koh Samui
Conrad Koh Samui
Bangkok Airways Economy Class Koh Samui to Bangkok
Le Meridien Bangkok
Royal Jordanian Business Class Bangkok to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to San Francisco
As I discussed in the introduction post, while the initial plan for this trip was to go to Bali, Hilton’s decision to more or less castrate their HHonors program caused us to change our plans and go to Koh Samui instead. The Conrad was available for four nights on an AXON award (available to those with a co-branded Hilton American Express card) for 145,000 points. The hotel went from ordinarily costing 50,000 points per night to 95,000 points per night. Meanwhile category 10 AXON awards will cost 300,000 points starting in a few weeks, meaning the cost of this stay has more than doubled.
The Conrad is an all villa property located on the southern tip of Koh Samui, almost exactly on the opposite side of the island as the airport. We had arranged transport with the hotel in advance, and it cost about $50USD for the hotel’s Toyota SUV (which was comfortable). The ride to the hotel took just a bit under an hour, and the last part of the drive was especially interesting, as we drove up a series of extremely steep hills to the top of the resort.
At the top of the hill was the resort’s reception area, which was open air. The views were stunning.
Resort entrance
View from the resort’s driveway
View from the lobby
It was early, still before 11AM, so they asked us to take a seat while they processed our check-in. They also offered us cold towels and some tea.
Cold towels and tea Read More…
Club Carlson has just unveiled the details of their summer promotion, which is valid for stays between May 13 and July 21, 2013. Through this promotion Club Carlson members can earn 10,000 bonus points (in addition to the 20 points per dollar ordinarily earned) for every paid stay of at least two nights. There’s no limit to how many times you can earn the bonus, and registration is required prior to the first check-out in order to be eligible.
I value Club Carlson points at about 0.4 cents each, so this is basically a $40 “return” after every two night stay. Club Carlson redemptions range from 9,000 to 50,000 points per night, so this isn’t nearly as generous as the giveaways in the past where they offered a free night at any property after a single stay.
Then again, that type of a promotion was intended to encourage people to become loyal and wasn’t sustainable long term (much like “Faster Free Nights” wasn’t sustainable at Hyatt), so as far as “normal” promotions go, this isn’t half bad.
Keep in mind if you have the Club Carlson co-branded credit card you’re essentially getting a “buy one get one free” on all award redemptions, which can substantially increase the value of their points.
Introduction
Aloft San Francisco Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge San Francisco
Cathay Pacific First Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to Singapore
St. Regis Singapore
Singapore Airlines Silver Kris Lounge Singapore
SilkAir Business Class Singapore to Koh Samui
Conrad Koh Samui
Bangkok Airways Economy Class Koh Samui to Bangkok
Le Meridien Bangkok
Royal Jordanian Business Class Bangkok to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to San Francisco
Singapore is one of those hotel markets I really struggle with, as I outlined in this post. I’ve stayed at the Conrad, Crowne Plaza, Grand Hyatt, InterContinental, Marina Bay Sands, and Shangri-La, though have wanted to try the St. Regis since it opened about five years ago. Rates have always been outrageous when I looked, though for this stay the St. Regis was about $290USD. For a one night stay that seemed worthwhile for the sake of reviewing the property.
The St. Regis is a category six Starwood property, making it 20,000 Starpoints per night, or 10,000 Starpoints plus $180 using “cash & points.” I considered outright paying for the stay a better choice than either of the points options. I even applied one of my suite night awards to the reservation (Platinum members with at least 50 nights per year earn 10 of them), and five days out was confirmed into a St. Regis Suite, which I was pleased with.
We got to the St. Regis before 1PM after taking a taxi from the airport.
The exterior of the hotel was beautiful, and we were assisted by two bellman as we pulled up.
Hotel exterior
We were escorted to the lobby, and invited to take a seat at one of the check-in desks on the left. I do love how most St. Regis properties let you “sit down” while checking in, though far too often it’s not well executed with long queues. That wasn’t the case here.
Lobby
Lobby
The agent checking us in was friendly, though informed us our St. Regis Suite wasn’t ready yet (I had emailed the hotel in advance to inform them of our early arrival time, though of course they have no way of guaranteeing that). They suggested we leave our bags there and come back at around 3PM when our room would hopefully be ready. Given that we were leaving very early the following morning and didn’t care that much about the type of room, I asked about the possibility of downgrading to a standard room, which they said they could do, though after calling Starwood they said my suite upgrade couldn’t be redeposited.
As an alternative the agent offered a further upgrade to a Caroline Astor Suite for 150SGD. Fair enough offer, though since we were leaving early the following morning and planned on spending most of our time outside the hotel, I wasn’t planning on spending even more money on the stay.
So I asked when a suite would realistically be available. She said both St. Regis Suites were still occupied and they both had 4PM check-out, so we’d get whichever opened up first.
Okay, check-in time is 3PM, and realistically it could have very well been 5PM before we had our room. So I asked about the possibility of getting a temporary room until the suite was ready. After checking with the duty manager the agent offered us the Caroline Astor Suite at no extra cost. I appreciated the fact that the agent was able to apply logic to the situation rather than just “going by the rules.” I would have been really ticked if we could only check in at 5PM due to Platinums checking out late, so I’m happy they were proactive.
We were escorted up to our room on the 10th floor (1001). I was mildly entertained by the fact that the elevator had a small bench. Totally necessary, right?
Elevator Read More…
Introduction
Aloft San Francisco Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge San Francisco
Cathay Pacific First Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to Singapore
St. Regis Singapore
Singapore Airlines Silver Kris Lounge Singapore
SilkAir Business Class Singapore to Koh Samui
Conrad Koh Samui
Bangkok Airways Economy Class Koh Samui to Bangkok
Le Meridien Bangkok
Royal Jordanian Business Class Bangkok to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to San Francisco
Due to award availability our flight was arriving from Seattle at 4PM and leaving for Hong Kong at midnight, so we had an eight hour layover in San Francisco. When I have a layover that long I prefer to just book a reasonably priced room at an airport hotel. I value a stay credit (towards top tier status with Hyatt or Starwood) at about $60, and in this case the brand new Aloft San Francisco Airport was $100 with tax. So I was basically paying an additional $40 above what I value a stay credit at to have a place to rest for the afternoon. For that matter I’ve actually wanted to try out Aloft hotels since I’ve yet to stay at one, and I was curious what they were like given that they are “a vision of W Hotels” (which isn’t something to aspire to, in my opinion).
If nothing else, having a hotel room to relax in for an eight hour layover saves me at least 2,000 calories worth of snack mix that I’d otherwise be munching on in an airport lounge, as opposed to a hotel room, where I have a quiet place to work.
We took the shuttle from the airport, which is shared with the Westin. It took about 10 minutes to get to the hotel, and we were the only ones to exit at the Aloft.
Hotel exterior
Hotel exterior
Once inside the hotel I found the circular check-in desk to the right, where a cheery agent checked us in in less than a minute. She was extremely professional and thanked me for being a Platinum member and offered us two vouchers for complimentary hot beverages. I also requested an airport view room, which she laughed at, though gladly complied with.
Lobby
Drink vouchers Read More…
Introduction
Aloft San Francisco Airport
Cathay Pacific Lounge San Francisco
Cathay Pacific First Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to Singapore
St. Regis Singapore
Singapore Airlines Silver Kris Lounge Singapore
SilkAir Business Class Singapore to Koh Samui
Conrad Koh Samui
Bangkok Airways Economy Class Koh Samui to Bangkok
Le Meridien Bangkok
Royal Jordanian Business Class Bangkok to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to San Francisco
I have a confession to make. Even though I (in part) plan other peoples’ travel for a living, I suck at planning my own trips. This is probably because I’m both a perfectionist and have tried just about every premium cabin product out there, so I’m always looking for a new “high,” though I’ve come to realize there are very few new “highs” out there.
The trip planning started innocently enough. Last April I booked a Cathay Pacific first class ticket to Bali for this March. As an Executive Platinum member with American I can always make changes or even cancel as the departure date approaches at no cost, and the fact is that Cathay Pacific first class award space is outrageously good, especially out of San Francisco. They usually release two first class award seats per flight, and at 135,000 AAdvantage miles per passenger it’s an absolute bargain.
But as the departure date approached my trip changed completely. Not only that, but I dragged someone along with me thanks to how good last minute space is. As a matter of fact not a single segment remained the same as I originally planned, and I made changes literally up until two hours before departure for the outbound, and changes to the return while in Asia.
Initially the idea was to go to Bali, but once the Hilton devaluation was announced I figured going to the Conrad Koh Samui would make more sense given how much it’s going up in price. The issue is that OneWorld doesn’t fly to Koh Samui, so it’s not quite that straightforward. You really have a few options for getting there. You can book Cathay Pacific as far as Singapore and then grab a SilkAir flight from Singapore to Koh Samui, you can fly Cathay Pacific as far as Bangkok and then grab a Thai Airways or Bangkok Airways flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui, or you can fly Dragonair as far as Phuket and grab a Bangkok Airways flight from there to Koh Samui. There are other ways too, but those are the easiest.
I’ll spare you guys the gory planning details, but in the end the routing looked as follows:
3/22 AS328 Seattle to San Francisco departing 2:00PM arriving 4:19PM
3/23 CX873 San Francisco to Hong Kong departing 12:05AM arriving 6:00AM (+1 day)
3/24 CX691 Hong Kong to Singapore departing 8:00AM arriving 11:50AM
3/25 MI772 Singapore to Koh Samui departing 9:00AM arriving 9:50AM
3/29 PG1172 Koh Samui to Bangkok departing 6:50PM arriving 7:55PM
3/30 RJ182 Bangkok to Hong Kong departing 3:25PM arriving 7:00PM
3/31 CX872 Hong Kong to San Francisco departing 12:30AM and arriving 10:10PM (-1 day)
3/31 AS311 San Francisco to Seattle departing 9:15AM and arriving 11:17AM
As I mentioned earlier, the “shell” of the trip was taken care of with 135,000 AAdvantage miles per person in first class, which included the segments between Seattle and San Francisco, San Francisco and Hong Kong, Hong Kong and Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong, Hong Kong and San Francisco, and San Francisco and Seattle. The total taxes on that ticket were about $100.
Cathay Pacific first class
Then in Singapore I decided to book the St. Regis. As I wrote about in this blog post, I find Singapore to be one of the most frustrating hotel markets for those trying to redeem points. I’ve stayed at the Conrad, Crowne Plaza, Grand Hyatt, InterContinental, Marina Bay Sands, and Shangri-La. So I figured it was finally time to try the St. Regis, especially given we were there for just a night. The rate was 360SGD (~$290USD), which seemed like a better deal than redeeming for a free night or cash & points, given that this is a category six hotel.
St. Regis Singapore suite
Then I used Singapore KrisFlyer miles (transferred from American Express Membership Rewards) for the tickets between Singapore and Koh Samui, which cost 17,000 miles per person (ordinarily 20,000, but there’s a 15% discount for booking online), plus about $80 in taxes and fuel surcharges.
SilkAir business class
The Conrad Koh Samui cost a cool 145,000 HHonors points for the four nights, compared to the paid rates of over $1,000USD per night. Not a bad value, if you ask me!
Then we paid for coach tickets on Bangkok Airways from Koh Samui to Bangkok, which cost about $100USD per person. I would have paid for business class (which retails for just a modest premium), though the only flight available was one of their aircraft with just one cabin.
“Meal” on 50 minute Bangkok Airways coach flight
In Bangkok we booked the Le Meridien, which I have stayed at before. It was $100USD per night and close to where we wanted to be for a quick overnight in Bangkok.
Le Meridien Bangkok
Anyway, since I have lots of upcoming travel (though fortunately not much this month) I’ll try to post this trip report pretty efficiently. If you have any questions or comments just let me know!
If there’s one common theme of hotel loyalty programs in 2013 it’s devaluations. We’ve seen them from Hilton, Marriott, Priority Club, and Starwood. So when I see a headline about hotel loyalty program changes I immediately assume the worst.
That was the case when I saw the Club Carlson headline of their 2013 hotel category changes. They’re not actually changing the number of points required for a stay at a given category, but rather are switching around the categories of many of their hotels.
Club Carlson’s award rates
Except this time around it’s not actually bad for most people. About 100 hotels are going up in cost, while about 150 hotels are going down in cost. Only two hotels remain in the same category.
The bad news is that the change kicks in on May 1, 2013, so you literally have less than 48 hours to lock in redemptions at the old rates. For some people this change will be negative. If a hotel you frequent is going up in category of course you won’t like this change. Also keep in mind that you can get the difference in points starting May 1 for any booking you make now that goes down in cost.
Loading ...
