Earlier today I wrote about Priority Club’s latest PointBreaks list being unveiled, and I wanted to mention a few “gems” (aka InterContinental hotels) on the list, now that they’ve actually updated the pricing of the PointBreaks hotels. This is one of the better lists I’ve seen in a while. Once again, through PointBreaks, select Priority Club hotels are available for 5,000 points per night, as opposed to the usual cost of 10,000-50,000 points per night. It’s also worth noting up front that as a rule, Priority Club doesn’t honor elite benefits on award stays. They’re the only major brand that doesn’t do so, and frankly they don’t really seem to care in that regard.

Some of the better hotels on the list include the following:

InterContinental Resort Tahiti

Note: If you’re vacationing in Tahiti/Bora Bora this probably isn’t the hotel you’ll want to spend all your time at since there are nicer resorts, though it’s certainly a nice stopover point, or place to relax for a few days that’s a bit more affordable.

InterContinental Hamburg

Note: This hotel is now 50,000 points per night (though way overpriced at that), so this is 90% off.

InterContinental Shanghai Puxi

Note: I’m going to Shanghai very soon and sorely tempted to cancel my reservation at the Park Hyatt Shanghai and save $300+ per night, but apparently the InterContinental Shanghai Puxi doesn’t honor elite benefits on award stays. What would you do for a four night stay? Spend $300/night for a suite in the incredible Park Hyatt Shanghai, or “rough it” for 5,000 points per night at the InterContinental?

InterContinental Jakarta

InterContinental Phnom Penh

Anyway, there are some pretty good deals to be had here, assuming you can commit quickly. Keep in mind that PointBreaks stays are fully refundable, so you’re always better off locking in something now and canceling it later.

Happy booking!

Introduction
Swiss First Class Lounge Chicago
Swiss First Class Chicago to Zurich
Swiss First Class Lounge Zurich
Lufthansa Business Class Zurich to Frankfurt
InterContinental Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt
Lufthansa A380 First Class Frankfurt to Tokyo
Park Hyatt Tokyo
ANA First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita, Lufthansa A380 First Class Tokyo to Frankfurt
Westin Grand Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt, Lufthansa First Class Frankfurt to Orlando

For whatever reason the InterContinental Frankfurt has become my go-to hotel in Frankfurt, and I’ve previously reviewed it here and here. I seem to book it by default without ever looking at other options, since Frankfurt really isn’t all that of an exciting market on the hotel front. With that in mind, I’ll keep this review nice and short.

The hotel is only about a five minute walk from the train station, so despite the cold weather, the walk wasn’t all that bad even for my Floridian self.

Exterior

Check-in was efficient and friendly, and I was informed that we were upgraded to a studio suite with club access. At a rate of 107 Euros per night all-in, that’s a pretty great deal

The studio suites are corners rooms, and in this case we were assigned a room on the 18th floor.

It’s a lot more on the “studio” than “suite” side, given that it’s basically just a large standard room with a seating area.

Studio Suite

Studio Suite

The hotel has a pretty decent minibar, which is complimentary as a Royal Ambassador member. Naturally I immediately popped open an ice cold lukewarm Fanta.

Minibar

The welcome amenity consisted of a chocolate bar and bottle of water. While not great, it’s more enjoyable for me than a bottle of wine.

Welcome amenity

The Club InterContinental is located on the top floor and boasts one of the most extensive food spreads of any club lounge I frequent. Because it was the week after Christmas service was limited. In the evenings they had a menu where you could order just about anything from the restaurant, while in the mornings the lounge was closed, so club guests were entitled to breakfast in the restaurant.

I should probably point out that traveling the week around Christmas as an elite member is pretty awesome, since club lounges consistently have limited hours. In 2010 I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Mainz the day before Christmas, and the club lounge was open in the evenings and closed in the mornings, meaning I got complimentary restaurant breakfast in addition to the evening club spread as a Gold Passport Diamond member. That same year I stayed at the InterContinental Frankfurt Christmas Day, and because the club lounge was closed, I was allowed a table at their Christmas Buffet, which would have cost more than the room rate I paid had I made a separate reservation.

Club InterContinental

Club InterContinental

Anyway, since we could select off a menu in the evening I went with a caesar salad and tomato soup. I should have known better than to order either of those things in Germany, though I’m not much of a “meat and potatoes” kinda guy.

Dinner in Club InterContinental

I spent most of the evening watching German TV. If you think Judge Judy is scripted, you ain’t seen German “reality” TV!

The following morning we had breakfast in the restaurant. Given we’d be flying the Lufthansa Airbus 380 and visiting the First Class Terminal I only had eight rolls and Nutella a light breakfast.

Restaurant

Buffet

At around 9:30AM we checked out and took a cab to the airport. Usually I’d take the train, but given that we were departing from the First Class Terminal it was a lot more convenient to take a cab.

As usual the InterContinental Frankfurt didn’t disappoint. While it could certainly use a renovation, the hotel gets the job done, and the rates are always reasonable. As a Royal Ambassador member I think it’s one of the best values in Frankfurt.

Introduction
Swiss First Class Lounge Chicago
Swiss First Class Chicago to Zurich
Swiss First Class Lounge Zurich
Lufthansa Business Class Zurich to Frankfurt
InterContinental Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt
Lufthansa A380 First Class Frankfurt to Tokyo
Park Hyatt Tokyo
ANA First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita, Lufthansa A380 First Class Tokyo to Frankfurt
Westin Grand Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt, Lufthansa First Class Frankfurt to Orlando

Back in May I had the opportunity to fly first class on the Qantas Airbus 380 (see this trip report), and ever since I’ve been obsessed. I remember first seeing pictures of the Airbus 380 when it was in production and thinking “okay, what’s the big deal?” It wasn’t until after I flew it that I realized just how passenger-friendly the plane is. Not only is it spacious and does it usually have cutting edge first class products, but what really sets it apart for me is how quiet the plane is and the awesome tail camera, which takes the flying experience to a whole new level.

The thing is, I’m not just obsessed with first class, miles, and travel, but my first passion was actually aviation and planes. I started working on my private pilot’s license at the age of 14, and my love for planes hasn’t died off one bit since.

So I’ve made it a personal mission to stalk fly the Airbus 380 every opportunity I get, at least in a premium cabin. Hell, if there were an Airbus 380 with first class award availability flying to Topeka with a forced six day layover I’d take it in a heartbeat.

Which brings me to this trip. With the exception of Qantas, no airline consistently releases first class award space on the Airbus 380 to partner loyalty programs. That doesn’t stop me from looking hourly every now and then to see if there’s a mistake or change in policy. During one of my late night sessions with the ANA tool and Continental award search tool, I happened to stumble upon some Lufthansa Airbus 380 first class award space between Frankfurt and Tokyo. It was a complete coincidence, though woke me up pretty quickly. I was actually shocked to see that most dates in late December and early January had multiple first class award seats on the Airbus 380.

I assumed it was a glitch, so opened a different browser to verify availability with ANA, Aeroplan, and Continental. Yep, the space was actually there.

Now, admittedly there’s probably a reason there was first class award space to Tokyo right after Christmas — Tokyo isn’t exactly the warmest place that time of year. But still, this trip was about the Airbus 380, and even if it would be cold in Tokyo, I’d deal with it and still enjoy the city.

After playing around with availability I found a flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo with first class award space, and then two days after arriving a flight from Tokyo to Frankfurt with first class award space. Since there were two seats, I convinced a friend to come along.

I should mention that this all occurred just three days before departure, so there wasn’t all that much time to plan. Now the challenge became finding award space between the US and Germany. Since I was only planning a few days in advance I was confident the space would open up, as Lufthansa is great about opening up unsold first class seats to awards last minute. So for the time being I just held the flights between Frankfurt and Tokyo using US Airways miles. They allow a three day courtesy hold, so I left the reservation like that until Christmas Day, the day before I knew we’d have to depart.

And sure enough, award space did open up that day between the US and Europe. For the outbound, Swiss had space between Chicago and Zurich in first class (their new product no less!), while Lufthansa opened up award space from Frankfurt to Orlando for the return. I really lucked out with that, since US Airways doesn’t allow any changes after the original departure flight, and that return award space opened up literally the night before I was leaving. The stars had aligned and it was meant to be… or something like that.

In the end my itinerary looked as follows:

12/26 Swiss 9 Chicago to Zurich departing at 7:10PM and arriving at 10:55AM (+1 day)
12/27 Lufthansa 1191 Zurich to Frankfurt departing at 1:45PM and arriving at 2:50PM
12/28 Lufthansa 710 Frankfurt to Tokyo departing at 1:25PM and arriving at 8:35AM (+1 day)
12/31 Lufthansa 711 Tokyo to Frankfurt departing at 10:25AM and arriving at 2:15PM
01/01 Lufthansa 464 Frankfurt to Orlando departing at 1:35PM and arriving at 5:55PM

Given that we were looking at travel the day after Christmas, it’s no surprise that there was no award space to Chicago. However, as some of you may remember, I was 13 miles short of requalifying for Executive Platinum with American, so this worked out perfectly. While American charged $200 for the one-way ticket from Tampa to Chicago, it was well worth it to lock in Executive Platinum status for the following year.

My favorite thing about the whole trip was the cost. I used just 120,000 US Airways miles, which I had purchased through one of their mileage purchase promotions for under $1,800. Taxes and fees were roughly $200, so I paid about $2,000 for four longhaul international first class segments on some of my favorite airlines, including two on the Airbus 380. I always live in fear of US Airways devaluing their award chart, so this was a nice way to burn some miles guilt free.

As far as hotels go, in Tokyo I redeemed 22,000 Gold Passport points per night for the Park Hyatt Tokyo — an absolute no brainer, given the number of good things I’ve heard about this place (and it didn’t disappoint). We also had two overnights in Frankfurt, one in each direction. I decided to book the InterContinental for our outbound stay at a rate of 107 Euros, and the Westin Grand Frankfurt on the return at a rate of 129 Euros.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy, and see you in Chicago tomorrow.

Priority Club seems to have recently changed the terms and conditions for the Priority Club program, specifically regarding earning points at InterContinental hotels. While Priority Club members earn 10 base points per dollar spent at most Priority Club properties (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, etc.), members have always earned a flat 2,000 points per InterContinental stay. As a Platinum member you’d earn an extra 1,000 points, and as a Royal Ambassador you’d earn another 1,000 points on top of that, for a grand total of 4,000 points.

In other words, you’ll earn the same number of points for a one night stay at the InterContinental Tampa, which costs you $89, as you would for a two week stay in a presidential suite which costs you $100,000+. I never really minded the policy given that most of my Priority Club stays are shorter and not at their more expensive properties, though I understand why this policy ticked off a lot of people.

Anyway, it seems they’ll be updating the terms and conditions of the Priority Club program as of February 15, as follows:

-Effective 2012 February 15, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean plus all Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, and Holiday Inn Express hotel brands worldwide, you will receive ten (10) points for each USD dollar or local currency equivalent paid toward Eligible Charges on your individual hotel room bill, when you pay Qualifying Room Rates, or the applicable airline miles

So it looks like points earning at InterContinental hotels in the US, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean will be based on spend, while it will remain the fixed points amount for other regions. I think the policy change makes a lot of sense, since members will come out ahead here for all stays that cost more than $200. At the same time I’m kind of curious why the change only applies to certain regions.

Introduction
Etihad Check-in & The Lounge JFK
Etihad Airways First Class New York to Abu Dhabi
Park Hyatt Dubai
Exploring Dubai
Afternoon Tea at the Burj Al Arab
InterContinental Abu Dhabi
Touring the Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
Etihad Check-in & First Class Lounge Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways First Class Abu Dhabi to New York
Conclusion

This was another eye opening trip on many levels.

On the airline front this was a trip I was really excited about, since I had heard so many great things about Etihad Airways. While the seat and entertainment were phenomenal, I didn’t think the service or food was as good as that of many Asian/European airlines. Having now tried Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, I have to say that Middle Eastern airlines are a bit overrated, in my opinion. I’d still like to try Emirates and Gulf Air, though, to see if either of them are a bit more consistent on the service front.

As far as destinations go, the UAE was fascinating. It’s certainly not at the top of my list if I’m looking to explore history and culture, though it’s an exciting place nonetheless. Most surprising to me was that I actually found Abu Dhabi to be at least as exciting as Dubai. It’s a city that’s growing quickly, and has much more to offer than Dubai, in my opinion. I also had no clue that Abu Dhabi is actually a beach destination, especially Saadiyat Island, where the Park Hyatt is located. There are literally about a dozen resorts under construction on Saadiyat Island, and I’m certain it’ll be come a world class beach destination when construction is complete.

At the same time, the UAE is a bit like Disney World, in that there’s not a whole lot of substance to it. So while I’m sure it’s a destination I’ll return to, I’m not rushing to book my ticket.

Thanks again for reading, and stay tuned — next up is my quick trip to Tokyo on the Lufthansa Airbus 380..

Introduction
Etihad Check-in & The Lounge JFK
Etihad Airways First Class New York to Abu Dhabi
Park Hyatt Dubai
Exploring Dubai
Afternoon Tea at the Burj Al Arab
InterContinental Abu Dhabi
Touring the Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
Etihad Check-in & First Class Lounge Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways First Class Abu Dhabi to New York
Conclusion

I had booked the InterContinental Abu Dhabi about 10 months out at a rate of 1100AED per night (~$300USD) for a club city view king room, as I was using a buy one get one free certificate for the second night, bringing my cost down to ~$150USD per night. A day before my arrival the Priority Club website showed me as being upgraded to a deluxe suite, which seems to be the standard Royal Ambassador upgrade.

The ride from Dubai took about 75 minutes, and I arrived in the early evening.

Once inside I proceeded to check-in, where I was promptly helped by a very charming lady from the Ukraine (if I recall correctly). She processed my check-in and escorted me to my suite on the 18th floor.

Lobby

Hallway

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