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
Thai Airways Royal Silk Business Class Lounge 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 10^th 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
Thai Airways Royal Silk Business Class Lounge 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!

Via Gary, Starwood has just announced the details of their second quarter promotion, which will be valid for stays between May 1 and July 31, 2013.

Through this promotion you earn double base Starpoints for all stays at participating hotels. Unfortunately as usual there’s a substantial list of non-participating properties. You also earn 500 bonus Starpoints for reservation made through their mobile site (iPhone or Android). Registration will be required, though isn’t open yet, so I’ll post as soon as it becomes available.

As Gary notes this isn’t really an exciting promotion, and while it won’t bring much business to Starwood, it probably won’t lose them much either. And given that this is a busy travel period, I guess they don’t really need a great promotion.

That being said, am I the only one that doesn’t really get the trend lately for mobile site booking bonuses? I understand the concept of wanting to familiarize people with their mobile site, but at the same time I can’t help but feel like no one wins if we just have to go through the hassle of making a normal booking by smart phone when we’re sitting in front of a computer. Anyone else?

I’ve learned not to turn every stay at a hotel with style over substance into an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” I’ve gotten used to it, though it won’t stop me from sharing the occasionally entertaining anecdote.

I’m staying at Le Meridien Bangkok (for about 12 hours, and it’s a last minute change for reasons I’ll explain later). I booked a few hours before arrival so wasn’t expecting an upgrade, though I did get an upgrade to a circular room. Below are the descriptions of a base room and of a circular room.

Notice anything interesting? Yes, the rooms are identical… except one has a circular bed, and they charge a nearly 70% premium for the privilege.

This raises the question — and I’m fully willing to stand alone on this since I must be missing something — does anyone actually like circular beds? I mean, I’m not sure how cutting the edges off my bed is somehow supposed to contribute to a more comfortable night of sleep.

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

I’ve gotta be honest, I’ve intentionally been putting off staying at Aloft hotels. For those of you not familiar with Aloft, it’s basically Starwood’s budget W Hotels brand. As a matter of fact all the signage at the hotel reads “A Vision of W Hotels.” Now, I don’t like W Hotels, so I figured I sure as hell wouldn’t like their “vision” either.

But I just spent the afternoon at the Aloft San Francisco Airport, and I loved it, even though I came in with a negative attitude expecting I wouldn’t like it, which makes it all even more surprising.

The front desk associate was extremely friendly, thanked me for being a Platinum guest, and assigned me a courtyard view room (considered to be the “premium” room, since the property doesn’t have suites). I instead asked for an airport view room, and got a room that quite possibly has the best airport view I’ve ever had.

Room with a view

It’s overlooking both sets of runways and the terminal, so I’ve seen everything depart from Lufthansa, to Emirates, to Japan Airlines.

Airport view

Then I had a snack at the WXYZ Bar, which was so much less pretentious than the XYZ Bar at W Hotels. The waitress was so friendly that I left a $10 tip on an $11 bill. She was extremely attentive, always smiling, and even offered me a Diet Coke to take back to my room.

WXYZ Bar

I’m literally overjoyed by this hotel and I can’t quite figure out why. As I put some thought into it, I’ve come to the conclusion that this hotel (and perhaps the brand as a whole) is just really good at managing expectations. There are no suites so there’s nothing to get upgraded to. The front desk associate did everything she could to recognize my status, though, by thanking me for being a Platinum member, giving me a coupon for a hot beverage, and proactively offering me my Platinum amenity, all in an extremely friendly way.

The room is very simple, though smells fresh and is in immaculate shape. Admittedly this is a new hotel, but still, I was impressed by the simplicity, and I found everything to be extremely easy to use and designed with the frequent traveler in mind.

And then the service in WXYZ Bar was amazing. They don’t serve any “real” food but rather just drinks and appetizers. I found what I ordered to be extremely good, better than what I’d expect from something that probably came out of a microwave.

Anyway, I’ll be switching from going out of my way to avoid Aloft properties, to going out of my way to stay at them. Kudos to Starwood on the brand.

By the way, as I mentioned above I didn’t actually stay at the hotel overnight, but rather just spent the afternoon here. I had a midnight flight out of San Francisco Airport and could only get availability from Seattle on a flight that got me into San Francisco at around 4PM, so faced with an eight hour layover I had two options:

Option 1) Eat the equivalent of 23 servings of snack mix in an airline lounge
Option 2) Go to a hotel and work from bed in my pajamas

And I actually think the numbers work out fine as well. I value an elite night credit at around $60, because at the end of the year I’d probably otherwise have to mattress run. This stay cost me $100, so at that price I’m more than happy to pick up an elite night credit and essentially pay $40 for a comfortable place to relax for the afternoon and evening.

Anyone else love Alofts?