Posted by Seth on August 18, 2011 under Review, Trip Reports | 
The Thai Airways lounges in Bangkok have been oft regaled. Their first class passengers, particularly, are well spoilt with hour-long massages and excellent dining options. Alas, my trip was only departing in business class so I was relegated to the lesser service. I know that the first class treatment must be nicer but the business class option was pretty darn impressive.
Check-in was handled well, with the added bonus of having seats at the check-in counters rather than having to stand while dealing with bag tags and seat assignments. I would have been happier if they tagged my bags all the way through to my final destination rather than just to Johannesburg, but that ended up not making a difference as I had to claim and drop the bags again anyways after clearing customs. And the private security and immigration facilities just for premium passengers was terrific, not in the least because I was the only one in line as I passed through.
Thai operates a bunch of lounges at Suvarnabhumi Airport covering First and Business Class passengers as well as Star Alliance Gold elite members. But they reserve access to the largest lounge for only premium cabin passengers. The services were, in my experience, nearly identical at the main lounge as in the others. Most notable was the presence of a duty free shop inside the biz lounge. And the dedicated lounge was much larger. None of the lounges were particularly crowded while I was there, but I attribute that mostly to my off-peak departure time (6pm) more than anything else. I can imagine that the *G lounges would get quite crowded at peak departure times.
All of the lounges offered up plenty of beverage options as well as various snack foods, ranging from soup to steamed buns to shumai to noodles. I’m drooling again just remembering them.
All the talk I’d previously heard about the first class departures spa and massages neglected to mention that business class passengers also get a complimentary treatment. No, it isn’t an hour long nor a full body work over, but you do get a choice of four half hour treatments. I didn’t realize this until I’d already spent an hour – and most of my preflight lounge time – sitting in the dedicated business class passenger lounge. Whoopsie. Fortunately there was just enough time for me to get my shoulder and neck massage prior to the flight. But shame on me for not doing the research I should have.
Following my massage it was time to meander out to the gate area – about 15 minutes away – and prepare for the flight itself. Thanks to the quality of the pre-flight pampering I was afforded in the lounge and the spa I wasn’t too worried about the in-flight experience.
I’ve been in the Lufthansa First Class Terminal and their dedicated First Class Lounges. I’ve been in the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class lounge. And I’ve been in any number of lounges operated by other carriers for elites and business class passengers. Putting aside the cool factor of the drive from the FCT to the airplane, I’m not sure that much out there beats the quality of the pre-flight pampering that Thai offers is pretty impressive. In the heat of the moment, relaxing following my massage with a glass of tea, I was convinced that it was the best ever. I’ve backed down from that a bit, mostly because the dining options that Lufthansa offers for the FCL/FCT are better by far than the business options that Thai has.
But I could quite reasonably argue that the Thai product is the best Business Class option I’ve experienced. Up against Virgin’s flagship Clubhouse in London‘s Heathrow I’d say that Thai does a quite respectable job. Less crowded, easier access to the spa treatments and better tasting food, if not quite the same variety. No waitress service but the open self-service bar didn’t suck.
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Tags: Bangkok, elite status, London, Lounge, Lufthansa, Photos, RTW2011, Star Alliance, Thai Air, Trip Report, Virgin Atlantic
Posted by Seth on July 31, 2011 under Trip Reports |
Yes, it was only 9am local time when I walked into your bar an ordered a pilsner (and a water). Yes, I was the only person drinking in the lounge at that hour.
Yes, I am ridiculous.
Still, you shouldn’t judge me. You don’t know what time zone my brain was on at the time (yours, sadly) or whether I have a real problem or am just thirsty. You don’t even know if yours was the first beer I consumed that day (it wasn’t).
All I’m saying is that when I pass through a lounge, I might not be so normal. Actually, I know I’m not so normal. Still, don’t judge me. After all, I really do like beer.
Also, thank you for singing "Easy like Sunday morning" to me as you served said beer. I had, in fact, forgotten what day it was. No, really, I had no idea.
Posted by Seth on April 7, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points |
There was a time that the American Express Platinum Charge Card was a tremendous value for road warriors. The list of benefits was impressive, from airport lounges to point accrual to other perks, like concierge service. And the benefits covered a broad chunk of the travel landscape.
In recent years, however, the shine has started to fade. Some of it was little things, like the concierge service effectively becoming an operator with OpenTable and Google trying to find stuff that might work. There were some big things, too, like partners dropping out of the Membership Rewards program at an alarming pace. Sure, some others showed up, but the value was slipping. When AmEx raised their foreign exchange fees to 2.7% that was yet another reason to keep the card in my wallet rather than whip it out as I wandered the globe; the points just aren’t worth paying that much extra for on every transaction, especially when better cards offer 0% f/x rates.
The final nail in the coffin seemed to be the decision by Continental to withdraw from the Membership Rewards and Airport Lounge programs. This move was announced back in September 2010 and it isn’t much of a surprise considering how tightly Continental has been tied to Chase in recent years. They even have their own premium credit card that includes lounge membership and some other travel benefits, and a similarly high annual fee.
And then AmEx was mostly quiet. There have been some ads and AmEx has shrink-wrapped the AirTrain at Newark touting the features of their Membership Rewards program to its customers at Continental’s hub. But the actual feature set hadn’t really gone anywhere useful. Until now.
First off, the end of foreign exchange fees finally happened. It was promised months ago in competitive response to Chase, Citi and a couple other issuers. Fortunately it has finally happened.
There is also the $200 “fee” credit that can be assigned to any one airline. Designated to offset baggage, food or other fees during a trip, this is a pretty sweet deal. It is not without fine print, but for the most part it is a solid benefit.
To address the lounge issue AmEx added US Airways as a partner last July. That was pretty good, but not so useful for international travel. That move was trumped by the addition this week of Priority Pass Select membership for card holders. The access is only for the primary card holder, not for guests and not for additional gold card holders, but it is still a pretty solid benefit, particularly overseas.
And, just for kicks, AmEx is also giving card holders free enrollment in the Global Entry program. This last one is actually the benefit I’ll probably get the most value out of. Sure, it is only $100, but I almost certainly wouldn’t have paid it myself given that I have not yet had a long line experience where it would have mattered.
Overall, it seems that AmEx really is trying to step up and provide value for the $450 annual fee. I’ve carried the card for nine years now and each year I say that I’ll cancel unless the value is there. They’ve still got me paying and these moves just ensured another year of fees. If I was only ever flying on Continental/United Airlines it would be a harder decision to make. But since I have options and I do fly with other carriers it is an easy one for me. At least this year.
For more details from AmEx on the card benefits check out their new site here.
And if you do not have an AmEx Platinum yet but are intrigued by the possibilities, you can apply for one here. It comes with 50K points for only $1000 spend in the first three months, which pretty much offsets the annual fee, and that’s before you get in to any of the benefits noted above. Definitely worth a look these days.
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Posted by Seth on April 6, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points |
The bounty from US Airways in my email inbox this week has been great. OK, so it really was only two emails, but they are both pretty impressive deals. And one of them even seems to be real; the jury is still out on the second.
The first deal is a one year US Airways Club membership for $259. The US Airways Club membership gets you nearly the same benefits as a United Airlines Red Carpet Club or Continental Presidents Club membership, namely access to a world-wide network of airport lounges. But the US Airways version is only $259 for the year while Continental and United charge more than to $500 for the same benefit. This sale is valid through April 7, 2011; sign up here.
There is some confusion in the actual pricing – the email says the $50 activation fee is included in the $259 rate while the website says it is extra – but either way it is a pretty good deal.
From the email:
From the website:
The second offer is even more tempting for me: absolutely free, unsolicited, no strings attached points in the Dividend Miles program.
I have no idea why US Airways is giving away these points. It doesn’t seem that 1,000 points is really enough to sway loyalty and get someone back to the program, but I was certainly happy to have some free activity on my account that would extend the life of my points that are otherwise expiring at the end of this month.
The catch, of course, is that they points are not actually in my account. The email subject is pretty explicit about the points: "They’re waiting in your account!" is what it says. But there is nothing new in my account. I got that email on Monday and called on Tuesday to ask where the miles were. I was told I had to wait 24 hours. When I mentioned to the agent that these points would save my other points from expiring he suggested that I pay $25 rather than wait for the points to post. Maybe this is an elaborate ruse to squeeze $25 out of me. I doubt it, but not so much that I’m willing to discount the theory completely.
So, two great promos if they actually come through. But, as is sadly all too typical these days, the execution on both programs pretty much sucks. Such is life.
Posted by Seth on February 16, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Delta Air Lines announced on Tuesday that they have removed the point expiration policy from their SKyMiles frequent flyer program. The change apparently went into effect on January 1, 2011 though it was not announced until six weeks later. This is an interesting move, bucking a trend in the industry to otherwise limit the value of points by making them harder to redeem and les likely to still be around down the line. Only Continental has a similar no expiration policy currently in play amongst the other competitors in the industry and the future of the OnePass program is uncertain (but doubtful) with the United Airlines merger currently in process.
The other significant change to the SkyMiles program that was announced yesterday is that Delta’s Gold Medallion tier will now be considered SkyTeam Elite Plus rather than SkyTeam Elite. This gives those customers a number of benefits, including lounge access when traveling on international itineraries and priority baggage handling. Given that their major US-based competitors all provided lounge access via their similar elite tier this move was long overdue and more playing catch-up than being a leader in the industry. Still, it is a great change for SkyMiles members.
The SkyMiles program has been beaten up of late due to difficulties and, in many cases, grossly overpriced award redemption costs, both in miles required and in associated fees. The changes announced this week certainly do not solve those problems but they do make things a bit better for many members. Not necessarily the folks flying 100K+ miles annually as those folks already had the lounge benefit and weren’t going to have their points expire, but for many more of the masses these are solid improvements to the program.
Posted by Seth on January 7, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Star Alliance is looking to make sure its passengers know all about the inter-carrier upgrade program that they offer. It is a decent deal if you’re already buying full fare tickets and is better than the comparable programs offered by the other alliances. Plus, in an effort to educate consumers, Star Alliance is giving away free tickets and miles to build knowledge about the product.
The grand prize is a pair of business class around the world (RTW) tickets. First prize is a pair of return business class tickets. Second prize is a single economy class return ticket. Finally, each participating program will be giving away five prizes of 10,000 points (or the equivalent if your program doesn’t work that way) each.
To enter you must have an account with one of the 27 member airlines’ frequent flyer programs. Assuming you’ve got that figured out, click here and answer the questions you’re presented with. Entries must be made by 14 February 2011.
If you need some help, here are a few clues:
- There are 27 member airlines in Star Alliance
- Upgrades come from your points and are valid on other carriers; no elite status required
- Your existing ticket is still valid with the upgrade attached to it
- There are LOTs of benefits available. Like all of them.
- There are nearly 1000 lounges available.
I’m not going to give any hints for the last question, in part because I don’t know the answer and in part because I want to win.
Good luck!
Posted by Seth on December 15, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Every now and then maybe I should take the hint that “today” is just going to be one of those days. The morning started reasonably enough – on the schedule was a quick turn to Las Vegas, including a couple new routes for me – but things got quirky quite quickly.
First up, at the Presidents Club in LaGuardia, I was told that it wasn’t possible to make a same day change on my ticket because my fare was too cheap. Then because it had an advance purchase requirement. Uh, no on both accounts. The agent assured me that the woman she was talking to was an “expert” and that I must be wrong. A short 15 minutes later – “I just want to keep playing with it if you don’t mind” – I heard a Eureka! moment from across the lounge and I knew it was time to go collect my new boarding pass.
With that out of the way I settled in to do a couple hours’ of work in the lounge before my flight. The Presidents Club at LaGuardia certainly isn’t anything special, other than its heritage as an old Eastern Airlines Ionosphere club. It is actually somewhat surprising that the Port Authority doesn’t still have it labeled as such given that there are signs directing folks to the TWA lounge there. At least there are windows to watch the planes come and go, along with the typical free WiFi, snacks and booze to pass the time. And also the awesome overheard conversations of folks talking too loud into their cell phones.
Today’s ridiculous overheard other passenger call was a guy on his way to Cleveland from New Jersey for a court appearance. Over a traffic violation. I’m generally of the mind to just pay the fine – odds are I am guilty anyways – but this guy was going to fight it. And no better time to start preparing the case then shortly before getting on the plane, right? Of course, his general plan was simply to start searching on Google for details that might help him. None of this would be so bad if I didn’t hear him on the phone asking someone else how to search on Google. Yeah, that’s bad.
Finally, I decided to pull the trigger on one of my more crazy itineraries ever. I’m headed to Johannesburg, South Africa and Mauritius in February. The fare is pretty darn good (<$800 all in) and it includes stops in both places and some neat lines to go on my “places traveled” map. The 20K+ EQMs early in the year don’t hurt either. Sadly, however, the booking site rejected my purchase. This is the second time in as many weeks that I’ve been declined for an airline ticket purchase in Africa. The good news is that the lady from American Express cleared up the block pretty quickly, but not before noting that I was probably crazy for all my travels.
Finally on board the first flight of the day – an EJR-145 from LaGuardia to Cleveland – and we have W&B issues. They need three folks from the front to move to the back so we can get off the ground. Two folks moved without much fuss but it took an announcement from the pilot to get a third taker. I can understand why at least one of them was unwilling to move, however. He had a nice footrest in place. Yes, that is his shoe on the bulkhead wall up above his head. Stay classy.
Yeah, sometimes it is just one of those days.
Posted by Seth on December 3, 2010 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Aeroplan, the frequent flyer program associated with Air Canada announced a change today for their 2012 program and qualifying for status in the loyalty scheme. Most notable is that customers will actually have to fly on Air Canada in 2011 to qualify for status in 2012. A minimum of 10,000 elite qualifying miles (EQMs) or 5 segments on Air Canada metal will be required to receive any status. This requirement is in addition to the regular tier qualification levels.
Aeroplan has generally been an attractive program to park Star Alliance points in for many passengers, even if they never fly on the carrier. The primary reasons are twofold:
- First, the program is pretty useful for redemptions, particularly if you are not flying on Air Canada as part of the redemption. Their fees are generally low and the routing rules generally quite generous. With rates for premium redemption often better than the other North American Star Alliance programs it is easy to see why Aeroplan is attractive.
- Second, reaching status to permit lounge access is relatively easy. Middle-tier is reached at either 35K EQMs or 50 segments. This is the lowest requirement of any North American-based Star Alliance program and it comes with the full complement of Star Alliance Gold benefits, including lounge access on all itineraries. Unlike Star Gold on Continental, US Airways or United Airlines where lounge access to their own lounges is only permitted on international itineraries, a Star Gold from Air Canada gets access to all Star Gold lounges on any itinerary.
So number two is pretty much going away unless customers actually fly on Air Canada. While it is unfortunate to see yet another program limiting the value of its program it is also somewhat understandable. If the airline is generally receiving minimal revenue from a customer and paying out great benefits there isn’t much motivation to keep the status quo. Losing money on every customer but making it up in volume is not a recipe for long-term success in any industry.
That said, customers who are almost never flying on Air Canada and who are parking the points in the program just for the lounge access benefit might be wasting money with that approach. Lounge access can be had for a few hundred dollars annually. Parking 35,000 EQMs – likely the equivalent of 70,000 award miles – into an account where they’re orphaned is throwing away more money in point value than is being saved in lounge access costs. Then again, the quality of Aeroplan’s redemption scheme means that the points aren’t really being completely orphaned.
It is worth noting that other carriers, including American Airlines and British Airways have a similar policy of requiring some flights on their own metal for status. So Air Canada is not alone in this policy but it is still very much in the minority.
More discussion of the announcement can be found here.
Posted by Seth on November 25, 2010 under Trip Reports |
It turns out that I really prefer travelling on the holiday rather than the day before. The roads and the airport were quiet this morning and the plane is only a third full, meaning we started boarding 15 minutes late and still pushed back early. No complaints there at all.
Today is my first trip ever (or at least in a long time, but I’m pretty sure ever) on Air Canada: Newark – Calgary – Yellowknife. The first flight is 4:18 on an Embraer E190. I’m a huge fan of the aircraft type – generally quite comfortable – but the only food in coach is BoB, so I decided to raid the lounges in the airport for breakfast supplies instead.
Due to some rather poor planning on my part I needed to stop by the Continental Presidents Club in Newark as well as the United Airlines Red Carpet Club. They’re in different security areas in the A terminal which means I got to clear security twice today. At least no Nude-o-Scopes in service in these terminals yet. On the plus side, it slowed me down enough that I got to se the awesome sunrise rather than already being holed up in a lounge.
It also means I got to pick up my favorite breakfast supplies from both clubs rather than having to choose. A lot of folks are pretty die-hard about whether they like the snack options at one lounge or the other better. For me, however, a solid airport breakfast is a combination from the two: yogurt from the RCC and a granola bar (or three) from the PClub. Yummeh!
I suppose now is as good a time as any to offer up a brief review of the Air Canada product, at least first impressions. When the plane is only a third full it is easy to feel like it is incredibly comfortable. Plenty of room for bags, easy boarding and plenty of space on board as well. I think it would be the same even if the plane was full based on my experience on other E190s though overhead space would be a bit harder, particularly with all the heavy coats headed north this morning. Even with the light load, however, the crew was pretty phenomenal. A flight attendant passed through the aisle every 20-30 minutes offering water throughout the flight; a nice touch.
The IFE system – enRoute – is pretty slick. A roughly 10 inch touch screen in the seat back offering movies, TV, music and games on demand is always a good thing. Sadly, the map feature was not working this morning but the other stuff seems to be pretty solid. The XM music appears to be a recorded loop, not the live feed but there are also about 100 CDs available to choose from. The movie selection was pretty current (Salt and Inception were both options on this morning’s flight) and there are a few older films on offer as well. The Classics were a bit older than I was hoping for but a solid representation of the era. A few dozen TV episodes available, too. Truly, if you cannot find something to pass an hour or two of the flight on the AVOD system you’re probably doing it wrong.
Finally, the seats. They’re pretty nice. My only (small) complaint is the lack of an adjustable headrest on the seats.When I’m sitting upright the bottom of the headrest is in my shoulder blades rather than supporting my head and neck. But I don’t sit up all that often so not the end of the world.
Overall a rather comfortable way to fly. I’m now pretty confident that I’ll be quite comfortable on my trip to Munich and Salzburg with Air Canada in January.
Posted by Seth on November 2, 2010 under StarMegaDo, Trip Reports |
As we boarded the flight out of JFK last night we were treated to a bit of good and bad news. The flight time would be only 6:20 across to Frankfurt. Less sleep, but an early arrival so more lounge time once we did arrive. Win some, lose some.
The flight was reasonably pleasant and included a couple attempts (mostly unsuccessful) by Tommy to convince folks on board that Fernet Branca is not the devil’s elixir. I am decidedly in the not convinced camp but that didn’t stop me from joining the group in a toast or two.
Upon arrival we headed down to the Welcome Lounge in Frankfurt airport. With a few dozen showers and a pretty nice breakfast spread, the lounge is a great place to finish up a flight and to start your day in Frankfurt. Keeping with my personal time-honored tradition for fighting jetlag, I poured myself a beer from the tap and headed down to the shower room for a refreshing soak.
Back upstairs for another beer, some bacon & eggs and a fresh pretzel and I’m ready to go out and have a great StarMegaDo day!
n.b.- I’m participating in StarMegaDo 2010 all week long. There will be a few posts here as well, but the bulk of my online time will be on www.starmegado.com and twitter,com/starmegado. Follow over there for some great stories and adventures. Coming up later this afternoon, we climb around inside an LH A380 and later tonight dinner with executives from Star Alliance and several member airlines.
