Place of Travel Deals, Frequent Flyer/Guest Programs
With current Financial Crisis, many countries currency drop significantly.
South Korea dropped from 1USD:900 Korean Won 3 years ago to 1:1450
Indonesia: dropped from 1:8000 to 1:12000
South Africa: dropped from 1: 6 to 1:10
and many more such as NZ, Iceland, it’s time to go somewhere.
1 For SPG transfer, the best way is to transfer 20000 SPG to Delta per day
because DL system can not accept more than 32K Hotel transfer per
transaction, 20K SPG will get u 25K miles, which is the best value
2 AMEX credit card signup bonus may not count because those miles will be posted as Bonus.
3 AMEX MR transfer doesn’t count
You need to register here, then complete partner activities for up to 150% bonus.
| Base Miles Earned | Bonus | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000-4,999 | 50% | 1,500-7,498 |
| 5,000-9,999 | 100% | 10,000-19,998 |
| 10,000 or more | 150% | 25,000 or more |
I have Marriott travel package waiting to cash out 120K miles to AA, but with this promotion, I decide to transfer to Delta instead. I will get 300K miles for this transfer. Madagascar, here I come!!
The hotel is located on Yalong Bay Hotel zone in Sanya and it’s the newest and last one open at Yalong Bay area.
Hallway
Room about 60 Sqm
View from room
Another one
Swimming Pool
Overall, the hotel is nice and good for couples, not good for group of friends because the swimming pool has no volleyball or basketball like Hilton or Sheraton. The price is RMB1800 all in for a deluxe Ocean view room from local travel agent, and 2100+15% on Ritz Carlton website. Since there is no points program at Ritz Carlton hotel, local travel agent will be a good option.
Gary mentioned in his blog, you can get $50 off by sign up hotelclub.com, offer valid to Nov 30th.
one $50 off per account per email address, you can use diff email address to sign up and separate ur booking into multiple one night bookings.
I booked two nights at Omni Orlando for $76 per night, not bad
Qantas offer buy 1 get 1 free on selected markets for travel btw Feb 1st-Apr 30th,2009, the lowest avaliable from Feb16th-Apr30th, 2009, book by Nov 17th,2008.
Sample fare:
| Honolulu | Sydney | from $1,658 | $0 | from $1,658* |
| Los Angeles | Sydney | from $1,838 | $0 | from $1,838* |
| Los Angeles | Melbourne | from $1,930 | $0 | from $1,930* |
| Los Angeles | Auckland | from $1,758 | $0 | from $1,758* |
| San Francisco | Melbourne | from $1,976 | $0 | from $1,976* |
| New York | Brisbane | from $2,330 | $0 | from $2,330* |
Not a bad deal
Delta has removed its award chart for Non us departure long time ago and imposed a new three tier award system few months ago. The good news is Intra Asia Business class award still remind at 30K as I checked yesterday from PEK-DPS, so still a great value for DL miles.
BTW, I am too busy right now, so not as many update as before. hope I can write more in few weeks.
I think many people already heard the change on United award redemption level on Jan 1st, 2009, I have to say, this change put UA program redemption level worse than AA’s chart now.
Lots of Business award at 30K level jump by 66% to 50K, and Business Class to Asia from N.A jump by more than 33% to 125K.
The only positive change I found is Business award btw North asia and South Asia, drop from 60K to 30K, in line with DL, NW
Cheap premium cabin award time is gone.
