April 29, 2011
I had an first class award ticket issued by us airways few months ago, but one 2000+ miles segment was in economy class. I kept checking back once a while until today, 1 seat finally opened in business on 2 cabin AC, so I called to make the change. As Gray mentioned many times,if you are lucky, they don’t charge this fee for just changing the class of service for part of reservation if miles originally pulled at higher level.
First 4 calls got “sure, but there will be $150 change fee to reissue the ticket”
5th call, I got “Let me just reissue the ticket, you are good to go”
My luck is not too bad today!
Posted by Troy under US airways |
April 29, 2011
Earlier this month, I mentioned a promotion of getting 500 bonus SPG points for booking made via Chinese site, I got some updates and it was a little bit different than I thought
The promotion is running from May 1st to July 31st, but I don’t know it’s a stay date or just booking date. AND booking must be made via this new Chinese SPG website, the problem is, the city list on this site doesn’t even support Google translate.
I will see how am I gonna help after promotion released.
Posted by Troy under Starwood Hotels |
April 29, 2011
After 5 nights at Hilton Bora Bora, we headed to Moorea, an island only 13 miles away from Tahiti. In order to take the flight to Moorea from Bora Bora, we had to fly to PPT first, then transferred to next flight to Moorea, it’s the quickest way.
As for this Hilton hotel, I don’t know what word I should use to describe them, it’s hard to believe a popular resort hotel could do things like this. I emailed hotel 1 week prior to our arrival requesting airport pick up and got a confirmation, but after we got off the plane with 4 other people to the same hotel , there was no one. A nice tour operator at the airport used his phone to call the hotel, 2 shuttles arrived 30 minutes later. If I did not push the hotel, we would wait another hour because the driver was at lunch!!!
We arrived hotel 20 minutes later, other than sorry, nothing was done and they did not forget to charge us for the transportation. We were pre assigned room 101, a paid upgrade to panoramic view over water bungalow, but wait a second, what make the hotel think I would actually take the upgrade offer? I emailed hotel few months earlier to 4 different email address, eventually, the last one replied with an offer 20000 XPF+ taxes per night with buy 5, get 1 free. I countered back to see if there was any better offer, but hotel never replied again. When I check in, the price was dropped to 12999+tax per night and we took the offer, but still did not like the hotel pre locked an upgrade, but given me the price later.
Then the lady asked us about our departure arrangement on 19th, I told them we wanted to take flight, but there were sold out, so we needed to take ferry. She quickly dialed a number and told us, the flight we wanted was still available, but travel agent was closed for the day(who did she called to check), they would book for me the next day. I was surprised because Air Tahiti flight showed zero out and where did they find 2 seats from? The next day, I went back to the concierge, she told me she left a message for me because she did not have both passengers name. I gave to her, she then confirmed with me the flight time was on 20th!! WHAT!! Did she ever realized we had been talking about flight on 19th the whole time!! She dialed the number again and told me no seat on 19th! Yes! I knew that already long time ago! She then “arranged” a taxi for us on 19th morning to take 6:00 am ferry.
2 days prior to our departure, I did not feel safe, so I went back to check everything with concierge and printed a bill. Again, they had arranged me a taxi on 20th morning and the billed was double charged for upgrade fee. Imagine I walked to hotel lobby 4:30am in the morning on 19th, good luck on finding a taxi then!!!
There were 2 sections within the hotel, over water and land bungalow, all rooms were nearly identical except view, any overwater bunglaow without obstruction were considered panoramic. Room size was much smaller than Bora Bora, but there were indeed a lot more fish than Bora Bora. Besides location, everything was pretty much similar to Hilton Bora Bora, I think the only difference was breakfast ending 30 minutes later than Bora Bora at 10:30 am and they woke you up every morning around 10:00 am to remind you breakfast.
Wedding, Groom was in the middle
There were 3 restaurants in the hotel, one of them was located in the center of over water bungalow section, Harmless sharks came every night for food below the restaurant. Like I said, everything was similar to Bora Bora, so food was ok with good salad
If Bora Bora hotel was a place for couples, this one was for western family, you don’t see too many Asian faces here compared to Bora Bora, where half of the hotel were from Japan. We had 7 nights there, but it was really a bad decision, we did not know what else to do beside snorkeling and kayaking. We did bring some DVD, otherwise, we would stay in a room with a TV had only 10 channels(even less than Bora Bora).Again, a typical 4 diamond hotel with nothing special.
Posted by Troy under 2011 Trip, Hilton, Oceania |
April 26, 2011
It’s easy, all you need to do is book whatever is available from Origin to destination on any date online, then call to modify the trip as long as you keep
1 Origin, destination, return city are same
2 21 days outside of departure.
Remember, you can change anything you want including connecting city, stopover, carriers, date for free, as long as you keep above mentioned same
Posted by Troy under Continental Airline |
April 25, 2011
Avaliable only to member with Citi Premier Mastercard(formally PPE), you can see discount on your redemption page. Citi just changed the card from PPE to Premier with even worse benefit, I guess this is the way to keep their customer.
1 point=1 cent
Posted by Troy under Other Deals and Promotions |
April 25, 2011
They are all technical related!! I don’t expect them to get fixed anytime sooner
I was trying to use US airways miles for flight fron HND/NRT-HNL on Air Japan, wholly owned by ANA, CO could see them and I used UA to book them before, but when I called US airways, they just could not see the flight at all. Unlike United*Net blocking, which they can see the flight, but just not available for awards, if you can eventually find an agent to do the long sale, it can be done. With US airways and Air Japan, I couldn’t even find an agent to see the flight at all! 20+ calls
In addition, I was trying to use CO miles for Intra Asia award flights online, I need 6 business class seats, but only 1 and half months left before new award level applies, I need to book first 2 ASAP, so I can have enough time for them to release another 4.Again, technical issue. I thought it was related to credit card, but same error message showed when I selected paypal. I tried to call, but the wait time was greater than 30 minutes++
it was just a bad week to redeem awards!
Update: finally, CO agent was able to figure out problem after checking every detail of my acct history.
1 I should not select infant with seat, do it as child
2 I should not add any FFP number besides CO for award ticket.
Posted by Troy under Continental Airline, US airways |
April 22, 2011
According to Gary and Ben, AA will change their Million miles program soon, but no detail was released. For past many years, AA had the easiest Million miles program on earth, in which they counted all miles earned from any source toward the qualification.
Finally, the change is coming, hopefully, they can at least make as all elite qualifying miles count, now just Butt in seat miles.
Posted by Troy under American Airlines |
April 22, 2011
As a visitor to Bora Bora, the most frequent visited location will be the Downtown Bora Bora. Hilton has boat transfer to downtown almost every hour, but the downtown is small, it only takes you no more than 15 minutes from one side to another.There are 2 frequent visited places, number one is the only all day opening restaurant, number two is the Chinese supermarket Chin Lee. I always hear people say as long as there is people, there will be some Chinese. I don’t really know when was the first Chinese settled on the island, but the owner of supermarket was born there and he’s 60+ years old. The supermarket was the largest one on the island and most local people buy their daily grocery after work from there. One bottle water prices from 80 XPF to 200 XPF depend on the brand and most snacks cost 3,4 USD. considering all products are shipped from Tahiti three time a week, price is fair.
cargo port
kindergarten
kindergarten again
Local bus?
food from downtown restaurant
There were more than one restaurant on the island, but I never saw them open. Lunch closed around 1:00pm when we just woke up and dinner started from 6:00 pm to 9:30pm, but we never went into the town for dinner. If you want to eat authentic Chinese food on the island, there was one 10 minutes walk from downtown and according to supermarket owner, the chef was hired from China. The most famous place on the island was called “Bloody Mary” , specializing in Sea Food. and they provided free transportation from Hilton drop off point, we never had chance to try even though they close pretty late for lunch.
Sign for Chinese restaurant.
On our third day, we joined a daily tour operated by Patrick Tairua, who was quite famous on the island. The tour included 4X4 drive around the island, lunch on a private island and boat tour around the island in the afternoon. We paid $225 per person because we had six people in our group and all from same hotel and contacted Patrick directly.The tour started 8:30 am in the morning, so we took 8:00 am boat transfer to downtown and waited for 25 minutes, then he came with the only dress-Tahitian local skirt. The tour included driving us to three different higher ground to view the island. One of them had two American cannons, which were shipped there during the WWII. According to him, the island was technically built by American during WWII, when US military picked Bora Bora as South Pacific strategic point. In order to prepare for the war, they had to build road and everything, but nothing was ever happened, the base was closed around 1960.
Some pics below are not too good due to wrong setting
Who said only China and North Korea have unfinished construction? so did Bora Bora, unfinished yacht dock
We were dropped off around noon at a small pier and got on his cousin’s boat for our lunch and afternoon activities. The lunch was set up at a small island located next to Four Season hotel and was cooked using their traditional method. They put some kind of leaves on top of their food including a pig, eggplant and local bread, then used smoke to cook. Taste? so so.
St Regis
Le Meridien, next to St Regis, but 20+ years old
After lunch, we were heading to snorkel point, where they said it was one of the best spot around the island, but as I said, Bora Bora was not the best place to do snorkel compared to Moorea. After snorkel excursion, we went to feed sharks. They don’t attack human because they knew we would bring food to them. To be honestly, Patrick’s tour was the only one we ever had without any shopping stops, and they even dropped us off back to hotel directly since we were from same hotel.
The first hotel ever built on the island in 60′s, now abandoned.
Locals favorite sport
The temperature was 86F throughout the day, but sun was very very strong, we had severe sun burn after the tour, so bring your sunblock and apply frequently.
Posted by Troy under 2011 Trip, Oceania |
April 19, 2011
I just learned something new last week, which is the key difference btw United SWU and AA EVIP other than fare class
With United Airline, you can use SWU to upgrade on fare W class or above(they are W,U,V,B,C,D, E, M H and Y)for international flight to Asia, Europe, Middle East, South America, Australia and Africa
with American Airline, you can use EVIP on any paid fare
With United Airline and American Airline, Each SWU or EVIP is good for three segments in a single direction.
What did I learn last week?
With United Airline, any stop greater than 12 hours will require an additional SWU, but with American Airline, as long as it’s in a single direction, you can stop as long as you you want without using an extra EVIP
Posted by Troy under American Airlines, United Airlines |
April 15, 2011
Many airlines have modified their award chart in 2011 including Lufthansa, Delta, United and now Air Canada. With exception of Delta, all others at least gave us 90 days notification, so who will be the next one? I am guessing it will be US airways!
Gary already had a post explained Air Canada changes in detail, basically, most best redemption value will be gone such as 100K/120K to Asia 1 in Bus/First class or 80K/100K to Europe 1 in Business/First or 100K to OZ.
The only survivor is within Asia 1, which includes China, Hong Kong, Japan, North Korea, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam. Price will still be 20K/30K/50K in Eco/Bus/First, so I can still enjoy business class ticket from China to Thailand or Singapore or Vietnam for every $15000 USD I charge to my Fideltiy AMEX card.
Posted by Troy under Other Airline Reward Programs, Star Alliance |
April 15, 2011
In the past, Marriott Gift Card was processed as Visa, but it’s no longer the case, they started to use a new processing vendor and the charge on your receipt will be showed as Gift card instead. What will happen?
1 Many hotels will have no clue how to do it, if it’s on the weekend when Gift card center is not open, you may end up pay with Credit card instead
2 Above situation will be even worse for international properties
3 You can no longer benefit from any promotion assoicate with Visa, especially Mega bonus
4 You can no longer use the card for Prepaid rate by adding 4 in front of rest 15 numbers. In theory, hotel can still process it offline for prepaid rate only if you contact hotel right way after the booking and they want to do it, but most likely they won’t.
I am sure this will affect Gift card sales and create many problems for us
Posted by Troy under Marriott |
