January 21, 2011

Hainan airline was rated 5 star by skytrax, personally, I won’t read the rating too much, but they are the truly the #1 airline in China. Hainan airline is a very young and it’s the only Providence/city government own airline become successful.Look what happened to Shanghai airlines? it had be merged with China eastern due to consecutive loss and huge debt. Air China, China eastern and China southern are owned by central government.

Hainan airline was very innovative compare to all other Chinese airlines, they were the first airline introduced Y up fare, first and only airline in China offers miles don’t expire as long as 1 activity in every 3 years. First airline introduced “Status match” . The best part was, they matched any airline on earth, even if you don’t have any status with any airlines, if you can show them proof that you have flew a sum of 40K km or 30 segments with all airlines in 2010, they will give you Gold status, which will be valid for 2 years. I got my Gold status using AA program.

Shanghai has 2 airports, PVG and SHA, but for some reason, one one flight on Shanghai airline arrives in SHA, all others on MU or HU arrives in PVG, which are located 75km away from my home. Hainan airline has 1 flight using A330 every other day, because the Aircraft will used for PVG-BRU late in the night.

Interesting part of Hainan Y up fare is you can not use first class check in counter and lounge, but with Gold card, you can use all of these, so best combination with HU is Gold card+ A clas(Y up) fare. After checking in, someone will escrow all Gold member to the lounge, but HAK lounge is under renovation, they just use separate an area in departure hall as temporary lounge.

After boarding the AC, I was shocked, business cabin only has 4 people, I, my wife, nanny and baby. I guess I was traveling on a non busy day. A330 Business class has lie flat seat, but it’s actually flatter than most lie flat, close to 180 degree. seat equipped with AVOD.

Flight landed on time, we finally arrived home after 3 weeks. Shanghai was COLD

Some thought about this trip, Hong Kong is a great city，I like it a lot, great food, lots to do. Macau? If not for gamble, I don’t see a reason to go again. In about 1 month, I will go to Tahiti, New Zealand and Japan and I am sure the trip will be more intertesting.

Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip, Other Airline Reward Programs | 4 Comments to Read

January 20, 2011

Chrismas trip to Hongkong, Macau and Hainan Island-Sheraton Haikou,Hainan Island, 100% Suite upgrade

I took airplane first time when I was 11 years old, the destination was Haikou. Back then there was really no alternative way to get there and HAK is the only airport on the island. Few years later after that, my first time took first class with any airline is to Haikou too. I came to this island every year since I was 11 because I thought It was the most beautiful city on earth, white sand beach(Sanya, south part of island), swim during the winter season while Beijing was snowing.I came to this island every year since then, It reminds as “the most beautiful place on earth” until I started to travel around the global in 2004, the island had changed a lot lately, many hotels opened, price went higher and higher. I don’t come here very often now unless I need to see my grandma. She still hasn’t had chance to see her Great Grand daughter yet, so I am here.

Although there are many many many international brand hotels on the island, but they all located the south part of island, city of Sanya, as for the capital city Haikou, there was one and only one international brand hotel, Sheraton Haikou, Actually, my first Suite upgrade as SPG platinum was at this hotel in 2005. Since then, regardless how long I stayed the hotel, I always got 100% upgrade to suite, same thing for this time. I was going to stay only 3 nights, but later I kept extending the reservation to 13 nights, the hotel had no problem giving us the same Suite again and again.

The hotel is a resort with beach, but It’s not a great place to relax, because the see is dirty and the wave is too strong, you can not actually swim. Also, the hotel is far away from the city, not good location for business traveler, but the hotel itself is very nice.

Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip, Starwood Hotels | Be the First to Comment

January 15, 2011

Chrismas trip to Hongkong, Macau and Hainan Island-HKG to HAK on UO157

Hong Kong(UX)/Hong Kong express airlines(UO) are subsidiary of China fourth largest airlines-Hainan airlines, what I call the only hope of Chinese airlines. They have long haul service to Seattle, Toronto, several European countries, Dubai, Asia and Africa. they also have UO and UX to flight many Asia cities from Hong Kong. Most their long haul aircraft are newA330/340 with nearly 180 flat bed business class. Their program are very easy to use and seats are pretty easy to be found. Award are distance based, so my flight from Hong Kong to Haikou only costs me 9000km per person in business class. The only small problems are my paid infant ticket was collected fuel surcharge+ their lousy website

The easiest way to go to HKG from Macau is by ferry, same company I mentioned earlier, they have many ferries throughout the day to go to HKG. Also, Hong Kong is considering you are transit through, so will refund the airport departure tax 120 HKD at airport. The only problem with this route is you can not enter Hong Kong. Our flight was 4:15 pm, but when I got to ticket window to buy 1:30 ferry, they said only flight departure after 4:30 can buy 1:30 ferry. since they didn’t actually check the ticket, I then told them my flight is 4:45 instead.

After getting the ticket, we took our bag to check in counter. According to the website, our flight was eligible for upstream check in service, which I can receive boarding pass for our flight, but for some reason, they were not able to print our boarding pass, so we had to check in again after arriving Skypier at HKG airport.

The Ferry arrived on time at 2:30pm, after disembark from the ferry, I collected my boarding pass, departure tax refund receipt at transfer desk. Before boarding the train to the terminal, there was a desk to refund departure tax, you won’t miss it. Since we still had lots of times, we decided to went to the lounge. Hong Kong express flight doesn’t have their own lounge, need to us Hong Kong airline lounge, but it’s actually far away from UX gate 5xx as they were located at remote gate area and need to take transfer bus.

We were last few people to board the plane because of waiting for the bus. The plane was B737-800 and interior was exactly identical to their parent company-Hainan airline. It was a short flight with meal service, I ordered Beef and taste was pretty good. After 1 hour flying, we arrive Haikou Meilan airport, capital of Hainan Island, a place I have been countless times since I was 11.

Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip, Other Airline Reward Programs | Read the First Comment

January 13, 2011

Chrismas trip to Hongkong, Macau and Hainan Island-Macau

Macau is another Special administration of PRC government, who took back from Portuguese government in 1999. The city received much less attention than Hongkong. it’s understandable, Macau size is only 1/40 of Hong Kong, and it’s not financial center, the only thing make Macau famous among Chinese is casino business. The only person we always heard about macau is their richest man + his 4 wife.

We hired a private van with driver, who can tour us around the island, but I barely understand his Chinese. He first brought us to Macau side of Zhu river, the other side is China, Zhuhai city. when I was a kid, Zhuhai was another well developed industrial city other than Shenzhen(boarder city of Hong Kong), but it’s no longer the case. Zhuhai is no longer attractive to any new business development, business is slow there.

China

Custom at river used to catch illegal immigrants swim from China side.

Then we were taken to the most famous tourist site of Macau, A-Ma Temple(goddess of fisherman), where the name Macau came from. When Portuguese first landed in Macau near A-ma temple, they asked locals what’s the name of the place. The locals answered “Makau”. There is really nothing special about temple, too many people there, I did not try to get in.

After that, we went another site that everyone visits, Ruin’s of St. Paul Cathedral, the Cathedral was built three times, but was later buried 3 times with only one wall left and became a tourist site.

on our way back to hotel, we visited Venetian hotel, well, it just like the one in Vegas. Other brands including Wynn, MGM, so for people have been Vegas countless times, what is the difference? I don’t see any.

Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip | 3 Comments to Read

January 8, 2011

Chrismas trip to Hongkong, Macau and Hainan Island-Westin Macau

I chose this hotel because I would have hard time controlling myself NOT to go to Casino, but this was one of few had no casino. The hotel had shuttle running from pier every hour in the afternoon, our arrival time was pretty good, o swe did not wait long before the shuttle arrived. Macau is a very small city, but it still took more around 20 mins to the hotel. We basically drove from the north part of Macau to the most south part of Macau. The hotel was located middle of no where.

Check in process was quick and I was given an upgraded to Oceanview room. I also requested a crib for my baby. Few minutes after I got into my room, they delivered the crib.The crib was exactly identical to the Sheraton Shenzhen I stayed, I finally realized this was the standard for entire SPG chain.

but where is the bedding then? I called front desk for the crib bedding. Few minutes later, the housekeeping came to the room with BATH TOWER and told me the hotel did not have the bedding for the crib, so use the tower instead. I mentioned I did not like the infant crib at Sheraton Shenzhen, but at least they prepared the crib with full set of bedding. In the end, we decided to let the baby sleep with us again.

The hotel was dated, it really needed renovation. The service was good, but it was not comparable to service in mainland China. To me, a new room is much more important then great service.

Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip, Starwood Hotels | Read the First Comment

January 5, 2011

Chrismas trip to Hongkong, Macau and Hainan Island-Premier Jetfoil to Macau

There are only 2 ways to go to Macau from Hong Kong, Ferry or Helicopter, most people chose ferry. There are 2 ferry terminals in Hong Kong and 2 ferry terminals in Macau. Turbojet company is running most ferries from the terminal on Hong Kong island to Old Macau terminal. Another company, Cotaistrip is running most ferries to Macau TaiPa pier, where Venetian hotel located. Actually, the pier was build by Venetian hotel.

I used Turbojet Premier Jetfoil VIP cabin, however, the cabin only has 4 seats, but we have 5, one person has to buy a separate ticket and sit outside. Actually, I did not do enough research because I found out the Cotaistrip Ferry has 8 seats VIP cabin later

I arrived pier one hour prior to departure, there were not that many people at immigration, so 30 mins later I already at gate. but they did not let us board until the actual departure time.

It was only 1 hour trip and VIP cabin passengers had priority disembarkation, but it was not really a big deal because no one at immigration lane anyway.

The pier was old and places kind of disorganized. countless buses from different Casinos in the waiting area. After few minutes wait, our hotel bus arrived.

I will talk about the hotel I stayed later, it was a big mistake.

Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip | 2 Comments to Read

December 31, 2010

Chrismas trip to Hongkong, Macau and Hainan Island-Hong Kong

I was not in Hong Kong for sightseeing. I was actually there to visit my sister in law, who just had another baby in Hong Kong. I mentioned that I spent most time of my day outside of Grand Hyatt, because we had another Serviced Apartment-Shama right across Time Square. The location of this apartment is excellent, right in the center of everything, the only problem was, the taxi lane was extremely long.

Since I frequently travel back to States, where price is a lot cheaper than Hong Kong, so no shopping. Also baby is too little to go to theme park. so what’s left? Food! Hong Kong has so many great restaurant, my first recommendation is Lei Garden. they have many locations throughout Hong Kong and China, one is in the Time Square Food court. I had one lunch and one dinner there, it’s one of the best Cantonese style cruise I ever had. I also ate at Chinese restaurant inside the Hyatt Hotel because we could not get table anywhere else without advance reservation, the food was good too, but not comparable to Lei Garden. My third night dinner in Hong Kong was at Hana Sakazuki Japanese restaurant. Also excellent, but the price was significantly higher than local Chinese Cuisine.

Hong Kong is a great city with too many people, lane is everywhere, taxi(40 mins), elevator to restaurant(15mins). If I had a choice, I won’t want to go there around X’mas, New Year and Chinese New years, when many people from mainland visit Hong Kong. Also, make advance reservation if you want to eat those nice restaurants on weekend.

Causeway bay at 10:00 am

Time Square

Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip, Baby and Me | 3 Comments to Read

December 30, 2010

Chrismas trip to Hongkong, Macau and Hainan Island-Grand Hyatt

I picked Grand Hyatt for 2 simple reasons, one I need 2 more nights to keep diamond, second this is the only hotel I can have a confirmed Suite(without paying suite rate) in Hong Kong Island. After I made the booking, the standard suite was sold out, so I had to keep checking for Standard Harbor view Suite to open up, few days before our arrival, the suite showed. I immediately contacted Hyatt to use my Suite upgrade certificate. After I got confirmation, no more suite for sale. Consider the suite is so popular, I had feeling that we will be upgraded again.

We took private car from Shenzhen to Hongkong(no need to get out during border crossing) and arrived hotel around 12:30 noon, waited for another 30 mins before they directed to our room-Diplomat Suite, located on 34th floor. All Suites located from 31-36th floor, and requires Elevator change on 30th floor.

I did not eat anything from Lounge for the next 3 days, but the view from the lounge are beautiful.

Few suggestions though, if you are going Hong Kong for a shopping trip, this may not be the property because it’s 10 mins walking distance to Subway station and traffic can be very bad in Hong Kong. The standard room is small, more like Grand Hyatt Beijing. Other than that, I think this is great hotel with good service.

Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip, Baby and Me, Hyatt Gold Passport | Read the First Comment

December 26, 2010

Chrismas trip to Hongkong, Macau and Hainan Island-Shenzhen Sheraton Grand China

After long time back and forth discussion with my wife, she finally decided to take the trip with our baby to Hong Kong, Macau and Hainan Island.

We spent our first night at Shenzhen Sheraton hotel to meet with our relatives for border crossing the next day. Arrived hotel around 9:30pm, the room was upgraded to Studio Suite. I requested an infant crib before we arrive, the crib was ready when we got there. However, I was quite disappointed about the crib, it’s so deep and very hard to put baby in and out. Eventually, we let baby sleep with us on the same bed for the night.

The Lounge closed too early on the weekend, 8:00pm. well, it’s just for one night, so not big deal.

Does the crib look like a cage to you?

Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip, Baby and Me, Starwood Hotels | 3 Comments to Read

November 3, 2010

One day at Shanghai World Expo.

I had no plan to visit Shanghai Expo, but my mom really wants me to go, so I finally decided to join them. Since my decision was almost last minutes, it’s almost impossible to find hotel award rooms with SPG, Marriott or Hilton unless we wanted to stay far away from the area. Grand Hyatt shanghai was the only hotel I found offering both award rooms and paid rooms. I don’t have too many Hyatt points, so I only redeem 1 room for 2 nights and paid for other 2 rooms.

We had no plan to take our baby, but she won’t eat formula, so we had to take her at last minutes. We arrived Grand Hyatt Shanghai around 6:00 pm, the hotel was extremely busy considering it was last few days of Expo. Also, due to china law, every guest ID/passport needs to be scanned into system, that makes the process even longer. After20 mins waiting, we finally got our key.

One of our room was upgraded using Suite upgrade certificate, the room was very nice. The hotel also brought us a crib and shower amenity for our baby. To honestly, both I and my wife feel this hotel is better than Park Hyatt next door. don’t why though.

Park Hyatt

Other than small TV, the other 2 standard rooms were also nice and much better than I expected because I was expecting the room similar to standard room of Grand hyatt Beijing, where has the smallest 5 star hotels room I ever seen.

I left the hotel around 7: 45 in the morning with car provided by World Expo and was able to visit China pavilion before it opened to general public. The pavilion had three sections, first one showed how the living standard change for Chinese household in the past 30 years, second one showed the the country/cities changed in past 30 years and the last one showed the future-living with reduced CO2. After exiting the main area, there were small pavilions for each providence. I did not have time to visit those small ones, had to rush to Shanghai-GM pavilion.

Entrance to World Expo

China Pavilion(left)

Household in 1978

Household in 1988

household in 1998

2008

Second show area of China Pavilion

After exiting the China pavilion around 9:30am, the expo already opened for 30 minutes, I saw a shocking long line waiting for Saudi Arabia pavilion. I heard about this famous place along with China petroleum pavilion before, both are the most popular places to visit, the line is about 8-12 hours wait, YES! You heard right, 12 hours. Basically, most times, 30 minutes – 1 hour after expo open, lines close for these two . Whoever already in the line will spend rest of their day in line just to visit one pavilion. Unbelievable, isn’t it?

This is line for Saudi Arabia pavilion after 30 mins of opening, you may think the line is not that bad, but in fact, this is just a tiny portion of the line. Shanghai-GM Pavilion is also another poplar one besides Coca-cola, Korea, Japan and other two mentioned above, it has a 4D show. I did not go inside because I was carrying my baby with me all the time. All my family member went inside, but too bad, no pic. Shanghai was freezing cold and windy on the day I visited, despite we had a car with us all the time to take us btw pavilions, it was still freezing the moment I stepped out the car. After lunch I and my wife decided to go back to hotel with baby, rest of my family continued to visit Spain, Portugal, Belgium and one more I don’t remember.

Personally, I consider the expo is a joke, I have no idea what they are trying to show, but every country is having a spot there, it’s a free opportunity to make money. Expo provides all kinds of taxes free(import, income etc) for foreign government. let’s using Germany as example. They have a restaurant with average price of a meal+drink of $35 dollar per person, at least 10000 people visit the restaurant per day for 180 days, plus the earning for souvenirs, I don’t see a reason not attending. On the other the hand, The world expo makes Shanghai better. For the past two years, most Pudong side of Shanghai was just like a public construction zone, but expo developed many areas that Shanghai would otherwise take years to do. I really like shanghai now, a beautiful modern city

Spain pavilion

The world most popular office paper is from Portugal.

My baby behaved extremely well, thanks to Baby carriers, she was able to sleep most the time, especially during our lunch time. I think I got the most attention in the expo because in china, very few people traveling with 5 months old baby, let along I am visiting one of the most busiest places.

I personally don’t like to visit crowd area, maybe this is the one exception I made I doubt I will go to places with that many people again.

Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip, Hyatt Gold Passport | Be the First to Comment

September 15, 2010

My recent Award redemptions(Frustration and Success)

Again, I redeemed many tickets in past few days, all for myself and family. Let me share some again, very interesting work.

1 Flight to PPT from China, Tahiti is a special place, a place I can not even go with one award. if you read my post few days ago, I tried to use AA miles for the ticket, but unfortunately it will not working for reasons I mentioned in previous post. routing via NRT will be considered Asia 2-Asia 1, then another award Asia 1- south Pacific, total 150000 per person Roundtrip. routing via AKL will be considered as Asia2 -South Pacific+ South Pacific-South Pacific, so 130000 per person R/T. I need to save some of my AA miles, so I give up this option.

Then, I was going to try AA to AKL in business, then US airways from AKL-PPT R/T, that will be 70K for AA+30K on US airways. However, business class award seats on Air New Zealand for AKL-PPT are nearly impossible to find and the flight arrival and departure time is not very good. So I give up this option too.

Then I was going to try 90K using US airways mixed of All Nippon+Hawaii Air, return via AKL, but Hawaii Air to PPT only 1 per week, seats are extremely limited.

Finally, I decide to use my “favorite program-Delta Sky Dollars”. First, I tried PVG-NRT-PPT in business, just same as AA routing, but it priced out 150K per person, the reason was PVG-NRT counted as 1 R/T, then NRT-PPT counted as another one. I know many people don’t remember anymore, although Delta award within Asia are pretty much same, but they are 2 zones in Asia, Japan and Korea is one zone, all else are another. so Japan/Korea to South Pacific is 110K in business, all else are 120K. But we are talking about Delta, 120K to South Pacfic does exist, but again, not routing via Japan/Korea. There is alternative on Malaysia airline, but I was disappointed on my last trip.

After I figure this out, I asked agent to do ICN-NRT-PPT, Return PPT-AKL(stopover)-ICN, now it came up with 110,000 total in Business class. How am I gonna get to ICN? easy, buy a ticket cost $150 for 1 hour flight

2 After spending a lot of time try to figure out Tahiti flight, I successfully redeemed 2 tickets using Us airways miles from China-Africa, the whole process took less than 30 minutes, most time are calculating taxes, the trip are

CA 930 PVG-NRT, overnight

LH711 NRT-FRA, Airbus 380

SA 261, FRA-JNB, Flat bed

SA 190 JNB-MRU

return open jaw

TK 41 CPT-IST, A330

TK 50 IST-NRT, B77W flat bed

CA929 NRT-PVG

total taxes are $177+50 processing fee

3 Also, I redeemed three tickets using delta miles for my family go to Japan and Korea in Economy class, the route are PVG-ICN-NGO//KIX-ICN(Stopover)-PVG, total 20K each.

Lots of work, but very happy about outcome with Delta miles.

Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip, 2011 Trip, American Airlines, Award redemption, Delta, US airways | 2 Comments to Read