May 9, 2011
Driving in New Zealand was not too easy because driver was on opposite side, I knew road was on opposite side too, but still felt the difference. It took us more than 4 hours from airport to there, the speed limit was only 65 miles, and it’s single lane road 90% of the time. Although the hotel was called Lake Taupo, it was still few miles away to the lake. Itwas originally called Terraces Hotel, built in 1889,and even now only had 100 rooms and 1 restaurant, but I did not see any heritage part beside photos.
We were upgraded to a Suite, first time as Hilton Diamond. The living room and bedroom size was ok, but bathroom was the smallest I have even seen for a Suite. 2 people standing, I could barely turn. I don’t have much to comment on the hotel because I spent most time outside during the day, but what I can tell was people were very friendly there, so did entire New Zealand. Breakfast was served until 11:00am with buffet style fruit+ cook to order eggs. I had to say, this was one of the best western style breakfast I have ever eaten in my life.
The only negative comment for this hotel was their internet connection speed, it was hard for me to believe a nice hotel in an industrial country could have such unstable slow internet. I don’t know if I will ever back to Lake Taupo area again in the future, but if I do, I will definitely stay here.
Posted by Troy under 2011 Trip, Hilton, Oceania |
May 5, 2011
There are so many places I want to go,but getting to some places are not cheap, thanks to frequent flyer/guest programs and great airline alliances, so I can travel to so many places in comfort and cheap.
Back to one month ago, I mentioned my planned trip in May.Now, I’d like to share the process of booking all these awards.
The completed trip will be like this
PVG-FRA-ALA-IST-AMM//AQJ-AMM-JED-DXB-HKG-PVG//PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM-ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA-DYU-IST-FRA-PVG
all bold cities are places I will enter or at least attempt to enter.
Confusing? 
because they are 5 separate tickets using 3 different airlines miles, so let’s me break them one by one. All award search was done by kvstool
First part and last part, PVG-FRA-ALA//DYU-IST-MUC-PVG, Lufthansa A346 and A 330 First Class, Turkish Air B737 business class and Air China A340 First Class, Using US airways , taxes amount 100+ 50 processing fee. It only took 2 phone calls to get this ticket issued because first agent refused to let me backtracking. I did not have option to try any other airlines first class product on the way back because flight from DYU-IST only operates 2 times per week, Monday and Wednesday, and I needed to find a way connect back to China same day. Also, DYU-IST was the segment I booked as Economy and just moved to Business last week
Then I used BMI miles for ALA-IST-AMM(stopover)-ADD on Turkish Airways B737 Business and BMI A321 Business class. This was a easy one, 1 simple phone call finished booking。BD flight only had economy left, but since I am Gold member, revenue management released business award seat for me. Never been to Africa, always want to be there. Although days spend in ADD(Addis Ababa) will be very short, I don’t want waste a free stopover when using BMI one way award. Tax amount was very strange, I checked with ITA first with Point of Sale Boston, the taxes and fuel were not too high, but when I called to book the ticket, taxes and fuel were a lot higher than I checked. Then I went back to ITA again with POS London, exactly same kinds taxes line by line, but currency was UK AND amount was higher. I knew POS can affect the fare price, but I didn’t how this affected taxes amount. Total taxes include Cash + miles copay were 300+USD
Originally, I planed to tour around Jordan, Syria and Lebanon for around 3 weeks, but now Syria is not stable, so I decided to go back to home in middle of the trip. From middle east to China, the cheapest option of using miles was American Airline, but unlike above tickets, this one took me some checking and calling. I will travel in a single direction in Jordan, which means I will start from Amman and finish in Aqaba. When I called AA to book from AQJ-AMM-JED-HKG-PVG, flight AQJ-AMM was priced in addition to normal Middle East to Asia 2 business class. The explanation I got was there was no published fare btw AQJ-PVG. I then tried something like AMM-BAH-BKK-HKG-PVG and more such as via BOM, DEL, KUL, all came back with same result, 3 segments, correct pricing, 4 segments, miles increase. I mentioned before there are many restrictions with AA, so nothing to argue about it, move on. I eventually settled with AMM-JED-DXB(through flight)-HKG-SHA on Royal Jordanian A320 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class, but too bad, it’s regional A330.6 hours layover in JED, hopefully, I can get a transit pass to exit the immigration. As for AQJ-AMM, I bought a one way from AQJ-AMM for $75 on Royal Jordanian. Taxes were only 30+USD.
Return from China to continue my trip also used AA miles PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM on Dragon Air A330 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class regional and Royal Jordanian A320 in Economy. From Riyadh to Amman there was no way to get business class award(I did some checking) . Unlike above flight, I added a exactly 24 hours connection in Hong Kong and 17.5 hours connections in Riyadh. I picked Riyadh because of final arrival time in Amman to connect to ADD on the same day on BMI flight was perfect. All other options including Bahrain, Delhi, Mumbai and Dubai were not working either because of finally arrival time in Amman or India visa issue. I knew I should try different airlines, but for this one, I just had to stuck with Cathay. Total taxes for these flights were also only 30+ USD
The final part: ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA on Lufthansa A340-300 and A321 business class and Turkish airline B737 business class using BMI miles. This was an interesting part. Again, I don’t want to waste BMI miles one way stopover, but not too many options. I did not want stopover in Egypt, could not stopover in Europe according to BMI redemption rules, holding PRC passport, so need to find a country visa free and there was no *A flight from ADD continued to Southern Africa until Ethiopia airline joins *A. With so many restrictions, I decided Cyprus, which still part of Europe, but I did not think BMI agent had knowledge where it located. Then my friend suggested me to try to make agent believde Larnaca and Ercan airport were co-terminals. My luck was very good, first agent believed me LCA and ECN were co-terminals and she had no idea where the Cyprus was, so ticket issued, total taxes were 400+USD including cash portion for C+M.
let’s recap here:
US Airways for PVG-FRA-ALA//DYU-IST-MUC-PVG, Lufthansa A346 and A 330 First Class, Turkish Air B737 business class and Air China A340 First Class
BMI miles for ALA-IST-AMM(stopover)-ADD and ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA, Turkish Airw ays B737 Business, BMI A321 Business class and Lufthansa A340-300 and A321 business class
AA miles for AMM-JED-HKG-PVG and PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM Dragon Air A330 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class regional and Royal Jordanian A320 in business and Economy
Cash paid for ALA-DYU on Air Astana and AQJ-AMM on Royal Jordain
Total miles used for all tickets: 115,000
Now, let’s go to hotel part, fairly easy and straightforward
Almaty: Hyatt just rebrand to different hotel, so I still have not decided where to stay yet
Amman: Le Meridien, C+P
Petra: Marriott, Cat 1-4 certificate
Riyadh: Marriott, Cat 1-4 certificate
Nicosia: Hilton, standard award redemption
Dushanbe: Hyatt, stay certificate, Classic level.
I hope I did not make you guys fall in sleep while reading!
Posted by Troy under 2011 Trip, Africa, American Airlines, Asia(Including Central Asia and Middle East), Award redemption, BMI Diamond Club, Hilton, Hyatt Gold Passport, Marriott, Starwood Hotels, US airways |
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 15, 2011
The Bora Bora airport is located on atoll around the main island, so boat is the only transportation option to get to hotels. All hotels charge for boat transfer from and to airport at $120 – $200 per person r/t. Hilton is the only major chain hotel on the island can avoid this charge and most likely, you will end up getting to hotel around same time as airport pick up boat.
After getting your luggage, you can drop off to the host person from Hilton at airport, they will transfer your luggage to the hotel. You just need to get on Air Tahiti boat to Vaitape, downtown of Bora Bora. Unlike Hotel pick up boat, which have to wait every passenger and all bags before leaving, the Air Tahiti boat normally departs 15-20 minutes after flight landed because most people on this boat have limited carry on. When we was there, the Hilton boat still docked at airport when Air Tahiti boat already lost the sight of airport. The trip only takes about 15 minutes. After get off the boat, you should see an information center right in front of you, behind the center, there is a big tree with 4 benches around, wait right here. Hilton has a ferry boat to pick employee from there every hour on 30′s. It’s the same boat they use to transport hotel guest to the town, but to a diff drop off point(Robert Wan pier). The boat doesn’t transport guest every hour, but they come to pick up employees. It only take you no more than 15 seconds to walk to the employee pick up location, but it will take at least 7-8 minutes to Robert Wan Pier. If you are doing this way, most likely you will arrive around the same time as hotel boat from the airport . If you arrive downtown a little bit earlier than pick up time, you can go to the supermarket in town to grab some supplies, maybe it’s ur only time in this tiny little downtown.
In addition, the reason I said it was the most convenient hotel on the island was because only Hilton provide free transfer to downtown almost every hour except 6 and 7 pm, 1500 XPF for these two.
Our room(deluxe overwater bungalow) was located at 300 section, far away from the lobby. We used Golf cart most time, but during busy meal time, the wait was very long(20-30 minutes). The layout was the same in all bungalows, the only difference was location.Unlike Four Season, St Regis, Le Meridien, which were built on artificial white sands, Hilton was located on natural coral reef, but as many people have reported, not many fish compare to Island of Moorea.
Hotel lobby, the only overwater lobby in Bora Bora
All non motorized water sports were free of charge with equipment provided, but that’s really all you can do in the hotel. TV was pretty useless with only 14 channels(2 of them were Hilton, 6 English and 6 French), but hotel front desk had free DVD and all room came with DVD player. However, the TV for DVD player was small.
Breakfast was served until 10 am, which I considered pretty early for a resort hotel. Price was 4000 XPF per person, but the food was typical American 3 star hotel breakfast, choices were extremely limited.
The hotel has 2 restaurant, one casual opens since breakfast, another only opens in the evening, but closes on Tuesday because of Polynesia dancing event. Only buffet is served during the event at price of $140 per person, but the quality of buffet only worth $20 to me. The overall food quality was ok during our stay, but salad was exceptional. The portion was big, we ordered 1 salad and 2 main courses on the first night with half left over, then we ordered only 1 salad and 1 main course, still had some left. I looked around, most Japanese people only ordered 2 salads, I mean, really, the food was too much for Asian people like us. Price was ok, not that bad at all, $25 for a salad that enough for 1 meal. To be honestly, I considered price was fair especially compared to find resort hotels in China.
The SPA was located on the hill, where we were evacuated to after Tsunami warning.We did not have chance to try because we had severe sun burn after the third day touring around the island. Price is fair for 2 people, 90 minutes treatment costs around $400. Again, I compare the price to resort in China.
Overall, I personally think it’s a typical 4 diamond hotel with beautiful view and nothing impressed me during our stay at the hotel, also nothing bad either, to me, just another stay.
Posted by Troy under Hilton, Oceania |
April 4, 2011
Just few days ago, I mentioned a humor about Hilton Q2 5000 bonus BA miles promotion, now the offer is active
You must register then have eligible stays completed after registration, member will fixed miles option will earn 500 base miles+1000 bonus miles per stay or 100+250 miles for Hampton Inn, up to 5K
Posted by Troy under British Airways, Hilton |
March 31, 2011
Some people may already know Hilton Q2 promotion, which equate next to nothing, 1000 bonus points per night. so if you are big spender, the bonus doesn’t help.
However, there are several other airlines bonus offer that are stackable with Q2 promotion
1 Triple Virgin Atlantic miles: Member who choose fixed miles will earn 1000 VS miles per stay(100 for Hampton Inn)+2000 bonus(200). I personally don’t like VS program very much, inability to combine partners and extremely high taxes, but if you want to top off VS miles, this is a good time. If you ever have a chance to fly PEK-LHR in business/first on Air China, it only costs you 63000 miles for business and 75,000 for first class, good luck on finding 2 seats
2 Triple Alitalia miles: Member who choose fixed miles will earn 600 AZ miles per stay(120 for Hampton inn)+1200 bonus miles(240). There are some good value in Alitalia program such as Middle East to USA only 80K in business class, but it’s not worth the effort to start from 0
3 5000 BA miles: This is a rumor, let see how it goes.
Posted by Troy under British Airways, Hilton, Other Airline Reward Programs |
March 17, 2011
I first heard Tahiti, French Polynesia from this article, which also made me aware of mileage program. Many people went there for a special occasion, so did we. It’s our fifth year anniversary and we did not go anywhere(excluding Hong Kong) for vacation last year, so Tahiti, here we come.
Back in Sep, I mentioned how I redeemed Delta miles from China to Tahiti, but later, I modified the trip to PVG-NRT-PPT(destination)-AKL(stopover)-ICN-KIX(open jaw)-PVG, in this ticket, PVG-NRT//KIX-PVG was under separate awards. total 150K miles per person. I could be more creative with second ticket too, but we did not have too much time to spend on the road. Many people may already realize that AA miles from Asia 2 to South Pacific was 70K R/T, but routing can not be via Japan. Later I figured out how to get to PPT from PVG with 70K , but I decided to not to fly that route, which required overnight in one of connecting cities and in PPT too. There was also an option on Air New Zealand, but getting 2 business award seat from AKL-PPT was mission impossible. when I searched for entire next 330+ days, there were only 2 days had 2 seats. Anyway, 150K miles get me to see 3 cities, I am more than happy with value, consider getting Delta miles is by far easier than AA miles.
Just few days after we left Shanghai, Japan had earthquake, despite Osaka was not affected, our family asked us to change the trip by calling me everyday. Eventually, I changed the ticket today by going back to China from New Zealand directly.
Now it’s hotel part. Actually, it was quite easy to decide because the only chain with reasonable redemption rate is Hilton. Initially, I redeemed 4 nights for hilton bora Bora using Amex AXON7 award for 145,000 points, but later the hotel was on the point stretcher list, so I changed to 5 nights for total 150K. Then for Hilton Moorea, I redeemed 6 nights VIP award for total 225,000 points with one more extra night at 50,000 points since I didn”t want to spent a day in Tahiti. we were going there for “once in a lifetime” experience, so a basic room was not enough for us, I did some research for pre paid upgrade to Overwater Bugalow with hotels, it turned out the lowest price for low season, diamond member was 10000 xpf(appox 110 USD) tax included for Bora Bora. I contacted amelie.albertin at hilton-borabora.pf, Assistant Front Desk Manager for that price. Due to inflation, the price had gone up to 11,000 xpf per night to Deluxe over water bungalow, I took the offer. The reason I mentioned Diamond because that price was based on upgrade from the next category above redemption room for diamond.
For Moorea, I also sent them emails, but respond was slow, eventually, they replied me with a price of 20000 XPF per night+tax, paid 5, get 1 free. I countered back with a better price, but never received a respond. When I checked in at hotel, I did get a much better price, I will talk about it later.
For New Zealand, it was easy decision too. Since it’s just a short side trip, I picked Hilton Lake Taupo. Last month, I mentioned how I mistakenly booked the wrong date, but the hotel did me a favor.
Finally, it came to inter Island flight, I initially searched PPT-BOB-MOZ-PPT, then it came out 540 per person on expedia.com, but the flight with better time from BOB-MOZ actually connecting via PPT, so I changed my search to PPT-BOB R/T then PPT-MOZ R/T, the price came out $480 total, so basically, I sit on the exact same plane with lower price if I break the search into 2 R/T . I redeemed my last 100K Thank you points for these flights. Due to schedule change for my return MOZ-PPT flight, I had to cancel the round trip for this segment and bought a one way, return by ferry.
The trip was wonderful and trip will come up soon!!!!
Posted by Troy under 2011 Trip, American Airlines, Delta, Hilton, Oceania |
February 11, 2011
Last month, I talked about ”What should u do when u change your mind after book a NON refundable hotel”. MISTAKE do happen!
I made two reservations back to back stay at a hotel in New Zealand last month, First 2 nights were prepaid. I knew I will go the trip, so no problem for me to book this kind of rate. Just three days ago, I checked my flight schedule again and all of sudden realized, my flight arrives the next day even though it was only a 5-6 hours flight. Most time,we know there will be date change for long haul travel due to crossing international date line, but I never thought my 5-6 hour flight from PPT-AKL would also cross the date line!!!!
Then I tried to contact hotel directly to modify the non changeable reservation to one day later and also explained the mistake. The hotel changed right the way!!
Check your schedule carefully and don’t hesitate to contact the hotel when mistake happens!
Posted by Troy under General Frequent Flyer Advice, Hilton |
February 1, 2011
I think this is still the highest HHonor AMEX card sign up offer so far, if you can spend 40K on the card per year, you can switch to Surpass card after getting all bonus, so you can get diamond member
Link is here
Receive 20,000 HHonors Bonus Points with your first purchase
10,000 additional HHonors Bonus Points on your first four Hilton WorldWide portfolio of hotels stays charged to the Card during your first 18 months of Cardmembership
Receive 30,000 HHonors Bonus Points When you spend $1,500 in your first three months of Cardmembership
Posted by Troy under Hilton |
December 13, 2010
SPG just released their new promotion, double points+500 bonus per night on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday with 10% of hotels don’t participanting. I would not say this is a great offer, but as always said, something is better than nothing.
Marriott will release their new Mega bonus 3 days later, as always, diff people got diff promotion, let’s see what we got this time
Hilton already leaked their promotion, which is similar to SPG last year Q1 promotion, 2 nights double, 3 nights triple and 4 nights Quarple.
so Hyatt, what will be yours?
Posted by Troy under Hilton, Hyatt Gold Passport, Marriott, Starwood Hotels |
December 4, 2010
I guess most people already consumed their Hilton Pre Devaluation award, if u haven’t, Hilton has extend the deadline of these certificates to Sep 15th of 2011.
Please note, that’s the date you need to check in.
Also, they have released their new points stretcher award, to my surprise, Hilton Bora Bora Nui resort is on the list from March 1st to March 31st, redemption rate is 30K per night. Doubletree Resort Zanzibar is also on the list, a Cat 7 hotel, but how much does the hotel sell for? $85 USD per night
Posted by Troy under Hilton |
