Place of Travel Deals, Frequent Flyer/Guest Programs
You can try to register from here, if you are eligible, you will get rewarding return bonus for just 1 stay including:
2,000 bonus Starpoints
$25 Amazon gift card
or 25% off cat 1-5 redemption valid until 5/31/2012
I mentioned many times about this promotion, the good news here is you don’t need to use the new website I mentioned earlier. SPG.com, then change langue to Chinese will do.
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!
A reader of mine posted the registration link out, according to T&C, it’s targeted, but everyone can register.
Promotion is for booking and stay btw May 1st to July 31st and via this Chinese link and for participating hotels in China ONLY
As reader mentioned: You can use ”Chrome and do the translate from there, the cities translate correctly.”
It looks to me nearly all hotels are participating.
Here is the list
Beijing: ALL hotels
Changsha: Sheraton Changsha
Chengdu: Sheraton Chengdu
Chongqing: Le Meridien Chongqing
Dongwan: Sheraton Dongwan
Foshan: Aloft
Guangzhou: Four points and Westin
Guilin: Sheraton
Guiyang: Sheraton
Haikou: Sheraton
Sanya: Sheraton and Le Meridien
Hangzhou: Four Point
Hefei: Westin
Hohhot: Sheraton
Huizhou: Sheraton
Jiangyin: Sheraton
Jinan: Sheraton
Jiuzhaigou: Sheraton
Tibat: Four Points and St’ Regis
Liyungang: Four Points
Nanjin: Westin and Sheraton
Ningbo: Sheraton
Qiandao Lake: Sheraton
Qingdao: Le Meridien and Four Points
Shanghai: All
Shenyang: Sheraton
Shenzhen: All
Shunde: Sheraton
Tai’an: Four Points
TaiCang: Four Points
Tianjin: All
Urumiqi: Sheraton
Wenzhou: Sheraton
Wuxi: Sheraton
Xiamen: Le Meridian and Sheraton
Xian: Sheraton
Zhong shan: Sheraton
Zhou shan: Sheraton
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.
Offer registration is here
Between May 1 and July 31, 2011, registered members will earn 1 Free Resort
Night Award for every 3 stays at any of the more than 1000 Starwood hotels
and resorts that participate in the SPG program. Free Night Awards can be
redeemed at over 200 resorts worldwide any day of the week through December 21, 2011. There are no limits to the number of awards you can earn, plus awards are combinable for a long stay, and there are no blackout dates.
a full list of resorts available for redemption can be found at spg.com/
getawayfree/resorts later today as well. All category 1-6 resorts with
standard rooms are included, plus the category 7 St Regis Punta Mita, Mexico.
You must register before June 30th
The offer will be released on May 1st, for booking made btw May 1st-July31st via SPG Chinese website.
Go to spg.com, on right corner under language, Chinese option is the second one below Deutsch, then use Google translate to finish your booking
According to FT thread, SPG lurker has announced new SPG award category for 2011, the change will be effective in March 1st, 2011.Total 84 moving up, 93 moving down
The list is much better than I thought, I was expecting massive amount of properties in China will have increase in categories. SPG changed calculation method for category changes, they used to use past year annual room revenue to calculate, now they are using forward ADR.
There is a hotel surprised me a little, Aloft Beijing, from cat 2 to cat 1. The hotel is selling 650++ per night year round, but they move down to category 1 instead. I guess they are just trying to get more revenue.
Anyway, overall, not that bad. book now for hotel will increase in categories, and later for decrease in categories, but do remember, if you make your booking now and the hotel changes to higher category, any change after March 1st will require more points.
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.
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.
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?
