Hotel: Le Méridien Chiang Rai Resort, Thailand
221 / 2 Moo 20 Kwaewai Road, Tambon Robwieng, Amphur Muang
Chiang Rai 57000 Thailand
Phone: (66)(53) 603 333 Fax: (66)(53) 603 330

I had arranged hotel pickup at the Chiang Rai airport, they bill 600 baht one-way or 1000 baht roundtrip. A hotel concierge was waiting just past the arrivals hall, took us out to the waiting vehicle, assisted with luggage, and got in with us. Instead of acting as a dispatcher and sending us on our way, we were accompanied to the hotel both by the driver and concierge.

In addition to being offered cold towels and waters, we were also offered an array of soft drinks. Wholly unnecessary for the very short (10 minute?) drive, but a nice touch.

As we exited the car on arriving at the resort, we were greeted by name. The general manager was there to see to us as well.

I had corresponded with her in advance of the stay. I had read reports on Flyertalk that the hotel’s occupancy was low, but it wasn’t until someone from this board had stayed there that we learned that not all of the rooms have been completed. The hotel only has one suite, but the “Grande Deluxe” wing is what most folks would expect as room type for Platinum upgrade. It turns out that the Grande Deluxe wing completion has been put off until late in the year. So there’s not really anything to expect by way of upgrade, other than perhaps a choice of view or floor.

My booking was for 5 nights (cash and points – which never showed as available online, had to call, the result of a known glitch with SPG.com) which most would consider too long in Chiang Rai. I began worrying that it might be, without the extra space an upgrade would afford.

The hotel GM assured me I would enjoy myself, confirmed a superior view and top floor room for me, as one Flyertalker mentioned hearing noise from above when on the 3rd floor. I’m not sure that would be an issue at all, but I thought I’d better take no chances.

We checked in, and our pre-booked activities (tour, cooking class) were re-confirmed with us. We were given tickets for our bags which were to be delivered to our room, which seemed kind of funny since not only were we the only ones checking in we might well have been the only ones checking in that day. When we spoke to the revenue manager during our stay I asked how many rooms were occupied and he said 14, which actually surprised me to hear it was so many (I never saw more than 3 sets of other guests in a day).

The lobby is quite stylish, and offers a lovely view of the river.

The revenue manager said that they were just starting to get their footing with reservations, after opening in October and seeing the Bangkok airport shut at the end of November, but then the April protests hit in Bangkok and their bookings completely fell off.

The stay started off well – there was a note from the GM in our room with a bag of meringue cookies (my absolute favorite). There was also fruit in the room, which was changed out daily and the selection varied each day.

The room was uniquely stylish, and larger than I expected, I certainly wasn’t going to have a lack of space – a large bathroom (with glass wall looking into the bedroom), and an area large enough to have a sitting area and desk in addition to the bed area. The balcony looked out at the river and pool, had comfortable furniture, but wasn’t large enough for lounge chairs or much outdoor dining.

Bedroom looking into the bathroom

Bed

Desk area

Bathroom

Bathroom sink

Bathroom amenities

Shower amenities

Balcony furniture

View from the room

It’s tough times for the hotel industry, and unsurprisingly hotel brands are looking to cut back on expenses. Intercontinental Hotels Group has announced a series of changes delaying large expenses for their hotels (.pdf) and also lowering service and amenity standards (.pdf) for their varous brands.

On the capital expense front, they’re delaying the date by which all hotels have to have flat screen TVs, and the date by which Crowne Plazas have to have more comfortable banquet chairs. They’re also pushing back the requirement for Holiday Inns to purchase new beds.

On the service expense front, all brands can skip leaving newspapers at each room door and make them available in lobbies instead.

Crowne Plazas won’t be required to have bellmen, can reduce restaurant hours and room service hours (eliminating lunch service), can offer fewer towels, and eliminate complimentary coffee in the lobby. Changes are similar at Hotel Indigo and Holiday Inns, although Holiday Inn Resorts still have to maintain lunch service.

Holiday Inn Express won’t have to offer cotton towels, and Candlewood Suites won’t have to staff their front desks overnight.

Good to know what to expect…  And I suppose it’s not nearly as severe as Embassy Suites actually eliminating suites.

1:25 pm Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) to Chiang Rai, Thailand (CEI)
Thai Airways Flight 134 Business Class Seat Assignment at Check-in
Duration: 1h 20m Airbus A300-600R 414 miles traveled

Our driver was right on time at 11:15 am for our return to Suvarnabhumi. A quick 20 minutes and we were there. This time it was dropoff at the domestic checkin, heading to the business class line. No one ahead of us, no line to speak of at security, and we headed down to the domestic business class lounge.

Royal Silk Lounge Entrance

Lounge

Lounge restroom

Lounge hallway (to vip area, there were a couple of soldiers there, so…)

Lounge food

After a quick check of email, and a too-sweet can of fruit juice, it was time to head over to the flight. Boarding was a zoo, we were being bussed to a remote stand so there wasn’t any priority boarding. Still was at the front of the line so that I could find a comfy spot on the bus, but I never sit, I figure there are folks who need that – I just want a decent place to hold onto a pole or something.

Boarding gate

Bus to remote stand

There were just half a dozen folks in business class, with coach mostly full. I’ve been on several domestic Thai segments over the years, but never paid too much attention to loads, it’s always seemed like business is nearly empty on the domestic runs on all but the big international planes, perhaps people choose them purposefully or perhaps Thai is just better at scheduling than I’d expect, timing them well to connect to international flights.

Of course, Chiang Rai only has 3 flights a day, two of which were moved over from Don Muang. And there are no international-style new business class flights in and out of CEI. Perhaps tripling the number of Thai flights between Chiang Rai and Suvarnabhumi is driving the low business class loads, in addition to the obvious of the economy and slowdown in tourism.

The crazy thing is that the “A-Bloody-6” is the best aircraft on the route. At least there are footrests.

Seat

And empty business cabin

The snack was small but tasty, flavorful and spicey, and just right for a one-hour flight (this is domestic business class only, after all).

Tuna snack

Chiang Rai is set up as an international airport which means that connecting passengers only have to clear transit immigration in Bangkok, they don’t have to pick up their bags or mess with customs. So like Chiang Mai and Phuket, there are two separate baggage claim areas – one for domestic-only passengers and one for international connecting passengers to go through customs.

Royal Orchid Sheraton
2 Charoen Krung Road Soi 30 (Captain Bush Lane), Siphya, Bangrak
Bangkok 10500 Thailand
Phone: (66)(2) 266 0123 Fax: (66)(2) 236 8320
Rate: THB3000+tax

We arrived at the Royal Orchid Sheraton after a 25 minute drive from the airport. I was torn about where to stay, since it was just a brief overnight. The river is quite far off the airport, but it’s almost all freeway, the only issue is traffic in and around the hotel itself. But we were arriving quite late and leaving the hotel at nearly noon, I figured traffic wouldn’t be much of an issue. And I really did fancy waking up to breakfast on the river.

The hotel is somewhat disfavored, at least among Starwood properties. I know that many like the new Meridien, and the ROS is by no means the incredibly well-regarded Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit. But I really do think it gets a bad rap.

We walked into the lobby and to the checkin desk. I had reserved a base level room on a 45-day advance purchase rate, but understand this hotel is usually pretty good with upgrades. On a single night stay, and with Thai tourism hurting badly, I assumed a suite upgrade would be something of a gimme.

I asked what kind of room they had for me and they told me it was a ‘nice Tower room’. Hmm. No suite? Really? I pressed, and they did give me a top floor junior suite “but only because it’s just a one night stay.” Weird. This hotel is usually good with upgrades, the room was obviously available (it was midnight, I was leaving the hotel in less than 12 hours). Why wasn’t I given it in the first place?

They then took us upstairs to complete the checkin process, and explained the Towers lounge and restaurant breakfast benefit. The Towers lounge is nice, quiet, with a modest breakfast spread and computers with internet. (I didn’t check out evening snacks of course.)

Hotel entrance

Lobby

View from the Room

Welcome drink

Living room

Desk area

Swiveling tv

Bedroom

Bathroom

Lounge

Lounge breakfast

Outside breakfast

I chose to have my breakfast in the main restaurant, outside by the river. The spread was varied and fresh, but mostly I just wanted to sit and drink my coffee along the river – the only reason I picked the Royal Orchid Sheraton for the overnight. So we had our breakfast, got changed, and got ready to head back to the airport for our flight to Chiang Rai.

I had a couple of calls to make in the morning. I had had my limo company pick up a SIM card for me (110 baht) but it had no money on it, fortunately the Sheraton gift shop had 1-2-Call top-off cards with no markup, since the SIM card didn’t have the option to add funds by credit card.

Took the US Airways Shuttle up to LaGuardia, and I had to lug a whole bunch of stuff along – actually wound up checking a bag. Now here’s the rub. With the new baggage fees, US Airways actually makes it difficult to credit miles to their program. My Dividend Miles number was in the reservation, and they couldn’t waive the baggage fees simply by my showing my Star Alliance Gold card. The agent insisted the elite number has to be in the reservation. “Ok, but I just thought I’d save US Airways the money buying miles from another program… I gave them another frequent flyer program, they waived the baggage fee, and then I changed the frequent flyer number back at the customer service counter by the gate (there was no time to visit the lounge – I wanted a Five Guys burger instead).

On the way back I flew Delta, and a Saturday afternoon flight combined with my Northwest Platinum status made the upgrade on the regional jet now serving the route easy. I face a clear tradeoff with the DCA flights out of LaGuardia, though – I can fly US Airways in coach on a mainline jet and use their lounge prior to departure, or I can fly first class on Delta on a regional jet, and the Delta lounge is in a different terminal. On the whole US Airways is probably the better option, though seating in the Marine Air Terminal is perfectly comfortable.

But a simple DC – New York roundtrip isn’t so much worth writing about – although I did get to see my first squatte in first in class in all of my years of travel. With open seating on Delta, and first class only half full, it’s not surprising. But I caught him long before the flight attendant did. He walked on with coach, looked around somewhat nervously, and plopped himself down in row 1 which was completely empty. The flight attendant took his jacket, he settled in, and then she came back around checking boarding passes to make sure everyone belonged at the front of the aircraft. She ejected him to the back and he stomped off muttering something about how “they should really tell you that those seats weren’t for him.

I was especially pleased to check out Le Parker Meridien in Manhattan, where I had never stayed before because it didn’t participate in the Starwood Preferred Guest program until this past December. It entered the program at Category 6. With the annual February hotel recategorizations, it was dropped to Category 5.

That meant two things: I could use my Platinum free weekend night gift there, and that I could expect to receive benefits – they’ve developed a reputation for always giving Platinums junior suites.

I tend to stay at fairly mid-level New York hotels, and given my usual standards I’m fairly disappointed. The Grand Hyatt used to be an outstanding deal, first years ago when it could be had on Priceline for $75 and later when it was available via Hyatt Gift Certificates (which I’d purchase after making my reservation, and which are cancelable/changeable) for $165 including tax – when the hotel was asking $469+tax a night or more. And I’ve stayed at the Sheraton New York, the Embassy Suites in Battery Park, the Waldorf Astoria, the Intercontinental Barclay (which consistently provides suite upgrades to Royal Ambassadors, and which of course means free drinks from the minibar), the W New York, and countless others in those same general classes of hotels.

The Grand Hyatt is a bit of a nightmare, the a busy lobby, indifferent club lounge staff, and thin walls. The W rooms are so tiny and platinum upgrades so scarce there’s a reason why that is the least favored W – not just in New York, but the world. The Waldorf lobby is a tourist zoo, the hotel was once grand but now is an upscale Hilton. The Barclay is a bit more subdued, though not really my style.

I have to say that the Parker Meridien is much nicer. It’s not a great hotel by world standards, but it’s outstanding by New York standards. The staff seem to think it’s nicer than it is, and there were certainly some misses, but it’s worth returning to.

At check-in I was given a junior suite (no view) and was told that since it was my first stay at the property I was welcome to a drink from the minibar. Late checkout was obtained without any difficulty. So status does mean something here, albeit with no club lounge.

The hotel is somewhat stylish, though the furnishings in the room felt a little cheap, dorm room-esque in a way. And the bed wasn’t particularly comfortable.

Hallway

Desk area

Bathroom

Living room

Swiveling TV

Bed

These junior suites feature one TV for both the living room and bedroom, and they swivel around on a pole so you can use the same TV in either room.

Water pressure was good in the bathroom, the water tended towards the extra hot side, and you needed to use a good bit of pressure in the bathroom sink in order to get the water to clear the basin.

There was no data jack for the wired internet (and no wireless). You can contact the concierge for a data jack, I have no idea whether they lend it to you or sell it to you, as I carry my own along with a pocket router. I was overcharged for internet though and that had to be sorted out at checkout – it was clearly impossible for me to have used three days’ of internet (each buys 24 hours’ service) on a stay of less than 48 hours.

The hotel is famous for breakfast at Norma’s, which I didn’t drop into on this visit, and also for Burger Joint. It’s a simple burger restaurant, inexpensive and with lines wrapping outside into the hotel lobby.

They get $7 for a hamburger, $7.50 for a cheeseburger, and have a limited number of toppings (no bacon) which are included. Fries, milkshakes, sodas round out the menu.

The lines are slow, and the staff can be rude.

The one trick here is to call down and place your order, instead of waiting in line. I called the concierge desk, who connected me to Burger Joint. When they answered, instead of talking to me straight away, I heard the guy on the other end of the line say, “I don’t know what happened to that F’ing order! And then he took mine, brusquely. Ah, back in New York!

Then it’s downstairs to pick up the burgers, you just walk past the entire line and to the front, get the attention of the cashier and pay for your order and they hand you your takeout bag. Seating here is tough to get most times, if you do want a table make sure someone is scouting them out and watching for people to leave while another member of the party handles the order and payment. But heading back upstairs to the suite suited me better, I’m often just not a huge fan of crowds.

Burger Joint

I stopped at the concierge desk on my way down to pick up the burgers, The woman behind the desk was arguing with a guest, apparently he had questions about some Broadway shows and she didn’t have the latest guide. He thought it was preposterous that her information was out of date, and she was apoplectic – she was all alone, how could she possibly go get him a new guide?

He was frustrated, complaining that he should get better help for his room rate (most people fail to attenuate their expectations properly for cities like New York, calculating that a $300 room night must buy excellent service). The concierge finally got rid of him, and then slouched forward on the desk rolling her eyes as she looked towards me for sympathy. However the situation developed she handled it extremely unprofessionally, and it was quite the scene in the lobby.

During my stay I had the pleasure of lunch with Wendy Perrin of the Perrin Post and Conde Nast Traveler magazine, she treated in the Frank Gehry-designed Conde Nast cafeteria. (Thanks, Wendy!) And I also made it down to Katz’s Delicatessan on the Lower East Side.

Katz offers an expensive sandwich – nearly $15 for a pastrami or corned beef. They’re hardly conveniently located for nearly anything I’d find myself doing. They’re touristy, having been the site of the Harry Met Sally deli scene. And it can be difficult to get a table at peak times.

Their knishes are only okay, and their cole slaw is above average rather than truly great. But they’re still my favorite for the most delicious pastrami, so I make the pilgrimage.

One Mile at a Time wonders whether Mileage Plus is ‘worth it’ anymore, with their much more expensive award charts (post-December 31) and extensive Starnet blocking of partner awards (just go try to book anything on Lufthansa most days).

And he’s right to a certain extent, United has massively devalued their mileage. And most Star Alliance carriers offer more valuable currency. United’s award chart used to be favorable, but now is average at best. Air Canada’s is better, US Airways’ is better. And United frequently prevents you from booking awards with their partners, whereas the rest of Star Alliance carriers offer currencies without such restrictions.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no more value there. It makes sense to credit flight miles to United to requalify for 1K (or until one requalifies). Because United 1K and American Executive Platinum are the only reasonable elite levels among US carriers, and the perks while flying matter at least as much or more than the redemptions.

All non-flight miles should go to other programs, there is almost no reason to carry a United Visa for instance.

So as a United 1K, One Mile at a Time accumulates these United miles that pair with an expensive award chart and frustrating blocking. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use your miles. I just finished my 5 Star Alliance carrier first class award using United miles. Today two friends just returned from a South Asia on a first class award trip involving two long-haul segments in Asiana First Class and a short-haul segment in Asiana first, and 2 mid-haul segments in Thai First. It CAN be done.

I often think that Starnet blocking would be far less frustrating if United offered web functionality similar to ANA’s site. In other words, if they let you piece together your award yourself with transparency as to what they were actually making available. Then you could find the award within the constraints they’re imposing, and not have the tremendous frustrations of calling knowing hte seats you want are being offered by partners and just being told no. And you could call when you know (on the couple days a year!) that they are actually permitted Lufthansa redemptions.

American is celebrating 10,000 Facebook fans by offering 10% off flights booked by May 17.

In celebration of reaching 10,000 fans, we want to give you 10%* off your next flight. Just go to AA.com and type the code FCB10K in the box titled “promotion code” when you book a flight. The code is good for travel between May 15 and August 31, 2009, and you can even use it to take an extra 10% off the great sale fares we announced yesterday. But hurry – this offer is only good until May 17, 2009

So United says they’re going to give away a small bonus to everyone following them when they hit 10,000 followers on Twitter. My guess is it’s a 10% discount electronic certificate, or 100 or 250 miles. But who knows? You can sign up to follow them.. or not. Apparently all that is required to get the bonus is to register for it, which should work even if you don’t follow them on (or even are a member of) Twitter.

But since they’ve still as of this writing got over 5000 followers to go, you might as well follow them so that I can get my bonus faster…

I’m a guest on the new Upgrd.com Podcast, give it a listen.

9:10 pm Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (SGN) to Bangkok, Thailand (BKK)
Lufthansa Flight 773 First Class Seats 83H, 83K
Duration: 1h 30m Boeing 747-400 461 miles traveled

Since we had a late flight, I asked about 6pm checkout but was told that would incur a half-night’s charge. But they extended 5pm checkout complimentarily, and offered that we could enjoy the evening h’or douerves in the lounge rather than leaving for the airport straight away, but we we decided we’ve rather be off.

We caught a cab to the airport and despite significant traffic (it took better than an hour) the cost was ~ US$8.

We entered the terminal just as Lufthansa was about to open its counters, all of the staff were huddled in a meeting while passengers began to queue. It was rather silly to be at the airport three hours prior to departure for a one hour flight, but we figured we’d just catch up on email and such in the lounge.

Check-in was quick, though slightly delayed while a couple of agents dealt with a woman who somehow managed to pre-upgrade her family but wasn’t happy that her mileage account was hit for the privilege. She wanted everyone downgraded and their original seats returned to them, but that wasn’t possible. Don’t know the eventual resolution, but apparently they were put back in business class as I didn’t see them on the upper deck for the flight.

We were given a lounge pass for the Rose lounge, there are several presumably similar lounges named Orchid, Apricot, and Daisy, perhaps others. Rose was the farthest or second farthest from the Lufthansa gate, which seemed rather odd. It’s near gate 9, and Lufthansa was using 20.

And upon seeing the lounge, they certainly weren’t doing us a favor. Though apparently the lounges were redone it looked entirely dated with drab green décor…. Very little open seating, this place was busy! We had to do two laps around the rather large lounge to find two seats together. Tood options included fruit and a fix-it yourself noodle bar, with several folks using the microwave to heat their soup further.

There was wireless, at least, and I logged onto Flyertalk for a bit before making the long walk down towards the gate. Along the way I did pass the café and spa options that SanDiego1K has written SQ offers its premium passengers, this would have been a vast improvement over the Rose lounge experience.

After such a disappointing UA F flight HKG-SGN, I was truly impressed by Lufthansa for their one-hour onboard service.

On boarding, amenity kits and slippers were passed out. I read a report from several years back that no amenity kits were provided on this short flight, which certainly wouldn’t have surprised me. However perhaps because of the light load or perhaps because the flight attendant didn’t realize initially that we would be with them only for the first short segment, we got the usual Lufthansa long-haul first treatment.

Menus were handed out as well, a nice contrast to United. The wine and spirits menu was the exact same as long-haul, but given the short duration of the flight the food menu was quite limited – cold items and no choices, but served as separate courses none the less.

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Sure hit the spot, an actual three course meal in an hour. It was rather late and I was tired, so I ordered a cappuccino. Not only was it perfectly made, I was offered and accepted a refill.

The flight attendant did forget to distribute arrival cards, so as we were descending I asked about it and he fetched it for us. No fast track immigration passes were distributed, I don’t know whether they offer these only on Bangkok arrival from Franfurt or whether it was an oversight. It didn’t much matter, I had arranged my own fast track escort (though lines were short anyway, this wouldn’t have been necessary, I would have liked to pick up passes for later use however).

We arrived in Bangkok on time, about a quarter to 11. Didn’t look like too many folks deplaning in BKK, mostly connecting passengers staying on board for the continuation to Frankfurt.

Since we weren’t arriving in Thai Airways first, and since it wasn’t clear to me that we’d be getting fast track passes, I decided to try out one of the VIP escort services at Suvarnabhumi. In particular, I booked a meet-and-greet as well as round-trip car transfer with Image Limo. The car service was 1200 baht each way (this was billed as a ‘special’ rate but seemed in line with what I’ve paid for a car service on arrival in the past, though quite reasonable for something pre-booked). The meet-and-greet was impossibly expensive for a relatively unnecessary service in most cases at 3000 baht for two people (it’s less expensive for just one) but I was curious to see how it would work as I’ve only gotten escorts in the past from Thai.

A well-dressed Thai man was at the entrance to the jetway with a sign with my name on it when we arrived. He walked us through the terminal (no buggy ) to an special passport control area with no line that was walled off from the regular lines, I didn’t notice it as diplomatic passport control per se but may well have been. He clearly knew the officer on duty and nothing had to be said or paperwork handed over to justify our eligibility for the line.

Right on through passport control, our bags were already on the belt. I pointed to them, our escort put them on a luggage cart and walked us out to a waiting car (he rang them from inside baggage claim). The car was a Nissan Teana, they had the obligatory cold cloths and waters and mints, the day’s papers, etc. in the car, and we were off onto the expressway to head down to the Royal Orchid Sheraton. The driver did get himself a bit turned around once he exited the expressway, but the back streets at night can be confusing.

Based on a recommendation from Flyertalk I emailed Tony with Ann Tours to arrange a driver and guide for the day. A full day guide, driver, and vehicle including entrance fees where applicable was US$90, prepaid by credit card.

We were picked up as planned at 10am in the lobby of the Sheraton, and packed most of the well-known city sights into the day. Specifically the Presidential palace, War Remnant museum, Notre Dame cathedral, Central post office, Emperor of Jade pagoda, the museum of alternative medicine,, a couple of markets, and had our lunch at a Pho restaurant down on Pasteur street.

Very happy with the guide, and would use Ann Tours again (they have an office in Hanoi as well).

Palace

Post office:

Market:

Lunch time! In addition to the soup we ordered cocunut dirnks and some bread. I was surprised that the waitress simply picked up a bread basket from another table of patrons that had just left and put it down on our table. I think our guide must have seen me give off a funny look, and he offered “oh, they will only charge you for the pieces you use” so he must have assumed I was concerned I would pay for a full order when I hadn’t gotten a full basket. But fair enough, that’s how they do things there, and I wouldn’t have eaten the full basket of bread! Lunch for three (mrs. gleff, myself, and our tour guide) with bread and drinks, was about $8.

Religion

Hotel: Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers
88 Dong Khoi Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam
Phone: (84)(8) 827 2828 Fax: (84)(8) 827 2929

The hotel Mercedes pulled into the driveway, a porter hopped into action, and we walked into the hotel lobby.

Didn’t get much of a feel for the lobby, though, because a hotel staff member intercepted us and asked me, “Are you mr. gleff?”

She guided us directly to the right of the entrance to the bank of Towers elevators. She had our room keys in her hand and brought us to our suite to check in.

All formalities were taken care of there, bags were promptly delivered, and she showed us the room and explained Towers benefits.

Now, a quick word about how we wound up in a Towers suite in the first place. I had booked a cash and points award, which naturally books me into a base room – in the regular hotel. Normally upgrades are down within the section of the hotel you book, I had expected based on past experiences reported in the Starwood forum to receive a junior suite and lounge access.

On a lark though I emailed the hotel about a week out and asked whether they offered the ability tro redeem an instant award for the Towers section? They replied that for 6000 points they would process the instant award in advance and confirm my platinum upgrade in advance, to a suite. I figured that 6000 points was worth it for a Towers Suite, rather than just the Towers section!

They actually pulled 12,000 points from my account, and when I queried them about it they apologized and told me they should have quoted me 6000 points [i]per night[i] rather than 6000 points for the stay. I figured I’d take the issue up on my return, but I enjoyed the Towers lounge so much and was happy enough with the preblocked upgrade that I decided not to make an issue of it at all.

The room itself is nice enough though modest as far as my suite experiences have been, a desk area (with a half bath off the desk area) and a couch along with a seating area by the bay window in one room, followed by a bedroom, and a nice sized bathroom with separate shower and tub. (The first morning I didn’t have any hot water in the shower…) The room had universal power outlets, as many of the more modern Asian properties do, which is appreciated.

Here’s the view from the room, if you crook your neck to the left…

Most of the time it looks like this:

In fact, we were looking directly out across at the Caravelle

While the room was fine in most respects, the living room furniture was just uncomfortable. The couch could have been longer and wider and with more comfortable cushions. The seating area by the window wasn’t all that comfortable. No complaints about the desk chair, mind you, but it just wasn’t a place for lounging. The other complaints about the suite were that I could hear road noise at night, and also noise from the pipes – it’s apparently an open system of some kind and every time I’d use the faucet or the toilet the rush of water through the pipes cold be heard throughout the room.

The highlight of a Towers stay at this hotel, though, is the Towers Lounge. The space is light, airy, and modern and during our stay was completely uncrowded. No one was ever using the upstairs area at all. And the service was magnificent.

One real test for me of service is my coffee. I am very persnickety about my coffee. I do not like skim milk, soy, or 2%. I drink half and half, but in a pinch will use a smaller amount of cream. This is key to my enjoyment of my coffee. When I first asked for half and half they apologized and told me it would take a couple of minutes because they would have to go to the hotel restaurant to secure it. But throughout my stay they always had half and half available in the lounge for me, and every staff member there knew how I took my coffee. I never had to ask again. (And they were able to handle the complication tha indeed mrs. gleff takes soy milk in her coffee.)

The morning spread included a soup bar and cooked to order eggs, pastries and American items (bacon, hash browns, sausage), as well as cereals and yogurts, and a separate menu service – steak, bagel lox, burrito (though I wasn’t at all impressed by the burrito, unsurprising I suppose).

Oh and as others have reported about the property, there’s an available freezer with ice cream all the time, just help yourself. I didn’t partake during breakfast, however.

Evening h’or deourves in the lounge consisted of fresh sashimi and fresh rolled sushi, plenty of desserts and hot items, cheese, ice cream (still available), no name a few.

Each Towers guest is invited to a choice of gifts once during their stay, redeemable in the Towers lounge. Specifically:

Quote:

Here’s the list of Towers benefits:

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They also offer an extensive array of Instant Awards:

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This Flyertalk thread points to an American Express Membership Rewards change that I had somehow missed — beginning September 1, the fee to transfer points from Membership Rewards to US airline frequent flyer programs will be going up.

Amex currently charges $0.0005 per point to transfer to US carriers, and caps the fee at $75. This will go up to $0.0006 or $99 beginning September 1. For a 100,000 mile transfer the fee is $50, going up to $60, a 20% increase.

They describe the fee as an ‘offset’ for the federal excise tax they pay when buying miles from US airlines. However, the fee isn’t a direct reimbursement of their actual costs, and it certainly isn’t mandated. It’s a charge they pass along to their customers. And similar programs, such as Starwood which allows transfers to more airlines than Membership Rewards, do not impose such a fee.

Fortunately, transfers to hotel programs (which aren’t at an especially favorable rate) don’t incur the fee, and more importantly transfers to non-US based mileage programs don’t incur the fee. Since the best use of Amex points is usually transfers to Air Canada (followed by All Nippon Airways) I will rarely have to pay the fee. The exception being when I transfer say 1000 points to someone else’s account to keep their mileage active, and it’s a US program, I do consider the 50 cents I have to pay to be more than worthwhile.

American Express does let you link anyone’s account you wish through their website and make transfers, even if their rules do say you can only transfer points to someone with a card on the account. This rule may be in place if you call and have a representative make the transfer but if you handle the transaction wholly online it certainly isn’t.

I do still love Membership Rewards points. Not as much as Starwood points, but they’re much more valuable than points in most airline programs. The flexibility to choose what you wish to do with them at the point you need them is huge, and transfers take place much faster than with Starwood in most cases. For instance, transfers to Air Canada, Delta, and Continental are instantaneous. I’ve seen Mexicana take a couple of days even though they say two weeks, and I’ve seen Singapore take from a couple of days to a week. Starwood can take much longer, though of course their partner list is also much larger (including for instance American, LAN where transfers are 1 Starwood point to two LAN points, and even Air New Zealand Airpoints).

The nice thing about Air Caanda Aeroplan transfers, as I’ve written in the past, is that Aeroplan has a generally more favorable award chart than United (e.g. 120,000 miles from the US to Asia in first class, compared to 145,000), they do not block availability offered by their Star Alliance partners, and their routing rules are much more generous — you can cross either ocean or both, and you can book two stopovers in addition to your destination or a stopover and an open jaw, while United only allows one stopover or an open jaw.

And ANA points can be especially useful for specific routes, because they use a distance-based chart rather than zone-based, and because they have interesting partnerships in addition to their Star Alliance membership such as Virgin Atlantic and Jet Airways. To wit, a business class roundtrip in Virgin Upper Class between New York-JFK and London-Heathrow is only 63,000 miles while United charges 55,000 miles for coach and doesn’t provide the Virgin option. (From my home airport of Dulles, a Virgin Upper Class redemption would be 68,000 miles.)

Of course, Starwood partners with both Aeroplan and with ANA, and they offer transfer bonuses when transferring points in chunks of 20,000. But we can’t all earn Starwood points all the time, the Starwood Amex notwithstanding. For example, American Express will allow me to make much larger charges on my Platinum Amex than on my Starwood Amex (despite an especially high limit even with the latter). So I will accumulate Membership Rewards.

Ultimately I won’t get too excised over American Express’ change to their excise fee pass-along, but it’s a minor annoyance in what amounts to death by a thousand cuts that is all-too-common in the loyalty industry. Amex for instance has lost partners over the years, like Marriott and Northwest, and hasn’t added partners of equal value. No, JetBlue doesn’t count.

Upgrade: Travel Better discovers that the Spanish trains will sell you cheaper advance purchase tickets if you’re searching in Spanish, but not in English.

That’s a great trip for the next time I’m in Spain, in the past I’ve seen online pricing and just went ahead and purchased at the station. I hadn’t realized better significantly advanced purchase fares were available. And with six years of Spanish under my belt, I ought to be able to muddle through an online shopping cart.

Wednesday, April 15

After checking out of the hotel we grabbed a cab down in front of the W. The hotel staff member assisting us on our way was a little bit concerned that we were heading off to the airport ‘only’ 2.5 hours before our flight, but I wasn’t in the slightest. There was a bit of traffic heading in the opposite direction but the roads were all clear for our drive.

We pulled up to the airport and headed inside, strangely there wasn’t anybody in either the business or first class checkin lines ahead of us. I say strangely because even though I knew the load for our flight was going to be exceptionally low, there’s a Singapore flight leaving around the same time.

Bags tagged to Vietnam, off through the government formalities, and onto the train to head out towards the far gates where United is housed. Instead of heading up to the Red Carpet Club, and admittedly it’s the nicest RCC in the system, we headed in to the Thai Airways lounge. We were immediately welcomed upon presentation of our boarding passes and escorted to a pair of seats on the first class side, while the attendant kept our boarding passes for a moment in order to photocopy them.

The business and first class sides of the lounge are separated by a pseudo wall, the first class side a little bit more nicely furnished, much smaller, and fewer people. The first class side has table service, and we were offered a menu and drinks as soon as we were seated.

Here’s the small-ish first class side of the lounge

The lounge shares a buffet area with business class, but also has menu service. Here’s the menu:

And the buffet area:

I made myself a plate from the buffet:

Okay, two plates.

The bathroom and showers are also shared between business and first.

We caught up on e-mail and then it was time to head downstairs to our departure gate. Even though we were flying UA, the lounge attendant came to let us know when our flight was beginning to board. Not 30 seconds later we could hear the airport announcement for it.

I had grabbed a bottle of water in the lounge, but it was confiscated from me at the plane-side check for liquids. Hmmph.

I didn’t care, it was a short flight, I did want the bottle of water because after all even though I was flying in first class it was going to be United first class – one never knows what kind of service to expect!

Still, it was my first time flying United’s new first class. Obscene, huh? I simply haven’t had the opportunity, and any time I thought I might I always winded up with an aircraft swap. At least the 767 fleet is finally completed (though I admit, for a frequent coach-to-business upgrader like me I’d take the old seats since they came paired with a whole bunch more seats and a better shot at upgrades).

My bottom-line impression is that the seats aren’t all that much better than the old first class suites, except that they are newer (the old seats were certainly threadbare, but they were comfortable and I always slept well in them) and of course come with a much larger video screen and video on demand instead of tapes. The new seats had a bit of an intangible ‘cheap’ feel to them (maybe just too much plastic?), and though they did have storage space it seemed like there was a bit less than with the old suites.

The seat is perfectly comfortable for lounging, andit’s nice to sit in UA F with the seats not worn so thin. With the armrests up in bed mode the seat is way too narrow, claustrophobic. But the armrests are your only (minimal as it is) privacy, so I’d be reticent to put them down with a full cabin. The seats are really a generation old, the current world standard of F seating offering some measure of separation between you and other passengers in the cabin. This one is just really quite open, in some ways like the Thai Airways first class seat.

Not sure how common this is, but for my seat the compartment which stows the tray table is already showing wear, not quite closing properly. And I still don’t understand the shoulder restraint that pairs with the seatbelt. The seat controls are too far away, just a tad beyond easy reach, and there just aren’t enough controls. The video controller is even farther away.

Here’s the first class cabin

And the main event, the seat itself

Our route from Hong Kong down to Ho Chi Minh City.

We had been offered predeparture water or orange juice. Ok, ANA doesn’t do predeparture beverages and that’s the law. But in first class, when it’s legal to offer more, it would be nice if they would. This felt so ‘business class’.

Shortly after takeoff we were offered beverage of choice and a dinner selection. Now, granted this was a flight scheduled at 2.5 hours but there was no menu. Rather the flight attendant affered “A turkey cheese wrap or lamb.”

Umm, lamb? Like, how is it prepared? “Oh, it’s Indian.” Well, I know I don’t want the turkey cheese wrap as my first class dinner, so I’ll try the lamb. My wife did the same, and I believe so did the other 3 passengers (2 of whom were non-rev) in the cabin.

It was actually rather tasty, not terrible in the least, but note that the entire meal was served on a single tray. Not that fond of the dessert, though.

After dinner I got up to use the restroom. I went inside it turned out that the toilet was clogged. I told the flight attendant who replied, “Oh, I know.” Hmm. I guess the look I gave him spoke volumes, as he put an out of order sign on that lav shortly thereafter.

The other first class bathroom was visited by one of the non-revs who left a rather distinct sign of his presence that lingered long after his visit. That wasn’t the flight attendant’s fault of course. But it rendered both first class lavatories virtually unusable. And it was certainly a contrast with ANA, where the toilet paper ends were folded over by the flight attendants after each passenger used the facilities… just one of the little signs indications that the bathroom receives ‘attention’ as it frankly needs to on a long journey.

Ah, United.

Flight attendants collected the noise canceling headsets about 30 minutes prior to landing, so I wasn’t able to finish the episode of Entourage I had started. It was late, I wasn’t much up to doing anything on the computer or reading, and so I pretty much just zoned out to the flight map for the descent.

Upon deplaning we were the first ones out the jetway, and there wasn’t a single person manning the immigration booths. As soon as we were seen walking in that direction, though, the whole immigration team scurried into position. We walked up, my visa was given great scrutiny, and we were let into baggage claim. After getting our bags and walking out into the arrivals hall we immediately spotted the sign with my name on it being held by a representative of the Sheraton, who assisted us outside with our bags and called for the hotel Mercedes.

In the discussion of American’s new one-way awards with stopovers permitted in international gateway cities, a Flyertalk member pointed out that members living in gateway cities can book themselves a free domestic roundtrip when booking an international roundtrip.

If you live in New York and are booking a roundtrip to Tokyo, why not also book yourself a trip to Miami as well?

From the Flyertalk post:

Here’s what I was thinking of doing:
Newark – Jackson Hole ($219 in Y / Purchased Ticket)
[Stop]
Jackson Hole – Newark (F Award Ticket #1)
[Stop]
New York – Hong Kong (F Award Ticket #1)
[Stop]
Hong Kong – New York (F Award Ticket #2)
[Stop]
New York (LaGuardia) – Eagle, CO (F Award Ticket #2)
[Stop]
Eagle, CO – New York ($219 in Y / Purchased Ticket)

W Kong Kong
1 Austin Road West, Kowloon Station, Kowloon
Phone: (852) 3717 2222 Fax: (852) 3717 2888
Cash & Points Rate

We arrived at the W Hong Kong around midnight and no one from the hotel was there to greet our cab at the entrance. There were two staffers standing inside the door but we turned up and nobody moved. We brought our bags inside ourselves and then the bags were taken from us (not delivered to our room very quickly either, I might add).

The lobby of the hotel is a bit confusing, we came up the driveway and had to take the elevator upstairs, the checkin desk was down the hall and around the corner to the left. I was tired, and it would have been nice had one of the staff members from downstairs had escorted us to checkin. Instead they called the elevator and hit the button for the lobby and sent us on our way.

The elevator itself is pretty cool, here is the elevator floor
:

The lobby itself is nice enough.

Things got cookin’ though when we arrived at the checkin desk. They offered up the 500 point platinum amenity without prompting, already had us upgraded to a Fantastic suite, and when I mentioned my 8:30pm flight the next evening they happily suggested a 6pm checkout. (Of course the keys stopped working at 4, necessitating a visit to the front desk when we returned to the hotel before heading to the airport, but that was easily corrected.)

The hotel must have my favorite interior design of any property I have ever visited, anywhere.

Hallway to the room

Book outside the door indicates your status in the room

We walked inside the room and were immediately impressed by the design elements of the suite.

Walking down the hall, we entered the living room

Here’s another shot of the living room, from the bedroom

And of the living room during the day

The view from the suite was nice enough, we looked our over the water. But my previous hotel of choice in Hong Kong was the Sheraton (Towers section, harbor view room) and this has nothing on the Sheraton’s view, you don’t get the famous Hong Kong skyline from the W.

The bedroom was equally stylish.

Probably the most stunning part of the suite was the bathroom, here is the sink..

Walk-in shower and tub with TV.

Anotherr shot of the tub

Not bad for a cash and points stay. It’s worth noting that cash and points was never available on the Starwood website, there’s a known glitch – especially with Asian properties – where cash and points is available but doesn’t show online.

The property has developed a good reputation for upgrading platinums, it’s perhaps the most stylish hotel I’ve ever stayed in, and I much enjoyed it. Still, it’s tough to give up the Harbour skyline view and the Towers benefits at the Sheraton. But I’d likely make the same choice again.

Though we were pretty tired after all our travels, we decided to order some late room service around 1am, then finally went to bed around 2. Since we didn’t really have any plans for the next day – other than having dim sum, of course – we slept in until noon.

Then it was down to business:

And with our remaining time we just chilled down at the Harbour

Then at 6pm we grabbed a cab back to the airport.

Monday, April 13
Washington, DC (IAD) to Tokyo, Japan (NRT)
All Nippon Airways Flight 1
First Class Seats 1D, 1G
Departure: 12:20pm, Scheduled Duration: 14h 5m
Boeing 777 6,752 miles

We arrived at Dulles around 10:45 a.m. and walked up to the check-in counter. First and business were more or less being taken care of together, and we waited for the first available agent. Boarding passes issued, bags tagged to Hong Kong. Lounge passes issued for Dulles, which strikes me odd as at this time of day it’s a dedicated lounge for ANA, no lounge pass printed for Tokyo which also seemed odd because passes are much more common in Asia.

Headed down the underground walkway and up to Terminal B, the ANA lounge is opposite gate B46.

During the late morning it’s an ANA lounge, and then becomes the Air France lounge for their departures. There’s a business class side and a first class side, and the signage clearly indicates such. Still, it appears that only the first class side was being used. Ultimately first was filled only 5/8, and the rest of the crowd was certainly not qualified as ANA Diamond.

The two sides of the lounge share a restroom in the middle, and you can cross between business and first unchecked by walking through the shared restroom facilities. So after visiting the loo I walked into the business class side and found it completely deserted.

The lounge was crowded, fortunately we found ourselves the last two seats by the window, by boarding time there wasn’t an open seat outside of the ‘reserved’ closed off area where two passengers were seated. I don’t know their particular special designation, but they were two of the three other people in first class.

Snacks and drinks are modest, furnishings comfortable, and only one special thing of note about the lounge is that you board the jetway through a doorway in the lounge itself rather than heading back outside into the terminal. You’re boarded close to departure time, after most of coach is already onboard, which is nice because ANA (and more generally, Japanese carriers) doesn’t serve pre-departure beverages.

Once onboard the most important thing is the seat. It’s lovely and wide, a nice big screen TV, perfectly comfortable and goes fully flat. The tray table is large, but bounces a bit in turbulence. The only complaint is that there’s really no storage space at all.

Here’s the menu for the flight.

Quote:

Shortly after takeoff, drink of choice was offered and I naturally chose Krug. Then it was time for the amuse bouche:

Then it was time to order my meal. I began with the caviar (and more Krug…)

And followed with the galantine of foie gras and chicken thigh

I thought about ordering the Lobster and avocado salad and it looked outstanding on the tray of the woman sitting by the window to my right. But there was no way that I was going to be able to eat everything I had my mind set on, so I then switched to the Japanese menu:

I was full, and yet somehow my flight attendant managed to convince me I should have two desserts

After a full meal, I thought it might be bedtime. I was already dressed comfortably for the flight in black sweat pants and a black polo shirt. I’m not that keen on ANA’s pajamas which aren’t yours to keep, so I didn’t change. But I immediately took up the offer of the FA to make my bed.

While this was being set up I stood behind my seat (rather than the customary time spent in the lav changing into PJs).

Behind my seat is where the basket of amenities had been placed, perhaps because the seat behind mine was unoccupied. (The couple from the ‘reserved’ area of the lounge was onboard together, but seated in a window / middle configuration rather than sharing the two middle seats. I really do understand the impulse. mrs. gleff and I shared the two seats in the middle of row one, and the privacy screen is immobile and really did separate us, I think I’d just have us separated in the future by the aisle instead of that screen – don’t ask me why that screen doesn’t stow as it does on Asiana, or at least I never figured out how to stow it.

In any case, I stocked up on additional amenities while I waited for my bed to be made. ANA hands out a nice zipper bag for amenities, and then offers a basket from which you may take what you wish. I wasn’t shy the first go, but I stocked up on the hand cream and lip balm. Of course I could only take so much, I was transiting and Narita and feared the liquid baggie police.

Once my bed was ready I settled in, and the flight attendance put a fragrance card down at my side, ostensibly to aid in restful sleep.

Sadly as comfortable as the seat was for sleeping (though the pillow could have been better for my tastes), I really just wasn’t tired. That’s the trouble for me with early afternoon departures, I much prefer my transpacs to start late in the evening. So I stayed up and watched [i]Slumdog Millionaire[/b] and scanned the rest of the AVOD.

I do have to say that ANA has much improved its’ variety of choice, but there really just wasn’t anything else I was interested in watching and I finally managed to doze for about an hour. I got up and ordered a midflight drink and snack:

Afterward I did manage to get back to sleep for a couple of hours, and wait out the remainder of the flight. Sadly I wasn’t hungry again, though had I been I would have been disappointed because the one dish I really wanted was the Super Cheeseburger but apparently (according to a FA) they only load it ex-NRT. And it certainly wasn’t on the menu.

Landing was a bit bumpy, we taxied around much of Narita before finding our gate, and then it was off through transit security…

We arrived at Narita right on time around 3:25pm. After a quick transit security screening we headed up towards the ANA lounges. We weren’t given a lounge pass at check-in, and were continuing in two-cabin business class on ANA subsidiary Air Japan’s 6:40pm Hong Kong flight.

I decided to walk towards the First Class lounge, even though ANA treats their lounges as departure rather than arrivals lounges and thus technically I would only be entitled to use the business class lounge.

I approached the woman standing outside the lounge to greet passengers, ostensibly looking for directions, and showed her my first class boarding pass stub from my arriving flight. That was the only thing I showed her, she saw first class on it, and indicated I was in the right place! She escorted my to the lounge’s check-in desk and handed my stub to one of the women behind the desk.

That woman asked for my onward boarding pass, which I gave her, and she appeared perplexed. Of course she was, I was flying business class! But the woman out front had invited and escorted me in, she decided not to press the issue and we were brought inside.

It’s a nice, airy, comfortable and decently-stocked lounge but hardly anything special. Though ANA is wonderful in the air (certainly with in my view the best food in the sky, and very efficient service) they really are nothing special at all on the ground. Still, I assumed it was better in here than the business class lounge or at least less crowded so the preferred place to burn a couple of hours before my connecting flight. And it’s certainly more stylish than United’s Red Carpet Club here which, though one of the better clubs in their system, feels dated – almost like a nice Holiday Inn.

Once seated an attendant brought us drinks and modest snacks, and I fired up the laptop. And had a few quick photos of the lounge.

There was a nice view of airport operations

And a decent though not overwhelming food selection

And a made to order noodle bar

After a couple of hours in the lounge we headed off to our gate a bit early, just to do some walking around, after the 14 hour flight from Dulles we really didn’t need more time sitting. Boarding was about ten minutes late but everything was handled quickly and efficiently.

6:40 pm Tokyo, Japan (NRT) to Hong Kong, Hong Kong (HKG)
All Nippon Airways Flight 911 Business Class Seats 3A, 3B
Duration: 4h 30m Boeing 767-300 1,827 miles traveled

Here’s the Club ANA seat, a far cry from what we had just come off of but comfortable enough for the much shorter segment to Hong Kong. Plus I could have probably slept well in coach, I was pretty darned exhausted after not getting much shut eye on the long haul segment.

We took our sweet time prior to takeoff, Narita is a busy place around 7pm and it was about 7:35pm before we finally made it into the air. I slept through most of our taxing.

Shortly after takeoff a meal was served, and though a modest one-plate affair it was actually pretty tasty.

Beyond that not much worth sharing about ANA’s regional business class service.

Landing was nearly an hour late at 11:20pm. Immigration was a quick walk from the ANA gate, a nice contrast to arriving on United or Thai as I’ve generally done in the past which necessitates the airport train. And lines were non-existent. Once through, baggage claim was quick as well,

We grabbed a cab, which for those new to Hong Kong is an especially easy thing to do. The taxi station is at the left-hand ramp outside the Arrivals Hall. There will be plenty of touts along the way, of course.. Then a red taxi, as I was headed to Kowloon. Fare down to the W was about HKD270.

I’m just back off of a two week trip, our annual Asia first class redemption.

Prior to the gutting of the United award chart I booked two first class awards that combined five different Star Alliance international first class products, and managed to work around Starnet blocking for my transpac segments.

After much time with agents who insisted that All Nippon Airways doesn’t serve Washington-Dulles (funny, I attended their party celebrating 20 years of service, and they only refer to the flight as NH 1) I did secure ANA three-class first, which I hadn’t flown since 2006.

One sad note however is that I believe in July three-cabin service will leave DC, meaning I’ll have to hop over to Chicago if I want ANA F.

On the return I fought agents who didn’t believe it was possible to find the award seats I wanted, so kept telling me that they were checking on availability and finding one across a huge swath of dates that they couldn’t possibly be checking as quickly as they claimed… they just said no availability without even checking. So this award took a few more phone calls than it should have…

The itinerary I put together:
IAD-NRT, NH F
NRT-HKG, NH C (Air Japan)

W Hong Kong, upgraded to a Fantastic Suite

HKG-SGN, UA F (my first time in UA’s new F!)

Sheraton Grande, upgraded to a Grand Tower Suite

SGN-BKK, LH F

Royal Orchid Sheraton, upgraded to a top floor junior suite

BKK-CEI, TG C

Le Meridien Chiang Rai

CEI-BKK, TG C

Novotel Suvarnabhumi

BKK-HKG, TG F
HKG-ICN, OZ C

W Seoul, upgraded to a junior Media Suite

ICN-LAX, OZ F
LAX-ORD, UA F
ORD-IAD, UA F

Sadly UA killed its 4pm LAX-IAD flight on Saturdays so I was stuck with the connecting flights on the way home after the long transpac. Of course, United had other ideas in mind for me still, but that’s a story for later in the report…

Now, this represents 11 flights in two weeks and — my wife loves me but this is truly pushing the limits of that love!

But I wanted to try out the different F products, spend some time in Chiang Rai, and make our first visit to Vietnam.

The stops on this itinerary in Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Seoul were about 23 hours each, so they didn’t count as stopovers but rather connections. I figured it would be enough time to grab some nice dim sum in Hong Kong and enjoy breakfast on the river in Bangkok.

I booked this eight months out, which I never do, but I had time to kill one weekend afternoon or more correctly I was searching for award travel as a way of procrastinating from work. So it was a very long time to wait for the trip to happen. But the day finally came…

I’ll be offering up several posts over the coming days sharing details of the trip, lots of photos of the various carriers, hotels, and activities.