While I've been to Hong Kong a bunch of times and have tried out many different hotels (including the Ritz Carlton Hong Kong, Conrad Hong Kong, Hyatt Regency Hong Kong Sha Tin, InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong, InterContinental Hong Kong, Marriott SkyCity Hong Kong), I hadn't yet stayed at the Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui.
While the Grand Hyatt is probably objectively better, it's also exponentially more expensive. The Hyatt Regency paid rate was quite reasonable for my dates, at ~$200USD per night. It’s a Category 4 Gold Passport property, making a free night redemption 15,000 points per night. That’s actually a pretty good deal since rates at this hotel can often be $350+ per night, but given the good rate I got, it didn’t seem worthwhile.
Even Points + Cash would have cost 7,500 Gold Passport points plus $100 per night, so wasn’t as good of a deal to me as the paid rate.
Anyway, upon landing we took a taxi to the hotel. In Hong Kong, generally if I'm traveling with someone I'll take a taxi, while if I'm traveling alone I'll take the Airport Express. That's because two tickets on the Airport Express are roughly the same cost as a taxi, and they don't require a transfer at Kowloon station.
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News and notes from around the interweb: Mommy Points is launching a series of helpful e-books that show you how to use miles for cost-effective trips to attainable destinations. I’ve had the chance to preview the Hawaii e-book and it’s filled with concrete, actionable tips to help you travel well and inexpensively. Are US Airways […]
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American is in the process of refreshing their longhaul fleet. That started with the introduction of their 777-300ERs, which feature a new first and business class product. That was followed by them introducing a new business class product on their 767-300s, which were badly in need of a refresh.
And now they're finally refreshing their 777-200s:
-- In April American revealed the new business class seats they'd have on their 777-200s
-- In June American confirmed the first destination for the refreshed 777-200s would be Santiago
-- In September we saw the first real pictures of the new 777-200 business class product, given that the first aircraft had been reconfigured
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I recently saw Delta Points sharing a Delta Skymiles ad, which I’ve seen around over the past couple of years and have a copy of. It’s especially ironic. They lay down a belief about what a frequent flyer should do. The ad came out around 2012, if memory serves. I’m not sure how well they […]
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Hello from Seoul! As I mentioned on Friday, I just flew from Los Angeles to Seoul Incheon on the Asiana A380. It’s the last A380 presently in commercial service that I’ve yet to fly, so I was excited to check it out (I've already reviewed the A380 first class products offered by Air France, British Airways, China Southern, Emirates, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways).
I should start by saying that I’ve long been a huge fan of Asiana. I’ve flown them in first class on their 777 and 747, and while their hard product has always been lacking, the soft product was among the best in the sky, on par with ANA, Cathay Pacific, Singapore, etc.
On the A380 the first class cabin consists of a total of 12 seats, spread across three rows in a 1-2-1 configuration.
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After several tough travel weeks for the nation’s air transport system, Joe Brancatelli runs a column on tactics for dealing with air travel meltdowns. He suggests: Assume the worst will happen Don’t check your bags Avoid regional airlines Have access to airport lounges Get yourself an airport hotel He’s got more suggestions, so read the […]
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Through October 31, 2014, British Airways is offering up to a 20% bonus on the purchase of Executive Club Avios. They're offering a 20% bonus when you purchase at least 2,000 Avios. You can purchase at most 27,000 Avios through this promotion, which is the annual limit per account per calendar year.
If you max out the promotion you can purchase a total of 32,400 Avios for $768, which is a total of ~2.37 cents per Avios.
That’s definitely not a rate at which I’d speculatively stock up on Avios, though the thing about Avios is that with certain redemption patterns they can be among the most valuable points currencies out there. I've explained how useful Avios can be for shorthaul awards, given that they start at just 4,500 Avios one-way for flights of under 650 miles.
The post Bonus On Purchased Avios — Should You Buy? appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Here are the best travel tricks and tips, the highlights of View from the Wing posts from September. Last month I summarized the very best travel posts from August. And in July the most useful and interesting developments from June. I also wrote a post with the most useful advice I’ve given, overall. It turns […]
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