Traveling To…

I had some time between clearing passport control and my flight to San Francisco so I stopped by the United Club.  Like the Narita United Club (and Global First lounge), the Hong Kong lounge is a bit different from those normally found in the United States.

First, the lounge sits on an open air platform above the terminal concourse.  Off in the distance is N121UA, our Boeing 747 in United’s Star Alliance livery.

More importantly, the food is vastly different than the normal United fare.

A make your own taco station?  That’s a far cry from Milano cookies and yogurt covered raisins.

Beverages were intermixed with the various food sections.

My only (slight) annoyance was that the power outlets were limited to the British style.  While I do carry a power strip to maximize my usage of a single outlet adapter, I had to go fish it out of my carry-on suitcase.

For my three nights in Hong Kong, I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui.  The hotel occupies part of a mixed-use building in Kowloon, shared with a mall on the ground floor and residences on the higher floors.

Room rates were hovering a bit north of 250USD/nt, so I decided to redeem 15k points/nt for my stay.  This was done as very practical booking, rather than an aspirational one.  Further, category 4 standard rooms were untouched in the great Hyatt devaluation.

The graylish slab to the right of the bed is a sliding door that exposes a window to the bathroom sink.

For Thanksgiving, I decided to visit Hong Kong, convincing myself that flying via Honolulu and Guam was a “good idea.”  When I tried to go to Manila this way in 2012, I was bumped from one of my westbound segments and rerouted via Narita in first class.  I didn’t have the same string of luck this time around.

As a 1K on an international itinerary, I stopped by the Honolulu United Club to occupy myself for my two hour layover.  While it’s like any other United lounge, it certainly offers a bit nicer scenery.

In late October, I had a visit to the Bay Area. Room rates on the west side of the Bay didn’t quite work out as desired, so I booked a stay at the aloft Newark. This hotel was formerly the W Silicon Valley until it underwent a rebranding. While the lobby has been redone, the rooms themselves didn’t fit the normal cookie cutter aloft pattern that I’m used to.

I looked away from the Internet for a few hours this evening before making one quick glance at it just now.  When my gaze returned, I discovered that the sky is falling over in Atlanta.

Inside Flyer is reporting that Delta will be switching to a revenue-based frequent flier program in 2015, joining its illustrious peer group of Southwest, JetBlue, and Virgin America.

The key takeaways from the article are:

• Tiered points earning (based on spend) depending on elite status
• A new 5 tier fixed-price (rather than revenue) award chart:  The 25k mile domestic roundtrip third-rail of many US frequent flyer programs may live for the time being…if you can manage to find “low” availability.
• Delta is making implausible claims that “these changes will improve overall availability at the lowest award levels, i.e. the 25,000 miles domestic roundtrip.”  Umm… No.  Credit card companies buying frequent flier miles by the supertanker and increased load factors have made these awards scarce.

As American and United might be quick to join this bloodbath, I’m thankful I just applied for an Avianca credit card last night…

Update:  MileCards.com has convenient charts!

San Jose Airport launched “The Club” in early 2013 to coincide with ANA’s SJC-NRT service.  It’s a Priority Pass lounge, so I stopped by when I had some time to kill waiting for a flight.

SJC has two remarkably pleasant terminals and generally functional internet access, so I’m wary of the value obtained by buying a day pass for $35.  (Visiting with Priority Pass is free for the main cardholder.)

In mid-October, I found myself on another trip to Pasadena.  As my hotel chain choices were restricted to Hilton, Marriott, and Starwood, I chose to stay at the Westin Pasadena again.  During my previous stay in October 2012, I was a mere SPG Gold member and was upgraded to an Executive King.

I wound up arriving to the hotel rather late in the evening, having previously been delayed on my way from San Diego by my train hitting a truck.  I even tweeted about it!

As I made my way from Union Station to Pasadena, I glanced at spg.com’s room availability for the hotel that evening, finding that they had executive kings, suites, and speciality suites available.  I was consequently a bit surprised that I received a rather small, standard room after being told that I had been “upgraded” when I checked in.

Starwood’s list of SPG Platinum benefits includes:

“Upgrades to best available room at check-in, including Standard Suites.”

Unfortunately, at many hotels, elites aren’t upgraded and are left to be vexed by their first world problems.  One Mile at a Time has written about this phenomenon extensively.

I decided to venture down to the front desk to investigate.  The front desk clerk was apologetic, but insisted the hotel was “completely full” after asking me to confirm my room rate–I had booked my stay with a best rate guarantee.  He even went so far as to show me a random number on his computer screen that was to prove it to me.

Unphased, I asked what would happen if I booked a Rose Suite (or two) at that moment online with my phone.  At this point, he realized that he was now a bit in over his head with his earlier claims, so he grabbed his manager.  After the two of concluded that the hotel had suites available (and wasn’t planning on walking guests making bookings at 11PM that very night), I had a new set of room keys in hand.

While Starwood specifies “standard suites” in its benefits language, I received a Rose Suite upgrade after all was said and done.

The suite’s first bathroom was just off the entrance foyer.

I booked this trip about two weeks out for my first flight and about three weeks out for my return segment.  My upgrade for this flight cleared a mere 12 hours prior to departure.

As a business class passenger (and executive platinum elite), I had access to the British Airways lounge at Malpensa. The only take away I had was that the wifi was quite slow.

American 199
Milan Malpensa (MXP) – New York Kennedy (JFK)
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013
Depart:  10:25AM
Arrive: 1:40PM
Duration:  9 hours, 15 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 767-323ER (N346AN)
Seat: 6H (Business Class)

The flight attendants came by with a choice of water, orange juice, and champagne for the predeparture drinks.

The menu read as follows:

Service began with a salad.

About 90 minutes before arrival, we were served a snack.  I picked the Uno pizza.

I’ve talked about the American old business class product several times.  It’s now an outdated and unremarkable product, but I was far happier flying it than taking a seat in coach on United’s 767-424ER.  The United W fare, eligible for systemwide upgrades, was about $650 more for the roundtrip.  Considering my total airfare was about $600, I didn’t bite.

As I had a somewhat “early” departure (10:25AM) from Milan to New York, I decided to stay at the Sheraton at Malpensa Airport the night before.  Room rates were on the pricier side, so I booked a cash and points award for $55 and 3.5k points when I spotted some availability open up.

Reviews of the hotel on FlyerTalk suggested that the front desk was a disaster and I feel they were spot-on.  With one person ahead of me, check-in inexplicably took about 30 minutes.  Further, after finally getting to my room, I decided to investigate the club lounge, finding that my room key didn’t work as my key hadn’t been made correctly.

The hotel has a long central corridor with small hallways jutting out periodically for guest rooms.  The building itself spans nearly the entire length of Malpensa Airport Terminal 1, and I managed to be given the furthest possible room from the elevator bank.

During my visit to Italy, I never quite figured out the alarm cables that were setup in every hotel shower.  In principle, it might be a good idea.  In practice, I’m not quite sure how useful an out of reach string is when you slip and fall in the shower.

The club lounge had a sizable breakfast buffet of hot and cold food items, so I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before checking out and walking to the terminal to catch my flight to New York.

Overall, I had a few takeaways from this hotel:

• The location is superb (for those transiting Malpensa Airport).
• The “high speed” internet service was terribly slow when it was working but management seemed unconcerned.  At some point in the evening, a note was slipped under my door informing me that the pay-per-view cable service was out of order.  I’m a bit doubtful that more guests were worried about that than their broken internet connection.
• SPG Platinum recognition was nonexistent.  I didn’t initially have lounge access and I did not receive my Platinum points amenity initially.