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Marriott ceased benefits on third-party bookings
Hotel groups have different interpretations when it comes to elite benefits on third-party bookings. Marriott for example, has made it clear in their terms and conditions that elite benefits only apply to qualifying stays.
4.1.c. Benefits of Elite membership apply to stays on Qualifying Rates (as described in Section 2.1.e.) and are reserved for Members only and apply solely to the one guest room in which the Elite Member stays.
There has been one exclusion though, although not written in the terms and conditions but it has been communicated to individual hotels through the loyal program guide: hotels in Asia Pacific should honour elite benefits even on third-party bookings.
Unfortunately, that perk has also come to an end. As shared by my friend on a Wechat post, someone obtained a copy of a recent communication from a Bangkok Marriott hotel lately.
Staring from January 16, 2023, Asia Pacific excluding Greater China will adhere to the global policy as listed on page 57 of the Loyalty Program Guide. Member benefits will only be available to members who book qualifying rates. Reservations made though third parties, including OTAs and wholesalers, would no longer be eligible for member benefits, regardless of member status. We believe this will create greater consistency with hotels globally.
If you book a Marriott hotel in Greater China via any OTA, count yourself lucky as it is now the only region in the world where your elite benefits are guaranteed. Otherwise, just hope for the best but prepare for the worst!
2023 Tier Last Call – Stay once to maintain your Hilton Diamond / Gold status (live)
Hilton quietly released their 2023 Tier Last Call promotion one week ago, which makes it super easy to maintain your Hilton status for another year. I’m still waiting for more details to come through, but in the meantime it’s worth sharing what I already know.
First of all, the offer is by-invitation only. It was made crystal clear at the beginning that only residents of Greater China could participate (based on your account address on 01/01/2023), however such wording no longer appears on the official FAQ.
I’m not sure if the eligibility criterion has changed, but it’s possible. I changed my account address to China last year, hoping that there might be special extension policies for their residents, but then changed it back to the UK in December thinking that all dust had settled. When I learned of the news last week I changed it back to China again (!!), which should have been too late per the original terms.
However, I can see the promotion in My Offers now:
Which means that they’ve automatically enrolled me, yay!
Eligible members need to stay once, twice or three times by March 31 to maintain their Diamond or Gold status through Feb 2024. The registration links are as follows:
- One stay to maintain Gold
- Two stays to maintain Gold
- Three stays to maintain Gold
- One stay to maintain Diamond
- Two stays to maintain Diamond
- Three stays to maintain Diamond
In theory the more you have stayed in 2022, the less you need to stay in this challenge. An email has just sent out clarifying how many nights are required from each individual:
Remember that you have until March 31st to complete the challenge, and reward nights should count.
My review of InterContinental San Francisco
Having been a software engineer for almost ten years, it’s weird that I’ve never been to San Francisco or the bay area. Now that I got laid off I finally have time to go on a pilgrimage 😛
Compared to LA, hotels in San Francisco are much more friendly priced, and you can find a pretty decent hotel for around $200. I decided to redeem my IHG BOGO voucher here, and there are two InterContinentals in the city – one in downtown for which I’m going, and the Mark Hopkins hotel at a less convenient location for tourists.
The hotel is about eight-minute walk from the Powell Street metro station, which takes you directly to the airport.
At 33 floors high, the hotel stands out in the immediate neighbourhood.
The entrance is small but elegant. The ground floor is a big open space with reception, bar and restaurant.
Like many other InterContinental hotels, or hotels in general in the States, the hotel has so many different rooms types that I lost count. I ended up booking Premium West Side View as it’s price difference from the entry-level room isn’t much. I was upgraded one-level to the corner room.
The receptionist greeted me warmly, and I didn’t have to ask about the Diamond breakfast benefit or 4pm late check-out.
Before I was let go, he went to the back office and returned with a bag of welcome gift. To my slight disappoint it’s only two bottles of water 😛 They also sent me a bottle of Evian the next day.
The corner room is quite impressive at first glance. The hues and finishes are soothing.
The highlight of course, is the 180-degree floor-to-ceiling windows and the views that come from it.
You don’t normally get a chance to be so up high in Europe. It’s a shame that San Francisco doesn’t have so much of a skyline, and the hotel isn’t close enough to the coast.
The curtains are electric and you only need to give it a pull for it to open or close by itself.
There is also a view from the bathroom. But beware of the construction workers on the crane!
One motivation for me to pick this hotel was its swimming pool and jacuzzi.
They are fine. But the hall is quite old and so small that no loungers can fit in. It’s weird that there’s not even any place to sit in!
The gym:
The club lounge:
I was given a voucher which entitles me to the breakfast buffet.
The whole buffet well, is spread across one single table.
There aren’t many choices as you can imagine, but they do offer congee which is a nice touch.
There is an a-la-carte menu but payable. According to the voucher taxes are not included, but I didn’t have to pay anything when I checked out.
InterContinental San Francisco isn’t the best hotel you can find in town, but I love the corner room and don’t miss out if you admire a view.
My review of Alaska Lounge, Los Angeles Terminal 6
I need to fly to Seattle from Los Angeles, and my original plan was to spend my United Travelbank credit. However, I spotted redemption availability on ba.com for Alaska Air, and it’s really difficult to say no to its attractive price (9,000 Avios + £5).
Travelling on Alaska Air also opens up great opportunities for me to try out the Oneworld lounges at Los Angeles airport, thanks to my British Airways Gold status. From what I understand the following three are the best options:
- American Airlines Flagship Lounge
- Oneworld Business Lounge
- Qantas First Lounge
I didn’t get to visit the Flagship Lounge this time but managed the other two, which are both truly impressive. However, as I’m flying Alaska I decided to give their lounge a chance too.
Alaska uses Terminal 6 of the Los Angeles airport, and the Alaska Lounge is next to Gate 64B which happens to be where my boarding is.
You need to take the lift up to enter the lounge.
Similar to most other (if not all) US airlines, travelling on Alaska Air’s First class or being their elite member doesn’t necessitate lounge access. However, if you hold Emerald or Sapphire status with any other program than Alaska and American (in my case British Airways), then you can access the Alaska Lounge as long as you are travelling on an Oneworld flight.
The lounge is quite small. In fact upon entering I can almost see its entirety.
There are some long sofas as well as semi-private padded seats. They all feature a small table.
A couple of long standing desks suitable as a temporary workstation.
And also a bar.
It’s 10am in the morning. Oatmeal, scrambled eggs and some other breakfast snacks are served.
There’s a pancake machine which from what I heard is a signature of Alaska Air’s lounges.
The lounge is quite busy and I didn’t stay long before moving on. It’s not a terrible place let me be clear, however as long as you have enough time you should definitely use the Oneworld Business Lounge instead which is a totally different level.
TAP Portugal sale: London to Cancun and Brazil for £1,100
TAP Portugal’s sale has returned, which includes some bargains if you are looking to travel to Cancun or Brazil.
The offer page for UK departure is here. There are similar deals for departures from Portugal, Spain and France etc, so if you are based in those countries you may want to check it out too.
The most attractive deals listed on the page are (ex-London or -Manchester, business class return):
- Cancun £1,262
- Rio de Janeiro £1,333
- Sao Paolo £1,334
Cancun is wide open from April, however for Brazil in order to get the cheap fare you have to depart in October and beyond. Here are a couple of examples:
London – Cancun April 18 – 22
London – Sao Paolo November 17 – 26
Remember, you can always add a stopover in Lisbon / Porto for over 24 hours, which helps you escape from UK’s ridiculous APD. You can expect to save about £150:
Ticket is refundable at a penalty of €165. From what I can see travel agencies are only slightly cheaper than TAP Portugal, so I recommend booking direct, which makes your life much easier if there’s a flight schedule change or you want to cancel your flight.
The booking class is J, and you will earn between 125% and 200% with TAP Portugal’s partners.
My review of Qantas First Lounge, Los Angeles
My Oneworld Emerald (BA Gold) is expiring in a month’s time, and I’m glad to check off another Oneworld first lounge before then. After cruising in the LAX Oneworld Business Lounge, I’m trying out thr Qantas First Lounge which is just about 20 meters away.
As long as your Oneworld Emerald status is not from American or Alaska, you can access the lounge before your flight with any Oneworld airline.
Unlike the business lounge, the first lounge is one big block that’s square-shaped with no apparent segregation between different function areas. There are a few “sunloungers” on the left facing the interior of the building.
On the right-hand side there are arrays of one-seat sofas.
The lounge is fully open-plan, and I feel intimacy and cosiness are missing.
There are a few self-service stations for alcohol. It’s too early to drink so I didn’t pay attention to the wine choices.
The bar, dining zone and kitchen are at the end of the lounge.
Unlike in the business lounge, there’s no buffet here and you order from a menu instead.
I don’t find the menu appealing, and only ordered a pancake. They served it to my adjacent seat by mistake and I didn’t realise until half an hour later…
Lunch is available from 12pm, but my flight won’t wait for me. I searched online for the lunch menu afterwards, and it doesn’t look especially good either.
In contrast with the business lounge, I find the first lounge uninspiring and lacking in its own soul. Unless you really desire a proper dining experience with a menu to order from, I think the business lounge is a better option.
Great Eithad first class reward availability from London and other cities
Etihad has opened up a lot of reward space on its first class route, and it’s a good opportunity if you are in for the experience.
First of all you could perform your searches on Etihad’s website which will give you a 7-day calendar view at a time. In the following example, the 88,024 miles price on March 18th indicates standard award availability, which doesn’t exist on other days.
Once you find your desired flight you could book using your Etihad Guest miles, which can be converted from Amex membership rewards points. You’d be overpaying (by a large margin) though, and the best way to redeem an Etihad ticket is to use Aeroplan instead.
A one-way ticket from Abu Dhabi to London in first class costs only 65,000 points and 84 CAD. Charges will be higher for the other way around because of UK’s APD. Aeroplan doesn’t have a promotion on point purchase right now, but you can still get their points by transferring from:
- Amex membership rewards in US / Canada, which is instant
- Marriott Bonvoy, but it might take quite a few days
Etihad flies to London and Geneva in Europe, as well as Washing DC in the States.
This is how Etihad’s first class on Boeing 787 looks like:
Which is, unfortunately, not comparable to Emirates’ first class suite that I was in a few days ago.
Hopefully their A380 fleet will return soon, and I can’t wait to sit in the first apartment!
Onboard China’s high speed train in First Class
China’s covid restrictions were finally coming to end and I took the chance to visit my family after not being able to return for more than three years. 95% of the time I was just staying home so I don’t have much travel-related stuff to write about, but I did take the high speed train once, which is worth a brief review and comparison with what we have in the UK.
China’s high speed rail (HSR) network officially came into operation in 2008 and has been developing incredibly fast ever since. By now it has reached almost every populated corner of the country, and has some super long routes. For example, you can travel from Beijing to Hong Kong (paused during the pandemic but set to be resumed soon), a journey of 2,440 km or 1,516 miles, for just under 9 hours.
I’m from a small city in east China (with a population of nearly 5 million). When I went back last time in 2019 there wasn’t a high speed rail station yet, but it is now open with more than 150 trains passing by every day.
My destination is Shanghai with a travel distance of about 400 km or 250 miles. As my hometown isn’t a major city there aren’t any very fast trains available yet. They have quite a few stops along the way so the whole trip takes around 3 hours.
HSR has a special fleet called FuXingHao, which was built more recently with advanced technology and is supposed to be more comfortable. However, I just picked my train based on the timing instead and didn’t get a FuXingHao.
HSR has three cabins on board, with the respective price for my itinerary:
- Second Class: 187 CNY / £22 / $27
- First Class: 298.5 CNY / £36 / $43
- Business Class: 617.5 CNY / £74 / $90
Interestingly business class is superior to first class, which sort of shadows Eurostar’s naming convention (Business Premier > Standard Premier). First class is about 60% more expensive than second class, whereas business class has a much higher premium of around 110% compared to first class. Such pricing practice is consistent across the entire network.
Unlike in Europe, you don’t get any discount for booking in advance as prices are virtually fixed. They do have a loyalty program though which I didn’t dip into.
This is the station of my hometown.
When it’s time to board there are long-ish queues for second class, but the first class carriages are pretty empty. China is having a massive covid outbreak which also contributes to the low passenger volume.
The first class carriage is four-seat abreast with an aisle in the middle, and here’s how it looks like:
The seat comes with a headrest and reclines nicely with a decent angle. Legroom is great.
Power and radio sockets are available.
And a small tray table, which is similar to what you get on a plane, can be used for holding your laptop or food. You don’t get free food or drinks in first class though.
Somehow wi-fi isn’t available on board, although if I remember correctly it should be on most HSR trains. China’s 5G coverage is very good everywhere though, so it’s not a major issue.
The foremost of the train is a small compartment for business class passengers. The seat contour is shaped like a pod, and it is lie-flat just like the business class concept on an airplane.
You also get complimentary meals on longer itineraries. This time I can’t really justify paying £40 more for my trip, especially since first class is already a very good product itself.
It’s safe to conclude that China’s HSR and their first class cabin are much better than UK’s counterparts. I’m also looking forward to trying out Shinkansen when I visit Japan next time, which is much more familiar to the western world.