(Gone) Saudia Business class: Cairo – Seoul £400 return
Saudia, a Skyteam member, has an amazing deal for travelling to South Korea in business class if you don’t mind positioning to Cairo first.
You could search and book on Saudia’s website directly. The first available travel date is April 10th. You can only depart in April, but there’s good availability across the month and you can return later.
Basic (I) and Semi-Flex (D) tickets are available. Semi-Flex ticket is slightly more expensive, but accrues more miles and costs a bit less when you need to change or cancel.
You can credit your flights to any Skyteam partners, and potentially Virgin Atlantic as they are set to join the family today.
It’s possible to add a stopover (>24 hours) but the cost will be higher. If you book with Saudia directly, you can apply for a free e-visa to enter Saudi Arabia as well as a complimentary hotel night.
My review of No.77 First Class Lounge, Shanghai Pudong
Shanghai is a city that you won’t miss when visiting China, and it is very likely that you’ll pass by the Pudong Airport, which in the main international travel hub of Shanghai. Despite having grown up close-ish to Shanghai, I haven’t travelled through Pudong many times and it is my first time flying an international route today.
Etihad Airways uses Terminal 2 of PVG, and contracts with the China Eastern First Class No. 77 Lounge. There is another No. 69 Lounge at Terminal 2, but words are it’s a lot worse.
The name may sound strange, but it is a very common way to name airport lounges in China. They are very often just called No. XX First Class Lounge, where XX is the nearest boarding gate. I find it not bad as locating the lounge is made super easy.
As you have guessed, China Eastern is the main sponsor of the lounge, although it’s also the contract lounge for dozens of other airlines. It is operated by Plaza Premium, which means you can enter for free with any Amex Platinum card.
My departure is in late December, and at this time China’s international travel is still pretty much non-existent. There are very few passengers in the lounge, and some areas are shut because of that.
There are some big sofas when you enter. This area is far from the dining area which makes it a lot quieter.
Going in, there are some open-plan rooms on the left, and armchairs on the right.
There’s a kitchen a buffet area at the very end of the lounge. The buffet is decent, with the following options available on the day:
- Braised beef with red wine
- Grilled fish with chillies
- Oyster mushrooms
- Fish tofu with Thai sauce
- Laoganma fried rice
- Pasta
- Buns
- Sour and spicy soup
- Sweet potato soup
Drinks and snacks:
China Eastern lounges are famous for their signature noodles, and I ordered one with high expectations. It turns out that they have outsourced catering to a third-party supplier at the moment unfortunately, and the noodles are very disappointing.
The No. 77 China Eastern First Class Lounge at Pudong Airport isn’t an outstanding lounge, but the catering is decent (and should have improved since China ended all the restrictions), and you can get in with an Amex Platinum card or DragonPass.
Horror: IHG clamping down on Ambassador Diamonds?
We once wrote about a unpublicised benefit of the InterContinental Ambassador program, that your Diamond status gets renewed by another year when you purchase or renew the Ambassador membership. The perk may be coming to an end now.
I extended my status through 2023 using this trick last year, but when I log into my IHG account now, the expiry is reverted to 2022:
I’m not alone, as there are many similar reports online and amongst my readership, but in the meantime it’s not happening to everyone. The inconsistency makes me wonder whether it is actually IHG closing that loophole, or just a temporary system glitch.
Anyway, we will find out on March 1st when IHG’s status is refreshed. As Diamond Elite comes with free daily breakfast in the new program, it would be very sad to lose it :/
My review of St Regis Shanghai Jing’An
This is not gonna be any other review that you’ve seen of a hotel – before returning to the UK I had a two-day layover in Shanghai, and it’s when China had the massive covid outbreak and everyone was catching the virus. Your future experience staying at the same hotel will be very different to mine, but it could still be an interesting read 🙂
Shanghai has many hotels, but not so many outstanding ones by China’s standard. I was told that the St Regis Jing’An hotel is decent, and at 34,000 points per night it seems to be a good deal. If you are a first-time visitor, I recommend the Waldorf Astoria for its history, location and great view.
The St Regis sits in the Jing’An district, which is probably the most central area of Shanghai
The hotel looks quite low-profile from outside.
The lobby is quite ordinary for a five-star hotel in China which hasn’t been refurbished for a while.
This is a rare St Regis hotel that features a Club Lounge. Marriott elite members are not entitled to Club benefits at the St Regis brand, but if your suite night award clears into a room type with that feature then it’s granted at this property. My two SNAs cleared and I was upgrade to the Caroline Astor Suite.
The lobby is very quiet. As I had expected most of the hotel staff are sick and the shortage has been going on for a while. The receptionist informs me that most of the services such as housekeeping are cut or heavily reduced right now.
My Caroline Astor Suite catches her by surprise. She says that no room is available yet but it may take two hours for one to be cleaned. Remember that it’s already 4pm when I arrived.
I don’t understand why they couldn’t have checked what room types were booked on the day and make arrangements beforehand. She didn’t even try to apologise at all, which made me uncomfortable.
Fortunately I ran into the manager Douglas when I just sat there trying to figure out what to do next. He came up to me and said hi, and I took to chance to complain about my situation. He’s very generous and offered me a two bedroom apartment in the residence!
Regular rooms (and suites) are located on the 61th floor and below, whereas floor 62-68 is the St Regis Residence for long-stay guests only. You can’t book the residence on marriott.com, instead you need to talk to the hotel’s sales department.
The living room is very bright with a great view of Shanghai’s skyline.
The kitchen is fully equipped with a fridge, an oven and hobs.
There’s a small guest bathroom to the right, with a walk-in shower.
A study squeezes in between the bathroom and the guest room.
Guest room:
The master bedroom is a lot bigger:
And it comes with a walk-in wardrobe and a dressing table.
The main bathroom is also fairly big with a bathtub.
According to their website the apartment measures 109 sqm but it feels even larger. On the other hand it doesn’t feel like a hotel room anymore, which may be to some people’s liking but not to the others.
This is a list of the original club benefits.
Unsurprisingly the Club Lounge is closed. In fact the only eatery still open is the Social Restaurant on the ground floor.
Oriental buffet:
English breakfast:
Food stations for noodles and omelettes etc.
Salad, fruits and desserts.
I don’t the noodles, but otherwise it’s all ok.
As the Club Lounge is closed, we are invited to have lunch and dinner at the Social Restaurant instead, whereas the afternoon tea is cancelled. You can order one soup and one main from the menu:
A few items from the menu weren’t available anymore during lunch, and it became much worse at dinner.
I tried the tenderloin and fried rice, which are anything but tasty.
They don’t even offer any drinks for free, although a lot of alcohols were at display (for purchase) during the “Happy Hour”. From what I’ve heard the Club Lounge’s usual offering is very good, but sadly the execution is just terrible at this special time.
The swimming pool is nice though. You need to wear a swimming cap but it’s provided for free.
The gym:
My unique experience is unprecedented, and unlikely to act as a reference point for anything in the future. I’m grateful to the manager Douglas for a chance of trying out the two bedroom apartment, but to be honest the service I experienced here is well below par.
Unboxing HSBC’s LUXURY thank you gift!
(The original post was submitted by a friend and published here. This is my attempt to coarsely translate it!)
I applied and was approved for the HSBC Elite Credit Card (US-issued) last year, which comes with an annual fee of $395.
One main incentive for me to apply for this card was the mysterious Luxury Thank You Gift – each year when you spend $50K, $75K and $100K on the card you will earn a “surprise luxury gift”, a suspense or marketing trick they’ve created for this product.
I did my research using Google and going through all the blogs and forums, yet shockingly couldn’t find any answer to what the gift actually is. Even the customer representatives from HSBC knew no more than “it’s something from Tiffany”, which was why I started putting a lot spend through the card out of curiosity.
I finally reached all three targets in November 2022, and was looking forward to the arrival of my gifts!
It was a long wait as they needed to courier the gifts to China, but I received the package in February 2023 eventually.
They are indeed Tiffany boxes as expected!
My three gifts are shipped in the same package, with a lovely thank-you card in each of them.
Hold your breath while I reveal the grand LUXURY gifts!!!
This is definitely not something that I had expected or hoped for. So it turns out that each gift is pair of Tiffany wine glasses, and I got a package of six. Don’t forget that I spent $100,000 in order to receive them!
They look much better IN the boxes.
The retail price is $125 per pair on Tiffany’s website.
If you’ve been wondering what the luxury thank you gifts are from the HSBC elite credit card, now you have the answer. Whether it is worth spending at least $50,000 annually will be totally up to you😉
Last chance to buy Accor Gold & Oneworld Ruby for only £65!
We wrote about fast track opportunities for Accor a while ago, and one major shortcut was to purchase the ibis Business card, as you are granted Gold status for as long as you have a valid membership. Sadly it is coming to an end soon, and you need to jump onboard before it is too late!
As explained by Accor, the ibis Business program will discontinue on March 22nd and be replaced by a new program called ALL PLUS ibis, which will continue to offer some sort of discount for ibis stays. The new membership doesn’t gift Gold status anymore, but offers ten night credits annually instead.
If you join ibis Business now, you are still gifted Gold and it will be valid throughout your subscription period. So the best strategy would be:
- Buy ibis Business now – reports suggest that the Gold status is valid through 2024
- You will earn additional ten night credits on March 22nd
For the UK, a one-year subscription costs £65 whereas it’s £119 for two years, and it’s usually €90 / €159 for most other countries. I’m not sure if the two-year subscription comes with a longer Gold validity.
Accor Gold isn’t hugely useful outside China where they offer daily breakfast for one, but room upgrade and late check-out are still something. Beware that buying ibis Business will create a new Accor account, so if you have an existing account you might need to merge them.
Qatar Airways has an ongoing promotion with Accor, which allows Accor Gold members to fast track to Qatar Airways Silver after only one flight. Silver status (Oneworld Ruby) offers extra baggage allowance and free seat selection when flying Qatar Airways and its partners (BA, AA, Cathay etc.), plus you can access the dedicated Silver Lounge at Doha.
There will also be a new ALL PLUS Voyageur membership (converted from the old Business Plus program) which offers 20 night credits annually.
IHG fast track: Diamond after only 8 nights!
IHG had an Instant Diamond offer last year, and we were one of the very first to cover it. It looks like another fast track offer has just landed, although it is less interesting this time.
You can access the Private Diamond Offer here.
- Sign up and stay by March 31st
- Earn Diamond status after staying 8 paid nights
- Status is valid through 2024
The Register Now link has a promo code attached to it, so if you fail to register you are ineligible. However the offer seems premature to me – the terms still mistakenly refer to Platinum a lot, so it may be that the offer isn’t really live yet, and you may want to try again later if it doesn’t work.
(Update: there are many reports of receiving an offer email, so it is live.)
IHG Diamond comes with very good benefits, and although it is harder to earn it under the current offer compared to the last one, it is still much better than the normal / hard way.
My review of Cathay Pacific A350’s business class
Cathay Pacific is probably one of the most renowned airline in the world, and being from China I should have had a lot of chances of flying with them. Strange enough but I haven’t though, and my only experience was with Cathay Dragon, a subsidiary through acquisition that mainly focuses on short-haul routes.
Going back home for the first time since 2020, I finally got the opportunity to fly the “real” Cathay by redeeming my Asiamiles. Cathay Pacific is located at Heathrow’s Terminal 3, like most other Oneworld carriers.
The lane is already very long when check-in starts four hours before departure. Fortunately I can use the priority counter which has no queue.
Fast track is available to premium passengers. If you are a frequent Oneworld flyer from T3, you know it is a lounge paradise – there are Cathay Pacific, Qantas, American Airlines and British Airways to choose from! You can also access the Centurion Lounge if you have the Amex Platinum or Centurion card, but it can be very busy at peak hours.
I am very familiar with the Cathay Pacific Lounge, and it is my favourite out of the four Oneworld lounges. The days of my BA Gold are numbered, after which I won’t be able to come back for a while…
My flight departs from Gate 40, which is farthest in the terminal. I remember being here when I flew Philippine Airlines a few years back (on an error fare).
Cathay’s A350 fleet have both A350-900 and A350-1000 aircrafts. I’m on the latter this time, but I don’t think they differ much in terms of cabin design.
Business class seats are arranged in the herringbone fashion, with a total number of 48. The middle seats:
As you can imagine, window seats are much more private:
There is a small storage cupboard next to the control panel, with a socket inside.
And a much larger storage box below which can fit a pair of shoes.
The amenity bag is nothing to write home about, and the content is minimal. You won’t find earplugs or socks in it.
IFE:
Surprisingly there are two live TV channels – BBC and CCN. It is a world cup night between England and Wales, and US and Iran. Unfortunately the matches are not being broadcasted.
And the menu:
Cathay Delight is one of their signature cocktails. However I was told it’s not available so went with their recommendation instead and got a Lemon Tease.
The cauliflower soup is passable:
Followed by the wonton noodles which was a total disaster. I’m not a big fan of Cantonese cuisine, but you can’t blame me for disliking it – the noodles on top are clearly burnt probably due to overheating, and the soup tastes really weird, worse than what you’d expect from instant noodles.
Remember to pick your breakfast choice before going to sleep. The congee is much better, although somehow my shitake mushrooms became ginger slices.
And the lie-flat bed:
The bed is a tad narrow, but you can lift up a pad on the side to compensate.
Well I don’t know what more to say. It is certainly not a terrible experience, aside from the really bad wonton noodles, but I can’t really say anything positive about the flight either. I had high expectations – it is an Asian carrier after call – which Cathay failed to meet, and I probably need to try their first class some day.