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.
IHG flash sale is back! 20% off all reward nights
Well, I just saw some very heated discussions on a Wechat group, and then realised IHG has brought back its very popular reward night sale!
From what I have gathered so far:
- 20% off all reward night bookings globally
- Book by January 20th
- Stay by March 10th
- Max. 3 consecutive nights (so not stackable with Chase’s 4-for-3 benefit)
The booking page thanks me for being a (Chase) cardmember, but I think many non-cardholders can see the discount too. It’s unclear what the selection criteria are, as I’ve seen all Diamond, Platinum and even Gold members being targeted.
The offer is only live on January 9th (hotel local time). You can already book Europe and Asia, and UK is coming soon in 15 minutes.
Accompanied with such offer there is always a good chance to buy IHG points cheaply too, and here are some examples:
- Holiday Inn Express London Stratford 06/03- 0.475c
- Holiday Inn Express Dubai Safa Park 28/01 – 0.475c
- Crowne Plaza Istanbul Florya 01/03 – 0.448c
- voco Paris Montparnasse 18/02 – 0.46c
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.
Wow – Marriott honours soft landing again…
As they’ve revealed recently, Marriott was going to soft land Ambassador members who didn’t qualify in 2022 to Titanium Elite, whereas not extending it to any other elite levels. Well, looks like they are now reneging on that policy…
You can see the latest help article here, which says:
Members who did not re-achieve their existing Elite status in 2022 will be offered one tier below their current status through February 2024. These members will see their new status starting in March 2023 and can enjoy their existing status through February 2023.
Basically they are extending the soft landing policy to all members, which is good news.
Not to me though – I was Titanium Elite last year and accrued 60 nights which means I was going to be Platinum Elite this year anyway. Many of friends are in the same boat, and we all feel like idiots now 😛
The quirk of Marriott’s annual choice benefit stays
Marriott has something called Annual Choice Benefit, which offers members a gift when they reach the 50- and 75-night milestones in a calendar year. When you reach 75 nights, one of the gifts you can choose is a free night award worth up to 40,000 points.
There’s something interesting about the FNA though, as its expiry date used to be one year from date when you select it. As you have until January 7th to make your choice, it means that FNAs selected in January were one year longer in expiry.
However, the terms and conditions have changed in 2022:
The Free Night Award (with a redemption value of up to 40,000 Points) must be redeemed for a stay that occurs no later than December 31, 2023.
Which made me think that they’ve fixed the bug. Well obviously it’s not the case, as a friend’s friend has just picked the FNA and the expiry is still showing as the end of 2024:
It’s not a super useful quirkiness. However, one more year’s validity gives you more flexibility at least.
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.