Travel Planning: Fall in Asia Review: LAX Star Alliance Lounge Review: Singapore Airlines Suites Class LAX - NRT Review: Park Hyatt Tokyo Recap: Time in Tokyo Review: HND JAL First Class Lounge Review: JAL Business Class HND - GMP Review: IP Boutique Hotel Seoul Recap: Time in Seoul Review: ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class ICN - HKG Review: Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui Recap: Time in Hong Kong Review: HKG Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge Review: Cathay Pacific First Class HKG - SFO Cathay Pacific #0417 Seoul (ICN) – Hong Kong (HKG) Saturday, October 4th, 2014 10:20 AM – 1:00 PM: 2 hours, 40 minutes Boeing 777: Seat 14A (Business Class) Cathay Pacific is consistently ranked as one of the best airlines in the world, so I was really excited to try them out with my first of two flights on this trip. To book this flight for two of us, we redeemed 40,000 British Airways Avios and paid about $104. We boarded the plane and noticed that unfortunately were flying on an older regional configuration, which features 45 business class seats in a 2-3-2 configuration. It wasn’t terrible, since it was a short flight and I was sitting next to Chris anyway, but this route sometimes features a three class A330 with a reverse herringbone 1-1-1-1 configuration, which would have been very nice. The seats were also older and looked a bit worn, but they did recline and they were quite large, so they weren’t terrible. Anyway, the seats were fine, so we settled in. Within a few minutes, we were greeted personally by one of the flight attendants and we were greeted by name. Initially, I thought she must have looked at a piece of paper right before greeting us, but as the flight went on, and the same attendant addressed us by name over and over again during the meal service with no chance of checking our names - I realized she had them memorized. Somehow, she had memorized at least 22 names of complete strangers on a less than 3 hour flight. It was astounding considering that I often forget someone’s name within .5 seconds of meeting them. Shortly after leveling off, the flight attendants served drinks and presented both a wine list and a menu along with some warm nuts. I selected a white wine while Chris ordered a “signature” drink - a Cloud Nine. The Cloud Nine was described in the menu as “a refreshing combination of Vodka, Cointreau, and Sprite with a refreshing touch of lemon flavour” and was really good. The meal service began right after the drinks were served and we were offered quite an extensive meal for such a short 3 hour flight. Forget JAL’s one plate “get what you get” meal - this was a real meal! The menu read as follows: … Starters Korean ginseng and pear beef roll with mustard dressing Seasonal salad with balsamic vinegar olive oil dressing Main Courses Chicken bulgogi with steamed rice and Korean mixed vegetables Braised spare ribs, steamed jasmine rice and pak choy Pan-seared cod with tomato caper butter sauce, sweet pumpkin potato mash and sauteed spinach with garlic Cheese and Dessert Cheese Selection Fresh seasonal fruit Flourless chocolate caramel cake with whipping cream Tea and Coffee Pralines … For this flight, the meals were served from a cart, but the food was presented nicely and everyone seemed to get their selection without a problem. I tried to pass on the Korean ginseng and pear beef roll and just get salad, but they gave me both anyway. It had an interesting flavor, but I’m not a huge fan of ginseng or cold beef, so I didn’t eat much. The salad was also very basic, so there wasn’t anything too exciting there. Chris went for the chicken bulgogi and I had the spare ribs, which I really enjoyed. Admittedly, they were a bit hard to eat with chopsticks, but they were still quite tasty. Finally, we were offered both fruit and cheese which was followed by dessert - we both chose the flourless chocolate cake and it was absolutely excellent. After the meal service was over, we probably only had about an hour and a half left in the flight, so we both did some reading. Since the flight was so short, I didn’t try using the entertainment system, but Cathay has a decent selection of movies and TV shows as well as games.
Before we knew it, we were landing in Hong Kong and were itching to explore another new city. I really can’t recommend Cathay Pacific enough for an intra-Asia flight like this. It was comfortable, the food was great, and the service was impeccable. All in all, I was very impressed and was looking forward to our First Class flight home from Hong Kong in a few days. Happy Travels!
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Travel Planning: Fall in Asia Review: LAX Star Alliance Lounge Review: Singapore Airlines Suites Class LAX - NRT Review: Park Hyatt Tokyo Recap: Time in Tokyo Review: HND JAL First Class Lounge Review: JAL Business Class HND - GMP Review: IP Boutique Hotel Seoul Recap: Time in Seoul Review: ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class ICN - HKG Review: Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui Recap: Time in Hong Kong Review: HKG Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge Review: Cathay Pacific First Class HKG - SFO After a few days in Seoul, we were headed to Hong Kong flying Cathay Pacific in Business Class. Hong Kong was probably the city I was most excited to visit while Seoul was the city I found least interesting, so I was ready to get on this flight! We left our hotel extremely early in the morning to catch the airport bus and experienced a lovely tour of Seoul while picking up the rest of the passengers at their hotels. Finally, we were on the road to Incheon. For those who don’t know, Incheon literally couldn’t be farther from Seoul if it tried - I couldn’t believe how far away it is for being Seoul’s most major airport. I think it took about an hour to get there once we made the last pick-ups in Seoul proper, maybe a little less, so I could be exaggerating a bit, but I really appreciate cities with airports actually in the city! Anyways, we arrived at Incheon Airport and checked in fairly quickly, which was nice, but then we were met with one of the longest lines for immigration I have ever seen. Apparently the 2014 Asian games were going on, so there were a TON of people flying through Seoul. Luckily, we got to the airport plenty early, so once we finally made it through the line, we headed straight for the Cathay Pacific lounge. The lounge is located in Concourse A up an escalator from the departure floor on level 4 near gate 118. You'll even find a cardboard cutout of a Cathay flight attendant showing you where to go. I honestly don’t know what I was expecting, but I guess I was expecting too much. The lounge is very small and really nothing special. That being said, it is quiet and there are free snacks/drinks, so might as well sit here rather than at the gate! The lounge had 3 seating areas and a small area with snacks and drinks. Since it was early in the morning, there were breakfast dishes out. These included lots of breads, some cereal, probably some sort of congee or something (although I can’t remember), and hard boiled eggs. Then, there were also some salads and cup noodles and snack foods like nuts, pastries, pretzels, and… chips and salsa? I love chips and salsa, so even though it was 9AM and I was in South Korea, I was all over that. There was also a selection of juices, milk, soda, coffee, tea, liquor, and I think some beer in the refrigerators. Overall, the lounge is underwhelming just because it’s small and doesn’t have much going on, but if you have access, it’s a good place to kill time before a flight. We were there before it got too busy, but it did start filling up, so keep in mind that it will likely be a bit busy if you visit anytime other than early morning or late evening.
Happy Travels! Travel Planning: Fall in Asia Review: LAX Star Alliance Lounge Review: Singapore Airlines Suites Class LAX - NRT Review: Park Hyatt Tokyo Recap: Time in Tokyo Review: HND JAL First Class Lounge Review: JAL Business Class HND - GMP Review: IP Boutique Hotel Seoul Recap: Time in Seoul Review: ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class ICN - HKG Review: Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui Recap: Time in Hong Kong Review: HKG Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge Review: Cathay Pacific First Class HKG - SFO All told, we spent about 2 days and 3 nights in Seoul and to be honest, it was plenty. I didn’t particularly love anything about Seoul and wasn’t really that excited about visiting. We were mostly there because of the way our award ticket routing worked out. The one thing I was dying to do while we were there was to visit the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, which is only about 1.5 hours North of Seoul. Chris and I both have a weird fascination with North Korea, so it was a given that we would want to check this out. Not only did we want to see the DMZ, but the area that’s actually the coolest is the Joint Security Area, which is where you can see the North and South Korean soldiers facing each other and you can technically set foot in North Korea when you’re inside of a conference room. We had initially booked a tour to see both the DMZ and JSA through Viator, but it was cancelled a few days after booking. Apparently, we were visiting near to a Korean holiday and the JSA would be closed for something like a month because of it, so even if we went another day, it wouldn’t have been possible to see. We were a bit disappointed, but went on the tour anyway. The tour company picked us up directly from our hotel and after making a few other stops, we were on our way to the DMZ. Our first stop was Imjingak, which is a park with war artifacts and the Freedom Bridge, which POWs crossed on their way back to freedom. From there, we headed to an area built around one of the infiltration tunnels discovered by the South Koreans. The North Koreans actually tried to tunnel into South Korea, but many of the tunnels were discovered and then completed by South Korea so they could be blocked off. We put on some hard hats and took a walk down into a long, dark tunnel to see where it had been blocked off, then trekked back up the steep tunnel, which was surprisingly tough. After that, we headed to Dora Observatory, which would allow us to see over into North Korea with binoculars, but unfortunately the weather that day was misty and foggy, so we couldn’t see anything. Our last stop was Dorasan Station, which is essentially a train station used by workers who move between North and South Korea. After the DMZ tour and back in Seoul, while they had a captive (literally) audience, the tour company awkwardly took us to what was essentially a ginseng exhibition hall where employees educated us about how ginseng is grown and then tried very hard to sell it in every possible shape or form. Once we escaped the ginseng exhibition, we were dropped off in central Seoul and set off to find lunch. A coworker of Chris’ gave us a list of recommendations for Seoul and we ended up at Mr. Pizza, which is a Korean pizza chain that caters to women. Chris was really excited to visit, which just goes to prove that he’s half female. It was kind of odd, but the pizza was decent and we honestly weren’t quite ready to foray into Korean food just yet. After lunch, we walked along Cheonggyecheon Stream, which was created as part of a urban renewal project and was quite beautiful. Fittingly, on that rainy day, there were hundreds of umbrellas hung over the top as some sort of art installation, which was really cool looking. As our last stop of the day, we decided to head over to the War Memorial of Korea, which was housed in quite an imposing building and was a pretty extensive museum covering much of South Korea’s history up to the Korean War. The exhibits were in Korean and English, so we could at least read things, which was nice, and it was also free. Worth a visit, but I doubt you’ll have patience for all of the exhibits. That night, we were so tired that we just skipped dinner and went straight to bed. The next morning, we decided to visit the two main palaces in Seoul, Changdeokgung and Gyeongbokgung, which are located next to each other near downtown Seoul. We started with Changdeokgung. The various temples were beautiful, but the design doesn’t vary at all, so they are all the same colors and have the same look. After a while, the design gets a bit old and there’s not much to see. We made it out of the palace and wandered through a bit of Bukchon Hanok Village, which is a historic neighborhood with the highest concentration of traditional homes. After this, we were a little palace’d out, but decided to see Gyeongbokgung just in case it was something really good. Sure enough, the buildings had similar designs to the first palace, but the grounds were much more beautiful and we liked it much more. If you’re trying to decide which to visit, go with Gyeongbokgung. After our busy morning, we decided to try out some Korean BBQ for a late lunch. We found a place that looked like it might have some English on the menu and sat down. Neither Chris nor I have ever had Korean BBQ before, so we ordered and then literally had no idea what to do once the food came. We knew we were supposed to cook our own food, but we didn’t know when you were supposed to start or how high to turn the burner on or anything. So we kind of just sat there trying to find someone nearby who was cooking to use as an example or trying to find someone who spoke English that we could ask. Unfortunately, there was no one. After a while, our waitress came back (she spoke zero English) and said some things in what sounded like very exasperated Korean. She started cooking stuff for us and we basically gave her sheepish looks and tried to apologize for our ignorance. That was enough Korean food for me! Seoul was an interesting city, but is definitely not a place I feel the need to return to. I’m sure I would like a smaller Korean city more, so maybe someday, but on this trip, we were happy to be heading to Hong Kong early the next morning.
또봐요 I was lucky enough to be in Maui two weeks ago thanks to some amazing airfare deals from Alaska Airlines over Black Friday. Chris and I had the most amazing time and even though it was only for three days and two nights, it was worth it to visit such a beautiful place! I had been to Hawaii before, but not to Maui, and after this trip, it is my favorite island so far (I've also visited the Big Island and Oahu). The icing on the cake (or the umbrella in our Mai Tai, if you will) was undoubtedly staying at what Chris and I both agreed is the most beautiful hotel we have ever stayed at - the Andaz Maui at Wailea. The hotel is incredibly beautiful and the decor was just our style - modern and minimalist, but with a bit of Hawaiian inspiration. Not to mention, the views are second to none. The Andaz Maui is located on its own stretch of beach and has views from seemingly every part of the hotel. Possibly the coolest feature of the hotel is the tiered infinity pools which cover 4 levels so that it's easy to get a great view no matter where you've spotted an empty lounge chair. All of that being said, the hotel is also incredibly expensive and it's one of the few in Hyatt's portfolio that is not available for cash and points stays. This means that you're either going to be paying cash (which can easily be $600/night and up) or full points, which will set you back 25,000/night. As luck would have it, Chris had just finished applying for the Chase Hyatt Visa and received two free night certificates for any Hyatt property in the world, so we chose to use those for our stay here. We got even more lucky when we arrived and were upgraded to a one bedroom partial ocean view suite without even asking. All in all, it was perfection. I plan to do a full review eventually, but wanted to share my initial thoughts on the property. Essentially, if you're looking for a place to stay in Maui, I really can't recommend anything more. While we have had issues with not feeling "cool" enough for Andaz properties in the past (see here and here), this one was absolutely perfect. It wasn't too hip or happening for us and really just offered (mostly) great service in a beautiful setting, which was exactly what we wanted. The pool and beach area were excellent and were better and much nicer, in my opinion, than the surrounding hotels that I visited in Wailea, including the Four Seasons, The Grand Wailea, and the Wailea Beach Marriott. I loved the smaller, boutique feel of the Andaz and amazingly, the hotel wasn't incredibly busy while we were visiting, which made it easy to find a great lounge chair by the pool and enjoy the quiet. Admittedly, there were a few things that weren't quite up to par during our stay, which included service in some cases, but the amenities and the resort as a whole more than made up for these issues as far as I was concerned.
Aloha! Guest Reviewer: Chris An avid traveler and obsessive points and miles hound, Chris is my travel buddy extraordinaire. I love him for his enthusiasm, his sense of adventure, and his American Airlines Executive Platinum status benefits. Hope you enjoy his perspective! Background In my previous guest post, I reviewed my Lufthansa First Class flight to Europe for Christmas. For the return journey, I found first class award availability with British Airways, and I decided to book it using AAdvantage miles. It cost a fairly reasonable 62,500 miles for the one-way flight, but the fees and taxes of $382 were a bit steep. Check In British Airways has a separate first class check-in area at Heathrow Terminal 5, so I headed there and was surprised to find a long line of about 15 people. Fortunately there were quite a few check-in desks open, so I only had to wait about 5 minutes to get my boarding pass. I then proceeded to Fast Track security and was airside a few minutes later. Lounge The last time I was at Heathrow Terminal 5, Jen and I tried the Galleries First Lounge, but this time I had access to the Concorde Room, which is only available to first class passengers flying British Airways. Since first class passengers and oneworld Emerald members from other airlines aren’t permitted, the Concorde Room is considered the more exclusive of the two lounges. The lounge is located immediately to the right after exiting security. I first showed my boarding pass to the lady guarding the door, then once inside I needed to show my boarding pass again. Maybe it’s a British thing, but I didn’t find any of the staff members to be particularly welcoming. In fact, they seemed quite annoyed that I had decided to stop by. The lounge has both an indoor sitting area and a terrace overlooking the terminal, and seating consists of various kinds of chairs and couches. In the indoor section, there is a full-service bar, but the staff also walk around and take drink orders. There is no buffet, but there is a restaurant area where food can be ordered. Since I hadn't had breakfast yet, I headed to the dining area and was promptly seated. There were a few British-themed breakfast items on the menu. I opted for the traditional English breakfast, along with an orange juice and a cappuccino. The one thing I couldn’t help but notice was how miserable the wait staff seemed. They all looked incredibly sad and interacted with me as little as possible. Maybe it’s from dealing with overly-entitled passengers all day. A few minutes after ordering, my breakfast arrived. Sadly, I wasn’t incredibly impressed by the food. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t very good. Let’s just say the best part of my meal was the baked beans, which probably came from a tin. The cappuccino tasted mostly like warm water; I couldn’t tell that it contained any coffee or milk. After finishing my breakfast, I headed to the terrace area and found a comfortable lounge chair to relax in for an hour or so, then I headed to my gate. Overall I was disappointed by the Concorde Room, and next time I’ll make sure to visit the Galleries First Lounge instead, which I thought was a better lounge. The Flight British Airways #285 London (LHR) – San Francisco (SFO) Monday, December 29th, 2014 10:50 AM – 1:50 PM : 11 hours, 0 minutes Boeing 747-400: Seat 3A (First Class) Shortly after I arrived at the gate, Fast Track boarding began. There was no separate first class boarding, so first, business, and elites all boarded at the same time. Once on board, I was led to my seat, and got a handshake greeting from the purser. The staff were all extremely friendly and courteous, which was a huge contrast to the staff in the Concorde Room. The cabin was pretty cool-looking - I especially liked that there was subtle blue lighting throughout. However, there were 14 first class seats in the nose of the 747, which made it feel a bit cramped. Luckily, on my flight only eight of the seats were occupied. The seat was comfortable and came with a narrow closet, a lamp, and a fold-out TV screen. The best part was the window, which was huge and had motorized blinds. Although it still had the usual airplane windows behind it, it felt more like the kind of window you’d find on a train than on a plane. After getting settled, I was offered a drink, and I chose champagne. Like Lufthansa, they were serving Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle, which is supposed to be a pretty good champagne, although I can’t really tell these sorts of things. A few minutes later, a flight attendant came by to give me my amenity kit and pajamas (or sleep suit, as they called it). The amenity kit was high quality and came with everything one would need, and the pajamas were good too. They had the British Airways logo and said “First” on them, in case I were to forget which cabin I belonged to.
After take-off, I was offered a drink and I decided to try a Kir Royale. It was excellent and was served with warm mixed nuts. Then, about an hour into the flight, the meal service began. The menu read as follows: |
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