|
Last year, we flew first class on what have consistently been named the number one and number two best first class products in the world - Singapore Airlines (Suites) and Cathay Pacific. However, as of December of last year, there is a new "best" product in the air giving these two a run for their money. Etihad Airways revealed "The Residence" and "First Apartments" last year and they are revolutionary, to say the least. The Residence is literally a 3 room suite on the airplane with a living room, bedroom and private bathroom. It also comes with your very own butler. The First Apartment is most similar to a Suite on Singapore Airlines, but there is really no comparison since it's much bigger. Flights with The Residence and First Apartments debuted in late December of last year and are currently only operating between Abu Dhabi and London Heathrow.  Etihad Airways "The Residence" Living Room (image via ausbt.com.au)  Etihad Airways First Apartment (image via thedesignair.net)  Etihad Airways "The Residence" Bedroom (image via dailymail.co.uk) While The Residence is still a bit out of our reach since you can't book it with miles, we knew that we had to try a First Apartment as soon as possible. We thought about when might be the best time to visit the UAE and determined that winter is absolutely our best bet since I'm not a fan of anything over 85 degrees, so Thanksgiving 2015 it is! On a whim, we checked for award availability around Thanksgiving between London and Abu Dhabi and there it was. We couldn't pass it up! Read on for Chris' experience booking the award and tips for how you can do it too for as little as 40,000 AAdvantage miles! ... Etihad is not a member of any of the three major airline alliances, but luckily it is a partner with American Airlines, so it's possible to book flights using AAdvantage miles. The downside is that award tickets can't be booked online, so a phone call is required. As of the latest AAdvantage award chart, a one-way flight from the Middle East to Europe is only 40,000 miles in first class, which is quite a bargain. To find award availability, the easiest way is to check Etihad's site. After entering your travel details and performing a search, you want to make sure there's "Guest First" availability - if there is, you should be able to book it with AAdvantage miles. Ignore the number of miles stated in the search results; those only apply if you choose to use Etihad miles to book the flight.  When Jen and I floated the idea of traveling to Dubai for Thanksgiving, I ran a quick search on Etihad's site and saw that there were two "Guest First" seats available from Abu Dhabi to London on November 29th. We got pretty excited at the prospect of experiencing the First Apartment, so despite not having any idea how to get to Abu Dhabi or from London, I called American to book the tickets. Unfortunately, there was a two hour wait (despite calling the Executive Platinum line), due to a ton of cancelled flights in Dallas. Eventually I got through, and asked to book a first class award for two from Abu Dhabi to London.
That's when I got some unexpected bad news from the agent - "I'm sorry, sir. There is no award availability from Abu Dhabi to London on November 29th. I checked both Etihad and Jet Airways for you." I didn't know how to react to this statement. There clearly was award availability, but the AA agent wasn't seeing it. I figured I'd try the good old technique of "hang up, call again", so I did and was faced with another two hour wait. Not to be deterred, I used Google Voice to call the Australian call center, and was connected to another agent within 15 minutes. The new agent was not much help either. He saw that there was one first class seat available, but not two. I hung up and went to bed, ready to give up on my dream of experiencing a luxury apartment in the skies. The next day, I figured I'd give it a third and final shot. I'd read on FlyerTalk that sometimes American can only see Etihad inventory "one at a time", even though there are multiple seats available. I called the reservation desk and again was told that there was only one seat available. This time, though, I was more persistent and told the agent that I was quite sure there were two seats available, and that I had heard of a glitch where Etihad only lets one seat be pulled at a time. She did some more investigating, and eventually admitted that I was right - there were indeed two first class seats available! It took a while, but she managed to find a way to book them for us, and our Etihad First Apartment tickets were confirmed. The lesson learned is to be persistent when trying to book award tickets - sometimes it takes a few tries, and sometimes it requires mentioning a special trick. You won't be able to magically open up award availability for flights that don't have any, but you might be able to convince agents to to double-check if you know there are award seats available. Stay tuned for our review of the Etihad First Apartment (in about nine months or so)!
0 Comments
 Cathay Pacific Regional Business Class Seats 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.  Cathay Pacific Regional Business Class Cabin  Cathay Pacific Regional Business Class Seat Controls  Cathay Pacific Regional Business Class Seat Controls  Cathay Pacific Business Class Menus 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.  Cathay Pacific Cloud Nine Drink 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.  Cathay Pacific Business Class Meal Service  Korean Ginseng and Pear Beef Roll  Braised Spare Ribs  Chicken Bulgogi  Flourless Chocolate Caramel Cake  Fruit and Cheese Plate  Cathay Pacific Business Class Fruit and Cheese Service 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! 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.  ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Entrance 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.  ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Seating  ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Seating  ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Food Selection  ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Seating  ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Food Selection  ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Food Selection  ICN Cathay Pacific Lounge Food Selection 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.  The first of many temples at Imjingak  Soldier with strange likeness to Kim Jong Il at Imjingak  I want to go to Pyongyang!  Our view of North Korea 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.  Cheonggyecheon Stream  Cheonggyecheon Stream 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.  Ship outside of the War Memorial of Korea 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.  Changdeokgung Palace Entrance  Chris at Changdeokgung Palace  Gyeongbokgung Palace  Gyeongbokgung Palace 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!  Korean BBQ 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.  Andaz Maui at Wailea Lobby View  Andaz Maui at Wailea Lobby  Andaz Maui at Wailea Andaz Suite Partial Ocean View  Andaz Maui at Wailea Andaz Suite Bedroom  Andaz Maui at Wailea Pool Views  Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort  Beach at Andaz Maui at Wailea 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! |
AboutJust a girl with a full-time job and a full-time obsession with traveling. It's best to LiveTraveled. Categories
All
Archives
March 2017
|
RSS Feed