Lots of people in the past have talked about using 70k Alaska Airlines miles to fly from North America to South Africa in Cathay Pacific First Class (although that’s no longer possible since Cathay no longer has first class between HKG and JNB), and Alaska is also well known for offering redemptions for Emirates First…
Links to stories #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6. It’s been a long time since I last posted a travel story that had to do with race, but three incidents this past weekend inspired me to write this post. Incident #1: Random woman on the street (directed at me): “Ohayou!” Incident #2 (while waiting at…
This hotel is one of the few cheap Hilton redemptions after Hilton’s devaluation a couple of years ago. Since it’s a category 2 hotel, it’s only 10k Hilton points per night. In terms of Western hotels in Hanoi attainable using points, there’s also a category 2 Sheraton, a couple of IHG properties, a category 4 Marriott,…
For US passport holders, we need a visa to enter Vietnam. I had pre-arranged a visa on arrival, which meant that I had sent my passport, travel information, and a nominal fee ($9 per person) to a somewhat sketchy visa agent recommended to me by a friend (Vietnam Visa Pro, if you’re wondering). In return,…
After spending a day in Bangkok and relaxing in the lounge, we boarded our short flight to Hanoi. We were departing from a remote stand, so we had to take a bus to the plane. On the plus side, we were parked by an A380, so I got to ogle a plane and reminisce about…
Q: Where is the lounge? A: Terminal 3, near Gate 74. It’s right beside the airside connector between Terminal 3 and the International G gates, and it’s where premium security at SFO used to be for United. Q: Can I access this lounge even if I’m not flying United? A: Yes! Any boarding pass at…
A lot of bloggers have said that the Chase Hyatt credit card is one of the cards to keep and pay the annual fee on every year because the card offers a free anniversary night certificate redeemable for a category 1-4 Hyatt property for an annual fee of $75. Since the annual fee just posted on…
Upon arrival at the Bangkok airport, I was greeted with a buggy to take me to the lounge or immigration. I originally had a relatively short layover, but Thai decided to cancel the BKK-HAN flight that I was on, so I had a pretty lengthy layover instead, so I ended up deciding to spend some…
I love Thai Airways. I don’t understand which blogger started the meme that Thai doesn’t have great service in the air, since I’ve only had superlative service experiences on Thai in first class. Or maybe it’s like a reverse racism thing where Asian people get better service on Thai than white people, similar to how white people get…
Upon arrival at Frankfurt, I received an escort from Thai since I was connecting to a Thai first class flight. Normally, if you depart in Star Alliance first class out of Frankfurt, you only get Lufthansa Senator Lounge access (the same lounge that Star Alliance Gold gets), but since I was getting off a Lufthansa…
