For my trip to Hong Kong, I used up my two free weekend night certificates from my Citi Hilton Reserve credit card to stay at the Conrad Hong Kong, To get to the Conrad, I ended up taking an airport bus (in this case, bus A11) to Admiralty station, and then walking through the mall…
When people ask me about my travels, a frequent follow-up question is if I’m going with anyone or if I’m visiting someone. And people often seem surprised when I tell them that I’m going by myself or not meeting anyone. I travel alone relatively frequently, and I highly recommend that everyone try it at least…
I was searching for award space on SQ 2 from Hong Kong to San Francisco for a friend in economy class, and I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t even SEE the flight on United.com, especially since I found space on ANA’s website (which does show availability for economy space, just not for premium cabins on…
Costs: $850 for airfare $30 for public transportation $160 for food and incidentals 44k points for two nights at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Helsinki (let’s say this was about $40, considering that the annual fee for the credit card is $75) Total: $1080 (Tangible) Benefits: 26,812 American Airline miles (13,406 flown miles plus 100% bonus…
The Almost@Home Lounge is located near Gate 32 in the non-Schengen area of Helsinki airport. It’s accessible via Priority Pass, and it’s one of the nicest Priority Pass lounges that I’ve been to. When I checked in, the lounge agent was nice and welcoming, and she asked if I had ever been to the lounge….
The second lounge that I stopped in at the Helsinki airport was the lounge that I could access via my oneworld status, which was Finnair’s lounge (although it used to be accessible via Priority Pass as well). When I was checking into the Finnair lounge, I asked a question about seating on my flight, and…
The Aspire Lounge by Servisair is accessible via Priority Pass and is located near Gates 27 and 28 in the Schengen region. If you’re flying to a non-Schengen destination, you can still access this lounge, but you’ll need to leave a little bit of time to clear immigration to get to your flight. The lounge…
My second and final day in Helsinki, I did something rather stupid and let myself fall asleep at 4pm. I was exhausted and jetlagged (I find it harder to travel east than west) and ended up sleeping for 8+ hours and thus woke up past midnight without having eaten dinner. There is not much to…
Eating out in Helsinki is generally expensive, and I hate spending money on mediocre food, so I figured that I might as well just splurge a little bit and get significantly nicer food. One of my new year’s resolutions was to eat 12 new Michelin stars this year, and Helsinki features 5 starred restaurants, so…
US Airways is selling miles for 1.135 cents each again. This has been one of the best/craziest miles deals around for the past couple of years. At only 90k for a business class ticket to North Asia (which generously includes Hong Kong and Taipei), you’re looking at paying around $1100 for a business class ticket…
