I am back from my trip, here is a short Asia trip review for your enjoyment. Lets get them deflating Alexa ranking numbers back up you guys, lets do this! I am doing this now before I forget everything, you know, jet lag and all! Full trip report will follow…someday.
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I burned 50,000 AA miles on a one way award from Detroit to Dallas Fort-Worth on American Airlines First Class and onwards to Narita, Tokyo on Japan Airlines Business Class. The AA flight was fine. I was actually disappointed by the JAL flight. I think it is because due to my high expectations. It was a flat bed but not too comfortable. I think a lot had to do with due to the Japanese passenger next to me who had a mask on but then proceeded to cough without it and then started snoring and I swear it was louder than the volume in my speakers, wow! Entertainment selection was weak. Food was okay, nothing that made me go wow!
The Conrad Tokyo is fabulous. What a great property to burn my 2 free Hilton Visa Reserve nights. I also burned 160,000 Hilton HHonors points for two award nights here. I did not get any special treatment and I ran out of time to try before hand, darn blog again lol. The lounge is really great, the cocktail evening reception is also great. Skip the breakfast in the lounge and go to the Collage restaurant, much bigger selection! Standard rooms are great. Service is great, sometimes too polite. I always felt weird when others bow to to me, you will get that A LOT here! 80,000 points per night is very steep imho. 3 nights here tops is fine to get a good feel for it.
I enjoyed Tokyo. It was pretty much the same as I expected it to be. Never got to do the fish market auction, I was shut out 3 out of the 4 mornings I had there, long story. I had a guide for one day, a Japanese student from Ann Arbor who works there now. We saw many sights and also went to a maid cafe and that was a neat experience (and so touristy omg!). Tokyo subway system is amazingly huge!
Riding the Tokyo metro system…
Another highlight was seeing an arrest
Then I burned 30,000 AA miles for a one way award from Narita to Hong Kong flying Cathay Pacific Business Class. Original award had me stop over and then connect to Kuala Lumpur flying Malaysian Airlines Business Class but I never used it as I spent two nights in Hong Kong.
The Cathay Pacific Business class flight was so much better than JAL. Better entertainment options, better food, better seat and much better English.
Plan was to spend one night in son’s dorm room but the security guard had other plans so I went back to the airport and slept on a chair in the 24 hour Premium Plaza lounge. Then it was on to the Intercontinental Hong Kong where I used my annual free Visa night for the second year in a row. Not much preferential treatment for me this time, I had to even pay for a harbor view room, boo! Treated ourselves to the ridiculously expensive burgers again and his choice, the Mexican burger, was so bad he had to return it and the second one was not much better. They started nickel and dime-ing me before I even got there. Lets just say staying twice here is more than enough…This is the reason why. You know I suck in photography but sometimes one (or two) out of thousands takes is a gem. Drinking coffee in my room, sure beats the view out of my local Panera every morning woohoo!
We then flew Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur with son. Better to pay a little more for the extra legroom seats! Food is cheap on board if you pre order but you are advised to eat before you board. Wife had a driver to drive us to Sitiawan in the western part of Malaysia where the whole family gathered to celebrate my father in law’s 80th birthday. It was a lot of fun… Here is them with their 7 kids and their spouses. About 300 people showed up and yes I was the only white guy…I am so used to it by now lol.
and their 19 grandkids…
One night back to in laws’ hometown of Raub and then on to Kuala Lumpur. We stayed two nights at the Doubletree. Actually paid for an executive suite hoping to get upgraded to the Terrace Suite #success. Spacious balcony, especially great at night looking at the Petronas Twin Towers…This is a great hotel and it is only 10,000 Hilton HHonors per night, wow! Great lounge and the restaurant for breakfast has enough food stations to stuff yourself silly! Paid rates are low as well. I paid about $125 USD per night for the executive suite. Don’t worry, I will use my Barclay Arrival points to get them freeeee.
We goofed around the city for a few days, kids spent it with KL based cousins and ate a lot as usual…Amazing the progress here, wow! Last time I was here was in 2006, why can’t Greeks build like them? Ok, don’t go there!
Last family meal at the KL Doubletree before we all split: me back to the US, son back to Hong Kong to continue his 2 month study abroad program and the girls for a few more days in Malaysia before they tour Southern China with my daughter’s dance team.
I returned on a 70,000 Delta Skymiles award flying Kuala Lumpur to Seoul on Korean Airlines Business Class and then on Delta Business Class to Detroit. I was very surprised that the Korean Airlines business class seats have absolutely no privacy at all. The guy next to me watched the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” and he was laughing at what is an awful movie. Anyway, seat is pretty good, entertainment options okay, cutest flight attendants but so robotically polite, food was better than JAL but not Cathay. Again, all in my opinion only!
And now, a controversial statement. Out of all these flights I enjoyed the Delta Business Class flight the most! Best selection of entertainment ( I watched 4 movies!) of all, excellent food, private flat bed seating and flight attendants with some personality who could actually converse and joke about something. If only they had a frequent flyer program 🙂
Okay, that’s it. I thought I was going to do a quick post, half hour tops….2 hours later…and counting!
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Nice report! More about Malaysia pleeeeeaaase. Dang, suit and tie in Malaysia. You must be soaked.
Delta flight was a 747, no? Upstairs??
Out of curiosity, how do you guys communicate with family in Greece and Malaysia? Does one of you translate (depending on where you are)? Do your kids speak the languages? Or does everyone just speak English these days?
The grandparents don’t speak English, we translate for each other. Younger generations mostly know some English these days.
I just got back from Asia too…who knows, I may have even passed you in HKG airport. I agree with your last comment about Delta One. I flew the much-hyped reverse herringbone flat seats on the AA 777-300ER and also the same config on Cathay A330s. Even with a thin mattress pad, I thought they were too hard and narrow. I could never get comfortable enough to get good sleep. Maybe it’s just me, but I can sleep hours in Delta One and their bedding is better, IMHO.
Agreed.
DL One depends which aircraft – the 767s are narrow and coffin-like, but the 777, A330, and (especially upper deck) 747 are very good.
The AA 77W is definitely overhyped – it’s competitive but hardly game changing. I think it all comes back $$$ (of course) combined with the simple fact that AA Biz class was (and still mostly is outside of the 77W) abysmal for SO LONG.
I’m sure it’ll all be the same story when UA’s POLARIS “rules the night skies” (I’m writing your Titan headlines here!).
The Asian carriers are all pretty good, but DL has definitely closed the gap. I’ve flown most of them, and to me, pretty much any business class experience is amazing because I’m not flying in coach! It’s a lot different if my business was to be “lucky” enough to be flying around reviewing them and nitpicking over details.
After the seat type, I will say that the major advantage of US carriers is the English entertainment selection. The major advantage on some Asian carriers is mattress pads. Everything else (wine quality, food quality, crew personality/service, etc) is, in my experience, too variable to fret over.
Buzz, do you find it interesting that the comments have increased since you are back?
Wait, Greek people are white ?
I’m going to Hong Kong Aug 24, will be free Sep 4 or so and hope to tour Vietnam or someplace. Return to US Sep 14.
Only trouble with a view that great is you might never want to leave the room! Awesome, I probably can’t afford the HK Intercontinental but it makes me wonder about the cash price.
Your son will be in Hong Kong ? The “local” tour guides I have seen online want around 500+USD for a half day or so, forget that! I would think one might be able to find a student who could take a person around for not so much $$.
Need all the helpful hints and advice I can get. I’m trying to sort out where I will stay. There are so many choices. Then the reviews — the bad ones make much more impression than the good ones. which makes it more confusing.
What an exciting trip with everything in there: family, luxury, spoiling, practical getting-it-done’s, and all so very well planned. Thanks for sharing all the redemption details & we really enjoyed read it!