TravelBloggerBuzz

An eclectic journey through the Travel Miles/Points blogosphere

Top 10 First for TBB in my Splurge Trip to Hong Kong Using Miles/Points

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The things we do using miles/points in this hobby allows us experiences like the ones I list below.

 

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If you are a new reader please read how TBB managed to take a trip to Hong Kong using 227,750 miles & points and $0 cash out of pocket!

By the time you are reading this I should be back in US soil and probably in catch up mode at the New York City La Guardia’s American Express Centurion Lounge! I am preparing this post at The Wing, Cathay Pacific’s First Class Lounge in Hong Kong while waiting to board my flight to JFK in F…This was a pure George trip to burn some miles and take advantage of United’s pre mega devaluation awards. I have been reading all these bloggers for years showing off it was time to experience this myself for a change. I would rather have my family with me but I think once a year doing a trip alone is good. This post is NOT about the destination.  As Frequent Miler says why take a trip in style?  Simply because…we can!

 

Top 10 First for TBB this trip:

1.  Flying Air France Business Class from Detroit to Paris

Air France Business Class
Thanks to the Lufthansa pilot strike they rebooked me on this flight via Paris. And I earned about 6k Delta Skymiles #winning

 

2. Flew first class on Thai Airways. From Paris to Bangkok. Loved it!

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3. Flew finally the Airbus A380 on this Thai Airways flight. Yes it is an awesome plane. And the camera on it is awesome too!

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4. Visited the super awesome Thai Airways Royal First Lounge in Bangkok

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5. Got the ground treatment of Thai Airways F passengers in Bangkok. It was fun being driven by a buggy and sure beat walking after an 11 hour flight!

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6. Got the famous one hour massage in the Thai Airways Royal First Lounge! Slipping into a tiny piece of cloth after told it was going to be served as “underwear” was a bit of a shock but got over it and managed to really enjoy it!

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Tea while waiting for the massage room

7. Flew First Class in an intra- Asia flight on Thai Airways from Bangkok to Hong Kong. It was on a 747-400 and the First Class configuration was incredibly spacious. Very unique!

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8. I was given a private tour of the Presidential Suite of the Intercontinental Hong Kong hotel! Blown away. Totally LOVED my stay here!

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9. Visited the famous THE Wing, Cathay Pacific’s First Class lounge in Hong Kong Airport. The food here is incredible!

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10.  Flew Cathay Pacific for the first time and in First Class from Hong Kong to New York City’s JFK. 15 hours of bliss. My best flight ever. The food was amazing! I am glad I got to experience this once. But after you experience it once is it worth the splurge in miles? Not imho. So go ahead splurge once before American Airlines does a United like move, hurryyyyy!

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11. Hey, like the plastic pushing bloggers who never stop at just ten credit cards why should I huh? 🙂  I never ordered a $40 hamburger until this trip. This baby was eaten at the lobby bar in the Intercontinental Hong Kong lobby after a full day of walking around and having no energy to go out and as I was drinking a glass of red wine (free drink voucher at check in) I tried to find something reasonably priced and this was it! Hey, this is why you earn Barclaycard Arrival points and this is how I will pay for it! Needless to say this WAS indeed the best hamburger I ever had!

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TBB
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Comments

          • smittytabb says

            Been to the one in Papeete, Moorea and to both in Bora Bora. Definitely a great use of free room cert or points! Great idea in Hong Kong as well. I am keen to go to Macau and had to cancel a trip there recently for a family obligation. So, I will be heading that way in the near future. How is Hong Kong right now? There is so much media attention to the protests, but I know when I was in Taipei there were tons of protests and it was not a huge issue. Did it impact your trip at all?

            • TravelBloggerBuzz says

              Protests are wrapped up, nothing to worry about at all. No impact on my trip as there was just only one site left while I was there. As of today, the 100 die hard protesters were sent packing. The people were with the protesters in the beginning. The govt played it smart and let them shoot themselves in the foot so to speak. By this time everyone was sick of the protesters who were hurting real people around the protest sites with ever changing demands…

  3. Hua says

    Welcome back, looks like your trip was a success! BTW… Looking forward to seeing how those LGA-DTW seats look. (Probably similar to CLT-CLE, but I am sure we will find out in part 17 of 23 of the upcoming trip report.)

  6. PedroNY says

    Great top 10! (11) Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip. Could you do a post about Hong Kong and all food that you ate, specific locations — I am there for 3 days (miles burning trip) in February, so I’d love to visit some of these spots. Apologies if you already wrote it in a previous blog post, just point me into that direction.

    Cheers,

    PedroNY

    • TravelBloggerBuzz says

      Email me. I am no foodie.

      Tim Ho Wan…u need to bear the wait to taste them BBQ buns.

      The dim sum at the Summer Palace in the Island Shangri La hotel is fantastic! If you have Shangri La points from playing that game it is an awesome use of the points. Easily for two people, you will be full. I think the BBQ buns here are even better than Tim Ho Wan (which are awesome AND super cheap). I would not pay the prices listed at the Summer Palace because I am a value guy 🙂

      The ridiculous $40 burger at the lobby bar at the Intercontinental is mouth watering. Use Barclaycard Arrival to pay for it. The Chinese restaurant at the IC is overhyped, avoid it.

      Plenty of food places around. I think I enjoyed going into a couple of dives and ordering what I saw and paying $4 or so and eating with the locals.

      I think that’s pretty much it…Like I said, I am no foodie. And this was really short trip to do more research.

    • TravelBloggerBuzz says

      Actually that was the most reasonably priced of the entries! Totally unlike me. But I was really hungry and some of the Foursquare reviews were raving about it. No worries, I will pay for it with Arrival points. It was a splurge trip afterall. I still dream about it…

  13. dhammer53 says

    So nice to read a report ‘uncluttered’ with so much editorial comment and links. 😉

    I saw your link on Twitter. I missed this the first time around. I was away on a business trip.

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