If you know that you have 8 nights in BKK, and plan to stay at the Conrad, I would double check the Flyertalk thread and make sure that most Golds get upgraded and get lounge access. A long stay in Asia is one of the exceptional cases where it is probably worth the extra push to get Diamond to guarantee lounge access, especially if you are already MSing Surpass to get some/most of the points. If you are staying at any other Hilton properties in HKG and SIN (both have really nice Conrads), you could really leverage the diamond status and it may help with award availability if one or two nights are not available.Thanks, that's what I needed to know.
I will get the Surpass and churn 5 Citi cards this year and stay 8 nights at the Conrad Bangkok and have points left over for a couple of nights in HK, total MS will be $8K or so at a cost $100.80, plus maybe 2 hours and a couple of gallons of gas counting the other grocery store MS I will do.
We stayed at both the Conrad and the Millennium Hilton in BKK, and for a first-time tourist, I would highly recommend the Hilton. It is near the river and most of the cultural/tourist sites. You can take the river taxi. The Conrad is in the middle of the shopping and business district and it's not a short taxi ride to get to any tourist areas like temples, palaces, museums. The Conrad lounge was rather stuffy and had a dress code, although it was unevenly enforced. Millennium lounge was nice, had great views of the river and actual bartenders (with fresh fruit juices to make specialty cocktails) in the evening. FWIW.
Actually, if you are doing a side trip to Chiang Mai, stay at both hotels, one before and one after. Conrad is still wonderful and worth a stay, just not 8 days on a first trip to BKK, IMO.
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