Tagging Miles

  • Saverocity
  • Home
  • About
  • Ask Tagging Miles
  • Support Us
  • Store
    • Reselling Tools
  • Guides
    • Beginner’s Guide to Fulfillment By Amazon
      • Start Here
      • Setting up an account
      • Analyzing and adding a product
      • Shipping 101
      • Shipping 201
      • Ungating Product Categories
      • Amazon Seller App
      • Amazon Seller App Part 2
    • Expert’s Guide to Fulfillment By Amazon
      • Dealing with Returns
  • Mile High Reselling Club

Introduction: A Last Minute Singapore F1 Weekend

September 29, 2015 By Trevor Leave a Comment





Our routing, map courtesy of www.gcmap.com

Our routing, map courtesy of www.gcmap.com

Earlier this year my wife and I did a 90 minute turn around in Cairo, purely as a mileage run. We thought it was crazy, but, we had time to plan everything out, and it really turned into Date Night in the air. We flew Qatar Airways, an airline I enjoy flying. Part of the reason we mileage run, is so that we can do whimsically crazy things like this trip, because miles really open up amazing opportunities.

Cut to September 17th. It had been a busy summer for us both, we hadn’t stepped onto a long haul flight in more than 2 months, a rarity for us. We went back to back weeks of identifying flights with an ultimate destination that eluded us. We had overwater flights last weekend to Abu Dhabi, thinking maybe Jordan, or the Maldives, or Colombo, but they just didn’t click.

The following Thursday though, everything clicked. We booked an itinerary that would take us to Singapore for 3 days, which just so happened to coincide with the Singapore Formula 1. My wife had been wanting to see a Formula 1, and I as well, so this seemed to make even more sense. So, around noon on Thursday, we booked flights leaving JFK at 10am Friday.

What happened next was a flurry. We finalized things at work, finalized our itinerary, got a one-way rental car—and at that moment, the moment that we were driving the rental car home, I called American, thinking, what if we could get on a red-eye flight? We could get 8-9 hours more in Singapore, and I could avoid that 3am drive up to JFK. Madness ensued, the decision was made at 6:40pm, we were all packed and out of the house before 7:30, and now we were instead flying DCA to Boston, then Boston onward. We barely made the 9pm flight from DCA to Boston. But the fact that we made that 9pm flight meant we were mostly home free.

This trip will have a number of parts, as we had really 4 flights worth writing about, 2 hotels, and a ton of interesting experiences along the way.

So sit back, drop the tray table, and keep a cold one nearby. We’ll be sharing the trip over the next week or so.

  • Introduction: A Last Minute Singapore F1 Weekend
  • Review: British Airways Terraces Lounge – Boston Logan Airport
  • Review: Cathay Pacific Boston to Hong Kong – Business Class – 777-300ER
  • Review: Cathay Pacific “The Wing” Lounge – Hong Kong International Airport
  • Review: Cathay Pacific Hong Kong to Singapore – Business Class – A330
  • Review: W Singapore – Sentosa Cove
  • Exploring Sentosa Island
  • Review: Marriott Singapore Tang Plaza
  • Wandering Singapore before and after the Singapore Formula 1 Night Grand Prix
  • Review: Skyview Lounge – Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 1
  • Review: Cathay Pacific Singapore to Hong Kong – Business Class – A330
  • Review: Cathay Pacific Hong Kong to Chicago – First Class – 777-300ER
  • Conclusion: Last Minute Singapore F1 Weekend

Filed Under: Awards, Travel, Uncategorized Tagged With: Award Redemptions, Award Trave, Crazy Travel, Singapore

Flying the Emirates A380 in First

September 10, 2014 By Trevor Leave a Comment

This is part of my round the world trip in August/September 2014. For those that are big on premium airline products, I think Emirates’ A380 is near the top. Its not as over the top as the Etihad Residences, but, its pretty over the top.

Before the flight

We had stayed at the Sheraton JFK Airport Hotel the night before, because, we really didn’t want to leave anything to chance with us missing this flight. We had arranged for transfer via Emirates Chauffeur since Emirates offers to premium cabin passengers. When we flew Etihad earlier this summer, we had the standard Lincoln Towncar, so when we walked out of the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised with a Cadillac. Not a huge difference, but, it is consistent with Emirates’ over the top-ness.

Emirates Chauffeur

Emirates Chauffeur

Emirates has a two counter First Class check-in area close to the door (I neglected to photograph that). I will note that checking in took a bit more time than expected because our boarding passes didn’t automatically print out with the lounge invitation. I’m not sure why, but Alaska award tickets are treated like “reduced fare” or “travel industry” tickets, but its not a big deal to get this fixed, you just have to make sure that they know you’re not flying on a reduced fare ticket, and they are able to fix and reprint.

With that worked out, we were soon through security and in the Emirates lounge, which is a pretty good size. The lounge itself has a dining area, a sitting area (with some great views of the tarmac), a smoking area, showers, and two jetways (one to two different gates).

Lounge

Lounge

We grabbed a light breakfast, and did some planespotting.

Planespotting from the Emirates Premium Lounge at JFK

Planespotting from the Emirates Premium Lounge at JFK

Before long it was time to board. Emirates is the only airline that I’ve flown that have a jetway from the lounge to the aircraft (its the jetway to the upper deck, UL1 according to one of the cabin staff).

Boarding the Emirates A380 from the lounge.

Boarding the Emirates A380 from the lounge.

Once onboard, we were shown to our seats, 1F and 1K. The seat itself was comfortable, but it was the overall suite that was over the top.

Seat

Seat

As if we thought that was enough, as we were sipping Veuve Clicquot champagne, we received eye shades, slippers (note, usually airline slippers don’t fit, but they actually had extra large size), a rather large amenity kit, and pajamas. They gave us “beach bags” to carry it all.

 

Emirates First Class Amenities

Emirates First Class Amenities

As we were sipping our champagne, one of the cabin staff came by with information for the Emirates A380 Shower Spa, and asked us when we would like to take our shower. My wife chose, I think, 2 hours before landing, I initially selected 3 hours before landing (although that didn’t go as planned). Here’s the brochure:

Shower Spa menu

Shower Spa menu

Once we were in the air, I had a glass of champagne, Emirates serves Dom Perignon 2004.

Dom Perignon on Emirates

Dom Perignon on Emirates

I decided to have a meal shortly after take-off, although I didn’t remember to take pictures of the menu. Between my wife and I, we tried a good selection. The first row were the appetizers; duck, and Caviar, second row were the entrees; steak and halibut (I think — my wife had it), the final row was the place setting and desert.

Dinner

Dinner

After dinner I took a walk around the plane,and ended up in the business class lounge / bar area. We had a bunch of fun there with the crowd and excellent crew.

business class lounge

business class lounge

After some time at the bar (and few measures of great Hennessy Paradis), we opted for some sleep. The beds were pretty comfortable – I ended up getting about 3 hours of sleep.

Emirates First Class Bed

Emirates First Class Bed

About 3 hours into my nap, I woke up feeling pretty bad, you can read about it here, but suffice it to say, I had an allergic reaction to something, still not sure what. After my extended stay in the shower spa, I was able to rest some, and the crew were graciously able to offer me a different time to shower. This was after all, the whole point of flying this aircraft, I think they’d have to have taken me off the plane in a stretcher before I’d skip the shower at 40,000 feet.

Here’s a brief look at the Shower Spa — I’ve got a better selection of photos from the second flight (my head was more in the game, shall we say). Although you can see the “Relax” and “Refresh” sets of soaps/shampoos etc., even body scrubs in the upper right photo. Behind those, there was even a loofah (which I understand goes very well with the body scrub).

Shower Spa

Shower Spa

Wrapping Up

Overall, the flight was great, sans my allergic reaction. That said, the crew’s training really shined through there, and I am truly grateful for that. Aside from that experience, the hard product is great, the soft product was great as well. I definitely felt like this was an A-team caliber crew.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Award Redemptions, Emirates A380, Emirates First Class, Travel

Rounding the World for a second time

September 2, 2014 By Trevor 10 Comments

 

The first time I went around the world, I wasn’t nearly as “smart” on this miles and points stuff. I had low or mid-tier status with United, and had happened upon an incredible itinerary with an attractive cost for flights. In fact, it also leveraged Singapore Airlines’ San Francisco (SFO) to Hong Kong (HKG) fifth freedom route. We traveled West the first time. Now we travel East.

Introduction

This trip report will be longer than the one I shared to and from Seoul, South Korea earlier this summer. But I’ll spread the posts over a week or so, interspersed with other posts. The hotels will be spread out across the next few Saturdays, to keep true to Tagging Miles’ Saturday Special Hotel Review.

The Routing

Flying Around the World on Emirates, and Korean Airlines (for the over water portions). Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

Flying Around the World on Emirates, and Korean Airlines (for the over water portions). Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

This trip took nearly a year to come together. The trip started originally when my wife gave in to flying back to back legs on the Emirates A380 in First Class. Our original routing was JFK-DXB-KUL, however more than 90 days out, we started receiving e-mails of aircraft changes. First the DXB-KUL leg was downgraded from an A380 to a 777-300ER, and later we were downgraded to business class on a 2 cabin aircraft. Knowing that wouldn’t stand, we called Alaska Air and changed our flight to go to Singapore instead. Since we were more than 90 days out, there were no fees, and it was really quite painless.

Having flights to Singapore, we picked up a less than ideal routing from Phuket home via HKG and LAX, on American Airlines miles. It included Cathay Pacific First class (which I still haven’t flown), but take an overnight in Hong Kong to truly make it work. Instead we were able to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Korean Air, and book a flight from Singapore to Seoul, then Seoul to Atlanta, the latter being on the A380.

For the flights from Singapore, we decided to use KrisFlyer Miles because they had excellent availability, but the choices were seemingly endless for destinations as well as hotels. We opted for a relaxing return to Khao Lak, Thailand, about 90 minutes north of Phuket. We will go adventuring another time.

The last bit of the flights were simple domestic one ways, American from DCA-JFK, and Delta from ATL-DCA. These flights were chosen because of their price and schedule. We could’ve used the Southwest Companion Pass to fly up to LGA, or back from ATL, but the schedules didn’t make sense especially on the way back, after a long trip home.

Conclusion

The trip cost, in terms of miles, 100,000 Alaska Miles per person for the Emirates legs, and 95,000 Ultimate Rewards points transferred to Korean Air per person for the Korean Air legs. Since I have talked about leveraging KrisFlyer miles out of Singapore before as well as a follow-up, I wanted to put the examples into action. We burned 10,625 KrisFlyer miles on the flight SIN-HKT in economy, and 17,000 KrisFlyer miles for HKT-SIN in business. We paid for the hotels with My Elite rates at the Hyatts, and the JW Marriott Khao Lak was ~$99 a night. More details to come!

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Award Redemptions, Miles and Points, Round the world travel, Travel

Stay in touch!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Search

Subscribe

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Topics

  • #Avgeek
  • Airline Programs
  • Ask TaggingMiles
  • Awards
  • Cashback Portals
  • Credit Card Match-ups
  • Credit Cards
  • Destinations
  • Dollars and Sense
  • Editorial
  • Events
  • Frequent Flyer 101
  • Giving Credit to Credit
  • Hotels
  • Manufactured Spending
  • Mileage Run
  • Miles and Points
  • Podcasts
  • Random
  • Rental Cars
  • Reselling
  • Saturday
  • Savings & Loan
  • Tagging Miles
  • The Brass Ring
  • Travel
  • Travel Insurance
  • Travel Programs
  • Uncategorized
  • Weekly News Roundup
  • Where Credit is Due

Recent Comments

  • Sevillada on American Elite Status – laughable push or cashgrab?
  • American Elite Status - laughable push or cashgrab? - Tagging Miles on ResellingDO Reboot Agenda
  • WG on Touring Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Simon on Using OpenFlights to find airline routes
  • M on LAX is leading the charge against Uber and Lyft
Note: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. The owners of this website may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links and advertisements posted on this website. For more information, please see our Legal Notice.

Copyright © 2019 · Tagging Miles

This website uses cookies to personalize content and ads and to analyze traffic. Our ad partners may combine this information with other information you have provided them or that they've collected from your use of their services elsewhere. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use this website.OkNoRead more
Revoke Cookies