Help Me Get To Italy This Summer

November 25, 2019 ~ Alvin ~ 3 Comments

My parents have always wanted to go on a cruise, and we’ve decided that this summer is probably the time to finally do so. I live in London now – though as luck would have it, I need to be in Hong Kong near the end of June, whereas the cruise occurs during the second part of July. I’m finally trying Cathay Pacific’s A350 premium economy from Gatwick to Hong Kong in June 2020, which I’m really excited about – stay tuned for that. Since I’m trying British Airways’ premium economy in January, I’ll have tried all three airlines’ premium economy products that fly direct between Hong Kong and London by then, which I’ve vowed to do for the longest time.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Premium Economy

Right, back to Italy. Now, I’ve checked award space on American AAdvantage and Cathay Pacific, and have had no luck in either direction (Etihad has award space for two, but I don’t have enough miles for four passengers, and they don’t fly from Venice). The four of us need to fly into Rome and out of Venice, and I’ve narrowed my options down to the following.

Now, since my dad is travelling, we’re trying our best to get ourselves in a premium cabin with a maximum of one connection each way. Here are the options I’ve found:

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Ridiculously CHEAP HK$14,000 R/T Fares From London To Hong Kong

November 18, 2018November 18, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

This is for all of those Hong Kongers studying in the UK and needing to get home (and back) sometime before August 31, 2019.

Flying between Hong Kong and London isn’t the cheapest thing in the world. While it’s hard to find great deals between Hong Kong and London, usually fares are marginally cheaper the other way – a roundtrip between London and Hong Kong. However, thanks to Premiumflights on FlyerTalk, some of you may be able to take advantage of a certain deal and come back in comfort, on the cheap between December and next August.

Swiss Boeing 777 Zurich Airport

The Lufthansa Group is offering ~HK$14,000 roundtrip business class fares between London and Hong Kong throughout basically most of the first half of 2019. While the return dates are marginally more restrictive (some days are substantially more expensive), you can basically choose any outbound date to take advantage of the fare.

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Skytrax 2018 Awards Announced – Here We Go Again

July 18, 2018July 18, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

I’ve never put too much weight into Skytrax ratings. They’re mainly based on votes from people who have favouritism towards a single airline just because they’ve had a good experience on them before. Most of the people voting have never flown another airline in the same cabin class before.

That being said, it’s always exciting to see the opinions that the general public has towards airlines, which is why I continue to see and report on Skytrax’s rankings, despite the fact that I don’t actually value them at all. Additionally, while the rankings themselves are based on flawed data and results, the rankings actually have quite a large impact on airlines, as Skytrax rankings are quite highly-esteemed.

Lufthansa being a 5-star airline was probably the industry joke of the year

Today Skytrax released some rewards for this year’s winners in multiple categories. Having flown a number of airlines since this last happened, I’ve been quite…entertained by some of the rankings that Skytrax has released this year. Here’s a roundup of some of the thoughts that I have from Skytrax’s new rankings – for the full list of awards, click here.

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5 Of The World’s Best Business Class Hub Lounges

May 3, 2018May 3, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

Over the past few years I’ve been incredibly lucky to try out quite a few business class products, and with that entailed going to their hub business class lounges as well. I’ve been to a range of lounges and come out with a variety of impressions, and find it such an exciting addition to the airport experience, especially when airlines put effort into it.

Last year I listed the top 10 things that I look for in an airline lounge. Many airline lounges I know feature a large number, if not all, of these features in their own quirky variations. The five lounges featured below all have at least a majority of these features.

Too many times over the past few years, I’ve come out of a lounge thinking “hmm, this could potentially be one of the best in the world”. I haven’t visited all the business class lounges that I believe would make this list, though I don’t have plans to visit any of them in the near future. For that reason, here are my five favourite business class hub lounges, and I’ll share lounges that I believe potentially make the list as well.

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WAIT: HOW MUCH Is Swiss’ Throne Seat Pricing?!?

June 11, 2017June 16, 2017 ~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

In February, Swiss started charging for throne seats on their flights in business class. I don’t know how I didn’t write about this, but I do admit that Swiss’ throne seats offer a significant amount of comfort compared to their other seats. Swiss’ prices for their business class product aren’t usually obscene, but they’re on the upper end of the scale compared to longhaul business class flights out there between Hong Kong and Europe.

Swiss Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Main Cabin

Well, when playing around on Swiss’ website today, I tried to price a routing between Hong Kong and Zurich (not that I’ll be flying on Swiss anytime soon, as all the travel I need to do to Europe in the near future is booked).

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A Guide to Swiss’ 777 Business Class

May 29, 2017June 17, 2017 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Swiss has long offered one of Europe’s business class products, but as people become more open to connections, Swiss is gaining prominence on the map. I’ve heard that their first class product is divine, but it’s been nearly impossible to attain on miles, so you’re pretty much limited to business class if you want to travel on Swiss in a premium cabin (which is pretty attainable on miles, though my parents paid cash for all flights I’ve had on them). Swiss is also in the process of replacing their aged A340 product with their newer 777 product, so their newer product will soon serve as the backbone of their longhaul business class fleet.

Swiss Boeing 777-300ER Business Class

I’ve had the pleasure of flying Swiss between Hong Kong and Zurich multiple times, and it’s one of the better business class products that I’ve seen thus far. I believe I’m familiar enough with their business class product to put together a comprehensive guide on what you should expect when you book Swiss’ 777 (and soon, their A340) in business class.

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Review: Swiss Business Class Lounge Geneva

March 22, 2017January 15, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Introduction: It’s The Journey That Matters
Plaza Premium West Lounge Hong Kong
Swiss 777 Business Class Hong Kong to Zurich
Swiss Business Class Lounge Zurich Terminal D
Swiss Business Class Lounge Zurich Terminal A
Swiss A321 Business Class Zurich to Geneva
Swiss Business Class Lounge Geneva
Lufthansa A321 Business Class Geneva to Frankfurt
Lufthansa Business Class Lounge Frankfurt Concourse A
Lufthansa Business Class Lounge Frankfurt Concourse Z
Lufthansa A380 Business Class Frankfurt to Hong Kong

On our last day around the area, we took a van from Courchevel to Geneva’s city center, where my parents, the children traveling with us and I all got to buy our hearts content (if you’re wondering what I got, there’s a great chocolatier based in Geneva). We decided to head towards the airport at 3:00 PM for our 6:20 PM flight, and got there at around 3:30 PM.

Wow, Geneva Airport is a dump. We did our tax-free procedures for our French goods with the help of some staff at the Swiss ticketing center, which required going over to the French side of the airport, then back to the Swiss side.

Geneva Airport Departures Hall

I’ve explained the shenanigans we’ve had with online check-in before, so I won’t beat a dead horse – but check-in was straightforward, and Hailey was given seat 7A.

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Review: Swiss A321 Business Class Zurich to Geneva

March 21, 2017January 15, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Swiss Flight 2802
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Origin: Zurich (ZRH) Gate: A85 Dep: 07:50 (07:55)
Destination: Geneva (GVA) Gate: A10 Arr: 08:45 (08:40)
Duration: 55 min (45 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A321
Seat: 6F (Business Class)

Upon arriving the cabin I first asked the purser if I could take a few pictures, and she gladly obliged. I was excited to be in intra-European business class for the first time.

Swiss Airbus A321 Business Class Cabin

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Review: Swiss Business Class Lounge Zurich Terminal A

March 19, 2017January 15, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

The walk to Terminal A was surprisingly fast given my mom’s descriptions. I caught up with my family immediately, as I’d assumed it was quite a hike, and started running as fast as I could. I’m not sure how fast the rest of the group was walking at this point, but the immigration point for transiting passengers couldn’t have been more than 200m from the immigration point for passengers departing Zurich. At this point some of my friends realised they wouldn’t be able to make the 7 AM flight (they booked through a travel agency, so that’s a shame), so I made sure to get them rebooked on our flight.

I appreciated the extra time, though – while I thought I’d visited a combined business class/Senator lounge last time, I’m assuming the agent had actually accidentally pointed me towards the Senator lounge. The other possibility is that the lounge simply has different access policies at different times of day. Reviewing this lounge means that I’ve now covered all the business class lounge options at Zurich Airport.

I got to the entrance by going up a level from where the A gates were, as the two lounges share an entrance (I didn’t actually take a picture of the entrance, though here’s one from my previous visit).

Swiss Business Lounge A Entrance

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Review: Swiss Business Class Lounge Zurich Terminal D

March 5, 2017January 15, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

One caveat regards arriving at the D gates is that the entire plane had to go through customs. I’m not sure why that is, but it was a long and drawn-out process, where we had to do the usual, and also take off our boots, which wasn’t something we had to do anywhere else on the trip. While it wasn’t much of an inconvenience for us, as we were transiting anyway, I’m not too sure how the people leaving from Zurich Airport thought of it.

I saw signage for the Swiss D lounge, and asked my mom if I could quickly snap a few pictures before I went over to the A side. She obliged, and I was on my way. I followed the signage which led up to an empty hallway, with the Swiss D lounge at the very end of the hallway.

Swiss Business Lounge D Walkway

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