As The Milelion grows (4.5K unique visitors last month, whoo!), more and more content tends to get tucked away on the back pages and becomes hard to find. I’ve spent some time trying to consolidate a directory for the content on this site.
You can find the directory here, and via the drop down menu under “Start here”–> “Making the most of The Milelion”
This directory will be continually updated so keep checking back for new stuff.
Happy reading everyone!
There are some places on earth that were just meant to be seen from a convertible. Big Sur on the northern California coast is one of them. This is a place of unparalleled beauty. I did the drive in 2014 with my friend, and she and I agree that it was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives 
But a convertible isn’t cheap, especially if you want to rent it during the best convertible-driving time, summer. Check out Kayak’s rates for a 1 week convertible rental during the peak of summer, 10th July -17th July, at SFO airport.
Upwards of $104 a day ($70 USD approx), and that’s without any insurance. So should we bite the bullet and pay what they’re quoting?
Sure.
If reading this site has taught you absolutely nothing.
Be ashamed for thinking that and go home now.
In the true spirit of travel hacking, let’s look at the ways you can get a convertible without busting the bank.
There are many new and exciting startups trying to bypass the traditional car rental agencies and allowing people to rent out their own cars.
Turo (formerly known as RelayRides) is one such option. I entered the same dates (10-17th July 2016) and got these options from SFO. 
This is beyond impressive. So you can get a BMW convertible (if you rented from the agency you’d almost certainly get a Ford Mustang or Chevy Camaro, both good cars but still…) with GPS, with delivery, at a price less than renting from the airport. What’s there not to like?
Note that there are 2 types of arrangements on Turo- delivery and non-delivery. With delivery ,the car owner will drop off the car to you, wherever you are (ie airport). Without, you need to venture to the owner’s location to pick it up.
Also, I’d advise that you take Turo’s basic insurance, which comes with a deductible of $3,000 and costs 15% of your total rental price. Because Turo is not an “official” car rental company, I am doubtful that any of the discounted car rental insurance options offered here will cover damage.
Before you ask, yes, Turo does allow people with non-US licenses to rent. There’s a little additional red tape to do, so make sure you get that done upfront.
If you want to use Turo, here’s my sign up link for $25 credit for both of us.
National Car operates something known as the Emerald Aisle. I’ve covered it before, but here’s a reminder on how it works. If you’re an Emerald Club member and you book a mid-sized or larger vehicle, you can go directly to the aisle, pick any vehicle you want and drive off. The aisle will typically have a range of cars, including SUVs, MPVs and perhaps the occasional convertible. Keep in mind that the popular cars will be quickly snapped up, so this is by no means a guaranteed method of snagging a convertible. It also depends on the time of year, people are less likely to want a convertible during the chilly winter months, and good luck snagging one during summer.
There is no logic as to what cars will appear on the aisle, it is more up to whatever inventory they have in stock at the moment. Therefore, this wouldn’t be my primary option, but since all car rentals are fully refundable (and don’t even require your CC details at the time of booking) there is no harm in making 1 booking with National to check out the aisle, and 1 booking elsewhere.
Here’s the trick I use. I frequently fly into the US from SFO, which is one of the busiest international gateways to the US. The National Car aisle there is usually filled with rather uninspiring choices (think Toyota Corollas, Chevy Malibus, Chrysler 200s).
But just 45 minutes south of SFO is SJC airport, which also has a National Car aisle. It’s an international airport, but much less busy (I think ANA is the only international carrier of note flying there). I normally pick up a car from SFO, drive to SJC, tell them that the car “sounds funny” and they swap me out for a new one, no questions asked. I can then examine the National aisle there and leisurely pick whatever car I want (vs SFO where it’s usually a sprint to the nicest, best car before the next AirTrain of passengers comes in. Why not just rent from SJC? Because I fly in and out from SFO and doing a 1 way car rental would be prohibitively expensive. Besides, I need to somehow get from SFO to SJC)
Priceline works great for hotels, but did you know it works for car rentals too?
Go to the Priceline site, click on rental cars and name your own price. Enter your details and you’ll get the summary below
The trick of course, with Priceline, is that you don’t know which rental agency they’ll give you. But if we follow the premise that a convertible is a convertible is a convertible (not strictly true in the sense that National, Avis and Hertz have the nicest, newest models while Dollar, Fox and Advantage have the worst) then we should be fairly indifferent.
I’d recommending using Kayak to search for your exact dates and location to get an idea of what the prices are, then start your bidding a few months in advance at 30% of the quoted price, working upwards $2-$3 at a time per day (Priceline will only allow 1 bid per 24 hour period unless you change your location or type of car)
Note: the website will say that name your own price is only possible if you have a US billing address. I’ve entered any random address and it still accepted my Singapore credit card.
When playing the upgrade game, the higher your status, the better a chance you have. All major car rental agencies will match your status (Sixt, Avis, Hertz etc) with another car rental agency, see National’s status match here for example. The problem is getting status with one rental company in the first place. Milepoint used to have a Premium package which gave you National Executive status when you registered, but that’s not available currently. I’ll keep my eyes open for opportunities to buy/get free status and keep everyone informed as and when I see them.
Getting the lowest rate for car rentals is always a game of rental codes- look on sites like MouseSavers, Flyertalk etc for discount codes you can enter and experiment with each one.
If all else fails, you can always ask at the counter for a discounted upgrade. But be sure to educate yourself beforehand what a convertible should cost, otherwise you might end up paying the difference in price instead of getting a genuine discount.
Since discovering the Miles and Points game 3 years ago, Jeriel has now spent a disproportionate amount of time reading the T&Cs of credit cards and frequent flyer programs. His grand plans for round-the-world premium travel has taken a hit since the arrival of his daughter, but he is still determined to fly as far, frequently and luxuriously as possible on Miles and Points. Expect more family-orientated trip reports and travel tips from him!
Clearing the KrisFlyer Waitlist – My Personal Experience
So you have spent the past year painstakingly building up your points and finally have enough for a Saver award for the trip you’ve been wanting to make. You go to the SQ website, key in your dates, wait with bated breath, and you see this:
A scene from a horror movie – what you will see almost 80% of the time
600000 miles for a return ticket in Business to LHR? SQ is good, but not that good. 240000 isn’t much better; with that amount you can redeem a saver award on suites on the same route to LHR and still have some change left over.
In case you haven’t realized, please do not waste your miles on a Standard or Full award. The only scenario which I think it may make some sense to do so is if all your miles are going to expire in the next couple of days.
But wait! You scroll down to the bottom of the page and you see this:
A glimmer of hope
A saver award is available on the 1:15am flight, but it is only on the waitlist.
As a general rule, award availability is best either when the booking window opens (~350 days in advance) or <3 weeks before date of travel. If your workplace is like mine and only accepts leave applications 6 months in advance, then you may find yourself looking at a page very similar to the pictures above; at best the saver awards are on waitlist, or at worse, not available at all.
Many view the ability to waitlist as one of the good points of the Krisflyer program. After all, you are getting a chance at snagging the award rather than there not being availability period, right? This is probably true if you have a truly flexible travel schedule, and can fly off on a 2 week holiday with a 1 day notice. However, for the bulk of us who are subject to the vagaries of work, leave may not be so easy to come by, and travel can neither be planned too early or too late in advance.
I personally hate the waitlist. I just cannot stand the ambiguity when planning for long haul travel. You get 1 or 2 opportunities for a good long holiday and make plans to fly somewhere exciting, but you have no way of knowing for sure when and what class you’ll be flying for an indefinite period of time? It drives me crazy.
Even if it’s for regional travel like over a long weekend to BKK or HKG, where flying premium is a bonus and you really don’t mind putting up for a few hours in cattle class, most restricted (offer price) economy tickets prohibit or charge exorbitant amounts for cancellations. It doesn’t make financial sense to book a revenue Y ticket, wait for the waitlisted flights to clear, and then cancel.
To the conspiracy theorist in me, the waitlist is just a ploy to get people to redeem an award economy ticket or standard award business ticket (at a significantly lower cents per mile value) while waiting for the saver award to clear the waitlist (which it is unlikely to).
On related online forums, one of the most frequent questions you will find is from hopeful (desperate?) travellers-to-be asking:
I don’t think anyone can predict whether an award will clear the waitlist with the limited information available to the public. Of course, if you see that there are still a large number of revenue seats available in your desired class, then the chances are obviously higher. However, when booking F or R there aren’t that many seats to begin with. On Business, if the saver level award is already waitlisted, chances are the cabin is already about half full.
Common tips to increase your chances of clearing the waitlist include;
Well, how did I fare in my recent tussle with the waitlist then? I already had my SIN PER outbound leg in the bag, but availability on the inbound PER SIN leg was looking abysmal. SQ flies 4 flights daily from Perth to Singapore, and there was not even a single revenue economy ticket available in the 4 day window I had. Yeah, you read that right, economy was sold out. It wasn’t looking good; it just shows how popular these flights were, and even if I wanted to pay for a 1-way economy ticket inbound, I couldn’t.
On the bright side, every single one of those 16 flights (4 flights daily in a 4 day window) had Business saver awards available for waitlisting. If you are a kiasu Singaporean like me, you won’t get a prize for guessing what I did next!
Heh heh heh…
Okay, I did set out wanting to waitlist my wife and I on all 16 flights. But after going through the whole booking process (typing name, passport number, expiry, etc.) about 7 times, it was late, and I got lazy…
In the end, this was what I had waitlisted for:
| Flight / Date | 26 Dec | 27 Dec | 28 Dec |
| SQ 216 | √ | ||
| SQ 224 | √ | ||
| SQ 226 | √ | √ | √ |
| SQ 214 | √ | √ |
As you can see, this was all done on the 16th of November, which was about 6+ weeks from the date of travel. After that, I sat back and waited… and waited… and waited…
I did everything according to the textbook. 3 weeks before the date of travel (which is when some of the waitlist may start to clear), I started calling the Krisflyer hotline every other day (for about a week). I got the numerous CSOs to send multiple ‘chasers’ to the ‘relevant department’. One of the reservations was placed through my dad’s Krisflyer account (he has a higher Krisflyer status than me) and I even got him to call the hotline for that particular reservation. I checked award availability online 3 times a day. All to no avail.
(I don’t get how this chaser thing works though; in my mind a poor intern is sent running to the ticketing department and starts following a hapless manager around but I’m quite sure that is not what happens.)
It was all too much for me and I booked my inbound leg with another carrier eventually, but what eventually happened to those 7 reservations?
Well, I didn’t bother cancelling them (sorry if you were trying to book those flights as well!). I also stopped calling the hotline. Here’s the final result:
| Flight / Date | 26 Dec | 27 Dec | 28 Dec |
| SQ 216 | √ | ||
| SQ 224 | √ (cleared 23/12 5am) | ||
| SQ 226 | √ (1 tix cleared 23/12 5am) | √ | √ (cleared 24/12 5am) |
| SQ 214 | √ (cleared 24/12 5pm) | √ |
Out of 7 flights, 4 cleared eventually. That is an impressive 57% success rate! However, the one with the greatest ‘lead time’ cleared only 4 days prior to the date of travel, and SQ214 on the 26th of December only cleared literally 48 hours before departure!
Also, on SQ226 departing 26th December, only 1 out of 2 tickets were cleared. This was the reservation where I had booked one ticket under my account, and the other under my dad’s account (who has a higher Krisflyer status). Not surprisingly, the ticket booked under his account was the one which cleared the waitlist.
What do I conclude from this little exercise? Firstly, If you are waitlisted on several flights over a few days, then I would say there is a pretty good chance you won’t be stranded at your holiday destination (that may not be that bad a thing though – ‘Hi Boss, there has been some issue with my return flight so I won’t be able to make it back to office for the next couple of days…’:)). That being said, would you fly off somewhere without having confirmed return tickets? Perhaps some of you may enjoy the thrill of it, but I know I couldn’t. (Ed note: And, some immigration officers might not let you into the country without a confirmed return ticket. Silly rule, because the return ticket can be cancellable, but still)
Secondly, a higher Krisflyer status does make a difference, but that goes without saying I suppose.
Lastly, chasers do not work, at least not for me. The flight I was sending chasers for (the CSOs advised me to only focus on 1 or 2 flights) was on the 27th of December, and none of those cleared eventually.
What has your experience been waitlisting on SQ award flights? Any success stories, tips and/or tricks to share? We’d love to hear from you in the comment section below!
cover photo by prayitno
The birth of my daughter in April 2015 meant that my wife and I have not had the chance to travel together (besides across the causeway) for more than 1.5 years. We were thrilled to be able to fly again, but also apprehensive about travelling with an 8 month old infant for the first time. What do you do when confronted with the possibility of dealing with a screaming baby for 5.5 hours? Fly Business of course!
SQ 223
Singapore (SIN) – Perth (PER)
Monday, 21 December 2015
Depart: 0925hrs
Arrive: 1440hrs
Duration: 5hr15min
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200
Seat: 17H (Business Class)
Cost: 27625 Krisflyer Miles (after 15% online discount) + S$220.50 (per person 1-way)
1-way Infant-in-Lap ticket for S$259.10
We arrived at Changi T3 at about 7am. My wife needed some time to nurse before boarding, and I readily agreed to the early start to the day as that would give us more time to check out the lounge and do some window shopping. There was no queue at the Business Class row and our bags were tagged and checked-in within 5 minutes. We cleared immigration quickly and promptly made our way to the SilverKris Lounge.
The T3 SilverKris Lounge is a short walk towards the ‘A’ gates (turn left after immigration) and on the 3rd floor. We presented our boarding passes at the reception and were directed into the Business Class section. In the past, we would have made a beeline for the buffet and bar for a quick snack, this time it was to the nearest attendant we could find. “May I know where the lounge nursing room is?”
The attendant confidently replied “There’s no nursing room in the lounge”, at which my wife immediately shot me a death stare.
Now if you are travelling with children, Changi Airport has one of the most comprehensive kid-friendly facilities around the world. There are a multitude of diaper-change rooms and nursing rooms both ground- and air-side, and even an entire ‘Family Zone’ in Terminal 2 (http://www.changiairport.com/en/airport-experience/attractions-and-services/baby-care-room.html). In fact, I’ve read some local parenting blogs which extol Changi as an excellent place for a family excursion for kids of all ages; even when ground-side there is a wide selection of food and entertainment options. I know I could spend at least an hour gawking at the life-sized X-Wing and TIE fighter display, for one!
I was so tempted to queue…
As such, I found it difficult to believe that the flagship lounge of our famed national carrier, in the best airport in the world, does not have a nursing room. And also because I have already done my research. 🙂
Anyway, not wanting to argue, I made my way back to the reception and asked the staff there the same question. This time I was pleasantly surprised by the response.
“I’m so sorry but the nursing room in the Business Class section is currently under renovation. Allow me to bring you to the First Class section”. Well that made for a good start to our first family holiday! I was genuinely pleased with that bit of service and thought it was a nice touch that they ‘upgraded’ us without even any hesitation on their part.
Passengers flying First or Suites class on Singapore are entitled to use The Private Room. As such, the First Class section is mainly used by Solitaire PPS Club members not flying F or R, and First Class passengers on other Star Alliance carriers. As such, most of the patrons were also holding Business Class boarding passes, and I felt right at home looking around!
Changi T3 SilverKris First Class Lounge
View of the Bar
Seating Area
The lounge is understandably smaller, and the décor is largely similar to the Business Class section, with large comfy seats in leather, and a mix of marble and carpeted floors. The darker colour theme gave the lounge a more dignified feel, and I loved the high ceilings throughout the lounge. There were a number of partitions creating sub-sections of seats, imparting a more private feel as a whole. For example, there was a large family of 5 with young children seated in the far section in the last picture above, and I did not even notice they were there until I ventured to take a peek around the partition.
The large, full height windows overlooked the large common ‘A’ gate (gates A1-5), which was super crowded at that point in time with 2 flights due for departure. I was sure reminded of why we spend so much effort accumulating points to fly premium!
The service was far more attentive than that in the often crowded J area. I had coffee, snacks from the tea trolley, stocked up my thermos with hot water for the flight ahead, all while seated in a sofa and without lifting a finger. 🙂
It is difficult to select a seat when there are so many to choose from, but this was the one I chose eventually. First world problems.
Staffed bar, with the staff missing in the photo
Sit-down dining area
Besides the staffed bar, which had a large selection of coffees, TWG tea, and an expanded collection of booze, the lounge also had a dedicated sit-down dining area. The food on offer was not much of an upgrade from the Business Class section. There were a few ‘live’ stations with local delicacies but besides that it wasn’t overly impressive. In fact, the dining area was pretty crowded, and my wife and I decided to head back to the Business Class section (where we rightfully belonged – she’s not as thick-skinned as me and felt paiseh for hanging around the First Class section for as long as we did) for our breakfast. Kudos to the staff who in no way made us feel that we have over-stayed our welcome. I doubt any of them besides the reception staff even knew we were not supposed to be there!
For those who need to work, there is a quiet work section with desks and computers.
Work area with desks and computers
A quick note of the nursing facilities if you happen to be in need of one. My wife describes it as adequate but underwhelming.
First Class Lounge Diaper-change and Nursing Room
As mentioned, for an airport with comprehensive family facilities, which are spacious and well stocked even ground-side, this room was a little cramped, felt bare, and lacked even a hot water dispenser. There was a basket of amenities (pictured) which included (of all things) small cups, mouth rinse (???) and lotion, but that was about it. You don’t need to be a parent to know that those are pretty useless items when trying to deal with a hungry or soiled child. Even the children’s stickers on the wall and mirror looked sad. Maybe it was me setting unrealistic expectations but I thought it would look better than a common heartland mall’s nursing room.
That being said, my wife was very pleased with the large leather couch and side table available.
Large couch and table for baby paraphernalia
In all fairness, I doubt many Solitaire PPS Club members would be in need of such facilities. Also, there aren’t many First Class passengers on other Star Alliance carriers to begin with, much less those with nursing infants. For us, hot water was hand-delivered to the nursing room on demand, so the point about the dispenser is moot. J
On hindsight, I guess I should be pleased that they even had a nursing room. Neither the Qantas Club lounge in PER, nor the 5 Royal Orchid / Silk Lounges in BKK had a nursing room; and their idea of a diaper change facility is a plastic fold-down changing table in a normal toilet so…
With the whole family satiated, we made our way to our gate and whizzed past the economy crowd unto the plane. Damn that never gets old (at least not yet)!
SQ223 is a Boeing 777-200 which features the standard SQ regional angled-flat business class product in a 2-2-2 configuration. There are 4 flights from SIN to PER daily, 2 of which are on the Airbus A330-300 with the other 2 on the B772. The hard product is identical on both planes, but business class on the B772 is divided into 2 separate cabins. The front cabin has 20 seats, whereas the one closer to the economy cabin has 18. In contrast, the A333 has a single Business Class cabin with 30 seats. It’s a minor difference between the 2 planes but I do feel a smaller cabin does give a cosier feel.
We were placed into the aft cabin due to our request for a bassinet seat, which turned out to be an excellent thing given that it was all but empty except for us and 2 other solo travellers.
Standard SQ regional Business Class seats
Almost empty aft business class cabin. No wonder there was abundant saver award space!
Compared to other regional products, I really feel SQ has one of the best in the market. The fixed back shell with the little extensions at the side gives it a similar feel to the old long haul seat (haven’t had the chance to try the new one yet!), and at 27 inches the seat width is even wider than some other carriers’ long-haul business class products. There are some that say a wider seat is not necessarily better, which I agree with in principle. However, I’d like to say that a wider seat certainly can’t hurt!
We settled right in with the customary hot towel and welcome drinks. It was a challenge keeping my daughter from trying to get a taste of my Taittinger Brut though!
Welcome drinks
There was a long taxi to the runway followed by a queue, but after about 15 minutes we were airborne.
Take-off queue
Meal service started soon after. Now at this point the flight became a bit of a blur because my daughter was rudely awakened from her blissful nap by the take-off and started morphing into a Kraken (remember that scene from Pirates of the Caribbean?). We had to take our meals in turn, beginning with my daughter’s post-weaning meal.
It was described as ‘Minced chicken with mash potatoes and steamed pumpkin’. And we loved it. We meaning all 3 of us. My daughter finished about a quarter of the relatively huge serving, and my wife and I gobbled up the rest. This is in stark contrast to when we flew on Thai Airways on the return leg, where we were brandished 2 ice-cold packets of baby food. SQ even made a fair attempt at plating food for a baby!
SQ Post-weaning meal. This tastes A LOT better than it looks.
It was our turn now, and no SQ flight would be complete without their Chicken and Beef Satay. As usual, the meat serving was generous and juicy, and the peanut sauce was great.
Chicken and Beef Satay
This was followed by the appetizer; the prawns were huge and succulent, baut the cheese was a little on the bland side. Can’t be faulted for that I guess, overall an excellent starter.
Marinated King Prawn and Bocconcini with grilled vegetable
and basil pesto
We had opted for the Book the Cook service prior to the flight, and it did not disappoint. My wife had the Chargrilled Soya-flavoured Beef. In the air, picking the red meat dish is sometimes hit and miss because it can be easily overdone and tough. But this dish was perfect. My wife and I both like our beef marbled, as opposed to the beefier dry-aged taste, so we were lucky that what was offered was exactly our cup of tea. In fact, this meal is the best meal I’ve had on a plane thus far. Now I know I’m not that well-travelled, but I am picky about my steaks even when on land, and I am still craving another bite of that beef now that I’m looking at its picture.
Chargrilled Soya-flavoured Beef
Classic Lobster Thermidor
It was the Classic Lobster Thermidor for me, which was tasty and had generous servings of juicy lobster, but it paled in comparison to the beef.
For those interested, the regular menu for the SIN PER lunch service reads as follows;
SIN PER Lunch Menu
Service on the flight was standard SQ – quick, efficient, professional and always done with a smile. They accommodated our many requests without hesitation. Some trip reports do say that while it is polished and standardized across the board, the in-flight service on Singapore Airlines can be robotic and impersonal at times. That was difficult for me to appreciate in the past, but I must say I felt a little of that on this flight. Travelling with children inevitably makes one a more ‘difficult’ passenger – I needed to make more weird requests, not to mention the countless times clogging up the galley with my crying baby (we figured we’d rather disturb the FAs than the other passengers). The FAs were always present and willing to help, but did not bother trying to engage us (or my daughter) on a personal level.
This is in contrast to our return leg on Thai Airways Royal Silk Class. While the FAs were not as polished as our Singapore Girls (I was handed an unfolded tablecloth and had to lay it out myself), I found that they were much more engaging. The senior flight steward on the TG flight even offered to carry and entertain my daughter while my wife and I ate.
I know this is being picky, and it doesn’t really affect my view of the airline much. However, seeing as how much of SQ’s marketing still continues to revolve around the Singapore Girl, it is always worth keeping a tab on.
A closing note on infant tickets. As to be expected, the 1-way infant-in-lap ticket was pricey and not value for money. I was charged S$259.10, when a return ticket would have only cost around S$350. Theoretically an infant-in-lap ticket only costs 10% of the adult fare, but it is usually on the adult full fare, and the taxes and surcharges are sometimes not waived (this differs from carrier to carrier). On Economy the fare would usually be quite affordable, but when flying premium things add up pretty quickly. Before getting too excited and snapping up those Saver award seats, it is worth giving the carrier a call to get a rough gauge of the prices both return and 1-way. I was shocked when TG charged me S$560.70 for a 1-way infant-in-lap ticket on our return (PER-BKK-SIN) leg!
In summary, SQ Regional Business Class probably will not feature very highly one’s lists of aspirational products to fly, but for that added comfort and convenience on a family holiday, I feel it is well worth it shelling out the miles for.
If you complain when something goes wrong, you should give credit when something goes right.
The SPG Elite Thank You Certificates are available for 2016. I believe both Gold and Platinum members are eligible for these, but do correct me if I’m wrong. These are a great way to thank any member of a Starwood property who has given you exceptional service.
In 2015 you were able to get them to mail you physical copies of these coupons. This year that appears to have been changed and you’ll need to print out physical copies yourself. Simply login here.
What happens when a Starwood associate gets one? They go to a special portal (open to Starwood employees only, before anyone gets wise ideas about redeeming them for themselves), type in the code and get 500 starpoints. I got 8 coupons as a Platinum.
There are those who say that such a gesture is meaningless, even a bit insulting, in that some people who work in these roles may not be able to afford to travel overseas to use those points. I can understand where such criticism is coming from, but I think if nothing else it still counts as a positive mark on their performance record which will be taken into account when doing promotions/raise evaluations.
Now, I certainly don’t think these should take the place of a tip, especially in countries where that sort of thing is expected (full disclosure, at the Sheraton Tribeca in NY I once gave the bellboy $2 and 2 of these certs when he helped me carry up a particularly heavy package. He seemed more excited about the $2). But if you’re in a place where tipping is not the norm, by all means break these out.
Remember that if you’ve got an upcoming series of business trips now might be a good time to register for an SPG status challenge, or to claim your SPG Gold status with a single stay at any Starwood Asia Pacific property.
Go download your certs and start recognising good service today!
One of the little-known perks of credit cards is that if you charge your air tickets to them, you get complimentary travel insurance for the duration of your trip. It’s my belief (and the belief of the wise men on HWZ) that you should not rely on this as a primary form of travel insurance. I usually buy an annual plan from DirectAsia which seems to be the cheapest, although my advice in general is to look for direct insurance (ie. not those sold through Banks on behalf of 3rd party companies like MSIG etc) because it’s cheaper, ~$235-$295 for an annual worldwide policy and no middle man.
Nonetheless, what I’ve realised is that not all Banks offer the same level of coverage. Some offer Personal Travel Accident Insurance. Others offer Flight Inconvenience Insurance. Apparently that’s not the same thing- the first covers things like losing a limb or dying overseas, the latter covers things like delayed baggage and missed connections.
I’ve tried to build this into something that makes sense- although I think you should just use this as a ballpark range (ie to say that Bank A in general offers better coverage than Bank B) and if you need the specifics click on the policy documents and read them carefully.
Observations
Resources
cover photo by Ralf Κλενγελ
The UOB Preferred Platinum Visa gives 4 miles per $1 for Paywave transactions. (You also get 4 miles per $1 on online shopping and entertainment but for that you can always turn to the DBS Woman’s World card. If you do not meet the income requirement for that card, this may be a good alternative) I’ve always not been too big on this because I found it too much of a chore to remember which merchants gave SMART$ and which didn’t- if the merchant awards SMART$, you do not earn UNI$/miles on the same transaction.
I think my initial stance was wrong. The list of Paywave merchants is quite substantial and definitely longer than the SMART$ merchants list. And yes, most of my preferred paywave merchants like Cold Storage, Giant, Guardian and Coffee Bean participate in the SMART$ program, but there’s no reason not to use the PP Visa for transactions at other Paywave merchants since UOB pools all your points anyway. If you want to fly SQ suites, you’ve got to work for it!
Wysie has come up with a useful link you can save on your phone’s browser as a favourite in case you’re at a Paywave merchant and want to check if you’ll get 4 miles per $1. Simple rule- if you find your merchant’s name here, you don’t get 4 miles per $1 and you should use your general spending card.
So I’m definitely going to apply for this card and add it to my UOB stash, train myself when to use it and try and build my way to the next goal: buying 2 RTW award First class tickets from Krisflyer (720,000 miles in total!)
Every time you book a hotel through a 3rd party OTA like Expedia/Agoda etc, that 3rd party keeps a share of the total stay. This can be as high as 20% in some cases, and as you can imagine, takes a big bite out of the hotel’s profits.
Therefore, hotels would much rather you book directly with them. But price is everything, so hotels need to ensure that the price you get from them is as good as what you’d find on OTAs. Enter Best Rate Guarantees (BRGs). You can read my full article here, but to summarise, the hotel promises that you will get the lowest possible rate through booking at their official website. If you find a cheaper price elsewhere, they will match that price and either offer you bonus points or a further discount off the matched price.
Of course hotels don’t want to do this. Offering free stuff costs them money. Take a cursory glance on Flyertalk and you’ll see that there are certain chains *ahem IHG ahem* who will go to ridiculous lengths to deny a BRG claim. And believe me, the T&Cs are wide enough to give hotels the leeway to do that. After all, if the customer has already paid a non cancellable rate directly with you, what are they going to do? They’re stuck. In many cases, BRG’s are nothing more than a marketing scheme to make the consumer say “oh look, they’re so confident their rates are the cheapest that I’m not even going to check 3rd party sites whee”
Starwood used to have one of the best BRG policies in the business because they did not require a pre-existing reservation to lodge a BRG claim. This meant that if you had the luxury of ensuring they’d match your claim before deciding to book. They also give you a choice of either 2,000 starpoints or 20% off the matched rate, both of which are extremely attractive gifts. (recall that 1 starpoint is 2 US cents, so if 20% off the matched rate is >US$40 go for the cash discount)
Unfortunately, that changed a few months ago and now Starwood requires you to have an existing reservation before it entertains a BRG claim (the only exception is if a 3rd party site is showing availability and Starwood isn’t). So what to do now?
This is a very important point so let me take some time to explain it.
Suppose Sheraton Singapore is selling a deluxe room at $150 prepaid, $200 flexible. You later see Agoda selling the same deluxe room at $135 prepaid.
Option 1: Book the prepaid rate with Sheraton Singapore at $150 and submit the BRG claim straight away- then worry that it may get rejected on some technicality (the price on Agoda might go up by the time customer service checks your claim, the rooms may be ever-so-different in a way you’ve overlooked, the customer service agent is having a bad day etc)
Option 2: Book the flexible rate with Sheraton Singapore at $200. Submit a BRG claim for Agoda at $135. If you do this and your claim is approved, you’ll get the $135 rate with the flexible cancellation terms. And if your claim is rejected, cancel your reservation and walk away.
So your approach can be the same as before. On Kayak, search for Starwood properties using the filter. Kayak always quotes you the lowest rates, which are almost certainly the prepaid ones. Once you find a 3rd party site with a lower prepaid rate than Starwood.com’s prepaid rate, book the flexible rate on Starwood and file a BRG.
I’ve just got a BRG claim approved for my last night in Koh Samui, bringing down the price of the Sheraton Samui from ~$300 a night to $240. I picked the 2,000 SPG points in this case.
That said, given Fred’s take on the Sheraton Samui I might just want to stay somewhere else, so good thing I got the flexible rate!
The UOB Preferred Platinum AMEX is the best card available for dining right now at 4 miles per $1. Yes, it’s AMEX, but like I’ve said before, the whole reason they need to give better rewards on AMEX cards is to compensate for their lower acceptance.
This card currently cannot be applied for online, and a call to UOB customer service confirmed that they are in the process of “demarketing the card”, whatever that means. However, if you’ve missed the boat there is still one more opportunity to get on. Apparently, UOB has not updated their back-end applications for SMS applications. Meaning that you can apply via SMS following the method below-
SMS spacespace to 77862
For example: SMS Yespp 7890 S1234567H to 77862.
To give a bit more clarity, “7890” here is the last 4 digits of your existing UOB card (This option will only be available to people who have an existing UOB card and not new applicants). “Yespp” means you want to apply for the Preferred Platinum Account. And yes, 77862 is the official UOB SMS number, you can verify that online.
One poster has reported successfully getting his UOB Preferred Platinum card via this method (thanks Lionel!), so if nothing else it is definitely worth a try.
Let me know if this works for you guys
cover photo by seaturtle
 |
| View of the hotel pool and beach |
Koh Samui is one of the resort islands in the Gulf of Thailand, arguably the most visited in that region, definitely contributed by the presence of an airport on the island itself.
For this trip, I flew via Silkair Business from Singapore to Koh Samui by redeeming my precious Kirsflyer miles. The paid rates were going for SGD$800+ per person for economy!
The Silkair Business is definitely a regional product and way inferior to Singapore Airlines itself.
There was no inflight entertainment, unless you got your own device (a laptop or an iPad) to login the system for a few outdated movies and TV shows. The selection is so bad that I’ve decided to leave it out of this review. Trust me, it’s bad. #firstworldproblems
The cabin crew is lovely as usual and we reached Koh Samui uneventfully.
After landing, the Business Class passengers were allowed to board the first vehicle to the immigration while the rest has to wait.
The immigration queue is a nightmare, one of the worst in my experience so far.
Thankfully, we were allowed a premium counter which felt like a normal queue (about 10 people) in other airports in terms of speed and number of people.
 |
| The normal queue snaking all the way off the right side |
Meanwhile, I was so glad I made the choice for Business which probably saved me an hour waiting for immigration clearance.
The airport is very small and there was only 1 belt for the luggage.
As you can see, there is still luggage on the left likely from the previous flight waiting for the owners stuck at immigration.
Taxis are near impossible in Koh Samui unless booked in advance. Therefore it is essential to go to the counter to ask for one. The prices to each location is listed on the stand as seen in the pictures.
After consulting the list, we confirmed the exact price to Sheraton Samui and soon we were on our way!
The hotel is near the oldest and best beach and was a re-brand from Imperial Samui. Thus the location is rather good and yet close to the airport.
Near Sheraton Samui is her sister luxury hotel, Vana Belle with nightly rates at about 5 times more.
Finally we reached the resort, which frankly isn’t quite as impressive, but I convinced myself to relax and see how things go.
The lobby looked quite plain and we quickly walked up towards the front desk on the right.
Not luxurious, but not shabby either was my thought.
At this point, we were asked to go to the air-conditioned lounge to rest and then the staff would check us in at the lounge instead of the front desk.
That’s nice…
And then even better when we were served a coconut each.
One of the coconuts wasn’t very good actually as I now recall.
While waiting, I took a couple of pictures of the lounge and the lobby…
 |
| Lobby |
 |
| Lounge |
 |
| Lights around the central column of the lounge |
Right at the end of the lounge, I can see the magnificent ocean just steps away…
For those who like pools instead, one of the hotel pools is located right below the lounge.
Finally, the staff returned to us with the keys to our room and escorted us to the driveway.
The hotel as mentioned is on a slope and is quite big, so we were driven to our room a short distance away.
We were upgraded to a junior suite which was quite pleasant indeed. The junior suite is a long rectangle as seen on the plan.
The long shape actually made it look smaller than expected but for the price (about SGD$200 with breakfast) I thought it was ok.
Koh Samui is a resort island as well (like Bora Bora , Santorini and Maldives ) so high rates are not unexpected at all.
The balcony had a ‘Jacuzzi’ which I never did use but the view was not too bad.
 |
| Now I see more…. |
A lot of lush greenery and coconut trees (which Samui exports a lot of as I was reading on Wikipedia).
But now as I type this review, I see more things in the pictures I have taken.
The last picture above shows quite a lot of unfinished work and exposed pipes!
The room was still beautiful and comfortable nevertheless.
The colour scheme was a little off in my opinion, the blue carpet clashed with the yellow and earthly tones of the room.
However, the bathroom takes the top honours with the bright gaudy orange! The size was great and I simply love large bathrooms.
The recent trend of ‘exhibitionism’ in hotel rooms was evidently considered with a door opening into the room from the side of the tub.
The usual ‘Shine’ toiletries were used in this Sheraton.
One more picture, for the tech people, of the power outlet right at the side of the bed to charge the devices.
After a nice rest in the room, I set out to explore the resort. As the re-branding was rather recent, I was expecting some teething problems and hoping for the best.
Therefore, I was not surprised to see some construction going on.
The more beautiful parts of the resort include the ponds and the fish, as well as the repainted buildings.
The beach and the pool next to it, I would say, are the redeeming features of the hotel.
The pool looks gorgeous in pictures but is actually quite shallow and not suitable to swim in.
The sand is fine and comfortable to walk on and the water was really clear.
When I returned to the room, a welcome gift was on the table. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it very much.
Other places in the resort include the several restaurants and the spa, as well as the gym.
The most crowded one among these is the Blue Monkey by the beach.
To my dismay, this is the part where things started falling apart.
Food is one of Thailand’s highlights, but this was not the case at Sheraton Samui.
The range of food was acceptable but there were certainly issues.
First, the food didn’t taste or look really good. That’s alright I was thinking, since the rate was fine.
 |
| Eggs were fine |
Then there’s was this seafood dish with only squid and vegetables.
While one can’t tell from pictures, the breakfast cereals were soft and no longer crunchy.
The water temperature in the shower was erratic. Ranging from cold to very hot without turning the control. I did experience some skin damage from that.
The follow-up on service recovery after the stay was a little slow, but I decline to elaborate.
Towels that look like this should be taken out of service in my opinion.
The resort has a paid shuttle to the town centre where one, just one, shopping centre exists.
The hotel would send the shuttle at an agreed time to pick the guests back from the town centre.
All was well going out from the hotel.
At the pickup time, we were at the location informed and the shuttle did not arrive.
So we waited.
And the shuttle came about 10 mins late. Across the busy bi-directional road. We waved at the driver who turned off the engine and came down from the vehicle. He went for a very quick smoke behind the shuttle.
He finished and then started the engine without looking around.
Somehow, this didn’t feel right and we attempted to cross the busy road.
Right then, he just drove off with us waving like lunatics.
Since the road was bi-directional, we thought he would make a turn back.
After 15mins, that didn’t happen.
It was about 20 mins to the next scheduled time, but the shuttle would only come if other guests had booked it. So we took a chance and waited for another 20 mins. And it was futile.
We got a cab back eventually and saw the driver in the lobby.
Subjectively, he looked very unhappy, but my mood was bad so that’s a factor.
Immediately we complained to the front desk who said a manager would get back to us.
The next day, after the breakfast which did not alleviate my mood, we spoke to the manager who told us the shuttle to the airport would be free as well the the shuttle the night before.
That was fair if the only issue was the shuttle. The poor food quality and my minor skin burn came to my mind and I asked the manager if free transport alone is acceptable.
Subsequently, the hotel got back to me a few weeks later with satisfactory compensation.
I hope what I had experienced are just teething problems and the construction would complete soon.
The hotel has a lot of potential, that is, the location is great and the room is good. Food quality needs a major overhaul and certainly service which is much harder to improve.
Happy And Healthy Travels to all!
fred