Moscow 2011: Introduction

• Introduction
• The low-cost part of the trip: Penang to Hong Kong
• Hong Kong “forced” layover
• 1^st time in first class: Hong Kong United and Thai First Lounge
• 1^st time in first class: Hong Kong to Bangkok
• The Thai F experience in Bangkok
• Bangkok to Dubai
• Dubai Layover
• Dubai to Istanbul
• Istanbul Layover
• Istanbul to Moscow
• Moscow Overview
• Moscow Day 1
• Moscow Day 2 
• Moscow Day 3 
• Last Day in Moscow
• Moscow to Frankfurt
• Frankfurt/Lufthansa First Class Terminal
• More 1^st Class – Frankfurt to Cairo
• Cairo Layover
• Cairo to Istanbul
• RIP THY 1^st class: Istanbul to Hong Kong
• Conclusion

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This trip was planned all the way back in March 2010.  The main motivation in going were to attend a friend’s wedding in Hong Kong at the end of the trip and the cheap cost to Moscow due to the loophole in the USairways award chart that put Hong Kong in Russia in the same award zone.  I will probably blog more in the future about how this loop holes and frequent flier stuff works but in general, it has allowed Lydia and I the ability to travel in premium classes across the world. 

Being based in Penang, we took a cheap AirAsia flight to Hong Kong.  There were definitely more direct routing for Hong Kong to Moscow but we decided to “maximize” the experience by adding as many premium class flights and layovers in Dubai, Istanbul, Frankfurt and Cairo.  Neither Lydia nor I have been to these cities before, so we wanted to take the opportunity to quickly head out and check the main tourist sites.  In the end, we “settled” for this routing:

·         Hong Kong to Bangkok in First Class on Thai Airways.

·         Bangkok to Dubai in Business Class on Thai Airways.  This was supposed to be in first class but Thai changed the aircraft from a 3-class Airbus 340-600 to a 2-class Boeing 777-200.  When I found out about the change, I contemplated about changing the routing to get more routes in first class but at the end, decided against it to save the $150 USD change fee but more importantly, not get US airways attention on my routing.

·         Dubai to Istanbul in Business Class on Turkish Airline

·         Istanbul to Moscow in Business Class on Turkish Airline.

·         Moscow to Frankfurt in Business Class on Lufthansa

·         Frankfurt to Cairo in First Class on Lufthansa

·         Cairo to Istanbul in Business Class on Egypt Air. 

·         Istanbul to Hong Kong in First Class on Turkish Airlines.

Lydia and I have been looking forward to this trip since we booked it.  I have been almost obsessively reading flyertalk and tripadvisor daily looking for ideas, hints and recommendations to maximize the trip. This trip has certainly marked off many items on our bucket list:

·         First time in first class

·         Visiting the Thai First Class Lounge and Spa in Frankfurt

·         Visiting the Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt

·         Going to Moscow

·         Seeing the pyramids.