Adventures of Lydia & Calvin

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Almaty Adventure: Conclusion

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We headed back to Penang the next day on Air Asia. As with most of our Air Asia flights, there's nothing much to say except for that it got us there safely and on time. One tip though that we'd like to share is that if you have a flight leaving Hong Kong around 7.45-8.15pm, try to seat on the right side of the plane. This is around the time that the fireworks show goes off at nearby Disneyland and "should" be a great sight from the air. Too bad we were seated on the left side on the plane this time and was left with just views of the "colors of the fireworks".

In summary, this was another trip to remember. I never thought it was possible to hop through Hong Kong, Seoul, Frankfurt, Almaty and Bangkok in less than 2 weeks. Definitely would not would want to do it in coach though. Visiting Almaty was definitely an eye-opener. Don't listen to Borat and come see Kazakhstan for yourself. We definitely want to go back to the region another time and spend more of the time outdoors doing hiking and camping.

We had tried to stay in hotels that were part of the Accor chain during this trip. The Accor experience continues to be hit and miss. We loved the stays in Hong Kong but hated the stay in the Grand Ambassador in Seoul. We vow to never return to that hotel again.

At the risk of sounding snobbish, this second time in First Class did loose some of the "wow factor" but regardless, it was still a great experience. Asiana is now one of our favorite airlines and we would recommend them over in Lufthansa and Thai.Our personal rank list of our experience is now as follows:

Favorite Ground Experience - Continues to the be Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt.
Favorite In-Flight Service - Continues to be the service we receive from Lufthansa. Sure the hard product might be a tad old but the attendants continue to be warm and friendly.
Favorite In-Flight Meals - Asiana wins hands on here. The amount and quality of food was simply amazing. If only they had better champagnes though.
Favorite In-Flight Seats - Didn't get to try any new seats or cabins on this trip so this remains to be the Turkish First Class seats on the 77W.
Favorite Hotel Stay of the trip - The World Hotel Saltanat in Almaty. What amazing service to organize the nice birthday surprise.
Most memorable experience on this trip - Gotta be the visit to Bo Innovation. What fun and interesting food - Dim Sum will never be the same for us ever again.

For those who are interested, some costs of this trip:

*A Flights - US Dividend Miles - 40K miles/person. Yes, this is a North Asia to North Asia redemption. Taxes and fees associated with the booking was ~$200 USD/person.
The Air Asia flights from/to Penang and Hong Kong ended up being ~$300 a per person.
The tours we took in Almaty totaled ~$650 USD for the both of us.

Almaty Adventure: 2nd Hong Kong Layover with review of Novotel Citygate Hotel

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We arrived into Hong Kong around 10pm and our flight back home to Penang will not be until 7.30 pm the next day. Instead of staying in town, we decided to just stay at the nearby Novotel Citygate Hotel which we had stayed before on our trip to Russia. Since the price for a regular room was relatively high at close to $180 USD a night, we decided to use our free night that comes with the Accor Advantage Plus program. On top of that, we paid a top up of $50 USD for an upgrade to an executive room since it comes with free internet and breakfast which covered the $50 USD.

The hotel provides a free shuttle from the airport and the trip took a relatively long 30 minutes including wait time for the shuttle. Upon check-in at the main lobby, we were informed that we should check-in on the executive floor. The check-in experience at the executive floor could have been better as we were made to stand while waiting for the lounge attendant to process the check-in. She should have invited us to sit down and maybe served us some drinks while we waited.

We were happy to find out that we had been upgraded to one of their suites due to my Aclub Gold status. As I have complained about multiple times on the Aclub program, upgrades at Novotel is not a standard perk and even then, it's hit and miss on the Pullman, Sofitel and MGallery where upgrades are supposed to be an official Aclub Gold perk.

The room was definitely a nice room and huge for Hong Kong's standard. The room was laid out in an interesting "long" rectangular way instead of the usual square box. The room also comes with huge windows that gave really good views of the surrounding hills and lights.

Work Desk

Sofa

Almaty Adventure: BKK - HKG on Thai First Class

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On arrival in Bangkok, we were the first passengers of the plane where a ground staff was waiting for us (had a clipboard with our names on it) and proceeded to drive us in the buggy to the escalators that would bring us to the departure floor. The buggy ride was much appreciated as we had parked in one of the furthest gates.

After passing through security, we were escorted to the First Class lounge where upon arrival, we requested for the complimentary massage. Thai provides a 30 minute shoulder or foot massage for business class passengers and an hour long oil massage for first class passengers. The lounge attendant made a phone call to Spa Lounge to verify that there were slots open before escorting over the short walk across the hallway to the Spa.

I opted for a dip on the jacuzzi before the massage. Even though it was a nice dip, it did seem to cut down the massage time so I would recommend skipping the jacuzzi if you don't need the dip. The service was a bit off this time as I wasn't given the choice of what oils to use.

Jacuzzi

FRA - BKK on Thai First Class with Lufthansa FCL visit

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We heard those dreaded words when checking in for our flight to Bangkok - "I'm sorry sir. There was an aircraft swap and it's the older plane today". We were as some flyertalkers called it, just TGed! Thai operates 2 types of 747 one with a relatively new first class cabin and an ancient (and I'm not exaggerating when I say ancient) first class cabin. We were truly disappointed but I tried to console myself that "at least" I get to try the older plane and blog about it. Yea right.

We declined the escort by the ground agents through immigration and to the Senator Lounge that Thai uses for it's First Class Passengers as we wanted to do some shopping and head to the First Class Lounge in Terminal B since we had a same day Lufthansa First Class boarding pass from our flight from Almaty. The First Class lounges are only open to Lufthansa First Class and Honor Circle passengers. Other first class Star Alliance passengers are relegated to the Senator Lounges which are also open to Star Gold passengers.

It took us a good 15 minute walk through the mess in Frankfurt to get to First Class Lounge in Terminal B. First impression of the lounge was that it looks ALMOST identical to the First Class Terminal. We were shocked at how quiet the lounge was - we might have been the only 2 passengers in the lounge when we arrived but eventually a couple more passengers arrived later on.

747 from the lounge

Almaty Adventure: 2nd Frankfurt Layover

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There was virtually no lines at immigration at terminal C where we were dropped off by our "VIP bus". It took another 10 minutes before we made it out to Frankfurt where we proceeded to the Lufthansa Welcome Lounge in the arrival area of terminal B. We were surprised the doors were closed even though the stated opening hours were from 5.30am to 11am. We decided to head up to departures to see if the Thai counters were open for us to get our boarding passes for next flights but it just ended up being a waste of time or extra exercise whichever way you want to look at.

By the time we headed back to the Welcome Lounge, the doors were now opened but the alarms were going off. Per the lounge attendant manning the entrance, there was something wrong with the doors causing the alarms to go off. Our boarding passes were promptly checked and we were asked if we wanted a shower which we declined since we would be checking in to the Kempinski after this.

The Welcome Lounge is opened the business, first and I believe Star Gold members arriving on Star Alliance flights. There's nothing particularly impressive about the Welcome Lounge but having a lounge to go to after arriving is a useful perk. It's extremely useful for those who arrive way to early to check-in to the hotel or to work by allowing them to refresh themselves with a shower or breakfast.

Since we skipped breakfast on the plane, we were slightly hungry at this point and grab from breakfast from the buffet selection. The selection was nothing special - fresh fruits, scrambled eggs, cold cuts, yogurts, etc.