Category Archives: airlines

French Polynesia: Tahiti and Bora Bora Airfares

Posted on September 22, 2012 | 7 Comments

French Polynesia Trip Report Index
Tahiti and Bora Bora – Flights & Airfares
Hilton Frankfurt Airport
Lufthansa Senator Lounge Frankfurt Airport (Terminal 1, Departure Area B)
InterContinental Resort Tahiti
InterContinental Bora Bora Resort and Thalasso Spa
The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort (site inspection)
InterContinental Resort and Spa Moorea

My Flight Itinerary: BRU-FRA-LHR-LAX-PPT-BOB-PPT-LAX-LHR-FRA-BRU

Map: Distance Tahiti -> Tokyo, Sydney, Auckland, Los Angeles, Santiago, Paris

Pic: Air New Zealand B777-300ER All Blacks Livery at LAX airport (Sep 2012)
Back in January (’12) I was fortunate to find a steeply discounted airfare to Papeete (PPT, Tahiti) at vielfliegertreff.de, a German frequent flyer forum.  I paid €916 for FRA-LHR-LAX-PPT-LAX-LHR-FRA with Air New Zealand (LHR-LAX-LHR) and it’s codeshare partners Lufthansa (FRA-LHR-FRA) and Air Tahiti Nui (LAX-PPT-LAX).  Regular airfares from Europe to French Polynesia rarely go below €1500, so this was a great deal.  (e.g. 3 weeks before my departure the ticket was priced at €2456!)  As I live in Brussels, I booked a second ticket BRU-FRA-BRU with Lufthansa for €106, resulting in a total airfare of €1022 for Brussels – Papeete return.  The Air New Zealand airfare was deeply discounted so I wasn’t sure if I was going to earn any status miles with Lufthansa Miles & More.  L’TUR, the German OTA (Online Travel Agency) selling the ticket, didn’t display the booking classes, so I couldn’t really check in advance.  Much to my surprise, it earned me 13712 status miles!  There was even an added bonus by Lufthansa.  As they were having a strike on Sep 7, I had to rebook my FRA-LHR flight to a Lufthansa Regional flight at 6:55am (LH Regional was not affected by the strike).  Not sure why, but I was also credited status miles for my cancelled FRA-LHR 1:40pm flight.  I guess it was a compensation for the early wake-up call! :)

Map: French Polynesia – Tahiti (PPT), Moorea (MOZ) and Bora Bora (BOB)
With my flights booked to Papeete (PPT), the capital of French Polynesia on the island of Tahiti, I still wasn’t on my final destination, Bora Bora (BOB).  Domestic Airline Air Tahiti (not to confuse with international airline Air Tahiti Nui) serves a network as wide as Europe.  PPT-BOB return flights don’t come cheap at around XPF41,000 (€345), but thanks to a Belgian family living in Papeete, I managed to get hold of a ticket for local residents priced at XPF25,480 (€213)  Checked luggage was limited to 10KG compared to 20KG for the more expensive ticket.  Surprisingly, overweight luggage is really cheap with Air Tahiti.  Passengers holding a diving license get 5KG extra for free, and for every additional KG, you only pay XPF210 (€1,75 or $2,3) !  In my case, I paid XPF3570 (€30) extra for overweight.

Pic: Air Tahiti ATR 72–500 at Bora Bora Motu Mute Airport (BOB) (Sep 2012)

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Loyalty Programs: Account Statuses (July 2012)

Posted on July 25, 2012 | 10 Comments

Back in May 2011, I published an insight in my loyalty program statuses including the number of points and miles earned.  More than a year has passed since then, so it’s time for an update:

HOTEL LOYALTY PROGRAMS

1) PRIORITY CLUB

  • Membership Level: Platinum Royal Ambassador
  • Expiration date: Jan 2014 (Platinum) Feb 2013 (Royal Ambassador)
  • Qualifying nights in 2012: 11
  • Number of points: 117,574
  • Points earned in 2012: 77,545

How did I earn these points?
Obviously by resting my head for 11 nights on qualifying rates at IHG properties in the first 6 months of 2012, but more importantly, by signing up for every possible Priority Club Promotion (check FrequentFlyerBonuses.com and FlyerTalk.com for more details)  I also made some changes to my London 2012 Olympic Games reservations.  I cancelled my 7 nights at Hotel Indigo London Paddington reimbursing me 175K points.  I retained my two night booking at Hotel Indigo London Tower Hill for the opening weekend and added one extra night at Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer Street using Club Carlson points.  This shortened my London 2012 Olympics trip to 3 nights instead of 9, but allowed me to use some of the points to book my upcoming French Polynesia trip.
Where did I spent points?
Past stays:
30K points for two nights at City Ocean View room at Holiday Inn Pattaya
25K points for one night at King Suite at Crowne Plaza Changi Singapore
5K points for one night at Crowne Plaza Venice East-Quarto d’Altino
Upcoming stays:
60K points for two nights at InterContintal Resort Tahiti
150K points for five nights at InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa
90K points for three nights at InterContinental Moorea Resort & Spa
Video: Intercontinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa

2) HYATT GOLD PASSPORT

  • Membership Level: Diamond
  • Expiration date: Feb 2013
  • Suite Upgrade Award vouchers left: 4
  • Qualifying nights in 2012: 0
  • Number of points: 40,820
  • Points earned in 2012: 452

How did I earn these points?
I only stayed once at Hyatt this year and it was on points.  During award stays you only earn points on food & beverage charges, in my case 452 points.
Where did I spent points?
30K points for two nights at Club View King room at Grand Hyatt Seoul

3) HILTON HHONORS

  • Membership Level: Gold
  • Expiration date: Mar 2013
  • Qualifying nights in 2012: 6
  • Number of points: 3,066
  • Points earned in 2012: 9,236

How did I earn these points?
Stays at Hilton Millennium Bangkok and Hilton London Tower Bridge.  Interesting detail:  I didn’t stay a single night at Hilton properties in 2011, still I managed to achieve Hilton HHonors Gold status for free.  I posted this opportunity several times on my twitter feed, make sure you don’t miss it next time, follow me on twitter! 
Where did I spent points?
170K points for four nights at Ocean View Pool Villa at Conrad Koh Samui
Note: 153,435K points were bought for this stay, read the blog post for all details.

4) STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST (SPG)

  • Membership Level: Preferred Guest
  • Expiration date: N/A
  • Qualifying nights in 2012: 4
  • Number of points: 2,524
  • Points earned in 2012: 4,040

How did I earn these points?
Stays at Honeymoon Suite at Sheraton Seoul D Cube City and Caroline Astor Suite at St. Regis Bangkok
Where did I spent points?
3K points for one night at Four Points by Sheraton Barcelona Diagonal

5) Club CArlson

  • Membership Level: Silver
  • Expiration date: Feb 2013
  • Qualifying nights in 2012: 3
  • Number of points: 64,214*
  • Points earned in 2012: 108,722*

How did I earn these points?
Stays at Radisson Suites Bangkok Sukhumvit, Park Plaza Soi 18 Sukhumvit Bangkok and Park Inn Leuven.  Check my Club Carlson post for more details.
* Points from my Park Inn Leuven still need to post (including 44K bonus)
Where did I spent points?
50K points for one night at Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer Street Hotel (Opening weekend London 2012 Olympics)

6) LE CLUB ACCOR

  • Membership Level: Platinum
  • Expiration date: Oct 2012
  • Qualifying nights in 2012: 1
  • Number of points: 1,676
  • Points earned in 2012: 452

How did I earn these points?
One night stay at Novotel Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Interesting detail:  I acquired free Le Club Accor Platinum status using a simple sign-up link.  I posted this opportunity several times on my twitter feed, make sure you don’t miss it next time, follow me on twitter! 
Where did I spent points?
No Le Club Accor points spent in 2012.  Le Club points have a very low value, you need a minimum of 4K points to convert them to 2000 airline miles or 2K points for a €40 discount voucher (which can only be used to lower roomrates, not on F&B)  In general, this loyalty program is really weak,  with platinum benefits rarely honored.  The only really positive experience I had as A Club Gold member was at Sofitel Paris La Defense back in 2010.

AIRLINE LOYALTY PROGRAMS

1) MILES AND MORE (LUfthansa)

  • Membership Level: Senator – Star Alliance Gold
  • Expiration date: 02/14
  • Number of Award miles: 346,564
  • Number of Status miles earned in 2012: 59,093
  • Number of eVouchers: 2

How did I earn these miles?
I earned more than 280,000 miles in the past year.
150K miles were ‘butt-in-seat’ miles (by taking flights)
32K bonus miles for business flight to Rio de Janeiro
75K miles were earned using the Brussels Airlines American Express cards.
23K miles were earned from various sources like hotel stays, shopping, etc…
On what did I spent miles?
70K miles to upgrade GIG-FRA from Business Class to new Lufthansa First Class

2) MILEAGEPLUS (UNITED)

  • Membership Level: MileagePlus member
  • Expiration date: N/A
  • Number of Award miles: 521
  • Number of Status miles earned in 2012: 0
  • Number of Award miles earned in 2012: 61,200

How did I earn these miles?
I bought 98,000 Wyndham Rewards points for $308 (€237,85) during the yearly U.S. Travel Association “Daily Getaways” campaign and converted them to 39,200 United Mileage Plus miles.  I also bought 20,000 Mileage Plus miles for $451 (€347,86) via a facebook 40% discount sale.
Finally, during an award reservation, I was 1479 miles short, so I had to buy a set of 2000 Mileage Plus miles for $70 (€58,47).
Conclusion, in total I bought 61,200 United Mileage Plus miles for €644,18
On what did I spent miles?
70K miles on an itinerary including Singapore Airlines First Class & Business Class + Air New Zealand Business and Economy Class.  More details to follow! :)

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Weekend in Hamburg (Germany)

Posted on July 11, 2012 | 4 Comments


Pic: Giant spider at Hamburger Kunsthalle und Galerie Der Gegenwart

Pic: Bratwurst at Rathausmarkt Hamburg (Jun 2012)
Hamburg, my 7th Brussels Airlines Flyday destination this year. You might wonder why I take so many trips using this €99 promo. It’s simply the cheapest way to earn status miles with Miles and More. Each Flyday trip earns me 3126 status miles (including 25% executive bonus). This is by far the best offer available for Miles and More members to earn the maximum number of status miles per € spent. Earning these status miles is important to achieve (or maintain) elite status. Miles and More has three elite statuses: Frequent Traveller (35K status miles) Senator (100K status miles) and HON Circle Member (600K status miles in 2 years) All three statuses come with a number of privileges. My current Miles and More status is Senator and is valid until Feb 2014. To extend my status with two years, I need to earn again 100K status miles in one year (in 2012 or 2013). Right now I’m at 59K status miles of which 22K were earned with SN Flyday trips, 30K with a LH business class flight to Seoul (ICN) and 6K with a SN New York (JFK) trip in economy class. I want to re-qualify for Senator status this year, as Lufthansa (owner of Miles and More) made it much more challenging to earn status miles with cheap business class tickets as of April 1, 2012. The Seoul flight which I took in February of this year was only €1111 and earned me 30K status miles (200% of flown miles). With the new Lufthansa ‘enhancements‘ cheap business class flights now only earn 150% status miles (Z booking class) or 100% status miles for promo business class flights (P booking class). That same BRU-ICN return trip would now only earn me 15K status miles. With 41K status miles still to earn this year, I’ll need to take another 13 weekend trips if I want to re-qualify solely on Flyday trips! :)

Pic: InterContinental Hamburg exterior (Jun 2012)

Pic: King Bed Executive room 301 at Intercontinental Hamburg (Jun 2012)

Pic: Intercontinental Hamburg – Ambassador Welcome Amenity (Jun 2012)
Contrary to my hotel successes on previous weekend trips, InterContinental Hamburg was a miss. Originally, I had booked one night at Radisson Blu Hamburg on Club Carlson points and one paid night at InterContinental Hamburg using the 35% off rate at Greenroom.co.uk After I had learned my PriorityClub status level was upgraded to InterContinental Royal Ambassador again (thanks to a generous blog reader and twitter follower), I had cancelled my Radisson Blu Hamburg reservation and added a second night using the 35% off rate. With €194 for 2 nights I had significantly exceeded my €100 hotel budget for weekend trips, but expected extra value as renewed InterContinental Royal Ambassador (my previous RA status expired in January). Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. My 2-level upgrade (a RA benefit) was a non-bookable King Executive room with dated furniture and tiny bathroom. It really angers me when hotels try to circumvent loyalty program privileges, in this case by creating fictional room categories to avoid the need for upgrading Royal Ambassadors to Junior Suites. The only real RA benefits provided were complimentary internet and minibar. Again, also with the minibar the hotel cheated by removing any hard liquor and only provided cheap soft drinks and beer. The hotel was also lacking a Club lounge and charged €26 for breakfast, a ridiculous charge which made me eat all cereal bars from the complimentary minibar instead. One would start to think his Hilton HHonors Gold status has more value than the InterContinental Royal Ambassador status. (HHonors Gold status comes with complimentary breakfast for 2, room upgrade, free internet and at some properties even with Executive Floor Lounge Access)

Pic:IC Hamburg – Complimentary Minibar for Royal Ambassadors (Jun 2012)

Pic: Rowing at Aubenalster lake near InterConinental Hamburg (Jun 2012)

Pic: Elbe Philharmonic Hall at Hafencity Hamburg (Jun 2012)

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Earning miles with Credit Cards in Belgium

Posted on June 23, 2012 | 23 Comments


Brussels Airlines American Express has a limited time offer: double sign-up bonus for friend referrals.  To receive a personalized sign-up link for this offer, please complete the form below.

  • Classic American Express card (€60 per year)
    Sign-up bonus: 3000 miles (normally 1500)
  • Premium American Express card (€120 per year)
    Sign-up bonus: 6000 miles (normally 3000)
  • Pay your cellphone bill with American Express
    Extra bonus: 2000 miles (one time)

Earning airline miles is not limited to flying, you can earn miles with almost anything these days.  One of the easiest ways to earn extra miles is signing up for a credit card.  You will receive a number of miles just for signing up for the card and you will get 1 or 1,5 miles per euro spent.  American Express also provides a bonus when you spend a certain amount in one year.  Unfortunately, the number of credit cards earning airline miles is very limited in Belgium.  Still,  they can offer you a great opportunity to travel the world in luxury on a budget.  For Belgian citizens, the credit card offers are limited to one program, Miles and More of the Lufthansa group.  Miles of this program can be used to book (and upgrade) flights on any Star Alliance carrier.



Brussels Airlines offers four Miles and More credit cards: the Classic MasterCard, Premium MasterCard, Classic American Express and Premium American Express.  I signed-up for the Brussels Airlines Classic American Express Card in 2008 and switched to the Premium Amex card last year earning me a total of more than 100,000 miles!  The key to earning the maximum amount of miles is to pay as much as possible with your credit card.  Pay all your bills and purchases (both online and offline) with your credit card, every euro counts!  Shopping (including groceries), dining, gas, electronics, hotels, airline tickets, … almost everything!  Some payments might even result in an extra bonus.  Example:  Paying your cellphone bill with your Brussels Airlines American Express card gets you 2000 bonus miles!
The yearly fee also contains a number of insurances:
Classic American Express (€60 per year):
Travel accident insurance
Baggage insurance
Wallet or purse theft insurance
Purchase Protection
Premium American Express (€120 per year):
Travel accident and inconvenience insurance
Trip cancellation insurance
Extended Baggage insurance
Wallet or purse theft insurance
Purchase Protection

So how much are those miles worth?
It all depends on what you spend them.  In my opinion, only long-haul Business Class and First Class flights are worth spending miles on.  These allow you to maximize the value of your miles as Business Class flights easily cost +€2000 and First Class flights +€8000.  Of course airline loyalty programs will do everything to make you spend your miles on less valuable options e.g. use miles to buy goodies in their online shop, book hotel nights or rent a car.  You really don’t want to do that!  Miles and More is currently selling miles with a 20% bonus, which is still way too expensive, but it gives you an idea how they value the miles.

As you notice, 6000 miles are sold for €135.  That’s more than the yearly fee of the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express card which comes with 6000 sign-up miles!  Same for the sign-up bonus of the Brussels Airlines Classic American Express card, those 3000 miles are sold for €85 (+600 miles bonus).

How do I maximize the number of miles earned?
I would recommend to sign-up for the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express card now to get the 6000 miles.  Complete the form to pay your cellphone bill with the card and earn an additional 2000 miles.  Next year, you cancel the Premium card and switch to the Classic card.  You will earn the sign-up bonus again (this time for the Classic card, which is at least 1500 miles if there’s no promotion) and you’ll earn another 2000 miles when you register to have your cellphone bills paid with the Classic card.  That’s at least 11,500 miles in one year, just by signing up for these cards!

I’m not yet a Miles and More member, where do I sign-up?
You can enroll at the Miles and More website.

To receive a sign-up link with a double welcome bonus, please complete the form below.


Full disclosure: By signing up for a Brussels Airlines American Express card using a personalized link, I will receive bonus miles (friend referral program).  Thank you for supporting my travel blog and enjoy your sign-up bonus!

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Etihad Business Class BKK-AUH B777-300ER

Posted on June 12, 2012 | 6 Comments


Pic: Etihad Airways Business Class Check-in (May 2012)
Early May, Etihad Airways was running a 96h World Sale which included some great fares.  Some of those fares became even better if you booked them as open-jaw tickets.  And that’s exactly what I did for my recent Thailand trip: Geneva – Abu Dhabi – Bangkok – Abu Dhabi – London Heathrow for 358 Swiss Franc or €307!  Of course I still had to get from Brussels to Geneva and from London to Brussels.  Flew Easyjet from BRU to GVA for €62 (incl. luggage fee) and took the Eurostar from London to Brussels for free using a compensation ticket.  €362 for a return trip Brussels – Bangkok is a great deal, right?  Yes, it was, but keep in mind the additional expenses and time lost making ‘detours’.  Even though my outbound GVA-AUH flight was only on Wednesday night, I had booked the Easyjet morning flight from Brussels to Geneva.  I wanted to avoid missing the Etihad flight, which meant I had a 9h layover at GVA airport.  No problem I thought, I will store my luggage at the airport and visit Geneva or work on my laptop during the day.  This turned out to be an expensive scenario, as the weather wasn’t too good in Geneva, I decided to stay at the airport.  I spent almost €80 on food, drinks and wifi during that layover.  Geneva is awfully expensive (fifth most expensive city in the World): 24h wifi €21, Pizza with one beer €22, Starbucks Frappuccino €8.  Getting comfortably from LHR airport to St Pancras International station wasn’t cheap either: Heathrow Express train €24, London Underground ticket €5,50.  All this additional info to remind you to think twice and to make your calculations before booking open-jaw tickets.  Still, I felt I got excellent value out of this trip, primarily because I managed to upgrade on leg of the trip to the fantastic Etihad Pearl Business Class.
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Weekend in Birmingham (UK)

Posted on June 11, 2012 | 2 Comments


Pic: The Bull at Bullring Shopping Mall Birmingham (Jun 2012)
Birmingham, my sixth Brussels Airlines Flyday destination.  Once again, thanks to the IHG 2-for-1 discount rate, I managed to stay two nights abroad for less than €100.  In fact, this time I paid £59 (€75 on amex) for two nights at  Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre.  Not the most fancy hotel in town, the exterior looks a bit dated, but with recently refurbished rooms and located conveniently around the corner of Birmingham New Street station.  If your budget allows, I would recommend the new Hotel Indigo Birmingham located at the fantastic Cube building next to the upscale shopping mall The Mailbox.

Pic: Double Bed room at Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre (Jun 2012)
Being the the most populous British city outside the capital London, I was surprised to find Birmingham City Centre quite compact with many streets pedestrianized.  Most things to see and do can be reached on foot from the major hotels in town.  If found Birmingham less exciting than Bristol, but fans of shopping and nightlife will love it for sure.  Several new shopping malls are frequented by thousands every weekend.  The most impressive one being the Bullring featuring the iconic Selfridges department store.  Nightlife enthusiast, whom can cope with typical English partiers and their behaviour, should check Bond Street, home of many clubs including the famous Gatecrasher.
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