Category Archives: Planning

Planning: Bangkok Hotels

Posted on August 2, 2011 | 3 Comments

Back in 2008, when I traveled to Bangkok for the first time , I stayed at an ‘alternative’ hotel called Phra-Nakorn Norn-Len If you’re not hooked to hotel chain loyalty programs, I can highly recommend this one as it provides you with a unique atmosphere.  Read the Tripadvisor reviews and you’ll get what I mean.
Pic: Holiday Inn Bangkok Silom – 1 King Bed Premier Room (Feb 2011)

Pic: Holiday Inn Bangkok Silom – Premier Room – Bathroom (Feb 2011)
Earlier this year I stayed one night at the Holiday Inn Bangkok Silom road on the way back from Hua Hin to Kuala Lumpur.  With prepaid rates around 2000 baht per night (47 euro incl tax), it’s a real steal.


Pic: InterContinental Bangkok - Concierge Lounge (Copyright IHG)
This month, I’ll travel to Thailand again and will spend two weekends in Bangkok.  For the first weekend, I’ll use an InterContinental Ambassador ‘Complimentary Weekend Night Certificate’ at InterContinental Bangkok.  The Certificate is valid for one complimentary room night on the second night of a paid Ambassador booking.  Each year, when your renew your Ambassador membership, you get such certificate. This used to be a very good deal as you could book the cheapest available prepaid rate and basically get two nights for the price of one.  Unfortunately IHG decided this was too good of a deal and introduced a special ‘Ambassador Weekend Rate’ in 2010.  A rate which is +- 35% higher than the lowest available rate.  Only advantage, you can cancel Ambassador Weekend Rate bookings.  The total for my 2 night stay with Ambassador Certificate will be 6473THB (153 euro incl tax)  If I would use the cheapest available rate without certificate, the total would be 9710THB (229 euro)  Still a nice saving of 76 euro.  As Royal Ambassador my booking has also been upgraded from a Grand Deluxe room to a Club InterContinental room.  Booking a Club room for my stay would normally cost 14124THB (334 euro)


Pic: Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok (Copyright Hyatt)
For my second weekend in Bangkok, I booked a one night stay at Grand Hyatt Erawan.  I used my last Goldpassport Suite Upgrade Certificate for 2011 to upgrade from a Grand King Room (40 sq.m.) to a Grand Suite King (80 sq.m.)
At 6308THB (149 euro incl tax) this one-night stay will be almost as expensive as my two night stay at the InterContinental Bangkok.  A Grand Suite King is not bookable on the Advance Purchase rate at Hyatt.com, but on the Daily rate it would cost me 16831THB (397 euro incl tax)
Looking forward to enjoy my Diamond Membership perks at this Grand Hyatt!


Pic: VIE Hotel Bangkok – Exterior (Copyright VIE Hotels)
For my last night in Bangkok, I booked a Deluxe Suite at the VIE Hotel.  At a rate of 4025THB (95 euro incl tax) per night, this 80 sq.m. suite should be considered a good deal.  Next to the fact this hotels is cheap, fairly new and highly ranked at Tripadvisor, I chose this hotel for my last night as it earns me 1000 miles with the new Accor Hotels Miles and More promo.  Also, as a member of the MGallery Collection, my Accor Hotels A-Club Gold membership perks should apply.  I wrote ‘should’ as I already received an email of the VIE Revenue and OTA Coordinator to inform me my upgrade request to a Deluxe Duplex Suite (145 sq.m.)  has been rejected.  Deluxe Suite is the highest room upgrade they provide, instead they “will allocate the best room for me”… we’ll see about that.

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Planning: City trip London

Posted on March 29, 2011 | 2 Comments
  • What? An overview of the workflow used to book flights and hotel for a London city trip.
  • When? Wednesday May 25 – Friday May 27
  • Why? Gumball 3000 Launch Party & Start Grid

Brussels – London: By plane or train?

For most travelers the cheapest (fastest?) way from anywhere in Belgium to London is by train.  B-Europe.com is the recommend starting point to book your Eurostar (and Thalys, TGV, ICE) tickets for departures from any train station in Belgium.  People living near Antwerp can also rely on Cityjet.com to connect to London for reasonable prices.

As Brussels airport is only a 5 minute drive away from where I live, I prefer to fly.  That’s not the only reason though, travel by air just feels more comfortable and enjoyable to me.  Brussels Airport is a paradise compared to the train stations of Brussels.  Not to speak of the security issues at Brussels South (aka Bruxelles Midi/Brussel-Zuid)  Earlier this month, I had to chase two guys who had stolen my camera bag at this station!

A British Airways newsletter reminded me I still had 6000 miles sitting on my sleeping Executive Club (One World) account.  Now, 6K miles doesn’t buy you much, but a short-haul flight like BRU-LHR could offer opportunities.

Flight awards cover fares only, you still need to pay taxes and fees.  This results in economy class rewards being the lowest value for your hard-earned miles.  The taxes and fees for a return economy class reward flight with British Airways would be a staggering €109.11  The full fare for my return ticket BRU-LHR would be €175.11  That’s a €66 discount in exchange for your 6000 miles, Sir.  No way.  After making all kinds of cash+miles/economy class and business class combinations, I figured out the highest value for my 6K miles.  The inbound flight LHR to BRU in Business class (called ‘Club Europe’ by BA).  The full fare €559.20 euro.  My miles+cash+taxes+fee fare €112.80  That’s a €446,40 value for my 6000 miles!  Of course, business class on a one hour A319 flight won’t be that impressive, but still, I’ll enjoy champagne at take-off and maybe a business class meal.  More importantly, I’ll have the opportunity to experience a business class treatment at the new Terminal 5 of London Heathrow and have access to the British Airways lounges.  A nice topic for a travel.bart.la blog post!

My inbound flight was booked, still had to figure out a way to get to London.  A one way train ticket would be €56, a one way flight €57 (BMI).  Easy choice.  Once again Bravofly.com demonstrated it’s power.  It not only combines regular and low-cost airlines, it also makes combinations of oneway tickets to find the cheapest fare.  Using this kind of ticket search engines, you might noticed intriguing pricing policies.  Example: That €57 one way BMI flight is in fact operated by Brussels Airlines.  Brussels Airlines sells the same flight for €88.  The base fare is €26 for both airlines, but there’s a €31 difference in taxes.  The reason behind this is the difference in fuel surcharges: a €36 fuel fee at Brussels Airlines versus a €5 fuel fee at BMI.  Both airlines have an additional fee for credit card payments: €6 at BMI and €7.5 at Brussels Airlines.  As BMI is a Star Alliance partner, I should be able to collect some miles on this flight too. (we’ll see about that)Picture: Bravofly.com screenshot shows Brussels Airlines flight sold cheaper by BMI

Final price comparison:

  • Cheapest round trip airfare €154 (BMI)
  • Cheapest Eurostar ticket €142
  • Cheapest CityJet ticket €202

I paid:

  • BRU – LHR British Midland Airways economy class €63,24
  • LHR – BRU British Airways business class €112.80 (+ 5900 miles)
  • Total: €176,04

Hotels in London

Hotels in London are incredibly expensive.  The timing of my trip made it even worst.  UEFA Champions League final 2011 at Wembley stadium on May 28. All luxury hotels fully booked or showing astronomical room rates, also on the days before the final.  Have a look at this HotelsCombined.com screenshot:

Picture: InterContinental London Park Lane – Lowest room rate per night for stays May 25-27,2011 = €707

As a budget traveler you would try to avoid planning trips at this time.  As a loyalty traveler it feels like time to cash in a reward.  So I did.  I used two free nights which I earned during last year’s PriorityClub.com Sweet Dilemma promotion to book the InterContinental London Park Lane.

Total cost of London 5* accommodation: €0 Value on March 29,2011:  €1404

Remark: I had to spend 4 nights (4 stays) at IHG properties to earn those two free nights in 2010.  So I did spend around 250 euro on 4 hotel nights of which two were mattress runs.

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Planning: weekend trip to Bucharest

Posted on March 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

Here’s the work flow I used to book my weekend trip to Bucharest, Romania.

Step 1: Flight

As I live near Brussels airport (BRU) I try to avoid booking flights departing from the low-cost Brussels South airport (CRL) which is located near Charleroi, a 45 min drive from Brussels.  Airport parking is expensive at both Brussels and Charleroi airport.  This is one of the reasons I prefer to depart from Brussels Airport so I can leave my car at home.

There are multiple carriers connecting Brussels with Bucharest, but only Blue Air and TAROM Romanian Air Transport have direct flights from Brussels Airport.  Blue Air is a low cost carrier connecting Brussels Airport with Baneasa airport (BBU) which is only 8.5km from downtown Bucharest.  The second airline serving Brussels airport is Tarom, the flag carrier and oldest currently operating airline of Romania. It had the hottest female CEO ever, until Ruxandra Brutaru resigned on March 15, 2011.  Tarom connects Brussels Airport with Romania’s busiest international airport Otopeni (OTP) located 16.5 km of downtown Bucharest.  Note: At Brussels South airport (CRL) WizzAir has a direct connection to Baneasa (BBU).

To determine the cheapest (and most comfortable) fare I used several websites including Kayak.com and Bravofly.com The first one came up with the conventional airline routes, the latter also included most low cost airlines and made a mix of one way tickets to find the cheapest fare.  I noticed two things: Blue Air had the cheapest fare for the roundtrip BRU-BBU and Brussels Airlines was selling the Tarom flights as codeshare partner at a cheaper price.  Some of the disadvantages of Blue Air: Very strict carry-on luggage enforcement (7KG max), 15 euro fee (per leg) for checked luggage, regular flight delays,  operates at the overcrowded Baneasa airport and your flight might arrive late at night at BBU which means you’ll have a hard time finding an honest taxi driver.  Tarom provides better service, free in-flight food and beverages, uses the OTP airport which has a reliable taxi queue and is part of Skyteam. (collect miles and status privileges)

In this case I decided to make a combination of one way tickets.  I paid 49.99 euro (incl. all fees i.e. 15 euro checked bag)  for a Blue Air flight from BRU to BBU on Friday night and 116.66 euro for the Brussels Airlines flight (operated by Tarom) from OTP to BRU on Monday afternoon.  Total airfare: 166,65 euro.  Not the cheapest fare for a round trip Brussels – Bucharest, but I only booked three weeks in advance.  I also have checked luggage both ways and can collect miles since the return flight is sold by Brussels Airlines, a Star Alliance member. (see  Brussels Airlines & non Star Alliance partner = 0 miles)

Step 2: Hotel

I’m a fan of the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) for many reasons, of which Priority Club (PC) is number one.  I had countless upgrades and free nights at IHG properties (Holiday Inn, InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, …) just by using my Priority Club loyalty card.  If you keep an eye on the PC offers, points count up quickly and after your first two or three stays you can already cash in on a free night using the PointBreaks list.  I have saved thousands of euros using this program and received incredible upgrades.  Being loyal in the travel industry can be very rewarding. More about this later.

First I checked if any IHG properties were available in Bucharest. Yes, there’s a Crowne Plaza and an InterContinental hotel.  As we like to travel in luxury and since IC Bucharest is one of the cheaper InterContinental hotels in the IHG portfolio I decided to go for it.  I’m also an InterContinental Ambassador, a paid membership which upgrades your Priority Club level and provides you with privileges like a guaranteed room upgrade, 4pm late check-out, welcome gift, etc…

To check the hotel rate I used HotelsCombined.com , a hotel price comparison engine which collects all the rates from different booking sites like Hotels.com, Booking.com, Travelocity.com, etc…  In most cases the IHG website rate is the lowest, but in this case Skoosh.com was offering the Superior room rate including breakfast for two nights at 155 euro as where the IHG rate was 226 euro.  In this kind of situations, you can rely on the IHG Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee.  If your claim is valid (read the rules very carefully!) IHG not only matches the lower rate, but gives you an additional 10% off!  I must admit it took some effort to get my claim validated this time (email discussion about room type description) but I managed to get the rate from 226 euro to 139,50 euro. (lowest rate found at Skoosh.com 155 euro -10%) On top of that, my stay will qualify for points, which is not the case when you book through a third party website.

For my third night, I wanted to try something new.  The Radisson Blu Bucharest was listed as the number one luxury hotel in Bucharest on Tripadvisor (the single most reliable site for hotel reviews) and was also rewarded the Carlson Global Hotel of the Year award. I checked the regular rates at HotelsCombined.com for the Radisson Blu and got 118 euro as the cheapest room rate without breakfast. Quite expensive for one night in Bucharest, so I started looking for a way to get the rate down.  As I don’t collect loyalty points with the Carlson group, I didn’t care about non-qualifying rates. I learned about the Radisson Family and Friends rate, which offers almost every Radisson Blu property at 80 euro per night including breakfast for two.  The only requirement is to have a friend or family member working at a Carlson property.  One of my friends works at a Park Inn hotel, so I could use her details to secure this great rate.

Step 3: Airport to Hotel transportation

One of the most frustrating annoyances about travel is coping with corrupt taxi drivers. They have them in every city around the world, but Bucharest has a large share of scam artist.  As indicated before, I will arrive late at Baneasa airport. Last year November, I also arrived late at Baneasa airport and had a very hard time finding an honest taxi driver.  In fact, all taxi drivers in the official queue outside the airport collaborated to scam foreign visitors.  Every single one of them asked 100lei (25 euro) for the 8.5km trip to downtown Bucharest which should only be 35 lei (8 euro) max.  As I wanted to avoid the hassle this time, I checked for websites where I could book the airport taxi or limo online.  The cheapest rate I found was 20 euro.  I finally decided to book the InterContinental Bucharest limo service.  A Mercedes Benz E Series with driver will be waiting for me at the airport.  At 23 euro it’s much more expensive than a regular taxi, but since they are so hard to get late at night, I decided to go for the safe and reliable option.

Step 4: What to see, do, eat, drink in Bucharest?

A good start to plan your activities is Wikitravel. An other trustworthy resource is Lonely Planet. More later.

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