Award Travel

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Review: Air China Forbidden Pavilion First Class Shanghai to Tokyo

BySean

We arrived at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport a couple of hours before our scheduled departure for Toyko-Narita.  Check-in was quick and simple, and I was pointed towards the security line where I was able to skip the line since I was flying First.  I ended up clearing security and immigration only minimally quicker than my…

a seat on a plane
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Review: THAI Royal Silk Business Class Bangkok to Shanghai

BySean

I was actually dreading this flight – 100%.   At a scheduled 4:15, this “red-eye” flight to Shanghai was too short for a decent night’s rest.  It was also in a slanted business class seat, which I was pretty worried about for sleeping.  I typically hate these short red-eye flights, but when booking the award back…

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Review: THAI Royal First Lounge and Royal Orchid Spa – Bangkok

BySean

After a wonderful flight from Munich, we arrived well rested a little after 1pm at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi  Airport.  Upon deplaning, we were immediately met at the end of the jet way by a THAI representative who quickly whisked us away on a golf-cart to transfer security and immigration.  In less than five minutes, we were…

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Review: THAI Royal First Class Munich to Bangkok

BySean

We arrived at Munich’s Franz Josef Strauss International Airport over three hours before our flight since we were just ready to relax a little bit before the flight.  There was already a queue formed when we arrived, but we were the first guests in line for Royal First Class.  On this flight was myself and…

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Review: United Global First Class Chicago to Munich

BySean

I started out my around the world trip with a Transatlantic flight from Chicago to Munich in United Global First Class.  After a longer than usual flight from Washington-DCA to Chicago, I arrived at O’ Hare and met up with my good friend, who would be joining me for the entire trip to Europe and…

airplanes parked on a runway
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2015 Combined AAdvantage Loyalty Program Announced

BySean

This morning, American Airlines announced its 2015 AAdvantage Loyalty Program for the combined American and US Airways.  As an American elite, the program remains largely un-changed, and that’s a great thing!  With that said, there are a few changes to the program that I’ll highlight in this post.  The theme of the whole deal is that…

a group of tall buildings at night
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Six Initial Thoughts on My Trip Around the World

BySean

After two weeks and just under 22,000 miles of travel around the world, I’m finally getting acclimated to the real world after arriving back in Washington from Tokyo last week. I’d initially planned to publish trip reports as I went on this trip, but after a pretty intense first few days of Oktoberfest in Munich, that whole…

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First Look: ANA First Class Tokyo to Washington

BySean

Last week, I finished up my around the World trip by flying from Tokyo-Narita to Washington-Dulles in ANA First Class in its new ANA First Square product. How would I describe the experience in a word? Spectacular. The 12+ hour flight on this new, ANA B777-300ER will surely serve as the benchmark to which I…

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First Look: THAI Royal First Class Munich to Bangkok

BySean

Good Evening from THAI’s Royal First Class lounge in Bangkok.  I’m about to hop a redeye flight to Shanghai, but wanted to share a few initial impressions from my flight last night from Munich to Bangkok in THAI Royal First Class. Overall, I was quite impressed.  With everything… and I’m not even including the THAI ground…