trip reports

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

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

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

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…

two beds in a hotel room
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Review: Le Meridien Munich

For the first time in four years, I opted to stay at a hotel for Oktoberfest not named Four Points Sheraton Munich Central.  And the result? A mixed bag, really. The Le Meridien Munich is located pretty darned conveniently – especially for Oktoberfest.  The property is literally across the street from the south entrance of…

a large crowd of people in a tent
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Oktoberfest… and Six Other Highlights of Munich

I’ve been pretty open about my love for Oktoberfest in Munich.  As the largest festival in the World, Oktoberfest attracts over 6 million visitors each year during the 17 day event.  The past five years, I’ve spent at least a couple days at the Wiesn, and I’ve always had a blast.  This year was no…

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

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

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

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…