[aseftel]

Given it’s your first time, one thing to be aware of is that restaurants in Japan are often a lot more specialised than what you might be used to from a Japanese restaurant in the UK.

This is a good overview:https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2036.html (more generally, I would highly recommend this website to help plan your trip).

If you’re looking for something special, you might find it tricky to incorporate a veggie requirement. The obvious choices would be Kaiseki (formal dining with many courses), sushi or teppanyaki – Kaiseki tends to be a set menu and the latter two are fish/meat centric. I’m sure it’s possible to find something with some research though.

Japan does have a ‘native’ vegetarian cuisine, Shojin Ryori, that evolved out of Buddhist temple dining. It’s not something I’m particularly familiar with, but I think there are haute cuisine examples in big cities like Tokyo.

Also watch out for dashi if fish is an issue. It’s a fish-based stock that’s a base ingredient in a lot of otherwise veggie dishes.

[aseftel]

QC has a £100 bonus on £2k spend with Virgin Atlantic today, opt-in required. Would stack nicely with the Amex offer if you have it.

[aseftel]

Skywalker wrote:

https://platinumdining.caffeinesoftware.com/

Don’t know how up to date it is, but pick a country, and then there is a drop down function for Michelin Star.

Note that this site understandably doesn’t include the Japanese options through Pocket Concierge, which has a lot of m* options.

[aseftel]

Roberto wrote:

Richie wrote:

But can a fully loaded B787-10 fly as far as Bangkok?

I dont think that distance is an issue. The bigger problem with 787 is taking off when its really hot. But does BKK get to 40°?

In April/May during the day, sure. BA run a late night departure though so will be significantly cooler. Norse doing the exact same route at the moment (albeit a 787-9) of course.

[aseftel]

JDB wrote:

It’s pretty amazing if BA is really going to have 110 Club Suites on the A380 vs Qatar only 48 Business and even Emirates only goes up to 76. Whether BA will have sufficient cabin crew and/or galley space for them to work easily and enough Club loos is another matter.

QR is as much an outlier as BA (but yes 110 seems surprising). Most configs are ~70J:

BA: 97
EK: 76
EY: 70
KE: 94
LH: 68
NH: 56
OZ: 78
QF: 70
QR: 48
SQ: 78

[aseftel]

Hilton Honors discount rates are expressly non-transferable, so it seems that the hotel has been fair in cancelling the booking if no member is staying.

n1368585 wrote:

Anyway hotels loss – they’re looking elsewhere.

I know Doha is a competitive market, but is it really worth going back to the drawing board just because of a 2% discount?

[aseftel]

FRA is where I’ve experienced the longest queue to exit the EU. I think it was only an hour or so, so perhaps I was in fact lucky.

[aseftel]

Rob Burgess wrote:

In theory AN Amex is enough, at least for payment. Doesn’t need to be Platinum. Obviously this isn’t written down anywhere though.

It’s written down here, in the footer (emphasis mine)

Fine Hotels + Resorts (FHR) program benefits are available for new bookings made through Platinum Travel Services, Business Platinum Travel Services, the Dedicated Centurion® Team or American Express Travel (americanexpress.com/en-gb/travel/) with participating properties and are valid only for eligible Platinum Cardmembers, Centurion® Members or Business Platinum Cardmembers and excludes Platinum Credit Companion Cards. Bookings must be made using an eligible Card and must be paid using that Card, or another American Express® Card, in the eligible Cardmember’s name, and that Cardmember must be traveling on the itinerary booked.

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/travel/discover/

[aseftel]

aseftel wrote:

idontfly wrote:

Lots of talk of Claude taking over the world this week with share prices for Booking.com etc down double digits. I tried this tool this morning – https://flightdeepresearch.com/ – seems to paint a picture of where things are going. If seatspy could implement this type of tooling, it would save hours of searching.

I searched for nonstop-only flights as you specified, but the results show no direct flights exist between London and western Canada airports.

I think I’ll stick to my existing tools for the time being…

Crikey it gets worse. This is a ridiculous way to get to Canada – especially when I said I wanted a nonstop.

What I’d recommend exploring:

Fly LGW→Seattle on Finnair (lowest price ~$500/person) then book a separate flight Seattle→Calgary using a budget carrier (likely $100-200/person each way). Total around $800-900/person all-in, plus ground logistics.

[aseftel]

idontfly wrote:

Lots of talk of Claude taking over the world this week with share prices for Booking.com etc down double digits. I tried this tool this morning – https://flightdeepresearch.com/ – seems to paint a picture of where things are going. If seatspy could implement this type of tooling, it would save hours of searching.

I searched for nonstop-only flights as you specified, but the results show no direct flights exist between London and western Canada airports.

I think I’ll stick to my existing tools for the time being…

[aseftel]

Emirates goes from 4:3 to 2:1 on Sunday.

[aseftel]

SFO as well.

[aseftel]

I’ve had the same error. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Not observed any correlation with the debit card used. In general, the app seems to be a buggy mess, which puts a downer on an otherwise decent rewards debit card proposition.

[aseftel]

Assuming you booked directly with IHG:

Online Reservation Guarantee
Your room is guaranteed.

By securing your online reservation with a credit card, you are eligible for our Reservations Guarantee. If your reservation cannot be honored, the host hotel will provide a room at, and transportation to, another convenient and comparable hotel, and pay for telephone calls to notify family of the lodging change. The host hotel will also pay the full cost of the first night’s lodging rate, plus tax. Any advance deposit will be refunded.

https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/customer-care/book-with-confidence

[aseftel]

Rob Burgess wrote:

In some ways it is a branding play by Turkish

I’m continually surprised that this isn’t more of a thing. It’s an opportunity to get a highly-targeted audience to engage with your brand for 1-2 hours. In another context, a marketing department would pay through the roof for that. The LHR T3 lounges have probably done as much for CX and QF’s brand perception in the UK than any advertising strategy. It won’t work for every airline in every market, but the trend towards alliance-branded lounges (where the economics are presumably identical but without the intangible brand benefit) suggest that the predominant thinking is more about lounges as a cost centre.

If I was VS, I’d be thinking about doing something leftfield like letting BA Golds on US-bound BA flights into the Clubhouse next time they do a status match campaign.

[aseftel]

I used a 10% bonus offer for Ocado (using Amex as underlying card on Paypal checkout). Intriguingly, this was immediately refilled with the same offer again on the home screen. Gold won’t be a stretch if it just requires £2.5k of Ocado spend.

[aseftel]

kpinc wrote:

I started using their Debit card, and the PayPal checkout, as I had a couple of large purchases that wouldn’t benefit from Section 75. Even though, it feels like the Gold requirment is too high, unless putting all annual spend in their Debit card, which I feel is a no go as Section 75 is more valuable to me for most purchases.

I wonder if their Credit card (when it launches officially) will award more points that their Debit card…

They are giving away a lot of value at Gold though. You get a 20%/50% boost to redemption rate (more valuable than an increased earning rate as your existing points increase in value), £12.5 cashback per month on subscriptions and a monthly ‘spend £10 get 1000 points’ offer.

Assuming you’re getting 1.5p/point on the redemptions and maximising the cashback, that’s £543 back on £25k – over 2% on a free debit card.

[aseftel]

IDC Ventures, which holds a 12% stake in the digital wallet provider, has filed a High Court petition aimed at overturning its sale to Britain’s biggest high street bank, Sky News learns

https://news.sky.com/story/curve-investor-files-legal-challenge-to-block-125m-sale-to-lloyds-13473645

Seems like a long shot to me.

[aseftel]

Unless they have tightened the min stay requirements, you should be able to do Kimpton Clocktower for one night in the run up to Xmas from £130-140 on a Destined rate that includes $100 F&B credit. If you value the food at close to face value then it’s a great value night away.

Probably cheaper still in January if you’re looking for a head start on ’26 status nights.

[aseftel]

If I’ve understood correctly, it’s even higher than 1% if you advance through their PayPal+ tiers:

PayPal+ has three tiers: Blue, Gold, and Black. Each tier has its own set of benefits. Once you opt into PayPal +, you’re in the Blue tier. You can track your progress toward the next tier in the PayPal+ tab in the app.

Earn 25,000 points in a calendar year to unlock Gold. Earn 50,000 in a calendar year to unlock Black tier. View ‘How to use my PayPal + tier benefits? ’ for more information about the tiers.

What is the redemption value of my points?

Blue Tier Members: Redemption value is 10,000 points, which gives you £100 off.
Gold Tier Members: 20% boost in redemption value, so 10,000 points give you £120 off.
Black Tier Members: 30% boost in redemption value, so 10,000 points give you £130 off.
Additionally, Gold and Black Tier Members get a 50% boost on grocery, dining, and food purchases, so 10,000 points is £150 off.

[aseftel]

S879 wrote:

aseftel wrote:

Khao Lak? Stayed there a couple weeks ago. Nothing in particular to be worried about from the rebrand. The main difference is the check in and check out times, which are less generous than the JW-branded rooms. You can sign up for a timeshare presentation if you want and get a reward of your choice (we didn’t bother).

Yes it was Khao Lak. We are a family of 4 so stayed in a 2 bed suite. Was it cleaned everyday? Turn down service? Was your Bonvoy status acknowledged? We stayed on a great package but now MVC are saying they only do breakfast or room only. Cost to pay each individual meal would be higher so might look elsewhere. If you’d recommend a really good resort in phuket for older teens please share.

Definitely cleaned every day and Bonvoy status acknowledged (as Gold, we received a 10% F&B discount). Can’t recall if we received turndown but we had DND on a lot of the time. It didn’t feel any different at any point to staying in the mainline hotel.

We booked the base 2 bed suite and paid 5935thb nett per night to upgrade to pool access. A bit on the expensive side for the upgrade but we really wanted the pool access with our youngish kids and we got a great deal on the points (25k/night plus 5th night free) so the all-in cost was still good.

Over email, MVC.HKTKV.prearrival@marriott.com, we were proactively offered upgrades to half board and full board:

Half Board ( Breakfast and Dinner) 1300 THB per day per person, can confirmed upon arrival
Full Board ( Breakfast Lunch and Dinner ) 1800 THB per day per person, can confirmed upon arrival.

However, there are a couple of good local restaurants right next door to the hotel (e.g. Phen on the MVC side) that are far cheaper than eating on-property. We knew we’d want to eat out a couple nights so the packages didn’t make sense. They also have some other services like laundry, massage etc. that again are good and greatly undercut the hotel.

This link has a lot of information about the property: https://l.ead.me/JW-Marriott-Khao-Lak-Resort-and-Spa
There are a lot more activities on offer than you might expect. Particularly unexpected is the farm that they have built, that is open to guests to explore and has a decent running/cycle track to get a taste of a more rural aesthetic.

[aseftel]

Khao Lak? Stayed there a couple weeks ago. Nothing in particular to be worried about from the rebrand. The main difference is the check in and check out times, which are less generous than the JW-branded rooms. You can sign up for a timeshare presentation if you want and get a reward of your choice (we didn’t bother).

[aseftel]

Agreed, Grab is the way to go for KLIA to the city, unless you’re staying next to KL Sentral (e.g. Hilton). Don’t forget to get the Grab travel pass for some minor discounts.

[aseftel]

bm_999 wrote:

Reason for this is that taking the mrs to sky garden for her belated birthday and need to figure out where to go re: dinner haha. Doesnt even have to be nearby to be fair. Only issue is as shes is pregnant certain foods are not for her. thinking about a good burger place somewhere otherwise burger king it will have to be

Blacklock downstairs? I assume she’s off the rare steak but the chops should be in play. They do a fairly decent mocktail menu. All in for £28 still hits the ‘worth it’ benchmark even if the £5 cocktails are a thing of the past.

[aseftel]

FatherOfFour wrote:

I have used Uber a bit, but am in the TfL contact less area. What I’ve found odd is that it offers / sells me off-peak returns (for same price or more as I’d pay using contactless) after I’ve specified a post 4pm return time from London.

Peak/off peak restrictions are not necessarily the same for train tickets and Oyster/Contactless. For example, from my local station:

– Contactless peak based on when you tap: 06:30-09:30 and 16:00-19:00 on weekdays (technically it is 06:35-09:27 / 16:05-18:57 with grace period)
– Ticket peak is only for routes departing after 04:29 and arriving/departing London before 10:00 on weekdays – i.e. no afternoon peak
– Train tickets also have a super off-peak on weekends and bank holidays that is cheaper return than contactless off-peak