As mentioned the other day, I was taking advantage of a £50 cash+points rates at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Vanderbilt hotel in Kensington on a recent Friday night.
The rate was low as it was for a single room, but fortunately Club Carlson Silver status ensured it got upgraded to a Double room. I did have to ask at check-in but they were very nice about it and found me something right away. Of course it helped that the hotel did not seem too busy, so the availability was there.
While the staff were very nice and the hotel is in a very good location (right by the tube, lots of restaurants about), it is housed in an old building which meant that there was only one lift and it was a bit of a maze to get around. The rooms were fine but lacked "premium" features. For instance there was just a small LCD TV and the air conditioning did not work that well. Plus a very standard bathroom.
It's still definitely worth it for £50 and 10,000 points though if you need a fairly central London location.
By the way, I got my Club Carlson Silver status by status matching from SPG Gold. More details regarding status matching can be found here.
Showing posts with label trip report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trip report. Show all posts
17 July 2012
12 July 2012
Hilton Amsterdam
A couple of months ago I had a stay at the Hilton in Amsterdam which is famous for a couple of reasons a) it was where John Lennon and Yoko Ono did one of their “bed-ins” for peace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed-In#Amsterdam_Bed-in and b) a Dutch Rockstar named Herman Brood jumped off the roof… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Brood#Suicide_and_legacy
Anyway…it was a reward stay (Category 6) at 40k points per night, however as I was only Gold at the time and wanted into to lock-in usage of the Exec lounge, I redeemed for a premium room award at about 52k per night, which seemed a price worth paying at the time. Ironically, the hotel was very quiet so I would probably have been upgraded anyway, but never mind.
The hotel is in a decent location, near(ish) the city centre proper, however it is a bit of a walk from the nearest tram stop (~10 mins) so you might want to get a taxi to and from the Airport if you have a lot of luggage. If you’re travelling light, I’d certainly get the train into Centraal Station and take a tram.
The hotel can feel a bit off of the beaten track at night, but my understanding is that its in an affluent area and felt quite safe to me. There are a few decent restaurants nearby but you’ll probably want to take a tram into the centre as you’ll have many more options.
The room was an Exec room on a high floor, so the view was pretty impressive (right) and handy for the Exec Lounge on the top floor. The lounge is essentially a glass box on the roof, its not especially big but it has a good selection of food (inc. Chicken Satay one night – FTW!) and drinks including spirits you can help yourself to for a limited time. The only disappointment was that you couldn’t step out onto the roof to take in the view, but give the incident mentioned in the introduction, I can understand why.
There is also a decent Italian on the premises, however it was fairly expensive.
In general it’s a good hotel, very well presented and clean. Going against it are the facts that it’s expensive (but then ALL hotels in Amsterdam are!) and it’s a little bit far out from the centre. All in all though I’d give it an 8/10.
Anyway…it was a reward stay (Category 6) at 40k points per night, however as I was only Gold at the time and wanted into to lock-in usage of the Exec lounge, I redeemed for a premium room award at about 52k per night, which seemed a price worth paying at the time. Ironically, the hotel was very quiet so I would probably have been upgraded anyway, but never mind.
The hotel is in a decent location, near(ish) the city centre proper, however it is a bit of a walk from the nearest tram stop (~10 mins) so you might want to get a taxi to and from the Airport if you have a lot of luggage. If you’re travelling light, I’d certainly get the train into Centraal Station and take a tram.
The hotel can feel a bit off of the beaten track at night, but my understanding is that its in an affluent area and felt quite safe to me. There are a few decent restaurants nearby but you’ll probably want to take a tram into the centre as you’ll have many more options.
The room was an Exec room on a high floor, so the view was pretty impressive (right) and handy for the Exec Lounge on the top floor. The lounge is essentially a glass box on the roof, its not especially big but it has a good selection of food (inc. Chicken Satay one night – FTW!) and drinks including spirits you can help yourself to for a limited time. The only disappointment was that you couldn’t step out onto the roof to take in the view, but give the incident mentioned in the introduction, I can understand why.There is also a decent Italian on the premises, however it was fairly expensive.
In general it’s a good hotel, very well presented and clean. Going against it are the facts that it’s expensive (but then ALL hotels in Amsterdam are!) and it’s a little bit far out from the centre. All in all though I’d give it an 8/10.
4 July 2012
Thai airways LHR-BKK Trip report
I recently flew Thai Airways Economy class from London to Bangkok and it general it was an OK experience however, there were a few niggles that would genuinely put me off from flying TG Long Haul again.
1) On-line checkin: Now I’m 6’4”, so getting a good seat in Y is particularly close to my heart, so I’m often reading and waiting to do online checkin 24 hours before it opens. So, I enter my booking number etc and I’m presented with the seat map within which 90%! of the seats are blocked (particularly the better seats near the front). A quick check on Expertflyer.com reveals that virtually no seats are actually occupied so I really don’t understand the logic of blocking out most of economy for online checkin. Maybe its so the better seats can be reserved for TG elites but I can’t believe there can be that many!
2) Standby upgrades: ExpertFlyer tells me that business class is empty so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get a C upgrade at a reasonable price. I get to the counter and the checkin clerk tells me its £750 one way, which seems pretty steep for a “lie-flat” (not flat-bed) business class standby upgrade. Given my fare was £750 anyway, 3x£750 (£2,250) doesn’t seem like a great price for a C round trip to BKK. I discussed the fact that cabin was empty with the clerk (who confirmed this fact) yet there was no flexibility on the price. I understand maintaining the exclusivity of Business but given I could have just bought a C round trip for £2,277, the pricing seems crazy. Surely some incremental revenue is better than having an empty business class (which was the reality on the plane).
These are probably minor issues to the average traveller, but they definitely had an impact on the quality of the trip for me. Additionally there were a group of ‘louts’ on the outbound flight who were making a lot of noise, constantly switching the lights on and off and bothering the cabin crew, which made it a bit of an unpleasant trip, but I can’t hold TG responsible for that!
On the plus side, if I weren’t so tall I think the seats would be pretty decent (my other half had no complaints), food / service was good (if not great) and the On-demand entertainment system was pretty good.
Would I use TG again – probably not – when I can book Exit row seats at point of purchase with Singapore Airlines, I’d probably use them instead for an Asia trip. If I had to go direct to Bangkok – maybe, but I think I’d definitely explore other options (i.e. BA) first.
For reference, I was on flight TG911/910 on an Airbus A340-600.
1) On-line checkin: Now I’m 6’4”, so getting a good seat in Y is particularly close to my heart, so I’m often reading and waiting to do online checkin 24 hours before it opens. So, I enter my booking number etc and I’m presented with the seat map within which 90%! of the seats are blocked (particularly the better seats near the front). A quick check on Expertflyer.com reveals that virtually no seats are actually occupied so I really don’t understand the logic of blocking out most of economy for online checkin. Maybe its so the better seats can be reserved for TG elites but I can’t believe there can be that many!
2) Standby upgrades: ExpertFlyer tells me that business class is empty so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get a C upgrade at a reasonable price. I get to the counter and the checkin clerk tells me its £750 one way, which seems pretty steep for a “lie-flat” (not flat-bed) business class standby upgrade. Given my fare was £750 anyway, 3x£750 (£2,250) doesn’t seem like a great price for a C round trip to BKK. I discussed the fact that cabin was empty with the clerk (who confirmed this fact) yet there was no flexibility on the price. I understand maintaining the exclusivity of Business but given I could have just bought a C round trip for £2,277, the pricing seems crazy. Surely some incremental revenue is better than having an empty business class (which was the reality on the plane).
These are probably minor issues to the average traveller, but they definitely had an impact on the quality of the trip for me. Additionally there were a group of ‘louts’ on the outbound flight who were making a lot of noise, constantly switching the lights on and off and bothering the cabin crew, which made it a bit of an unpleasant trip, but I can’t hold TG responsible for that!
On the plus side, if I weren’t so tall I think the seats would be pretty decent (my other half had no complaints), food / service was good (if not great) and the On-demand entertainment system was pretty good.
Would I use TG again – probably not – when I can book Exit row seats at point of purchase with Singapore Airlines, I’d probably use them instead for an Asia trip. If I had to go direct to Bangkok – maybe, but I think I’d definitely explore other options (i.e. BA) first.
For reference, I was on flight TG911/910 on an Airbus A340-600.
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