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Our impression of the Keraton started long before we stepped foot in the hotel. Admittedly a bit wary about spending the next few days in Jakarta (thanks to our friendly hotel owner in Bali!), I was a bit on edge as we arrived at the airport — where we were the only tourists around. My thoughts of dread quickly turned around, though, when we were met with a hotel representative at baggage claim with our name and the Keraton logo on an iPad. He grabbed our luggage and escorted us out of the airport.
Fleet of Mercedes
We came upon a huge fleet of Mercedes Kompressors and we jumped in one with chilled towels (with [...]
As of March 22, 2016, the AAdvantage award redemption rates will change for a vast number of regions and cabins. In general, the cost to redeem miles for seats on American Airlines and their Oneworld partner members will increase. The most significant increases will be imposed on First Class cabin redemptions. We are providing a map that shows the number of miles it will take to travel between the Contiguous 48 U.S. states and other zones in the world:
Here’s the new chart in table format. All prices are roundtrip and based upon travel originating in the Contiguous 48 U.S. states:
ZoneEconomy Off-PeakEconomyBusinessFirst African/a80k150k240k Asia [...]….but they also got less valuable at 168 properties. Starwood just released a list of properties that will be changing categories for award redemption purposes. The changes go into effect on March 1, 2016, meaning that you have about 10 days to either book at the current rate or 10 days to wait until booking at the new rate.
Here’s a map of all of the properties that are changing in value:
For those based in North America, the most interesting ones might be the properties in the US, Mexico and Canada that are decreasing in value:
COUNTRYSTATECITYPROPERTY2015 CATEGORY2016 CATEGORYChange MexicoCoahuilaSaltilloFour Points by Sheraton [...]Air Asia QZ 7529 Dept: Bali (DPS) 3:35 pm Arrv: Jakarta (CGK) 4:15 pm
We knew we needed to fly fro Bali to Jakarta for weeks (if not months), but for whatever reason never booked a flight. We were partly putting it off having heard not-so-great things about Jakarta and I guess we were a little nervous to go. In fact, up until the day before our flight, we were still deciding whether we should extend our stay in Bali/Ubud or fly to Singapore early or bite the bullet and go to Jakarta. We finally ended up booking our Air Asia flight the day before departure for $156.67 USD total (for the two of us).
Of $156 total, $99 [...]
We were head-over-heels excited to be able to squeeze in a quick stopover in Bangkok on our travels from Myanmar to Vietnam. It was our second visit to the city and we couldn’t wait to go back to our favorite spots and uncover more treasures in the bustling capital city.
Bangkok was our first foray into Asian culture back in 2011 and we’ve found ourselves daydreaming about the city ever since we left. The food, the people, the glistening gold temples — everything about this place we loved and we were thrilled to return.
View from our room on the 26th floor
We hurriedly booked our nights at [...]
We headed to the Blue Mosque first thing one morning to try to avoid the crowds as much as possible. Luckily for us non-morning people, the famous mosque was only a few blocks from where we were staying.
By: Jenny – CC BY 2.0
By: Jorge Dalmau – CC BY 2.0
The Blue Mosque (also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque) was built between 1609 and 1616, and made bigger and higher than its across-the-street neighbor, Hagia Sophia (then a church, currently a mosque), in an effort to show Islam’s dominance over Christianity. The [...]
Taking the bus from Santiago, Chile, to Mendoza, Argentina, turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of our trip and made for a day of sites that were postcard-worthy. It’s always fun to try new ways to get around – I’m so glad we chose the bus route rather than just taking a short flight because we were able to see more of the countryside and an up-close view of the Andes as we drove right over them.
I was (secretly) dreading our day-long bus trip. What if it snowed and we couldn’t cross? And, more importantly, what if the roads were so bumpy and curvy that even I got car sick… and then had to stay on the bus for 5 more hours? [...]
Bangkok Airways Flight # PG 710 Mandalay-MDL to Bangkok-BKK Dept: 2:15 pm Arr: 4:40 pm Duration: 1 hr 55 min Airbus A320
Having just landed from our connecting flight from Heho-HEH into Mandalay-MDL, we made our way to baggage claim which had a ton of carousels but was deserted for us.
After grabbing our bags (from a domestic flight), we had to send everything through another security check… Mandalay airport is a bit bizarre in that you’ll have to send your bags through no less than 4 security checks when connecting domestically: one in Heho to pass through security, one when we landed in Mandalay (this is the most unnecessary seeming), one to get [...]
