Update on my 2018 travel plans

I have just booked the Asiana business class flights which I mentioned in a previous post 5 days ago. Yup, this is after deliberating for 5 days. Fortunately, the discounted fares are still around. Reason being, I have, not too long ago booked SQ business class flights for a "fortune", for travel in June. After this big expenditure, I wanted to watch my travel budget to prevent myself from overspending. So I was at a dilemma for the past few days.

Now that I have booked the Asiana flights, I guess I have really overspent. Haha! The cons of having the travel bug.

Anyway, I have booked the Asiana flights as open jaw tickets for travel in december 2018. I'll be flying from Almaty, Kazakhstan to New York City and returning from Chicago to Almaty. 

Firstly, this will allow me to visit Chicago in the United States for the first time. Secondly, I get to try out different aircraft configurations. As of booking time, Asiana flies to New York on the A350 and to Chicago on the B777. While Almaty only gets the A330 plane featuring regional business class seats. Originally, the A380 is flying to New York, which gets me excited in the first place. Well, the A350 is not exactly a downgrade since it is a latest generation of aircraft.

The Asiana airline website is able to let me book a multi-city flight, a tool which is not available for every other airline. Fortunately for me, while the december dates are limited, they still work out for me. 

Booking and payment is relatively straightforward on the Asiana airline website. Seat selection is possible as well. I tried to book near the pointy front of the plane. The joys of flying in business class !

I didn't book these new flights in June as that will heavily disrupt my June travel plans. Moreover, I tried to use this to return from New York to Asia but the timing didn't work out for me. I wouldn't want to forgo more flights and especially the exotic destinations that I will be visiting in June. Think Svalbard and Faroe Island in Europe. 😊

Right now, I guess I have more or less planned out my travels for december as well. I have even managed to arrange this flight itinerary to coincide with my earlier booking of turkish airways flight from Gothenburg, Sweden to South Korea since the latter is a common city in both itineraries.

In december, other than visiting Europe and the United States for the umpteenth time, I will be visiting Central Asia for the first time. While in Almaty, I'll probably head out to Uzbekistan and some other 'Stans' as well. In Europe, I'm toying with the idea of visiting Greenland. The only thing stopping me is the high ticket prices as Air Greenland has a monopoly on the route from Denmark.

Ideally, I would have liked to book the flights and travel at the soonest date possible so that I get to enjoy the travel experience. But I have to be realistic with my travels. Well, hopefully I get to enjoy these flights in december then!

Great value Asiana airlines business class flight Almaty to U.S.

As of writing this post, Asiana airlines has a paid business class fare of ~S$1832 from Almaty, Kazakhstan to Chicago, United States and New York City. For a transpacific flight of over 10 hours, this is of great value.

As much as I had liked to take advantage of this fare, I had to restrain myself from overspending. Haha!

Already spent a "fortune" on the recent booking of Singapore airline business class flights from India to New York, as well as further finalized my Europe trip in June, this Asiana flight will potentially disrupt my travel plans (once again), if I were to book it. Not to mention the additional costs involved in positioning to Almaty. At least a couple of hundreds more.

Almaty is in Central Asia, a region I had yet to visit, and where I had thought of visiting in the past.

At a dilemma right now. First world problem. 😀

Anyway, while finalizing my June holiday trip, it occurred to me that my vacation time in North America will be very limited. I had inevitably booked my SQ flight to New York to just a few days before my earlier booking of SQ flight from Singapore to Osaka. Re-booking will add a couple of hundreds to my budget.

This is where the Asiana flight comes in. I can nicely return to Asia to prepare for my SQ flight departing from Singapore. 

Otherwise, the cheapest economy class ticket from America to Singapore is going to cost me ~S$1000. Because of the very reasonable difference between this economy class fare and the Asiana business class fare, this makes the Asiana fare so attractive to me and causes my dilemma.

Still thinking..

Guangzhou Airport Premium Lounge review 'Mar 18

I reached 广州 airport past 11pm, on the second last metro train for the day. My Scoot flight to Singapore leaves at an ungodly hour of 3:45am and check in opens 3 hours prior. I queued up towards the front and was quickly checked in. Security and immigration queue was short at this hour.

With a couple of hours to go, I decided to visit the Guangzhou Airport Premium Lounge. I had previously passed through this airport but did not use the lounge. This time, I entered the lounge using my priority pass.

I feel that the lounge was overall not impressive. Food and drinks were very limited. Not sure if it is because of the late hour. Seating spaces were limited as well in this one long, narrow lounge.

Fortunately, shower facility was available, though I was informed by the reception that they ran out of clean towels. First time I ever heard of this.

Charging facility was available at the high top table, right next to the food.

Limited packaged food and instant noodles. Soft drinks, beer, bottled water and coffee machine

A red and white wine was available, though I didn't try.

The lounge was located en-route from immigration to the boarding gates

An advertisement of The Taj Mahal. I'm hoping to visit this June.

My adventures in China - last stop - 广州

After bidding 长沙 goodbye, I am on the China's bullet train once again to 广州. It was dusk when I reached. While doing homework online to find out the various nightime activities in 广州, I chanced upon an affordable ferry cruise along 珠江, a major river in 广州. The cruise timing suits me as well.

So after alighting at the intercity train station, I connected to the local metro, which is once again housed in the vicinity, to the ferry pier. The nearest metro station is ~15 minute pleasant walk along the river to the ferry building. The river promenade is lighted beautifully and there are many people wandering along.

Inside the small ferry cruise terminal 

Many companies ply their ships along the river. And the ships vary vastly. There are beautifully decorated ships and there are plain-looking ships. Tickets can be bought at the counter and the prices for different ships vary slightly as well. There are almost half hourly departures at night so the wait is never long and the ship is not too crowded as well.

Here we go !

These row of buildings syncronise their digital displays. At one point, 'fishes' swam from one building to another. How cool is that ?

The major attraction on the cruise is the Canton tower. A dazzling display of lights at night. Each ship ply the same route. Going in one direction, returning to the pier to pick up more passengers, then going in the other direction before returning. The whole cruise took nearly 2 hours.

Definitely worthwhile to board the cruise and enjoy the night scenery!

Anyway, I alighted the cruise at a late hour and briskly walked back to the train station, just in time to catch the second last metro train to the airport, with a connection en-route. A well-spent night in 广州 !

Great value Singapore Airlines business class fares from India to New York City

There is a very reasonable business class fare on Singapore Airlines, a five-star airline, from Ahmedabad, India to New York City. Costing ~S$2500 round trip and for 3 sectors each direction. Not to mention it involves some backtracking eastwards to Singapore and then Westwards to Frankfurt and New York.

Ahmedabad, India -> Singapore -> Frankfurt -> New York City

I learnt about this fare on a travel blog but took time to select the dates. Dates were quite extensive, but limited in the dates that I could travel. Such is the nature of my work commitment so sometimes I had to forgo certain flight deals. By the time I decided, many dates were gone.

I have taken Sq business class previously on the regional A330 seat, long haul seat on the A380 and B773-er aircraft. Its business class fares are always on the high side compared to other carriers. However, it regularly has promo business class fares departing from Colombo, Sri Lanka. In return for the high fares, the service by cabin crew is close to excellent, seat is great and there is the book the cook feature that allows customers to order many tasty meals. Almost always they are better than the inflight meals. Thus, the fare this time represents a great value to me.

Based in Singapore, heading to the American continent and back requires days, if not a week. The only available time I have in the year to travel is mainly in June and December. 

By now, I have more or less came up with a travel itinerary for June. Many flights and some accommodations were already booked, and usually non-refundable to save costs.

My original travel plans were mainly in Europe. But as I really wanted to take advantage of this deal, I had to make adjustments and forgo certain things. Finally, yesterday, I booked the Sq fares and I'm now excitedly looking forward to the great flights. 

I realised one limitation of this fare is that the outbound flights will always involve taking a daytime flight instead of the overnight option on the Singapore -> Frankfurt sector. As I will reach Frankfurt at night and depart the next morning for New York, I will need to spend a night there, thereby incurring my cost. One way to save cost is to just overnight at the airport.

Online research indicates that the airport lounges closes for the night. So probably I'll stay till the lounge closes, then take a power nap on the airport seats, and revisits the lounge again when it opens the next morning. That's something good about travelling in business class !

My outbound flights from India to New York will be in June and my inbound flights will be in September. Not exactly my first choice really. I would have liked to return in June as well but if that happens, my Europe trip will be in disarray. Many intra Europe flights will be forgone with no refunds and many exotic destinations will have to be missed. This is certainly not what I want.

To make the best of the situation, I have booked my flights out of India towards the end of my Europe itinerary. Sadly I will most likely forgo my Scoot inaugural flight from Berlin to Singapore and definitely forgo my trip to the Amalfi coast. As much as the Amalfi coast and the Isle of Capri looks so enticing on photos, I will have to save them for another day. At least I'll still be able to visit the exotic Svalbard, Norway, the Faroe Islands, Denmark and Dubronik, Croatia.

Fortunately, the only forgone costs is the Scoot flight. I have yet to make any paid bookings on the Amalfi tour. So much for my procrastination. Haha!

With that, my June holiday trip is going to involve more continents. Other than Europe, I will be travelling to India and North America. Right now, I haven't made, and I need to find time to make plans for these 2 new destinations. 

I'm toying with the idea to visit the taj mahal in India, one of the wonders of the world. And in North America, perhaps visit Toronto and ride the train across Canada to Vancouver.

Yup, the Sq fares have enticed me to book the flights. But there are additional costs involved. I need positioning flights from Europe to India and from North America back to Singapore. Time to constrain my travel budget !

Changsha, China

I did not spend much time to explore 长沙, as it is more of a stopover for my train ride from 武汉 and 广州. As usual with other Chinese cities, the metro system is connected with the intercity train station in 长沙 which makes for easy exploration of the city.

Sadly, I did not do research on 长沙 prior to reaching the city. So I merely wandered around aimlessly for the few hours I was there. On hindsight, I should have done some homework. 😊

A cute way to introduce the metro staff at this station. Probably our train system could follow? I didn't see this in other stations though.

 CNY decor @ 长沙 station

Chinese folklore

With that, I'm off to 广州, the final and yet quite exciting Chinese city in this trip !

Wuhan, China

The overnight train from 北京 arrived in 武汉 more or less on time. Once arrived, my first and only business of the day is to visit the most famous attraction in 武汉, the yellow crane tower.

The intercity train station in 武汉 is connected to the metro system, which makes for easy getting around. Ticket for the long distance train must be shown to the ticket attendant at the exit point in the station. I will get to keep the ticket. Or it can be inserted into a turnstile machine when exiting.  

Transfer to the local metro is easy. Just follow the overhead direction sign. Just like the long distance trains, there is security check and bag scan, though no metal detector, in practically every local metro station prior to entering. Tickets for the metro can then be purchased in the station via automated ticket machines. 

Getting out of the metro station, after several incorrect turns, I'm finally on my way!

Impressive museum architecture in 武汉

Finally reaching the Yellow Crane tower vicinity after ~30 minute walk from the nearest metro station. It is actually a collection of ancient buildings and tickets must be purchased to enter the park.

The main Yellow Crane Tower

View from above ground in the tower

Inside the tower

Soon, it is time to return to the train station and move on to 长沙 in the next post.

 Getting familiar with the bullet train travel in China.