It was very interesting to hear the impact an improved Membership Rewards program has had on AMEX’s bottom line. The company reported earnings, which easily beat analyst expectations during its first quarter earnings release this evening and much of the growth is attributed to its focus on improving its rewards …
Our flight to San Francisco was on one of the now retired 747s with United Global First. When flying Global First, you have the choice between the ANA lounges in NRT and the United lounges. We didn’t have too much time before our flight so we just ended up going …
On our last day in Japan, we went to Fuji-yoshida, which is a town at the foot of Mt. Fuji. The image of Mt. Fuji with Chureito Pagoda in the foreground is one of the most iconic images of Japan. Go figure, I decided to go get the image for …
According to Lucky at One Mile at a Time, Marriott will only credit elite nights for one of the rooms you book per night as of August 1, 2018. This pretty much eliminates SPG’s policy of letting members earn elite qualifying nights and points for up to three rooms per night, if …
So we just heard from Marriott + SPG on how they are going to officially combine the programs under one banner. I don’t want to go too far in depth because Gary and Lucky have already done a great job at commenting on this (as usual), but I will just …
One of the most convenient features of the Conrad Tokyo is the attached Shiodome monorail station connecting the hotel with Odaiba island and the Ginza district (via Shimbashi station). Fares are ~3 USD each way and trains run every 8 minutes. Do note that these train rides are not included …
Conrad is most certainly my favorite Hilton brand. The locations are always excellent, they have great executive lounges, and they offer more unique accommodations than their counterparts (Grand Hyatts, Westins etc).
A change of plans saw us staying in Kyoto for an extra 2 nights (for a total of 4 nights). Since I couldn’t find a suitable Airbnb for our extended stay, I ended up booking 2 rooms at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto on cash + points. The hotel is located …
One of the most annoying parts about visiting Japan is that a lot of the traditional temples and shrines you would think are ideal for golden hour are closed. So photography of the traditional Japanese scenes usually happens in less than ideal light, not to mention alongside what seems like …
As I mentioned before, it took a matter of minutes to hail a cab and be on our way to the Airbnb property we were staying in. The Airbnb we were staying in was located about 25 minutes from the Kyoto Train Station and was adjacent to the Kyōto Kitano Post …
