Open Jaw

A couple of years ago some friends and I decided to try and celebrate New Year’s Eve in a different country every year.  I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to continue doing that, but for last new year’s we decided to go to Berlin.  Berlin doesn’t really have a center and there are plenty of hotels to choose from.

After asking around we decided to go for the Grand Hyatt.  I generally like Hyatt, but they can be a bit on the expensive side.  Luckily I’ve got a trick for that, which worked perfectly bringing the hotel price down from €325/night to €145/night.  Pretty acceptable.

The large lobby provides access to the three hotel restaurants as well as the restaurant’s bar and smokers lounge.  The VOX Bar offers a selection of 240 different whiskeys and has won several awards including best hotel bar.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so we’re going to have to make do with some iPhone snaps. Since it was NYE my Hyatt Platinum status didn’t get me much of an upgrade.  We got an outside facing room (as opposed to the courtyard) and free internet. That pretty much sums it up as far as perks go.

The room was modern and spacious as was the quirky bathroom which you could enter through sliding doors from both sides of the room.  A glass door in the bathroom separated the wet from the dry area which is a necessity because the shower head is next to the bathtub and you’re basically splashing everything on the floor.

The hotel’s top floor features a cool looking pool made out of stainless steel and a giant jacuzzi made of the same material.  The dressing rooms give out to a mutual spa area with a sauna, steam room, cold tub and relaxing area.  This came in very well after long walks in cold Berlin.

Unfortunately there was one downside to our stay.  When packing our bags I noticed my iPad mini was missing.  Since I hadn’t used the iPad outside of the room this was quite alarming.  Ironically, one of my friends had just alerted me to a TripAdvisor review of someone having their iPad stolen from the room at this hotel only a couple of weeks before our stay.

When informing staff at check-out that my iPad disappeared they said it was impossible for something to disappear from the room and that they would have the cleaning staff look again.  I thought they dismissed of that too easily so I sent out a tweet to @hyattconcierge.  Within days the hotel’s manager called me up informing that he looked into everything and that there was no trace of the iPad nor any reason to assume it was stolen by hotel staff.  To make up for the inconvenience he offered me a voucher for a two night’s stay including breakfast at their hotel.  I appreciate the gesture, but it never came. Sadly.

“When are we going to Tokyo?”, the girlfriend asked. I don’t know if it was the pictures or the stories I had told her about my first time in Tokyo. Fact is, she was as enthusiastic as I was before going to Tokyo for the first time. The only problem was, we weren’t going to Tokyo: “If I ever find a way to stay at the Park Hyatt without burning a hole in my pocket.” or something along those lines, must’ve been my answer.

Luckily, I did find a way to stay at the Park Hyatt so it wasn’t long before we found ourselves outside the lobby of the Park Hyatt Tokyo. “You must be Mr. Schouteden” said the person greeting us outside. I still don’t know how he did that. We arrived by taxi from another hotel and didn’t announce our arrival at a particular time. It was definitely a nice touch and set the mood for things to come.

We immediately took the elevator up to the 39th floor and walked past the iconic library to the check-in desks. You can take the latter quite literally, check-in at the Park Hyatt Tokyo happens at private desks where you sit down with your personal receptionist which provides a more intimate setting than your usual check-in area. After going through the paperwork we were handed our keys - again, quite literally, there are no keycards at the Park Hyatt Tokyo - and shown to our room.

The room was nice and provided a wonderful view over the Meji Jingū Shrine park, other than that it was rather basic. The bathroom was relatively small but plenty of mirrors created the illusion of space. As I’d seen in other hotels in Tokyo, the room had a little whiskey bar aside from the mini bar. A very nice touch which I would be happy to see in other hotels around the world.

Just weeks before our departure I managed to become a Hyatt Gold Passport Platinum member (thanks to the generous people at MilePoint) so I was a bit disappointed that our room hadn’t been upgraded. I might’ve mentioned this in one of my tweets during my stay ;) Fact is, after a small swimming break I came back to the room to find an impressive bottle of champagne offered with compliments of the hotel.

We didn’t have dinner at the hotel, because we were only staying for two nights and already had our restaurant plans set. Read the girlfriend’s write-up of our gastronomic trip for more on that.  Of course we didn’t leave without a drink or two at the famous New York Bar, which never fails to please.  A perfect end to a perfect stay.

A while ago I covered how you can get extra miles using your mobile phone in Belgium.  It’s one of the few opportunities to squeeze out a couple of extra miles in a country where big credit card signup bonuses don’t exist.  Regular readers of this blog will know my favorite credit card for collecting points.

However, as long as you’re travelling around Europe you’re bound to end up in places where American Express isn’t accepted and you’ll have to whip out your Visa or MasterCard to settle the bill.  If you’re not using your standard bank-issued Visa or MasterCard, you could go for Brussels Airlines’ credit cards, which give you a small opportunity to collect some additional miles.

There is however another credit card that allows you to rack up Miles & More miles much more quickly than the standard issue Brussels Airlines credit cards.  It’s the Citi Belgacom Club World Mastercard.  I use this card as my secondary credit card in places where American Express isn’t accepted.  Let’s look at the details.

This card allows you to earn points in the Belgacom Premium/Biz program I discussed before.  The yearly fee for this card is €5 which is waived for the first year.  You will get 1500 bonus points after your first purchase.  During the first three months, you will get 4 points per euro spent.  After that period, you will still get 2 points per euro spent.

During the first three months I moved all my credit card spending to this card.  Over this period I ended up spending €4 818.  This got me 20 772 Belgacom Biz points which is enough for 10 000 M&M miles.  However, I’m just 328 points short to exchange these points for 15 000 M&M miles.  This will easily be covered by a single phone bill or another months spending on this card.

Let’s compare this to Brussels Airlines’ MasterCards.   Had I put this on the cheapest Brussels Airlines credit card (€60/year), it would have netted 5 818 miles or 6 818 on the most expensive MasterCard (€90/year).  Granted, Brussels Airlines’ credit cards offer travel insurance but I’m fully covered with my American Express Platinum card.  This card ended up getting me much more than double the amount of miles I would’ve earned through a Brussels Airlines credit card while being much cheaper.

Do you live in a country where credit card signup bonuses are meager?  It’s worth having a look at all credit card providers out there.  They don’t necessarily need to be tied to your bank and might help you to reach your miles goal faster.  Good luck!

I was super excited to be able to book a three night stay at the Conrad Tokyo for Amex points only. Regardless of how I paid for the stay, my expectations where high. It was also the first time I stayed at a Hilton property while being an HHonors Gold member (thanks to my Amex Platinum). Needless to say I was looking for the royal treatment. Luckily I wasn’t disappointed.

It took our taxi driver a while to find the hotel, we left our luggage with the ground floor concierge and immediately took the elevator up to the beautiful lobby on the 28th floor overlooking Tokyo bay. Like a lot of fancy hotels in Tokyo, the Conrad takes up the upper part of a skyscraper with the lower floors being used as offices. We arrived unreasonably early and were told our room wasn’t ready. Since we were too tired to go and explore the city straight away, we chose to have some breakfast and visit the pool to relax until our room was ready.

The pool is on one of the top floors overlooking the buildings in the neighbourhood.  You’re handed slippers and a robe when you enter. There’s water and tea available in the relax area. The changing rooms have separate jacuzzi’s, a sauna and a steambath. All amenities are available in the changing room. There’s even a small tumble dryer to dry your swimming shorts. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures.

Once we returned to the lobby our room was ready. As I’d hoped we had been upgraded to the executive floor. The room has two queen beds (no more king beds available on the executive floor but I didn’t mind) and is contemporarily decorated. One of my pet peeves with luxury hotels is that the decor often feels dated or old. This is definitely not the case here. A massive chaise longue by the floor to ceiling window serves as an excellent spot to enjoy the city views.

The large bathroom has a shower, free standing tub and one of the typical Japanese electronic toilets. The tub also features Conrad, the king of ducklings. The entire bathroom is separated from the bedroom by a large glass wall. Electronically operated blinds provide privacy and a cosy atmosphere if you like.

Being on the top floor allowed us access to the executive lounge. The executive lounge is available in many Hilton brand hotels. It’s designed to feel like a private living room allowing for a more intimate setting for breakfast, afternoon tea and cocktails. There’s even a separate concierge available if you need it. We took our breakfast here every morning and really appreciated the atmosphere with the cook preparing eggs and other dishes in the kitchen. Service is as you would expect, but if you like you can get up and make your own coffee with the Nespresso machine or get your milk or juice out of the fridge yourself.

Overall this hotel exceeded my expectations. The interior design is beautiful and contemporary. The staff is excellent, helpful and very friendly. We found the location of the hotel in the Shiodome area to be perfect as it is directly connected to the Ōedo line and Yurikamome. My only remark would be that the hotel is rather expensive. Even though I didn’t end up paying in cash for my stay, I thought the ¥1800 (€18/$24) for pot of coffee was a bit steep.

Our cheap flight to Tokyo required us to be in Amsterdam Airport at an unreasonably early hour in the morning. So I decided to stay overnight and burn some Club Carlson Gold Points that I had earned during earlier promotions. Club Carlson was running a promotion that got you a room for 50% of the usual points, so I ended up spending just 19 000 Gold Points points for the night. The rack rate for the night was about € 140.

The hotel is some 15 minutes away from the airport but a free shuttle picks you up and brings you back in time. The public areas of the hotel were completely renovated during the spring of 2012 and you can tell. The lobby has an airy, contemporary feel to it.  There’s a cozy bar that connects directly to the restaurant area. 

There’s a stark contrast between the renovated lobby and the rooms which feel a bit dated. Thanks to my Club Carlson gold status our room was upgraded to an executive room overviewing the moat surrounding the hotel. There was a free bottle of water and some delicious “Amsterdam koekjes” along with a personalized welcome card from management. The mini-bar only contained a card informing us we could request to have it filled up, which I ended up trying at 23:00 when I was told that it was too late.

On the ground floor there’s a small wellness center with a sauna, steam room (neither of which where switched on when I went to have a look) and a relaxation area overlooking the moat. There’s also an executive lounge that was completely empty but seemed accessible to anyone.

All in all this hotel is nothing extraordinary but more than adequate for an airport hotel. It beats the extortionate pricing of airport hotels located at the airport itself and if you have some Gold Points to spend for a long layover this hotel is definitely acceptable.  The room and dining netted me 7 500 Gold Points so the net spending was only 10 500 points for the night.

After booking a ridiculously cheap flight to Tokyo and staying at the Park Hyatt with a neat discount I had to find lodging for the three remaining nights in Tokyo; and obviously I wasn’t going to pay for it.  The Mandarin Oriental appeared on the short list, but I couldn’t find a way to avoid the $500+ room-rate.

Next on the list, Conrad Tokyo.  Number 7 on the list of best hotels in Tokyo according to TripAdvisor, but still sporting room rates of over $500.  Luckily, this hotel is part of an international chain (Hilton) so there was a decent chance I could get away with not having to pay for the room.

In spite of my Hilton HHonors Gold status I have 0 points in their loyalty program. But as you may know, I’m a big fan of the American Express Platinum Euro Card (which got me the HHonors Gold status in the first place) and Amex is a transfer partner of Hilton HHonors.

Unfortunately a night at the Conrad Tokyo costs about 50 000 HHonors points.  HHonors is a 4 to 5 transfer partner with Amex, so three nights would have cost me 120 000 Amex membership reward points.  Nice, but even though there’s no real money involved, still a bit too much points for my taste.

Enter Virgin Atlantic.  Unfortunately I’ve never had the opportunity to fly this airline and I’m also not a member of their Flying Club frequent flyer program or at least I wasn’t. One of the many nice things about Flying Club is that it allows you to transfer miles to HHonor points at a 1 to 2 ratio.  Virgin Atlantic is also a 1 to 1 transfer partner with Amex.

This allowed me to transfer 75 000 points to Flying Club, which when transferred to HHonors turned into a lovely 150 000 points, enough for a three night stay at the Conrad Tokyo.  When attempting this trick, be sure to transfer your points way ahead of time.  Official transfer times for points are several weeks.  It can even take up to a week to link your Flying Club account to your Amex.  In total, I waited for about 2 weeks from beginning to end but official times may be much longer.

Click here to read my review of the Conrad Tokyo.

We drove twice through the one-way street before we noticed the SIDE hotel and it wasn’t thanks to the tiny lit-up cube with the hotel’s name, but much rather thanks to the pink-lit garages next to it, which seemed to match the design I’d expected from the hotel after looking at some photos on their website.

The masssive floor to ceiling glass doors open automatically - thank god - and lead straight to the hotel’s impressive lobby with an atrium all the way up to the 11th floor where the suites are. The side walls of the atrium are made of frosted glass and back-lit by colorful neon lamps. In the empty space between the walls a - what must be 10m long - white neon lamp is dangling above your head.

Unfortunately I wasn’t about to check in into a suite but into a “Superior Room” which is - unlike what it may sound like - the entry-level room of the four categories in this design hotel. I’m a big fan of design hotels and this one didn’t let me down either. True to the theme of the hotel, the elevators are decorated in frosted glass which allows for a nice light effect provided by the, again, colorful neon lamps in the elevator shaft.

The rooms itself are of course very contemporary looking. The bathroom is entirely in glass (including the sink) but the wooden blinds and hardwood floor prevent the room from feeling cold. Which brings us seamless to the rooms’ temperature, the SIDE’s rooms do not have any air-conditioning but are cooled using a “climatronic” cooling system which is - according to one reviewer on TripAdvisor - a system based on cool water flowing through the walls to cool down the room.

Although it sounds rather fancy, the system doesn’t appear to be working very well and many complaints on hotel review sites seem to be about the lack of air conditioning in the rooms. Luckily the windows open so cooling down the room isn’t much of a problem unless you’re in the middle of a heat wave.

The beds are very German, that is to say, rather hard mattresses, luckily the fluffy pillows somehow make up for that. And thanks to the atmospheric lighting with three different settings it’s easy enough to get cosy if that’s what you’re after.

After having to go to the lobby for not being able to figure out how to get to the pool (you have to insert your room key in the elevator to reach the pool floor) the first thing that ran through my mind after seeing the pool area was: “If Google would design a pool, this is what it would look like”. Now, probably Google has a pool and it probably doesn’t look anything like this, but the funky coloring reminded me of the search engine’s logo.

The individual changing rooms with separate shower provide you with robes, towels, soaps and slippers and there are pincode operated lockers available for your belongings. Upon entering the pool area there are carafes of chilled water - with either lemon, mint or lemongrass flavor - available to refresh yourself.

A jacuzzi is integrated in the pool, which - while looking cool - unfortunately means the water temperature is the same as the pool’s. Luckily there’s a nice sauna and Turkish steambath available to warm you up if required.

I wasn’t able to test out the spa, but the hotel offers a massive amount of treatments if you’re into that. There’s also a small gym looking out over the pool area.

The hotel’s [m]eatery restaurant is a steak house worthy of a review of its own.  Suffice to say it is well worth a visit if you’re planning a stay in the hotel.

The hotel has a beautiful lounge area on the top floor, but no bar service so I assume you have to bring your own drinks.

The downside of design hotels like this is that you won’t be collecting any points or have your room upgraded based on your elite status.  But if you don’t mind that, I can definitely recommend this hotel for your next stay in Hamburg.

Don’t you just hate frequent flyers? Remember queueing for 45 minutes to check-in on that long flight, hoping to still get a good seat? Then that arrogant guy showed up, waving a shiny plastic card, cut right in front of you and snagged the last good seat? That’s him. How he was lugging two heavy check-in bags and got away with it, while you had to pay extra because your baggage was 1kg too heavy? That’s him. When you were worried you’d miss your flight because of the long lines at security, who zipped passed you in 2 minutes? Thats’ him.

You didn’t see him in the departure hall when your flight was delayed for two hours, but when you finally started boarding hoping for a bit of space left in the overhead compartment, he cut right in front of you again. That’s him, he was too busy enjoying free gin & tonics in the lounge. And when you finally arrive at your destination waiting for your luggage to come out, whose comes out first? Of course, his, with a flashy red “Priority” tag attached to it.

Yep, frequent flyers get all the perks. But there’s one tradeoff, they fly a lot. Take Miles & More, the largest frequent flyer programme in Europe, they’ll make you fly at least 35 000 miles to enjoy some of these benefits at Star Alliance Silver level or 100 000 miles at Star Alliance Gold level. I don’t fly that much, and chances are neither do you.

The good news is: you don’t have to, thanks to Aegean Airlines. This little Greek airline is one of the newer additions to Star Alliance. Their own frequent flyer programme is called Miles & Bonus and they’re much more generous than most of their Star Alliance siblings. At only 4 000 miles you’ll get the Blue Card, which equates to Star Alliance Silver; another 16 000 miles more and you’ll get the Gold Card, which equates to Star Alliance Gold.

That’s right, 80 000 miles less then what you would have to fly if you were using Miles & More. Here are some of the benefits you’ll get with the Gold Card:

• Priority check-in
• Additional baggage allowance
• Fast lane through security
• Priority boarding
• Airport lounge access
• Priority baggage handling
• and more …

You can find the full list of Gold card privileges and Blue card privileges here. If you think 16 000 miles is still a lot. Signing up gets you 1 000 miles to start off with. If you book your hotels through this link - which is basically a portal to booking.com - you will earn 1 mile per Euro spent. Last year I flew to Las Vegas which landed me 12 000 miles. All this should get you well on your way to Star Alliance Gold. See you in the lounge!