stimpy

I often see Star Alliance and Oneworld RTW trip reports here, but rarely if ever (?) a Skyteam RTW report. So I thought I’d come out of trip report retirement and create one in case anyone is interested. Plus the timing was good as we had just completed the greatest Flyertalk Do ever (possibly biased opinion) as you can read about here. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-f...pr26-27-a.html

After checking out of the Do at CDG, I went back to my suite at the Sheraton CDG. I was in a suite for the first time ever there. I’ve been staying at this hotel several times a year for about 15 years. Back even before Starwood existed. And I have never seen a suite. I am upgraded 100% of the time to a normal Club room. That’s always nice, but I thought I would never see a suite. But now with Starwood’s new suite program I was able to use two of my suite awards at this hotel and finally try a suite out. Online it said I was in a junior suite, but at check in I was given a Club Suite which is right next to the Club and I think the best room in the hotel. Maybe it was because I flashed my new metal Starwood Lifetime Platinum card at check in. The suite was spacious and very Ikea. Nice wood floors and furnishings. The only problem was that there was no electrical outlet at the desk. This was weird since all the Club rooms have a full set of power outlets for US, UK and Europe. The Club was recently renovated and is much nicer and more spacious. They had better food at happy hour too.

Before checking out I had a nice buffet lunch with olivedel and nicolas75 in the Sheraton Brasserie, talking about the Do and our upcoming travels. After check out I went to the lesser of the AF CDG 2E lounges, had a drink and waited for my flight to ATL. At the CDG Do we were shown the new S4 terminal which looks great and is promised to have a huge lounge with hot food. We were also promised new business and first class seats in 2014 which would rival SQ’s product. That all sounded exciting, but I was instantly brought down to earth in the poor lounge I was sitting in and the poor slanted seat that I sat in after boarding the B777 AF680. I think it was the new NEV 4 seat which some people like, but to me slanted is slanted.

I had decided to purchase a RTW since I had two business long haul trips planned and a RTW is only about €1000 more than two biz tickets. And I really needed to get to LA for personal reasons. So it all made sense and I was able to get an unplanned meeting in Singapore and have a little R&R in good old Bangkok. Not to mention a ton of miles earned and an easy renewal for yet another year of Flying Blue Platinum. So I booked the Skyteam business class RTW with AF. AF has improved a lot with RTW’s as they now have a special email address which you get when you use the RTW planner on skyteam.com. After emailing my initial itinerary I was contacted by a very nice AF agent who works in Lille and we went back and forth by email and phone finalizing the itinerary. The total was €6699 and after taxes and fuel surcharges it came to €7500.

Back to the flight, I can’t say much more other than the food was decent and as always AF has a nice film selection, showing American, British and French films. And the crew was very good and professional as always.

At ATL I made one last trip through the horrible international arrival system they have which requires you to go through security screening again since you are entering the departure area. I was one of the last to experience this mess as the new International terminal at ATL should be open by now. I made my way to the hotel shuttle area and took a ride to the Crowne Plaza ATL. At check in I was given 3 drink coupons and a breakfast coupon. I never used the breakfast coupon because the bartender made my drinks soooooo heavy I nearly overslept my flight the next morning.

But the shuttle is quite good and I made it back to ATL on time. I went to the SkyClub in A which is always busy, had some OJ and later went to the gate for BDA. I was in 1A of course and I was the only one wearing business clothes. I think just about everyone else was either Bermudan or going there on vacation. The crew was ok and they offered me Chicken Salad or Pasta Salad. I said, “so it’s salad or salad?” which got more of a sigh than a laugh. The food was OK and they have plenty of booze on board so the flight passed quickly. I tried watching the film Mission Impossible for a bit, but the quality of the tape was poor and the screen wasn’t great so I gave up. Why in this day and age do US airlines still use video tape? All the international airlines use DVD’s I think. As we pulled up to our gate I could see an old L-1011 parked next to us, painted up as Bermudan Royal Airforce. I remarked to the FA that it was an old Lockheed but she insisted it was a DC-10. When the pilot came out of the cabin he settled the bet in my favor. DL used to have a lot of these L-1011’s Tri-stars! And she was an old FA so she should have known better.

Although I normally stay at the Newstead Belmont, which is the best hotel in or near Hamilton, it was sold out so I stayed at a place down the road called the Wharf. It’s like a US Holiday Inn, but it costs $300 per night! I thought that was a bit much especially since I was the only guest in the hotel for the first couple of nights. But it’s pleasant enough as I had a nice balcony on the water and free WiFi. There was no restaurant so I had to walk up the hill to Upper Ridge where I found a very nice, but expensive takeout Indian curry shop. $17 for a lamb korma! It tasted great anyways.

The next day I played golf with my client at Tuckers Point. This is a very nice track with awesome ocean views. The hotel there is Rosewood managed and everything is superb. During the week it was work, work, work, but Friday afternoon we played Port Royal where they hold the PGA Grand Slam. That too is an incredible course with stunning views.

The last thing I did was purchase a pack of mini-Montechristos habanos to enjoy on the rest of my trip. Then I cabbed it to the airport where I got back on DL for the flight to ATL. It was the same as the flight over, I was in 1A again and the only interesting thing was that the couple who sat across from me on the way over was there again on the way back. What are the odds?

Since US Immigration operates at BDA I arrived as a domestic passenger and didn’t have to clear security again. I made my way directly to MARTA. As they say, MARTA is schmarta. I went all the way to the Buckhead stop which is across the street from the excellent Intercontinental Atlanta. The first thing I noticed was that the lobby bar is called the Bourbon Bar. It was quite busy and after looking at the menu I decided that this place has the finest and most extensive selection of American Whiskey in the world. But first I needed to check in. As an IC Royal Ambassador I was given an upgrade to a Club room which was nicely appointed and just a few steps from the Club itself. The Club was very busy too and had some decent eats. The next morning I had breakfast there which was also good and did some shopping at the nearby Lenox mall. The hotel drove me over and back in their Escalade house car which saved me from the 30 degree (89F) Atlanta heat. Otherwise I could have easily walked over.

I was given 4pm check out and a friend drove me over to the airport where I sat again in the A SkyClub waiting for my flight to LAX. Fortunately it was a 767 with 2 x 2 x 2 seating, albeit upright seats. No beds on DL domestic, eh? At the gate I was shocked by what I saw on the monitor. It shows the business class standby list which had 50 entries! 50 elites were waiting in vain for an upgrade. The flight I was on had continuing service to SYD and a lot of the people in the business cabin were going to SYD thus there were simply no seats available for upgrade. Thankfully I was again in 1A and didn’t have to stress about sitting on a 4 hour totally packed flight in economy. There was a big guy sitting near me complaining bitterly to the FA about the fact that the business class seats didn’t recline into beds. @:-)

At LAX I found the Crowne Plaza shuttle, went to the hotel and quickly passed out. In the morning I checked out, left my bags with the bellman and walked over to Avis. I had been upgraded to a Lincoln MKT SUV. It took me several minutes to figure out all the controls, Bluetooth-pair my Iphone to the car, plug in my Iphone to the media center to play podcasts, adjust the climate control, etc. I drove back to the CP, got my bags and drove off to meetings. Later I went to the Crowne Plaza San Pedro which not too long ago was the Sheraton San Pedro. Amazingly I was given the same exact upgrade to a large King Corner Suite as Priority Club Platinum , that I received previously as Starwood Platinum. Room 932. Who says SPG is better than PC? I highly recommend this room. You have wrap around views of the port, the sea and San Pedro. After a two night stay I took a copy of my bill and walked across the street to the post office. There I mailed the bill along with my promo registration form to IHG. This was to complete the mid-week two night PC promo to get a $50 Mastercard gift card. So that will be a nice thing to receive in the mail in 6-8 weeks.

I then drove back to Avis LAX. With Presidents Club service I switched to the passenger seat and someone jumped in to drive me to TBIT to board the KE A380 to ICN. Or so I thought. Let me go back a day where I visited the Korean Air ticket office on Wilshire near downtown LA. I went to ask if there was some way I could upgrade to First class on the A380. I’ve done first on EK’s A380, as well as business class on SQ and AF several times. So I really wanted to see what KE had done. The agent told me however that since my ticket was issued on AF stock, there was no way I could upgrade. Not for love, nor money, nor miles. I was disappointed since I’ve upgraded on TG several times even though I was on a UA RTW, but no dice with KE. However she told me that there were 36 empty business class seats on my A380, as well as 7 empty F seats. Smash-cut to my check in at LAX where they told me that my A380 had been subbed out for a 747!! And they claimed that everyone was told this 2 days ago!!! And this 747 had the crappy old non-flat business class seats!!! And to make matters worse, my connecting flight to SIN which was supposed to have flat seats must have been subbed out to a different 777 which also had the crappy old seats!! So I was faced with 22 hours of travel with no sleep. I was supremely pissed off and let them know it. They said the A380 would fly again in a couple days and I said change my ticket. I don’t want to take this flight today. They got all upset and said that there would be a change fee and I said, this is YOUR FAULT and there should not be any change fee. This was such a sudden hit though and I hadn’t thought it through. It was too late for me to change as I had meetings lined up. However if they had told me, or even told their own agent two days ago I could have made the change. As it was, finding out at the last minute I really had no choice but to take the flight. After all my complaining I thought I would at least get an upgrade to F on the 747, but no. And yet they upgraded a lot of economy passengers to business class due to the swap out! But no upgrades to F as there were still a few empty seats in biz. I was really disappointed and I won’t be flying KE again anytime soon as I found their operation to be less than professional.

On board the flight crew was fine and the food was great. But I was exhausted upon arrival at ICN, and facing another long flight to SIN. I went to the KE biz lounge which was quite a walk out of the way, had some soup, did some email, then quickly walked back to the other end of the terminal to my flight. I think I must have slept an hour or two out of sheer exhaustion. I did the trick of extending the seat belt as long as it goes and putting it under my butt like a sling. That way I didn’t slide down the slanted seat. I learned that long ago on countless LH, KL and AF flights. This is why I fly BA so often.

At SIN I got some cash from the ATM and went over to the taxi queue. There were maybe 20 people ahead of me and as it was around midnight there weren't many taxis. The queue manager said there was a $5 taxi available if anyone wanted it now. I realized he meant that you pay $5 as the starting price, plus the meter. I was tired so I took it and it was a comfy Chrysler 300. We quickly made our way to Bugis and the Intercontinental Singapore. This is one of my favorite hotels because of the neighborhood. I’ve stayed here countless times over many years and I still walk across the street to the famous duck rice stall where the price has skyrocketed to S$4. I remember when it was S$3. It’s been several years since I was last in Singapore so I was heartened to find that all my usual haunts hadn’t changed. Except one. I used to love going to the Harry’s at Boat Quay for live jazz most every night. But Harry’s has done away with Jazz which is very disappointing.

The IC has a new Club which is super nice and much larger. They must have spent a million on the chairs alone. Fine Peranakan design everywhere. Lots more staff too all of whom were very nice and gracious. Long ago this hotel would always upgrade RA’s to Club, but when RA became more popular, thanks to Flyertalk I think, the IC SIN became swamped with RA’s. So they changed the policy after they renovated about 7 years ago I think. From that point on I was never given Club, but always, and I mean always, given an upgrade to one of the L suites. I think I had 20 stays straight were I got one of two L Suites. I never minded much since I prefer eating out in Singapore, but this time things were swapped. For the first time I didn’t get a suite. I was given a King Club instead. The room was fine and nicely appointed. The only problem was the internet which was very poor for such an expensive hotel. I was given a choice of breakfast in the club or in the restaurant, but I chose Club to keep it simple. Plus there is free WiFi throughout the Club. They also offered me free pressing for 3 garments and 20% off laundry.

I met Yosithezet and Eightblack for a beer while in town for some nice travel talk. It’s always a rare pleasure to sit down with someone who leads a similar crazy life to my own.

After a couple days I took a taxi back to SIN T3 and checked in with VN for my flight to SGN, connecting to BKK. I was given a lounge card for the Premier lounge which was quite nice and had a decent selection of hot SE Asian food. Boarding the VN A321 I was in 2A since they hold the first row for infants. I could have changed at check in, but it wasn’t worth the bother. VN has large 2 x 2 seating with American style First class seats. The food and service was great. I’ve seen complaints about VN on Flyertalk, but I thought they were excellent all the way around. The VN lounges at SGN are very nice with plenty of large comfy seats and decent food. They offer great views of the runway and apron so I was entertained for a couple hours til it was time to board another A321 to BKK. It was extra entertaining with the lightning storms that passed through. The only problem with VN I found was that they not only don’t give out fast track immigration passes for BKK, I couldn’t even find someone who understood the concept of fast track immigration! However I found upon arrival at BKK that they have installed a new queue management system of sorts which is a big improvement on the old way. But it’s still a bit chaotic and I had to wait 15-20 minutes to get through. I went quickly to an ATM for some Baht and climbed the stairs to Departures, walked out, and grabbed a taxi who would accept meter, as experienced travelers to Thailand all do.

200 baht later I checked in at the Holiday Inn Bangkok where I spent a total of 10,000 PC points for two nights. Pointbreaks baby! I was upgraded to a Superior room which was very nice. This is in the top two of Holiday Inn’s worldwide IME along with the HI Sandton. It was about 7pm on a Saturday night in Bangkok. Hit the town, right? Wrong! 7pm is far too early. So I went to sleep, woke at midnight and enjoyed the best time in Bangkok. My favorite activity on my first night in Bangkok is go down Sukhumvit road right near Nana Plaza, then find a seat at one of the bars on wheels, grab a Chang and watch the world go by. The things you see after midnight are far more entertaining than anything Hollywood can produce. It also resets my brain and reminds me of where I am and what Bangkok is. I also love joking around with the WG’s and Katoeys and laughing at fat drunken westerners stumbling by. It’s a refreshing feeling having your first beer when most everyone around you is sloppy drunk.

After a couple days at the HI I woke early and walked across the driveway at 8:00am to the Intercontinental Bangkok to use my RA 8:00 check in guaranteed benefit. My upgraded Club King was ready and I was able to get breakfast in the Club. Service was excellent throughout the stay as was the free mini-bar complete with large 200ml bottles of booze. I was given an extra-late checkout at 6:00pm so I effectively got 2.5 days for the price of 2.
After a few more hours in the bars I then took a taxi to BKK and checked in for my KQ flight to NBO complete with a Premium fast track pass for security/border control. I had one of the 200ml bottles of alcohol in my carry-on and sure enough BKK security didn’t spot it or didn’t care.

The Premium fast track pass is vital when flying out of BKK at busy times. I saw a huge line for the masses, but I slipped through the Premium/Air Crew security and border control in just a few minutes. I was also given an invitation to the AF/KL/Skyteam lounge which is ok and thankfully wasn’t too crowded.

KQ 887 is scheduled to leave at 00:35 but when I arrived at the airport it said it was delayed to 01:00. The plane comes in from CAN and continues to NBO and maybe it was late. Or maybe they purposely delayed the flight due to favorable winds and didn’t want to arrive too early. As it was we arrived right on time even though we weren’t in the air til 01:30. There were some nice things on the menu, but I and most everyone else in the business cabin chose to sleep instead of eat after midnight. KQ has fully flat seats on their 777-200’s so I slept for about 5 hours or so and then watched a movie. They served breakfast around 4am Kenya time, which was 8am Bangkok time so most people were hungry and the food was good. We were given fast track arrival passes, but I didn’t see any special queues at immigration. KQ holds up the economy cabin for disembarking, as most good airlines do, until business class has left. I made it ahead of the hordes and found no lines at the border control. However immigration was a bit unpleasant as my multi-entry visa had expired and you cannot get those renewed at the airport. So I had to buy a single entry visa and they raised that fee recently from $25 to $50.

I had the Intercontinental Nairobi arrange a car for me so I was out of the airport and on the road in less than 20 minutes from arrival. This is critical when you arrive at 6:00 because by 7:00am the traffic starts to really get bad. Fortunately I beat the traffic and enjoyed the great RA benefit of guaranteed 8:00am check in. And again a nice breakfast in the club. I had booked a Superior room and was upgraded to a suite with club access. The suites here are actually two full sized rooms connected by a hallway so I had loads of space and two complimentary mini-bars. They have really improved the mini-bars since my last stay! The mini-bar used to be pretty poor here but now I’d say it’s about mid-tier as IC’s go. At happy hour the Club was busy as usual and had the usual nice food items. I never need to go to dinner when I stay here as I get a full meal in the club every time. And I hardly needed the mini-bar as there are free flowing drinks in the Club. Also I got a RA gift of decorative African napkin holders, an Ambassador lapel pin, a bottle of Chilean Cab, and fruit. Later on Friday night I walked over to Simmers which is a fun bar with great African music. Always a fun time. ^

After a good visit in Nairobi, I made the early trek to the airport for my flight to AMS. Not too early though as it always makes sense to arrive as close to departure time as possible at NBO, assuming you only have carry-on luggage and PYOBP. The lines are too long if you get there 2 hours early, but if you arrive about 40 minutes before your flight there are usually no lines at all. This is true for early morning and late night departures. In the middle of the day there usually aren’t many lines at all because the big jumbo jets can’t deal with NBO’s altitude at mid-day.

KQ has for years had flat seats on a B777-200 on this flight, and yet to this day the “senior” Flying Blue airlines AF and KL still have the terrible slanty seats in business class. Thus I’ve taken this NBO-AMS flight many times and the service and food are always great. I usually like glancing out the window as we cruise over the Sahara and sometimes over Libya and the Tunisian coast. However the routing over Libya has been blocked for some reason for a year or so now. So we stayed right and flew over western Egypt before turning left towards AMS. I thought the airspace was to have opened back in February, but for whatever reason the airshow displayed us traveling over Egypt.

We arrived on time at AMS and had the usual display of passports on the airbridge that the police demand for incoming African flights. White people just get waved in, black and brown people get a quick question or two and a search for their visa. Then you go to the actual immigration where they were terribly officious that day and took several minutes per person. I think a jumbo from Brazil must have landed ahead of us because there were a lot of Brazilians in line. After a long wait in line I finally made it through and trekked over to Avis to pick up a car.

I always rent the cheapest car they have here and I am always upgraded to a huge station wagon. There is absolutely no point in paying for a large car at AMS, assuming you are elite with the rental company. They just have too many wagons. And this particular Avis never upgrades to a nice Mercedes like some of the local Avis shops do in the Netherlands. This time I got an Opel wagon, albeit one with turbo. Amazingly the weather was the same in Amsterdam as it was in Nairobi! Sunny, beautiful and 22 degrees. When does that ever happen?

On the way out of Holland, I had an early morning flight so I stayed at the Sheraton AMS which is the only choice for an early flight as you just stumble out of bed and walk over to your gate. Which I did after a nice breakfast in the club room. This hotel is also usually available with Cash & Points which is a nice savings. So I paid about €75 for the room, plus some points.

I made my way through the elite security line and to the Crowne Club for another quick bite and then off to the gate for my AF A318 to LYS. They block the middle seat in business class on Euro flights, plus the seat opposite of that was empty so I had plenty of space. Other than that the rest of business class was full which is nice to see for AF. The purser was excellent as usual and it was a quick flight to LYS where we found the weather to be terrible. Cold and wet in France, warm and sunny in Holland. What’s up with that? I made my way to the Rhone Express tram to the city, then a train home.

The End

akersnl

There must be some sort of problem. Your pictures aren't loading.

stimpy

Sorry, I'm not a shutterbug. But here is a nice image for frequent flyers....

yosithezet

Great report. Good to meet you! Tried to find the duck rice place yesterday but got all turned around and gave up.

stimpy

It's right across from the IC and the mall. Go into Bugis Junction, walk over to where you are facing the IC, turn to your left and walk out the door and the famous Yu Kee food court is right across the street. You can see what it looks like here http://www.yukee.com.sg/

pepsii

Great read! Thanks for the tips and sharing !!!

macabus

Well done Stimpy!

You are indeed a travel guru with perfectly-timed hotel check-ins, suite upgrades and flat-bed business seats.

Keep up the good work.

olivedel

Holy c**p!, Congrats stimpy!
You forgot the nice lunch we had at the Sheraton with nicolas75 before you left for your ATL flight

Thanks for the report, we should do a ST RTW Do !

stimpy

Sorry I forgot to mention that! It's been edited now. And more ST Do's would be great, but I think a RTW Do would be impossible to organize.

stimpy

Thanks Macabus! I'm only sorry I couldn't match your Champagne efforts, but as I was only in business class it would not have gone down well. Literally.

Goldorak

Thank you Stimpy for this great TR
BTW, it's quite shocking to see that your flights in J on KQ and KE earn only 100% miles

Mynameismud

Nice read indeed, just missing a few pictures.

stimpy

It's actually 125%. The website is weird in how it shows partner miles. Look at the miles after the *** and you can see they are 25% of what is shown for 100%.

BDAgirl

Thanks for a good Trip Report.

Glad you got to play at Tuckers, it is indeed beautiful and the views are stunning. You also get a great view from the hotel towards BDA and the runway.