A big thank you to everyone for rapid and informative advice. It really showed me the value of FlyerTalk. I hope I can return the favor some day. I just finished booking the flights from SIN to PVG and back, and will look into hotels. I like the idea of being in the middle of the thriving part of the city.

Luckily am going to be doing all of the Asian flights on SQ, so I will be taken care of....

Thanks, transpac, for reminding me about the visa. I am going to get moving on that, as my current passport is full, and so I will need to get the extra pages added before I can get the visa.

As far as using the trip to make Senator at LH M+M...sounds like an excellent idea. What would it mean in terms of being able to upgrade internationally next year?