cruisr

If anyone is interested in booking with one of these SPG specialists there is a thread on FT that will give you some FT members that can book it. There are a number of full time, experienced and professional Virtuoso agents here on FT that I would look to instead of Ford.

flashware

Reading the comments on the Amasara review has made my day. Gold! (digger?)

TheBOSman

Deleted

flashware

Just having a poke at some of the comments re: Ford. As a comment there rightly points out, given Ford's holidays when growing up I don't think he's short of a few quid.

AAExPlat

OMG. Just checked it out based on your post. Lol.

Ford

84fiero

Entertaining comments on that one - sort of open warfare between the two reader "camps".

His post didn't do much to sell me on the place. Initially the post touts the great value - how Ben is all about value, value, value (kinda thought I was reading an ad for a used car salesman at first). While Ford talks about the nice amenities of the resort, it didn't really speak to how or why the experience constituted a great value for the money...rather he mostly just waxed poetic about a handful of nice, but fairly minor service touches.

Ford's attempts at using big words are always comical though.

TheBOSman

For $1500-2000 a night, especially in an area with a relatively low employee cost base, everything had better be perfect IMO. Every. Single. Thing.

FWIW when I went to Siem Reap I stayed at a quite nice place that was quiet and off the main activity areas (I wanted this) and was a heck of a lot cheaper than the Amansara with great service overall, and (for whatever little it is worth) is ranked higher on TA than the PH, the Amansara, OR the Le Meridien.

cruisr

I wonder what our friends over on the Aman threads on the FT luxury hotel board will think about Ford's post? Not much, me thinks. Very funny comments section though. Thanks for the heads up.

AAerSTL

The glowing UA GF review is up. Amazing he acts blown away and had amazing service, seat comfort, etc. The sUA LAX base is small and known to provide great service and I'm guessing he got 'lucky' having a great crew. I would never order seafood but seems a bit much that he is awe with the food onboard...

cruisr

I am a 1k and have flown GF over water too many times then I like to think about and probably more then Ben. I never, ever experienced anything that blew me away. Perhaps he contacted someone at UA to let them know he wants to do a glowing review and get back in their good graces.

AAerSTL

Of course he is. He used to be such a staunch UA FF, and there was even a blog post March-May 2011 timeframe describing his EP challenge as opportunist and that UA remained his primary carrier. Granted this was when AA challenges for EP were rare/non-existent (you had to contact the executive offices and IIRC had to be an established UA 1K, they surely weren't matching US CP or the then new DL DM).

Surprising between 2008-11 he didn't get a chance to fly this product.

kokonutz

UAGF = Premium Business.

Any other description is a lie.

cruisr

Agreed. They should not even be allowed to use the word First in any context having to do with a front cabin.

TheBOSman

Sure they can. Advertise it as "be the First to get off this forsaken aircraft upon arrival! Stick it in the face of $MI/J!"

HadesNL

Today's post about Iberia introducing premium economy made me think how Ben and other bloggers must think of the "pleb" economy passenger. And it's not actually this post but i've seen him lament at every post that lowers the business class seat count.

Quote: "It’s also unfortunate that premium economy capacity will come entirely at the expense of business class seats, which isn’t good news for business class award availability"

Never mind Y has a breath of escape to W - if you really need C pay up for it and don't be a the mercy of the wheel of upgrade misfortune) or if you wish to snag that business award be smart and hit the refreshbutton endlessly when award availability window opens.

Which brings me to a thought: (not leadering) are there that many business / luxury travellers that need award tickets for their business/holiday journey last minute (T-24hours) and are impacted by every airline adding premium economy while cutting down some business seats so restricting lastminute business award seats?

Or a most people able to book their business awards tickets at the availability window T-355 // T-14days for their business / holiday travels?

Personally i buy for holidays cheap restrictive business tickets / use miles for an award ticket if i know traveldates are set in stone, and it's a same carrier flight by pure orgin-(transfer)-destination. I buy flexible when things do change such dependence cruiseship port of arrival/weather delays or multi/carrier tickets. The hassle of having an award ticket is that sometimes online changes are not possible or giving wrong options and when phoning the callcentre it is dependent on incompetence and hours of operation.

- Rant off -
Back on topic:
The Aman topic hit the 99 comments, generating pageviews and smiles and tears abound. Still amazing though he's not moderating but then again you can say freedom of speech or just smart sensationialism