MaldivesFreak

We feel the same way.

Yes. I think we might be going over the 10K before tax mark on the 20-day part of our stay thanks to the upgrade to a FWV so we may have to look at breaking it into 3 parts, i.e; 10 / 10 / 15 or something like that.

alanslegal

Did you get DWV #346 on the Friday? If you did, we just checked out of that villa

MaldivesFreak

According to the latest review, the sub is in operation.

The review is for his stay September last year. Can anyone there now confirm the sub has been fixed?

MaldivesFreak

Interesting. Thanks for the link. Made a few enquiries and here's the lowdown.....and unfortunately it's pretty low, as in bottom-of-the-barrel low;

Let's take the Merchants Bank as an example as we already have a card with them so we called them first. There are 2 cards with this bank which will give you Gold status and BTW it's not the Platinum card, it's the gold and green ones. Go figure. This page details all the benefits that they give for Hilton Gold status. In this case the benefits are exactly the same as for TROTW.
They have pretty hefty yearly fees (for China at least, as normal CCs here have no yearly fees and the ones that do are only about $10/yr and can be negated with just a few low-value swipes per year) but that's not the problem. The problem is that for every $2 spent they give you.....wait for it.....one whole Hilton point! Awesome, huh! Half a point per dollar spent. What a joke. As an example we just swiped one of our cards with that same bank and spent RMB20,000, the equivalent of roughly $2900, and we would've earned a measly 1450 Hilton Honors points. Oh but wait.....it wouldn't have qualified because it was part deposit on the purchase of a new vehicle so bye bye to those 1500 points. And if you spend less than RMB20 on a single transaction you won't earn anything. In other words, any single transaction less than $3 will earn you zip. A small thing but it would add up considering the population and cost of living here. As an example, lunch can cost you only a dollar fifty or two dollars in some places.

The CSR said these cards have been in China for something like 5 years but that's not true. I think she was confused about the Hilton branded cards. About 18 months or 2 years ago I called Amex and they didn't have any banks issuing Hilton cards in mainland China. You had to go to Hong Kong (and be a resident of Hong Kong) to get one. Nevertheless the rest of what she said was true which makes these cards practically worthless for manufacturing points.

lhrhappy

@MaldivesFreak my own ignorance prevents me from being able to read that link, unfortunately, but do any of their cards automatically grant status like the US versions? It could be worth just paying the AF every year to have Gold.

SponsorSFC

MaldivesFreak if you have or can get a Visa Infinite Card they have a promo for Gold with 2 stays or 4 nights for Asia Pacific card holders which includes China.

https://www.visa-promotions.com/prom...privacy_en.jsp

Google translate tells me this is the list of banks that offer Visa Infinite cards in China.

http://www.visa.com.cn/infinite/

Hope that helps.

llfoster

Sorry we missed you ! Got #343 - requested either 348 or 343, so we were lucky to be assigned an end villa. Enjoying our stay.


MaldivesFreak - I'll ask Ali about status of sub....

ghandi1980

So I'm debating between Conrad and Park Hyatt properties. Can you guys help me decide? The consensus seems to be that strictly on the rooms itself, PH wins. What is giving me pause is that I'm a diamond with Hilton but a lowly discoverist with PH so certainly won't get any upgrades.

What are your thoughts?

Additionally, I have exactly 380k Hilton points so I would get the 5th night free.

goliath

I can't compare the two, but even as a Diamond, don't count on any free upgrades at the Conrad.

llfoster

We checked with Ocean Sports (Ali, etc) at the water sports hut. They said that they do not operate or mange the sub However we were told that the sub is still out of commission and that it is difficult to maintain/repair.

alanslegal

Glad you got your preferred villa and enjoying your return visit

We did ask for a later check out but was knocked back and had to leave at midday. Housekeeping were very keen to kick us out as well, popping by at 11:50 to see if we were already out of there, then at 12:03 they came again. My watch might have been a few minutes out so the timing is moot point. My point is in my many hundreds of nights in any hotel rooms etc I have never had housekeeping so eager to for a guest to leave a room. Oh I should add, at 12:03 there was a single bed already at our door, ready for the next guest.

alanslegal

If you have no other planned use for your points, then 5 free nights at this Conrad is a good deal; if you are travelling in high season, then it is even a better deal

MaldivesFreak

Thanks for that. Enjoy your stay!

MaldivesFreak

There's also the size of the resort and F&B options to consider. The PH is a much smaller resort and some folks prefer that. On the other hand there are only 2 restaurants to dine at. If you're planning on, say, a 5-night stay, then at the PH you will pretty much have to dine in two locations twice each for dinner (and the 5th night you'd have to do one of those restaurants again, IVD(in-villa dining) or a private beach dinner which will cost an arm and a leg like it does at practically every resort).....first world problem for foodies, I know but it's relevant when you're comparing it to Rangali, at which you will still not have the opportunity to dine at every outlet even if you stay twice as long as your current amount of points will get you. And I agree totally with alanslegal when he says that using them in high season is one of the best deals you will ever get, anywhere. If food and dining choices (not only the size of, and what's on the menus, but choice of location and ambience too) are going to be an important part of your trip, and you feel the F&B options at the PH will keep your interest over the 5 nights, I suggest getting hold of copies of the menus of The Dining Room and The Island Grill, IVD (if that's your cup of tea) and the beach dinners and see whether the menu items and choices will be enough for you.

MaldivesFreak

Thanks very much for the links. I will have a look and see if there are indeed some tied to HHonors.


Yes, the 2 I mentioned do. There are probably more banks that are issuing Hilton Amex cards as well. We called the Bank of China (the main bank here) but the CSR wasn't sure about Hilton cards which isn't surprising as they're fairly new and they probably haven't been briefed yet. My account is usually at Diamond (or sometimes Gold) but we're in saving mode now and it has gone down to Silver. Only needs 2K of spend to get back up to Gold but if for some reason that doesn't happen by TEOTY I may indeed make use of a card to save us a couple K on breakfast next year.