First churn; Looking for hotel points in Japan/Taiwan
Feb 2, 2012, 10:22 pm
#16
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: SEA
Posts: 2,556
http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/promotio...an/index.jhtml
Feb 2, 2012, 10:50 pm
#17
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 297
Skymark is acceptable and if I am paying for flights I fly them exclusively, but I hate flying to and from Okinawa, a 3 hour flight to almost anywhere, in their tiny, cramped seats and having to pay for everything. I'm 6'5" and it's just excruciatingly painful. I do love them as a business, but I'd wish they'd do like Air Asia and offer their emergency exit row and front seats up for a few hundred yen extra. I also hate that some routes you literally have to sit with a stop watch and wait to get the webwari21 pricing. Luckily JAL has lowered prices on a few routes to stay competitive with Skymark, which is great, since you also earn miles on those routes.
I also have a family of 5, so getting us around even at Skymark's prices is expensive, while one credit card application gets me the needed miles to go anywhere in Japan as a family. Okinawa is seriously more expensive to fly to and from than nearly any other destination in Japan as well as flying to and from Korea. It's absurd!
I also have a family of 5, so getting us around even at Skymark's prices is expensive, while one credit card application gets me the needed miles to go anywhere in Japan as a family. Okinawa is seriously more expensive to fly to and from than nearly any other destination in Japan as well as flying to and from Korea. It's absurd!
Yeah, I'm glad that JAL is atleast feeling the pressure some from Skymark. Anything that makes them lower their exorbitant prices is a win in my book.
Feb 2, 2012, 10:55 pm
#18
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 297
More of the same comments:
The Western-based chain hotels don't have good representation in Japan and especially Taiwan. You are better off looking for a local brand and paying money. E.g. The only ICH hotels in Tokyo are Intercontinentals, which cost 40,000 points. With the best credit card offer, you get 2 nights. Is that worth your effort? Would you otherwise spend the equivalent of $250/night for a hotel room? A half decent 3* room in the same region would easily cost under $150.
Also, regarding burning skymiles (and other airline miles) in Asia - be aware of foreign destination charges. I.e. Delta charges very reasonable tax/airport charges for USA-originating flights. However, for flights originating in other countries, the cost is extremely high, and you are often better off buying a cash ticket...
Considering the effort to "earn" points in NA, and the "cost" of using them in Japan/Taiwan, you are better off picking the best/economical hotel stay at home and paying cash for hotels in Japan/Taiwan...
The Western-based chain hotels don't have good representation in Japan and especially Taiwan. You are better off looking for a local brand and paying money. E.g. The only ICH hotels in Tokyo are Intercontinentals, which cost 40,000 points. With the best credit card offer, you get 2 nights. Is that worth your effort? Would you otherwise spend the equivalent of $250/night for a hotel room? A half decent 3* room in the same region would easily cost under $150.
Also, regarding burning skymiles (and other airline miles) in Asia - be aware of foreign destination charges. I.e. Delta charges very reasonable tax/airport charges for USA-originating flights. However, for flights originating in other countries, the cost is extremely high, and you are often better off buying a cash ticket...
Considering the effort to "earn" points in NA, and the "cost" of using them in Japan/Taiwan, you are better off picking the best/economical hotel stay at home and paying cash for hotels in Japan/Taiwan...
Plug my dates and destination in to the following 4 websites: Agoda, Rakuten, Hotels.com, and Japanican. Find the cheapest hotel or best value between the 4 search sites. Book it.
It's amazing to me how the sites differ on the same hotels. I've been able to snag awesome deals on Rakuten at points, and other times, it has been WAYYY more expensive. Sometimes, Hotels.com is running a 50% of sale and I'm looking at a place for 6,000 yen that is going for 12,000 on all the other 3 sites.
So it pays to check all 4. All else being even, I book with hotels.com because atleast I get credited for a nights stay and after 10, get 1 free night (basically 10% off).
And yeah, burning points on hotels in Japan just doesn't seem worth it to me, especially when, in a pinch, you can find cheap ryokans or capsules if you are really desperate. I'll save the hotel points for something better.
Feb 3, 2012, 10:01 am
#19
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,932
And others: Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Narita - a total of nine Hiltons in Japan.
http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/promotio...an/index.jhtml
http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/promotio...an/index.jhtml
If you go to the bottom of the HHonors webpage and select "other regions" at the bottom left, then you get this page:
http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/..._Dest/index.do
which claims you can get "Locate Hotels and Hot Spots by Region". Most of it is US, when at the bottom right it says "Outside the U.S." Expanding Asia, it only lists 6 cities, and Tokyo is the only one in Japan, which is why I thought that's all they had.
Why in the world on a page that says "locate hotels" when you click on Asia can you not get a list of all their hotels in Asia???
(How many other people may have made this mistake and given up on Hilton HHonors, thinking they had few properties in Asia?)
Relooking carefully at what I did, I guess I was going through a list of "top hotels" rather than "all hotels". But without reading every page left to right, top to bottom, it sure looked to me (based on other hotel program sites) that I was going to a hotel diretory.
Feb 3, 2012, 10:12 am
#20
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: PC Plat RA, SPG Gold, AS MVPG
Posts: 811
I have the AMEX SPG, and I thoguht the Westin properties were pretty nice for 10K points a night at both Kyoto and Tokyo.
They're not the 'super luxory' type hotels, so if you're looking at honeymoon, then they're probably not the best.. great for basic travel/vacation tho.
They're not the 'super luxory' type hotels, so if you're looking at honeymoon, then they're probably not the best.. great for basic travel/vacation tho.