Tag Archives: StarAlliance

Kaligo and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles promotion

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Kaligo.com is running a new promotion targeting Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer members.

During the promotion period from 1st of October until 30th of November, KrisFlyer members can earn 18 KrisFlyer miles per S$1 spent on every hotel booking with Kaligo.com. 

The hotel stay has to be completed by 30 June 2018.

it’s additional 50% more miles compared to regular earnings of 12 KrisFlyer miles per S$1 spent.

I’m already rebooking some of my hotels stays with this promotion, as I recently started to accumulate Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles for the First Class trip between Singapore and Hong Kong.

Don’t forget to book with a credit card that earns miles.  For example with new Miles and More Mastercard, you can make a double dip, earn both Singaporean KrisFlyer and Lufthansa Miles and More miles within one booking!

You’ll need to register for this offer at www.kaligo.com/krisflyer-offer.

 

Promotional Terms and Conditions:

  1. To enjoy this offer, please register for the offer with your email at http://link.kaligo.com/krisflyer-offer and place your hotel bookings with your registered email during the Promotion Period: 1 October 2017 and 30 November 2017 inclusive. The hotel stay has to be completed by 30 June, 2018.
  2. Both new and existing Kaligo customers are eligible to qualify for this bonus offer.
  3. Eligible KrisFlyer members will receive an extra 50% KrisFlyer miles on top of the regular KrisFlyer miles earned on Kaligo. The regular KrisFlyer miles refers to at least 2.3 KrisFlyer miles per S$1 (equivalent to at least 3 KrisFlyer miles per US$1) spent that KrisFlyer members could earn on Kaligo.
  4. Bookings made under this Promotion will not qualify for Kaligo Affiliate Program commissions.
  5. KrisFlyer miles will be credited to your account within 4-6 weeks after the completion of the required hotel stays.
  6. We reserve the right to retract awarded miles if we suspect fraud, unauthorised stacking of bonuses, collecting multiple bonuses from the same hotel stay (defined as the same travelling party staying consecutive nights at the same hotel), technical errors, cancel/rebooking activity (defined by identical search criteria), or any other deceptive behaviour attempted to circumvent the limits expressed in these terms and conditions.
  7. You cannot use these offers in conjunction with any other promotional offers or apply them to existing bookings or retroactively apply them to hotel stays completed prior to registration.
  8. Kaligo reserves the right to terminate this bonus offer at any time and without notice.
  9. In case of any disputes, KrisFlyer and Kaligo reserve the right to make the final judgment and the decision of KrisFlyer and Kaligo shall be final.
  10. Please read Kaligo’s general Terms and Conditions carefully as they apply to all hotel bookings made through Kaligo.
  11. KrisFlyer’s terms and conditions apply.
  12. Visitors arriving to Kaligo from meta-search sites will not qualify for this bonus offer.

Kuala Lumpur airport lounges review: Plaza Premium, SilverKris and Royal Silk

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During my latest Crazy Trip of September, I had a chance to visit two StarAlliance Gold and one PriorityPass lounge in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL or KLIA).

My flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo/Narita was departing at 7-00, so during check-in, I got an invitation to contracted lounge Plaza Premium, which is the only lounge working during the night.  Singapore Airlines SilverKris and Thai Airways Royal Silk lounges were both opening only at 6-00.

The amazing part is, all three lounges are within 1-minute walk from each other and next to smoking lounge! If you have a long stopover, you can do lounge hopping entire day ;)!

Plaza Premium Lounge in Kuala Lumpur

If you are travelling business class or have elite status with any of the following airlines, and your “native” alliance lounge is not working, you shall get the invitation ticket at the check-in counter.  I could also access Plaza Premium Lounge using PriorityPass that I got after receiving American Express Platinum card.

At 5-00, when I entered the lounge, it was quite empty and only a few passengers were napping there. Closer to 6-00, when most of the airlines start flying, the lounge became much busier.

There is a dedicated bar, which serves coffee and alcoholic drinks.

There is a price list for alcoholic drinks, but I was told to show my boarding pass and got it for free. Not sure who is required to pay, my guess would be PriorityPass users.

The food options were limited to the salad bar, some chicken sausages, fried noodles and omelette.  Next to the food station are fridges with soft drinks. There was also a separated “bread” station with bread, pastries and butter/jams.  A bit later there were sushi rolls available.

Each seat has several power outlets, which is usually one of the biggest deficits in many lounges. WI-FI was working good, but I would expect worse performance during busy hours.

Jumping ahead, I think Plaza Premium is one of the best lounge options at Kuala Lumpur Airport among the ones in the review.  It has the widest food selection and bigger sitting area, Surely, before it gets completely packed during busy hours due to many partners being served.

Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge at KLIA

The second lounge I visited at Kuala Lumpur Airport was Singapore Airlines SilverKris. To be frank, I always prefer SilverKris lounge in Asia, if there is one available, to any other StarAlliance lounge. Clearly, the lounge can be accessed by anyone flying Singapore Airlines business class or StarAlliance Gold members. SilverKris lounge opened precisely at 6-00 and is located 1-minute walk from Plaza Premium lounge.

There were some premade salads stored in the fridge, four options of warm dishes, some bread and pastry, alcohol bar and soft drinks.

SilverKris lounge had a fridge with a few bottles of white wine and red wine available next to heavy alcohol, which is my main food in lounges 😉

The lounge is the smallest one in the review, mostly providing high tables and just a few rows of chairs, but once again, no issue with power outlets or WI-FI connection.

Thai Airways Royal Silk lounge In Kuala Lumpur

The last lounge I managed to visit very quickly was Thai Airways Royal Silk lounge, which is located right opposite Plaza Premium. It’s a bit more spacious than SilverKris, seem to have more comfortable chairs, tables in front of you, rather than on a side,  and decent working area.

The food selection was exactly the same as in KrisFlyer lounge, so there is not much to discuss here. The beverage selection is the same minus any sort of wines.

Thai Airways lounge was completely empty, while KrisFlyer was already getting busy at the time of my visit.

Bottom line

If you travel with StarAlliance Gold and want to have a glass of wine, head directly to Singaporean KrisFlyer lounge. If you don’t care about it and want nicer sitting area, the choice is Royal Silk lounge. Food is equal in both lounges, but Thai seems to be a bit quieter.

If you can access Plaza Premium lounge – there you find a wider food selection, but it can get very crowded and noisy.

Overall, Kuala Lumpur KLIA airport is a heaven for lounge hoppers!

SAS Travelers go West – USA campaign

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SAS is running a new campaign – Travelers go West, with very attractive prices on flights to the USA.

Book before October 2nd, travel between 15/11 2017 and 31/5 2018.

Travelers go West campaign covers most of SAS American destinations, like New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

I found a very interesting option, flying Malmo to Los Angeles and back from San Francisco to Malmo for about 350 euros. Try playing with Momondo and depart from a smaller airport, rather than Copenhagen, Stockholm or Oslo directly.

Another great option is new year dates for 650 euros, which is sick cheap given the high demand during those days.

It’s also a great opportunity to go on SAS EuroBonus mile run, as a round trip to San Francisco or Los Angeles would give around 8 000 SAS EuroBonus points.

The Great Singapore Airlines Getaway launches on 7 September 2017

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Singapore Airlines is launching 7 September 2017 “The Great Singapore Airlines Getaway”. Using the new offer is promising  great prices to great places, along with a bunch of great perks.

The Great Singapore Airlines Getaway perks

  • Double KrisFlyer miles with Rentalcars.com and Agoda.com bookings
  • S$10 KrisShop eVouchers for inflight duty-free shopping
  • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer members can also enjoy additional discounts on selected destinations

It would be interesting to see if The Great Singapore Airlines Getaway offers additional ways of earning KrisFlyer miles without actually flying Singapore Airlines. KrisFlyer miles is the best option to enjoy award winning Singapore Airlines first class, including first class suites.

Will keep updated when The Great Singapore Airlines Getaway service becomes available.

Lufthansa Miles&More points bargain Meilenschnäppchen

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Lufthansa monthly promotes Miles&More mileage bargains. September promotion is offering some nice destinations with up to 50% Miles&More discount.

  • Booking period: September 2017
  • Travel period: 01.01.2018 – 15.02.2018
  • Round trip in Business and Economy classes from Europe
  • Promotion and all destinations are available at: www.meilenschnaeppchen.de

Booking economy class with Lufthansa Miles&More isn’t feasible economically, due to very high YQ surcharges. For example, a round trip from Frankfurt to Hong Kong in economy class will cost 40 000 miles and $360 surcharges.

LufthansaeconomyclassHongkong

More interesting offers are in Lufthansa business class.

A roundtrip to Dallas or Chicago is only 55 000 instead of 105 000 miles + $380 taxes. This route is operated by A380, which makes it a great opportunity to experience Lufthansa business class onboard of A380.LufthansabusinessclassChicagoThere are also Asian destinations, including Tokyo and Beijing, which are available for 70 000 instead of 135 000 miles + 460 EUR in taxes.LufthansabusinessclassBeijingLufthansa Miles&More Meilenschnäppchen is also country dependent, so try playing with the departure country to find additional offers, for example departures from Austria have additional destinations in USA and Asia.

Aegean Miles+Bonus and SPG Starwood Preferred Greece promotion

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Aegean Airlines with SPG is running very generous promotion for members of Miles+Bonus and SPG Starwood Preferred Guest programs.

Book a stay at selected hotel members of Starwood Preferred Guest in Greece and benefit from 3,000 extra Starpoints, which is a value of one night in some properties.

On top of it, if you decide to convert Starpoints into Miles+Bonus award miles you can earn 5,000 award miles for every 20,000 Starpoints transferred to Miles+Bons in a single transaction. Read more about the promotion on Aegean page.

Gold Miles+Bonus members may take advantage of their exclusive coupons for benefits and discounts at 8 hotel-members of Starwood Preferred Guest in Greece. Read more about the benefits here.

Participating hotels

  • Athens: King George, a Luxury Collection Hotel and Hotel Grande Bretagne, a Luxury Collection Hotel
  • The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort and The Westin Resort Costa Navarino at Costa Navarino
  • Blue Palace, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa in Crete
  • Sheraton Rhodes Resort in Rhodes
  • Vedema, a Luxury Collection Resort in Santorini

Τhe offer is valid for stays booked and completed by December 31, 2017, based on hotels’ seasonality and availability.

It is a great offer if you are member of both programs and looking to boost your Aegean Miles+Bonus account together with accumulating very valuable Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints. 

Greece is one of my most favorite vacation destinations in EU during the summer, unfortunately SPG properties there are quite expensive, but worth it.

Austrian airlines and Eurowings operated by Air Berlin-Aftermatch

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I previously wrote about very confusing flight reservation with flight codes OS (belonging to Austrian Airlines), but operated by Air Berlin for both Austrian Airlines and Eurowings.

Now the flight is in the past and here is how it works out in reality.

Austrian airlines and Eurowings operated by Air Berlin

Flights:

OS8868 – Madrid-Vienna on flight
Operated by: Air Berlin for Eurowings

OS307 – Vienna-Copenhagen on flight number
Operated by: Air Berlin for Austrian Airlines.

Air Berlin for Eurowings flight

It is flying from Terminal 1 Madrid Barajas airport. I did not notice any mentioning of OS flight, rather it was only marked as EW flight. With Star Alliance Gold you do not get any benefits. No Fast Track, no lounge access, no priority boarding.

And no points, however check-in girl was insisting to take our EuroBonus numbers and assuring we will get some points for the first leg. Nope, nothing. Simply treat any  Star Alliance flight operated by Eurowings as just taking EasyJet.

My overall impressing of the flight can be named with just one word…LEFTOVERS.

Airplane in Eurowings livery, Air Berlin crew, partually NIKI and partually Lufthansa trays and kitchenware. It really felt like the flight was just assembled from whatever was left from 4 different airlines.

It is quite sad feeling, but heads up to the crew, they were quite polite, smiling and professional.

Austrian airlines operated by Air Berlin

To my surprise, even aircraft’s livery had “operated by Air Berlin” on it. I was thinking it was just a temprorary thing, given Air Berlin condition. Apparently, it is much deeper cooperation.

The flight has proper OS number, airplane and everything else is Austrian with small addition of “operated by Air Berlin”.

The crew, including the captain, are from Air Berlin and in Air Berlin uniform.

Austrian operated by Air Berlin flight gives full Star Alliance benefits, including lounge access, priority boarding and miles (wobbling 150 EuroBonus miles in economy class). There is also tradition onboard service, including sweat or sour snack (crackers or peanuts), water, coffee/tea and even wine.

I was able to check-in my luggage all the from Madrid to Copenhagen, but as the first flight was Eurowing, I did not get the priority tag. And my friend’s luggage didn’t arrive at all, but got delivered the day after.

Swiss First Class: two for one

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Swiss International Air Lines is running a special companion promotion with insane fares on Swiss First Class tickets, starting at 2000 EUR per person when flying from Brussels Airport (BRU) to Shanghai (PVG), Beijing (PEK), Dar es Salaam (DAR), Delhi (DEL), Dubai (DXB), Mumbai (BOM), Muscat (MCT) or Nairobi (NBO) via Zurich Airport (ZRH).

Swiss First Class companion fare conditions:

Fare per person valid only if at least 2 passengers travel together on the same outbound and inbound flights
Book by 29.06.2017
Purchase by: 29.06.2017
Departure period: 01.07.2017 – 15.01.2018
Rebooking: Not possible
Not refundable
via: Zurich

It’s a great opportunity to experience excellent Swiss First Class product, even though most of the routes are operated by smaller airplanes, like A330 and A340-300, which do not provide exactly the same experience as B777 or A340-600.

Funny, that on some dates Swiss Economy Class tickets are more expensive than First Class. Like this case of a flight to Beijing:

Clearly, if you don’t care about the destination, flying to Beijing is the most valuable option. It is one of the longest flights available under promotion and gives you enough time to enjoy Swiss First Class product up in the sky. For the same price you can go to Dubai, but it will be almost twice less flying time.

You can also play with departure options from Brussels to Zurich to enjoy maximum time in Swiss First Class lounge.

And remember, First Class (A) booking with Swiss will give 150-300% mile accuracy on most of Star Alliance frequent flyer programs.

Lufthansa Surprise is reintroduced

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Lufthansa has reintroduced Surprise concept for spontaneous  getaways from Munich and Frankfurt airports.

If you are flexible with your destination, you can choose among nine different travel topics and enjoy a direct Lufthansa flight starting from 69 EUR return including taxes and fees.

Lufthansa Surprise

  • You get better prices when you are flexible
  • Flight is in Lufthansa Economy Light class
  • The price of your ticket is calculated according to number of deselected cities and time parameters
  • All LH Surprise flights are nonstop flights
  • You can book 1 to 42 days before departure (minimum stay of 18 hours for one overnight and 36 hours for 2 overnights)
  • Your Destination will be revealed at the end of the booking process, so you have time to prepare for your trip
  • Passengers are responsible for valid documents and issued visa to their destinations

Destinations from Frankfurt Airport

[tabs]
[tab title=”Go East”] From 69.00 €

Bydgoszcz
Katowice
Poznan
Riga
Tallinn
Vilnius
Wroclaw

.[/tab]
[tab title=”Sightseeing and Culture”] From 79.00 €

Basel
Bilbao
Billund
Gothenburg
Helsinki
Luxembourg
Sofia
Valencia
Warsaw

[/tab]

[tab title=”Nature”] From 89.00 €

Belgrade
Copenhagen
Faro
Gdansk
Geneva
Oslo
Stockholm
Toulouse

[/tab]

[tab title=”Sun and Sand”] From 89.00 €

Alicante
Faro
Gdansk
Ibiza
Lisbon
Malaga
Malta
Marseille
Naples
Nice
Palma de Mallorca
Porto
Stockholm – what the hell is it doing in this category?

[/tab]

[tab title=”Bromance”] From 99.00 €

Amsterdam
Berlin
Budapest
Dublin
Hamburg
Krakow
Manchester
Prague
Warsaw

[/tab]

[tab title=”Cities”] From 99.00 €

Amsterdam
Athens
Berlin
Brussels
Bucharest
Budapest
Dublin
Istanbul
Madrid
Paris
Prague
Rome
Zagreb

[/tab]

[tab title=”Partying”] From 99.00 €

Amsterdam
Barcelona
Berlin
Birmingham
Dublin
Krakow
Lyon
Prague
Warsaw

[/tab]

[tab title=”Romance”] From 99.00 €

Athens
Bologna
Budapest
Florence
Paris
Prague
Rome
Venice
Vienna
Zurich

[/tab]

[tab title=”Shopping”] From 99.00 €

Amsterdam
Barcelona
Bologna
Dublin
Florence
Hamburg
Istanbul
Madrid
Milan
Paris
Rome
Turin
Vienna

[/tab]

[/tabs]

 

And the same travel categories, but with slightly different cities are available from Munich Airport

[tabs]
[tab title=”Go East”] From 69.00 €

Bucharest
Dubrovnik
Krakow
Poznan
Sibiu
Sofia
Split
Timisoara
Wroclaw

.[/tab]
[tab title=”Sightseeing and Culture”] From 79.00 €

Basel
Belgrade
Brussels
Helsinki
Lviv
Madrid
Milan
Toulouse
Wroclaw

[/tab]

[tab title=”Nature”] From 89.00 €

Copenhagen
Gdansk
Gothenburg
Larnaca
Luxembourg
Oslo
Stockholm

[/tab]

[tab title=”Sun and Sand”] From 89.00 €

Ancona
Bilbao
Gdansk
Genoa
Izmir
Marseille
Naples
Nice
Stockholm
Triest

[/tab]

[tab title=”Bromance”] From 99.00 €

Amsterdam
Dublin
Hamburg
Manchester
Prague
Sarajevo
Warsaw

[/tab]

[tab title=”Cities”] From 99.00 €

Athens
Berlin
Bucharest
Budapest
Dublin
Lisbon
Rome
Warsaw
Zagreb

[/tab]

[tab title=”Partying”] From 99.00 €

Amsterdam
Barcelona
Berlin
Birmingham
Dublin
Lisbon
Lyon
Prague
Turin

[/tab]

[tab title=”Romance”] From 99.00 €

Barcelona
Budapest
Lisbon
Paris
Pisa
Prague
Rome
Vienna

[/tab]

[tab title=”Shopping”] From 99.00 €

Amsterdam
Barcelona
Berlin
Hamburg
Manchester
Paris
Rome
Turin
Vienna

[/tab]

[/tabs]

How does Lufthansa Surprise work?

It is quite simple. Select departing airport, travel theme and dates. In case you completely do not want to visit one of the possible destinations, like Stockholm under Sea and Sand theme, you can exclude it, but it will increase the price of the flight. Minimum 3 cities should be selected, but in some cases it almost doubles the price.

Lufthansa Surprise Booking – Lufthansa - Germany

Lufthansa Surprise Booking

And after you complete the booking, the destination city will be revealed by Lufthansa so you can prepare and plan your visit.

Regular prices for some of the destinations on direct flights are at very least twice higher, so it is a really great saving offer, if the end destination is not that important.

It is a cool concept, which I wish was introduced by more airlines, especially SAS. During most public holidays, flights anywhere from Copenhagen airport are ridiculously expensive. I would be more than willing to pay 100 euros to escape Scandinavia for some sun in most of the European destinations operated by SAS.

Would you use Lufthansa Surprise for a random getaway or vacation?