Now is as good a time as any to recap and review my airline travel for 2017.
Singapore and Kuching
So in April, I did a trip to Malaysia and Singapore for a couple of weeks. I managed to get a sub-$500 NZD one way fare on an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Singapore, and used my Airpoints dollars to purchase it (I also purchased my Christchurch to Auckland fare this way). My return fare was a Singapore Airlines Saver redemption on a journey from Kuching-Christchurch (Silk Air from KCH to SIN). So I ended up paying less than $300 NZD (Airport taxes etc) for the long haul part of this trip, which had the best choice of flights each way. The Air NZ flight from Singapore to Auckland is awful if you live outside of the 09, as it gets in after all the domestic flights have left, so you need to overnight in the airport or somewhere nearby if you have a morning connection. So overall, I was really happy with the arrangement. The only bummer was that the flight from AKL to SIN was completely chocka, and my status upgrades didn't come through (and they expired and I lost them for nothing).
For my other flights between Singapore and Kuching (via Kuala Lumpur), I opted for Malaysian Airlines (MAS). Yes, MAS hasn't had the best time of it in the not too distant past, and it isn't a great airline (the food is awesome though). However, the price difference was not considerably more expensive than Air Asia, and it was considerably cheaper than Silk Air. Plus, MAS is in the Oneworld Alliance with Qantas, so I was able to accrue some Qantas points for those flights. I did upgrade my flight from Singapore to KL to first class, which was nice but ultimately not something I would do again. It wasn't quite as underwhelming as flying first class domestic in the US, but it was just a slightly bigger seat and slightly nicer food.
Tokyo
In September, I went to Tokyo for a week and a half. I have to admit that a good chunk of my choice in destination was trying to hit the mileage distance I needed to qualify for Diamond on Asiana Airlines. The Singapore Airlines fare that I purchased was about $200 more that the cheapest one I could have booked, as I had to the right fare class. Amusingly and *unexpectedly, Air New Zealand ran a sale on flights to Japan not long after I purchased mine, which would have saved me $600. That would have been a tough choice. Spending an extra $200 to get nearly 3 years of Star Alliance Gold status is completely justifiable, but $600...that is a bit of money. Tokyo was fantastic and I have no regrets about my choice. The other contenders that would have gotten me the miles at the right price point were Beijing and Seoul. I discounted Beijing, because while I love China, I have been to Beijing dozens of times and actually dislike the city quite a bit. Seoul would have been great too, but there were some tensions with North Korea. I mean the chances of something happening while I was there would have been minuscule, but it was enough to act as a tie-breaker.
Alice Springs
In October, I flew Qantas from Christchurch to Alice Springs to visit family. This was a sales fare that cost me about $1000. It also involved an overnight stay in Melbourne, and I elected to redeem some Agoda points to get an airport motel rather than sleeping in the terminal (Melbourne airport ain't Changi). I got some good Qantas points off that, and I transferred those to my mum. Alice is charming and I am really glad I got to see mum and Susie's world.
Domestic trips
I didn't have the variety that I have had in years past. I did 4 trips to Auckland and 3 to Wellington. These were basically all on Air New Zealand that I booked with my Airpoints dollars. Status points are meaningless to me and I basically only buy Grabaseat fares now, and those don't accrue any Airpoints dollars (plus there is the whole thing of saving the booking fee if you use points). This led me to discover the problem (of the first world variety) with having Star Gold status on a non-Air NZ airline. Basically, because I was using Airpoints accrued by my Airpoints account, I wasn't able to attach my Asiana frequent flyer number to the booking. So my bookings had my Air NZ number and Silver status (which has almost zero benefits). I could have gone up to the lounge and given them my Asiana number and explained the situation, but domestic lounges are no big deal and it wasn't worth the hassle (Yeah, I realize I sound like a spoiled douche). But, pretty soon I will run out of Airpoints and will book flights with money, but even then I still won't be able to use the Air New Zealand app for the digital boarding pass. This is a pain, because the Air NZ app is actually good, and it is super convenient not to have to print out a boarding pass.
Conclusion
I was pleased with my use of Airpoints dollars. I think I comfortably saved more in booking fees than I would have accrued had I actually paid real money for them. Plus there is the whole not having to use real money thing.
I was also happy that I used up a good chunk of Singapore Airlines miles before the program was devalued. They recently removed the 15% discount on miles required when booking online, which is not cool, but completely understandable and predictable given that so many other airlines are devaluing the miles/points in their frequent flyer programs.
What's next in 2018
Man, Qantas has some fantastic deals. It is super tempting to get the $700 to Beijing or the $1700 flight to Johannesburg. It does blow to not have status on Qantas, and not to be using the Star Gold status I paid a premium to get. But otherwise I will keep stalking the Air NZ and Singapore Airlines sites. There was an $850 Auckland to Houston return flight on Air NZ that caught my eye.
So we'll see... maybe I will change jobs or get a girlfriend or another commitment that prevents me from travelling and this will all be moot....but not Moot. Moot moot moot!
*Air New Zealand's "deals" are usually nothing special, and in a lot of cases still more expensive than a normal fare from the competition
Monday, 1 January 2018
Sunday, 1 October 2017
The ramen I ate in Tokyo
I recently visited Tokyo for a bit and ate a lot of ramen. Below are some pictures of the ramen that I ate, and some commentary. This was actually pretty tough to write, as there are only so many different ways you describe something as being delicious.
Ramen #1 - 久留米らーめん 金丸
This hearty bowl of tonkotsu ramen was found just down the street from my hotel. I got into Tokyo at 6am after an overnight flight and was tired and dehydrated and feeling like crap. After a very light sushi breakfast at Tsukiji fish market, I was in need of something substantial for lunch and I was not disappointed. The soup was richer than tonkotsu ramen I'd had before (I can see now that these were all just poor imitations). The ramen egg was on point and the yolk perfectly gooey. This ramen had regular sliced chashu pork, but also some chunky chashu (like red-braised pork), which was oh so fatty and velvety. The noodles were thinner than I was expecting, but perfectly cooked and a great vehicle for delivering the pork fat to my stomach. This totally hit the spot and was probably my second favourite bowl of ramen on this trip. Click here for more pictures.
Ramen #2 - Gottsu (Akihabara)
This was another bowl of deliciously greasy and fattening tonkotsu ramen. It was great having all the spring onions on top to cut through the richness of the soup. It did have a shit ton of bean sprouts in it as well, but you know, I can't knock a place for my own personal vegetable preferences. Raw bean sprouts are actually a little less offensive than the cooked stuff, so my strategy was just to eat all the bean sprouts before they reached the limp semi-cooked stage. I got a combo, so the ramen came with rice and some dumplings. This was way too much food, but I ate it all anyway. I had been intending on getting some ballpark food at the Giants game, but there was no way I was eating anything for the rest of the day.
Ramen #3 - Not sure
This was a bowl spicy pork tsukemen ramen I got from another place that was near my hotel, which doesn't seem to appear on Google map. I really appreciated the fatty pork in the dipping sauce. The flavour was suitably intense and the sauce coated the noodles well. It lacked a little depth of flavour compared with the Rokurinsha ramen in entry #9, but was still quite delicious.
Ramen #4 - Kizo
This was the first ramen I got from Tokyo train station's ramen street. This is a shio ramen with beef tongue and lots of spring onions. The beef was good and the soup was clean and light. The wood ear mushrooms were a nice touch, and the spring onions added a bit of body to the otherwise mildly-flavoured soup. My only complaint was the ramen eggs being over-cooked, as you can see from the solid yolks in the picture. Shio is probably my least favourite ramen soup flavour, so I did end up dumping a bunch of chilli flakes into the soup to increase the flavour a bit.
Ramen #5 - Harukiya
I had a bit of a wait between checking out of the hotel I stayed in Ginza and the one I would be staying at in Shinjuku. I decided to ride the Marunouchi line until Ogikubo (which is apparently famous for ramen) and try something there. I found one of the most highly regarded places and joined the queue outside. There were maybe 5-6 people in front of me, which is manageable (the Rokurinsha queues were more like 15-20 people).
This is a Chuka (Chinese) shoyu ramen, and it was pretty epic. The soup tasted like Foochow chicken noodle soup when you add just the right amount of soy sauce. There was quite a substantial amount of umami there. The bamboo was top-notch as well, I wish I'd got more of that. The pork was tasty, despite being quite lean. The noodles were thicker than average and felt more homemade. Overall, a fantastic bowl of ramen. Check out this blog for more details on this place.
Ramen #6 - Senmon Hirugao
This bowl of shio ramen is another one from Tokyo train station's ramen street. This was nice enough, but probably the ramen I enjoyed the least on my trip. This one was more seafoody than the previous bowl of shio ramen I had. If you look closely you can see a small prawn on one of the ramen eggs. I didn't eat that. The wontons were decent. Yeah, I have to admit that I dumped a bit of soy sauce into the soup to make it a little more savory.
Ramen #7 - 九州らーめん 艶まる
I got this ramen in Nakano, after visiting the Nakano Broadway mall. I'd been walking round for ages trying to figure out what to eat, when I just decided to duck into the next place that looked like it served tonkotsu ramen. Click here for pictures.
This also had the chashu pork cut into chunks rather than slices. My god I love that pork. I will have to experiment adding it to my own ramen. Overall it was very nice, I just love tonkotsu ramen, so this was always going to delight.
Ramen #8 - Oreshiki Jun
This is the third bowl of ramen I got from Tokyo train station. After the usual check to see if the Rokurinsha line was not insanely long (it was insanely long), I joined the relatively short queue for this place. I got the tonkotsu ramen with all the toppings. This was a slight mistake as I got some blocky pink thing that made me want to hurl as soon as I bit in to it. I am not sure what it was, but it was slightly seafoody and had a gross texture. I managed to force it down with bean sprout chasers. Yeah, you know it is bad when you end up eating something you hate to dilute the taste. I figured I'd get all the unpleasant stuff out of the way first. The rest of meal was impeccable, but I would still rate it below the other tonkotsu ramens I had. Perhaps the worst 2 minutes of my trip to Tokyo contributed to this relatively low ranking for a place that has a big reputation.
Ramen #9 - Rokurinsha (Haneda Airport)
Okay, so I finally had some Rokurinsha ramen. No, I did not have the patience to wait in a queue for ages to get the good stuff at Tokyo station. However, even the not as good version at Haneda airport was still mind-blowing, and the best ramen I had on my trip.
My expectations were fairly low, because after all, this is airport food court food. Airport food court food is usually not all that. This was all that. The dipping sauce was intense. It was seafoody in the good seafood way. The seafood that brings the extreme umami. It almost tasted like there was some citrus in the soup. I did a little googling and this blog has more about Rokurinsha at Haneda and has a better explanation of tsukemen and some nicer pictures.
Next time I go to Tokyo, I am going to queue up. This ramen is worth waiting for.
My learnings and final thoughts
Ramen in Tokyo is amazing. All the ramen I had was very good, even the ones I didn't like as much. The noodles were always perfectly cooked and the soup was always wonderfully flavourful (for the type of soup it was). I hope to go back someday and (if my cholesterol allows) eat many more bowls of tonkotsu and tsukemen ramen.
Ramen #1 - 久留米らーめん 金丸
This hearty bowl of tonkotsu ramen was found just down the street from my hotel. I got into Tokyo at 6am after an overnight flight and was tired and dehydrated and feeling like crap. After a very light sushi breakfast at Tsukiji fish market, I was in need of something substantial for lunch and I was not disappointed. The soup was richer than tonkotsu ramen I'd had before (I can see now that these were all just poor imitations). The ramen egg was on point and the yolk perfectly gooey. This ramen had regular sliced chashu pork, but also some chunky chashu (like red-braised pork), which was oh so fatty and velvety. The noodles were thinner than I was expecting, but perfectly cooked and a great vehicle for delivering the pork fat to my stomach. This totally hit the spot and was probably my second favourite bowl of ramen on this trip. Click here for more pictures.
Ramen #2 - Gottsu (Akihabara)
This was another bowl of deliciously greasy and fattening tonkotsu ramen. It was great having all the spring onions on top to cut through the richness of the soup. It did have a shit ton of bean sprouts in it as well, but you know, I can't knock a place for my own personal vegetable preferences. Raw bean sprouts are actually a little less offensive than the cooked stuff, so my strategy was just to eat all the bean sprouts before they reached the limp semi-cooked stage. I got a combo, so the ramen came with rice and some dumplings. This was way too much food, but I ate it all anyway. I had been intending on getting some ballpark food at the Giants game, but there was no way I was eating anything for the rest of the day.
Ramen #3 - Not sure
This was a bowl spicy pork tsukemen ramen I got from another place that was near my hotel, which doesn't seem to appear on Google map. I really appreciated the fatty pork in the dipping sauce. The flavour was suitably intense and the sauce coated the noodles well. It lacked a little depth of flavour compared with the Rokurinsha ramen in entry #9, but was still quite delicious.
Ramen #4 - Kizo
This was the first ramen I got from Tokyo train station's ramen street. This is a shio ramen with beef tongue and lots of spring onions. The beef was good and the soup was clean and light. The wood ear mushrooms were a nice touch, and the spring onions added a bit of body to the otherwise mildly-flavoured soup. My only complaint was the ramen eggs being over-cooked, as you can see from the solid yolks in the picture. Shio is probably my least favourite ramen soup flavour, so I did end up dumping a bunch of chilli flakes into the soup to increase the flavour a bit.
Ramen #5 - Harukiya
I had a bit of a wait between checking out of the hotel I stayed in Ginza and the one I would be staying at in Shinjuku. I decided to ride the Marunouchi line until Ogikubo (which is apparently famous for ramen) and try something there. I found one of the most highly regarded places and joined the queue outside. There were maybe 5-6 people in front of me, which is manageable (the Rokurinsha queues were more like 15-20 people).
This is a Chuka (Chinese) shoyu ramen, and it was pretty epic. The soup tasted like Foochow chicken noodle soup when you add just the right amount of soy sauce. There was quite a substantial amount of umami there. The bamboo was top-notch as well, I wish I'd got more of that. The pork was tasty, despite being quite lean. The noodles were thicker than average and felt more homemade. Overall, a fantastic bowl of ramen. Check out this blog for more details on this place.
Ramen #6 - Senmon Hirugao
This bowl of shio ramen is another one from Tokyo train station's ramen street. This was nice enough, but probably the ramen I enjoyed the least on my trip. This one was more seafoody than the previous bowl of shio ramen I had. If you look closely you can see a small prawn on one of the ramen eggs. I didn't eat that. The wontons were decent. Yeah, I have to admit that I dumped a bit of soy sauce into the soup to make it a little more savory.
Ramen #7 - 九州らーめん 艶まる
I got this ramen in Nakano, after visiting the Nakano Broadway mall. I'd been walking round for ages trying to figure out what to eat, when I just decided to duck into the next place that looked like it served tonkotsu ramen. Click here for pictures.
This also had the chashu pork cut into chunks rather than slices. My god I love that pork. I will have to experiment adding it to my own ramen. Overall it was very nice, I just love tonkotsu ramen, so this was always going to delight.
Ramen #8 - Oreshiki Jun
This is the third bowl of ramen I got from Tokyo train station. After the usual check to see if the Rokurinsha line was not insanely long (it was insanely long), I joined the relatively short queue for this place. I got the tonkotsu ramen with all the toppings. This was a slight mistake as I got some blocky pink thing that made me want to hurl as soon as I bit in to it. I am not sure what it was, but it was slightly seafoody and had a gross texture. I managed to force it down with bean sprout chasers. Yeah, you know it is bad when you end up eating something you hate to dilute the taste. I figured I'd get all the unpleasant stuff out of the way first. The rest of meal was impeccable, but I would still rate it below the other tonkotsu ramens I had. Perhaps the worst 2 minutes of my trip to Tokyo contributed to this relatively low ranking for a place that has a big reputation.
Ramen #9 - Rokurinsha (Haneda Airport)
Okay, so I finally had some Rokurinsha ramen. No, I did not have the patience to wait in a queue for ages to get the good stuff at Tokyo station. However, even the not as good version at Haneda airport was still mind-blowing, and the best ramen I had on my trip.
My expectations were fairly low, because after all, this is airport food court food. Airport food court food is usually not all that. This was all that. The dipping sauce was intense. It was seafoody in the good seafood way. The seafood that brings the extreme umami. It almost tasted like there was some citrus in the soup. I did a little googling and this blog has more about Rokurinsha at Haneda and has a better explanation of tsukemen and some nicer pictures.
Next time I go to Tokyo, I am going to queue up. This ramen is worth waiting for.
My learnings and final thoughts
Ramen in Tokyo is amazing. All the ramen I had was very good, even the ones I didn't like as much. The noodles were always perfectly cooked and the soup was always wonderfully flavourful (for the type of soup it was). I hope to go back someday and (if my cholesterol allows) eat many more bowls of tonkotsu and tsukemen ramen.
Sunday, 12 June 2016
More on Air New Zealand Airpoints
I suppose this will be the second post in a series on air travel and frequent flyer (FF) programs. This is an old school "lots of text and no pictures" kind of post. So TLDR - Join Airpoints if you live in New Zealand and have flights on Air NZ coming up. If not, then don't bother.
There are two main reasons why people participate in airline FF programs:
1) For free or discounted flights (or upgrades)
2) To achieve a level of status within the program that confers benefits like lounge access and priority boarding
The Airpoints program is actually quite poor on both these counts. That is not to say that it is not worth joining, it is just harder to obtain benefits than it is in some other FF programs. If you don't live in New Zealand, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to join Airpoints and credit to Air NZ. If you do live in New Zealand and do most of your flying domestically, then Airpoints or Qantas' FF program are your two best bets. If you live in New Zealand and do a reasonable amount of international flying, then you might be better off looking elsewhere. Singapore Airlines' Krisflyer is pretty good for earning miles and redeeming for flights. Asiana Airlines' Asiana Club is probably best for achieving elite status cheaply.
Why is Airpoints not very good?
First of all, Airpoints is a revenue-based system, which means the amount of points you earn is roughly based off of the amount you spend, rather than the amount of miles you fly. While there are some inconsistencies that can be exploited, it isn't really possible to game the system in a major way. In the Airpoints program, you earn "airpoints dollars" instead of miles. These airpoints dollars are worth exactly the same amount as New Zealand dollars. You can use these to buy any flight you can buy with real money. So Air NZ pumps up the fact that airpoints can be used to buy any flight, not like other programs where award fares are limited. However, because you use them just like regular currency, you don't actually get any special benefit from having airpoints dollars. That super cheap Trans-Tasman fare? You could get it for 179 airpoints dollars, or you could get it for 179 regular dollars. At the other end of the scale, the super expensive fares are still super expensive. With a mileage-based program, it usually costs the same amount of miles for the same route regardless of when you are flying. Take Singapore Airlines as an example, a one-way flight from Chch to Singapore costs 21,500 Krisflyer miles + 200 SG dollars, even during the school holidays (when flights cost a lot more). Yeah, availability can be limited, but I'd rather at least have a shot at using the frequent flyer program to get cheap flights. With airpoints dollars, your best bet is to spend them on Grabaseat or other cheap domestic and Trans-Tasman flights that don't earn fuck all anyway. The only benefit to using airpoints dollars is that you save on the credit card fee when booking flights.
Airpoints is a little bit better when it comes to earning status, and it is Star Alliance status (which is nice). But, as mentioned above, there are better programs for this. You earn "status credits" for flying and once you have obtained a certain amount of these, then you get some status. This is fairly standard. You can read more about it here.
So what type of traveler benefits from Air NZ Airpoints?
Someone who flies a lot on the super cheap Air NZ domestic and Trans-Tasman fares that aren't able to be credited anywhere else. Actually, it's not even the super cheap fares that can only be credited to Air NZ. Unless you want to pay $400 for a full fare Y-class Chch to Auckland flight, then basically no domestic flights can be credited to other Star Alliance programs (I haven't looked too closely at crediting to Virgin Australia, because I think Virgin Australia is a horrible airline).
So you have joined Airpoints. What now?
Not much you can do with the crap earning and burning rate. But here are some tips to achieve Air NZ status (relatively) cheaply:
1) Buy Grabaseat and domestic sales flights - All domestic flights earn a minimum of 8 status points. You can regularly get a $39 flight from Chch to Wellington, or a $45 flight from Chch to Auckland. These flights usually earn 0 Airpoints dollars, which is not great if you don't care about earning status, but $5 for each status point is actually pretty good.
2) Fly US domestic first class and business class flights on United Airlines - First class on US domestic flights is not actually that much of an upgrade over economy. It's basically just a slightly bigger seat, a beverage and some crappy snacks. On short flights, it's not massively more expensive than economy, certainly not 4x, 5x, 6x you get on long-haul first class. You still get the 4x, 5x, 6x status points earning on these flights though. To put things in perspective, I paid about the same amount for an economy fare from New York to LA as I did for a first class fare from Orange County to Seattle (via San Francisco). The NY flight earned 25 status points, the OC flights earned 130 status points. I probably should have credited the NY flight to Singapore Airlines Krisflyer (which earns 100% mileage on even discount economy United fares).
3) Live in a city that is not Auckland - If you are flying long-haul out of Auckland, but your starting point is somewhere else in NZ, that domestic flight from Chch or Welly to Auckland usually doesn't cost you any extra, but it does give you extra status points each way.
4) Get a platinum Airpoints credit card - Having a status point-earning credit card really helps quite a bit. The Kiwibank card has the best earning rate, with 1 status point for every $200 spent. I would recommend getting this one, because you also get the ability to buy any amount of Airpoints dollars for a $5 fee. Also, there is the whole supporting a New Zealand bank which doesn't take profits off-shore kind of thing as well. By the way, I don't got no links for you to click on so you can sign up*. You can click here to go to the Air NZ page that does a card comparison.
*I despise how some travel sites hawk credit cards to get commissions (but I would probably do it too).
I will write some more on this later. In my next post, I will go over the things I like about Airpoints. Air New Zealand is a pretty decent airline, it just has a crappy frequent flyer program. But with some airlines around the world (most notably big US carriers Delta and United) moving to revenue-based systems as well, the Airpoints program may not look so bad in a few years (unless it gets watered-down too).
There are two main reasons why people participate in airline FF programs:
1) For free or discounted flights (or upgrades)
2) To achieve a level of status within the program that confers benefits like lounge access and priority boarding
The Airpoints program is actually quite poor on both these counts. That is not to say that it is not worth joining, it is just harder to obtain benefits than it is in some other FF programs. If you don't live in New Zealand, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to join Airpoints and credit to Air NZ. If you do live in New Zealand and do most of your flying domestically, then Airpoints or Qantas' FF program are your two best bets. If you live in New Zealand and do a reasonable amount of international flying, then you might be better off looking elsewhere. Singapore Airlines' Krisflyer is pretty good for earning miles and redeeming for flights. Asiana Airlines' Asiana Club is probably best for achieving elite status cheaply.
Why is Airpoints not very good?
First of all, Airpoints is a revenue-based system, which means the amount of points you earn is roughly based off of the amount you spend, rather than the amount of miles you fly. While there are some inconsistencies that can be exploited, it isn't really possible to game the system in a major way. In the Airpoints program, you earn "airpoints dollars" instead of miles. These airpoints dollars are worth exactly the same amount as New Zealand dollars. You can use these to buy any flight you can buy with real money. So Air NZ pumps up the fact that airpoints can be used to buy any flight, not like other programs where award fares are limited. However, because you use them just like regular currency, you don't actually get any special benefit from having airpoints dollars. That super cheap Trans-Tasman fare? You could get it for 179 airpoints dollars, or you could get it for 179 regular dollars. At the other end of the scale, the super expensive fares are still super expensive. With a mileage-based program, it usually costs the same amount of miles for the same route regardless of when you are flying. Take Singapore Airlines as an example, a one-way flight from Chch to Singapore costs 21,500 Krisflyer miles + 200 SG dollars, even during the school holidays (when flights cost a lot more). Yeah, availability can be limited, but I'd rather at least have a shot at using the frequent flyer program to get cheap flights. With airpoints dollars, your best bet is to spend them on Grabaseat or other cheap domestic and Trans-Tasman flights that don't earn fuck all anyway. The only benefit to using airpoints dollars is that you save on the credit card fee when booking flights.
Airpoints is a little bit better when it comes to earning status, and it is Star Alliance status (which is nice). But, as mentioned above, there are better programs for this. You earn "status credits" for flying and once you have obtained a certain amount of these, then you get some status. This is fairly standard. You can read more about it here.
So what type of traveler benefits from Air NZ Airpoints?
Someone who flies a lot on the super cheap Air NZ domestic and Trans-Tasman fares that aren't able to be credited anywhere else. Actually, it's not even the super cheap fares that can only be credited to Air NZ. Unless you want to pay $400 for a full fare Y-class Chch to Auckland flight, then basically no domestic flights can be credited to other Star Alliance programs (I haven't looked too closely at crediting to Virgin Australia, because I think Virgin Australia is a horrible airline).
So you have joined Airpoints. What now?
Not much you can do with the crap earning and burning rate. But here are some tips to achieve Air NZ status (relatively) cheaply:
1) Buy Grabaseat and domestic sales flights - All domestic flights earn a minimum of 8 status points. You can regularly get a $39 flight from Chch to Wellington, or a $45 flight from Chch to Auckland. These flights usually earn 0 Airpoints dollars, which is not great if you don't care about earning status, but $5 for each status point is actually pretty good.
2) Fly US domestic first class and business class flights on United Airlines - First class on US domestic flights is not actually that much of an upgrade over economy. It's basically just a slightly bigger seat, a beverage and some crappy snacks. On short flights, it's not massively more expensive than economy, certainly not 4x, 5x, 6x you get on long-haul first class. You still get the 4x, 5x, 6x status points earning on these flights though. To put things in perspective, I paid about the same amount for an economy fare from New York to LA as I did for a first class fare from Orange County to Seattle (via San Francisco). The NY flight earned 25 status points, the OC flights earned 130 status points. I probably should have credited the NY flight to Singapore Airlines Krisflyer (which earns 100% mileage on even discount economy United fares).
3) Live in a city that is not Auckland - If you are flying long-haul out of Auckland, but your starting point is somewhere else in NZ, that domestic flight from Chch or Welly to Auckland usually doesn't cost you any extra, but it does give you extra status points each way.
4) Get a platinum Airpoints credit card - Having a status point-earning credit card really helps quite a bit. The Kiwibank card has the best earning rate, with 1 status point for every $200 spent. I would recommend getting this one, because you also get the ability to buy any amount of Airpoints dollars for a $5 fee. Also, there is the whole supporting a New Zealand bank which doesn't take profits off-shore kind of thing as well. By the way, I don't got no links for you to click on so you can sign up*. You can click here to go to the Air NZ page that does a card comparison.
*I despise how some travel sites hawk credit cards to get commissions (but I would probably do it too).
I will write some more on this later. In my next post, I will go over the things I like about Airpoints. Air New Zealand is a pretty decent airline, it just has a crappy frequent flyer program. But with some airlines around the world (most notably big US carriers Delta and United) moving to revenue-based systems as well, the Airpoints program may not look so bad in a few years (unless it gets watered-down too).
Wednesday, 13 April 2016
My year getting to Air New Zealand Elite
I wrote most of this in September last year, once I got back from the US. Just pretend you are reading it seven months ago (or however far in the past September 2015 is from the date you are reading this).
I have been fortunate enough to have done quite a bit of travelling over the years, but up until quite recently, I never bothered with airline frequent flyer programs. I don't know why. Maybe I was just young and dumb, I guess? But that changed at the end of 2014, when Air New Zealand had a spate of pretty decent deals on long-haul flights to places I wanted to go to. So I snapped those deals up. Plus, I was talked into purchasing a Koru membership, which incentivized me to fly almost exclusively with Air NZ. I was also fortunate enough to get an expensive last minute return flight to the US paid for by my employer. All this convinced me to try and go for Elite (the top tier in Air NZ's Airpoints frequent flyer program).
I managed to get there in the end. Below are some statistics for my qualification period (September 3rd 2014 to September 2nd 2015). I only listed flights that counted towards my Air New Zealand Airpoints status qualification.
Total flights flown:
63
Distance flown:
Just over 78,000 miles
International flights:
Christchurch to Singapore (via Auckland) return
Christchurch to San Francisco (via Auckland) return
Christchurch to Beijing (via Auckland and Hong Kong) return (Air NZ and Air China)
Christchurch to Los Angeles (via Auckland) return
Christchurch to Brisbane return
Brisbane to Christchurch one way
Vienna to Valencia (via Zurich) one way (Swiss Airlines)
NZ domestic flights:
Christchurch to Wellington return x8
Christchurch to Auckland return x4
Christchurch to Invercargill return
Christchurch to Hokitika return
Christchurch to Nelson return
Non-NZ domestic:
Beijing to Dalian one way (Air China)
United flights x9 (distance-wise about the equivalent of flying across the US 3 times)
Total status points from flights:
1399 (the rest came from credit card spend)
Total cost of plane tickets:
About $11,600 NZD
I imagine most people who achieve Elite status do so by flying in premium cabins and racking up a lot of status points per flight...or maybe flying heaps for work. Not me. Apart from two first class and two business class flights on United, I always bought the cheapest ticket I could. I had been hoping not to have to do any points running (miles running), but a closer read of the eligibility requirements for Elite revealed that I was about 40 points short of the amount that needed to be accrued on Air NZ flights. Which meant I needed to take 3 Christchurch to Wellington return flights. So all up, going for Elite cost me an extra $1000, one day of my holiday in the US (taking 4 flights to get from New York to Seattle), and three workday evenings (those Chch -Welly flights were not fun).
Was it worth it? I'd say so. So far, being Air New Zealand Elite has gotten me (or will get me):
- an extra year of Star Gold status/Koru, which is about $430 value (how much Koru costs with a platinum airpoints credit card)
- the ability to gift Koru equivalent to one person (another $430)
- a short haul upgrade that got my mum upgraded from premium economy to business on a trans-Tasman flight (about $600 value)
- a free upgrade to Economy Plus on a United flight from Sydney to Los Angeles (coupla hundred bucks?)
- moved to a Skycouch row on a flight from Perth to Auckland (maybe $1000 value over the top of my ticket)
- status matched to Alitalia Freccia Alata Plus, which gives me Skyteam Elite Plus. This also gave me the ability to gift Freccia Alata (Skyteam Elite) to someone. This is of questionable value, because I am unlikely to fly Alitalia or any other Skyteam airline (but the membership card is cool)
There was also the thrill of trying to get to Elite as cheaply as possible. I am slightly bummed out now that status points are essentially useless to me for the next year. I am not going to fly enough to re-qualify as Elite and Air New Zealand has a soft landing (so it doesn't matter if I get 0 status points this year, I will have Gold status next year).
I guess I should try and save some cash and not blow all my disposable income on travel.
I have been fortunate enough to have done quite a bit of travelling over the years, but up until quite recently, I never bothered with airline frequent flyer programs. I don't know why. Maybe I was just young and dumb, I guess? But that changed at the end of 2014, when Air New Zealand had a spate of pretty decent deals on long-haul flights to places I wanted to go to. So I snapped those deals up. Plus, I was talked into purchasing a Koru membership, which incentivized me to fly almost exclusively with Air NZ. I was also fortunate enough to get an expensive last minute return flight to the US paid for by my employer. All this convinced me to try and go for Elite (the top tier in Air NZ's Airpoints frequent flyer program).
I managed to get there in the end. Below are some statistics for my qualification period (September 3rd 2014 to September 2nd 2015). I only listed flights that counted towards my Air New Zealand Airpoints status qualification.
Total flights flown:
63
Distance flown:
Just over 78,000 miles
International flights:
Christchurch to Singapore (via Auckland) return
Christchurch to San Francisco (via Auckland) return
Christchurch to Beijing (via Auckland and Hong Kong) return (Air NZ and Air China)
Christchurch to Los Angeles (via Auckland) return
Christchurch to Brisbane return
Brisbane to Christchurch one way
Vienna to Valencia (via Zurich) one way (Swiss Airlines)
NZ domestic flights:
Christchurch to Wellington return x8
Christchurch to Auckland return x4
Christchurch to Invercargill return
Christchurch to Hokitika return
Christchurch to Nelson return
Non-NZ domestic:
Beijing to Dalian one way (Air China)
United flights x9 (distance-wise about the equivalent of flying across the US 3 times)
Total status points from flights:
1399 (the rest came from credit card spend)
Total cost of plane tickets:
About $11,600 NZD
I imagine most people who achieve Elite status do so by flying in premium cabins and racking up a lot of status points per flight...or maybe flying heaps for work. Not me. Apart from two first class and two business class flights on United, I always bought the cheapest ticket I could. I had been hoping not to have to do any points running (miles running), but a closer read of the eligibility requirements for Elite revealed that I was about 40 points short of the amount that needed to be accrued on Air NZ flights. Which meant I needed to take 3 Christchurch to Wellington return flights. So all up, going for Elite cost me an extra $1000, one day of my holiday in the US (taking 4 flights to get from New York to Seattle), and three workday evenings (those Chch -Welly flights were not fun).
Was it worth it? I'd say so. So far, being Air New Zealand Elite has gotten me (or will get me):
- an extra year of Star Gold status/Koru, which is about $430 value (how much Koru costs with a platinum airpoints credit card)
- the ability to gift Koru equivalent to one person (another $430)
- a short haul upgrade that got my mum upgraded from premium economy to business on a trans-Tasman flight (about $600 value)
- a free upgrade to Economy Plus on a United flight from Sydney to Los Angeles (coupla hundred bucks?)
- moved to a Skycouch row on a flight from Perth to Auckland (maybe $1000 value over the top of my ticket)
- status matched to Alitalia Freccia Alata Plus, which gives me Skyteam Elite Plus. This also gave me the ability to gift Freccia Alata (Skyteam Elite) to someone. This is of questionable value, because I am unlikely to fly Alitalia or any other Skyteam airline (but the membership card is cool)
There was also the thrill of trying to get to Elite as cheaply as possible. I am slightly bummed out now that status points are essentially useless to me for the next year. I am not going to fly enough to re-qualify as Elite and Air New Zealand has a soft landing (so it doesn't matter if I get 0 status points this year, I will have Gold status next year).
I guess I should try and save some cash and not blow all my disposable income on travel.
Monday, 25 January 2016
Ballpark experience number seven: The Bronx, NY
Like anyone who is a fan of an MLB team that is not the New York Yankees, I hated the Yankees. They are the evil empire of baseball, with more money and less class than any other organization. So I wasn't expecting to enjoy being in the den of the beast as much as I did. For me, the Yankee Stadium experience was really good, and it made me re-evaluate my opinion of the franchise.
I had not bought a ticket prior to turning up to the stadium, so with some trepidation, I joined the queue at the ticket stand. I was slightly star-struck when I found I was standing three people behind current world chess champion Magnus Carlsen. I don't think anyone else recognized him. Another guy in the queue was directing some friendly banter towards Magnus' friend, who was wearing an Oakland A's t-shirt. The queue was sizeable but went pretty fast. When I turned up at the counter to buy my ticket, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the ticket was half-price if I paid by Mastercard. So I did and saved $26.
I took my savings and went to look for some food. I took advantage of another Mastercard special to buy a combo that contained two Premio hotdogs and a diet soda. The hotdogs were the best stadium food that I came across on my tour. They were spicy and tasted like they contained a good proportion of real meat. I would say they were good by any standard.
Due to the size of the stadium, there wasn't much free standing area close to the action. This was about as close as I could get:
I had not bought a ticket prior to turning up to the stadium, so with some trepidation, I joined the queue at the ticket stand. I was slightly star-struck when I found I was standing three people behind current world chess champion Magnus Carlsen. I don't think anyone else recognized him. Another guy in the queue was directing some friendly banter towards Magnus' friend, who was wearing an Oakland A's t-shirt. The queue was sizeable but went pretty fast. When I turned up at the counter to buy my ticket, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the ticket was half-price if I paid by Mastercard. So I did and saved $26.
I took my savings and went to look for some food. I took advantage of another Mastercard special to buy a combo that contained two Premio hotdogs and a diet soda. The hotdogs were the best stadium food that I came across on my tour. They were spicy and tasted like they contained a good proportion of real meat. I would say they were good by any standard.
Due to the size of the stadium, there wasn't much free standing area close to the action. This was about as close as I could get:
I stood and enjoyed my hotdogs in the shade, before heading up to my seat.
Yeah, it was a little far away from the field, but the viewing was unobstructed. The surrounding fans were pleasant, and contributed to a good vibe. It seemed like folks were interested and really got into cheering for the home team, without being abusive douchebags. I was also impressed by the general baseball knowledge on display.
As for the baseball action, the Yankees won on the back of two home-runs from rookie 1st baseman Greg Bird, who was filling in for the oft-injured Mark Teixeira. The Yankees get deserved criticism for spending hideous amounts of money to lure veteran free-agents away from other teams*, but the bulk of their success over the years has come from developing their own talent. Maybe Greg Bird will be the next great Yankee star, and I will be able to say that I was at his first multi home-run game. Hopefully not though. They are still the evil empire and I will happily root against them (except when they are playing Boston). Actually, there are quite a few teams that I dislike more. Lets say they have gone from very hateable to moderately dislikeable in my books.
The Yankee Stadium experience was really cool, and I would recommend it to anyone. The food was good, the fans were great and the stadium is fancy. In a non-biased ranking, it may have come in first place. However, I am very biased toward my favourite team's home stadium, so my afternoon in the Bronx comes in at 2nd place.
* Yes, I realize the Mariners signed away Robinson Cano from the Yankees.
Saturday, 16 January 2016
Ballpark experience number six: Philadelphia
I'll be straight up...this was the least amount of fun I had at a baseball stadium on my trip. My rankings are just a rank of how much I enjoyed the whole experience of being at the stadium, not some detailed, objective scientific study. After all, what kind of expert am I? I am a New Zealander who has never played baseball, and had never even watched a game in person until 5 years ago. So in the highly unlikely event that any Phillies fans read this post and feel offended...it's not Citizen's Bank Park's fault...it's mine.
At this point in the trip, I was tired and starting to feel the effects of a diet consisting mostly of greasy junk food. Also, because I was travelling city to city by train, I hadn't gotten much sleep the previous three nights (two 6am starts and an overnight train from Boston to Baltimore). Plus, it was just so damn hot outdoors. A sensible person would probably not have been walking around outside as much as I did.
The point I knew I was in trouble was right after I ate this cheesesteak:
It was from Geno's, which is a famous cheesesteak place. I had been planning on getting another one from Pat's, which is another well-known place just across the road. However, I started to feel really overheated and lethargic and just damn greasy after finishing the sandwich. I forgot to get napkins and couldn't be bothered to go up to the counter and ask for some. So I just wiped the grease that was settling in on my face on my t-shirt. I think I can actually pinpoint that moment as the lowest point on my baseball tour, where I was just so lazy and slow that I couldn't even ask for a fucking napkin.
I should also point out that I had been walking around in the hot sun for about an hour trying to find the place. It seemed like it took twice as long for me to stagger back to the hotel and get into bed. At this point, I was seriously contemplating not going to watch the game. I just had no energy at all. But, an hour or so of rest in my air-conditioned room managed to revive me enough to order a ride on Uber to the stadium (Uber is awesome to use).
I got to the stadium and stayed for 4 innings. Here is an action shot to show that I did attend:
I think that was Jose Bautisita up hitting. I don't really remember, but let's say it was, and that he hit a 500 foot dinger (Edit: on closer inspection, the batter looks nothing like Jose Bautista). The 2015 Blue Jays were very good, so even if it wasn't Jose, chances are that it was another badass hitter like Edwin Encarnacion or Josh Donaldson. I mean there is only a 1 in 9 chance that it was Ryan Goins (Edit: it's not Goins, he bats lefty). He is terrible. The Phillies were/are terrible too, so I imagine Toronto won that game.
I didn't eat anything at the stadium. Nothing seems appealing when you are sweating grease. All the yummy junk food I was piling in at other stadiums suddenly seemed repulsive. I was craving fresh vegetables, but unsurprisingly, they were in short supply at the ballpark. I had to head out and find something more palatable.
Here is a picture of the roast beef wrap I got from some posh healthy food store after the game:
Here is a picture of the vegan buckwheat noodle meal I ate for breakfast the next day:
It was amazingly delicious.
I used to think that if I lived in the US, I would become really fat eating all the delicious junk food. It is good to know that my body has an in-built mechanism to avoid consuming too much crap.
So yeah, what to say... this stadium ranked 8th and last. It's not really a fair ranking, but the stadium didn't seem particularly interesting in any case. What I saw of Philadelphia itself didn't tickle my fancy either. So now that I have ticked off Citizen's Bank Park, I will probably never go back.
At this point in the trip, I was tired and starting to feel the effects of a diet consisting mostly of greasy junk food. Also, because I was travelling city to city by train, I hadn't gotten much sleep the previous three nights (two 6am starts and an overnight train from Boston to Baltimore). Plus, it was just so damn hot outdoors. A sensible person would probably not have been walking around outside as much as I did.
The point I knew I was in trouble was right after I ate this cheesesteak:
It was from Geno's, which is a famous cheesesteak place. I had been planning on getting another one from Pat's, which is another well-known place just across the road. However, I started to feel really overheated and lethargic and just damn greasy after finishing the sandwich. I forgot to get napkins and couldn't be bothered to go up to the counter and ask for some. So I just wiped the grease that was settling in on my face on my t-shirt. I think I can actually pinpoint that moment as the lowest point on my baseball tour, where I was just so lazy and slow that I couldn't even ask for a fucking napkin.
I should also point out that I had been walking around in the hot sun for about an hour trying to find the place. It seemed like it took twice as long for me to stagger back to the hotel and get into bed. At this point, I was seriously contemplating not going to watch the game. I just had no energy at all. But, an hour or so of rest in my air-conditioned room managed to revive me enough to order a ride on Uber to the stadium (Uber is awesome to use).
I got to the stadium and stayed for 4 innings. Here is an action shot to show that I did attend:
I didn't eat anything at the stadium. Nothing seems appealing when you are sweating grease. All the yummy junk food I was piling in at other stadiums suddenly seemed repulsive. I was craving fresh vegetables, but unsurprisingly, they were in short supply at the ballpark. I had to head out and find something more palatable.
Here is a picture of the roast beef wrap I got from some posh healthy food store after the game:
Here is a picture of the vegan buckwheat noodle meal I ate for breakfast the next day:
It was amazingly delicious.
I used to think that if I lived in the US, I would become really fat eating all the delicious junk food. It is good to know that my body has an in-built mechanism to avoid consuming too much crap.
So yeah, what to say... this stadium ranked 8th and last. It's not really a fair ranking, but the stadium didn't seem particularly interesting in any case. What I saw of Philadelphia itself didn't tickle my fancy either. So now that I have ticked off Citizen's Bank Park, I will probably never go back.
Thursday, 14 January 2016
Ballpark experience number five: Baltimore
Wow, it's been some time since I wrote one of these. I suppose I'd better box on and try to get them finished, if only for some small sense of accomplishment. It would be nice to have a written account of this stuff before my memories fade.
The baseball stadium in Baltimore is called "Oriole Stadium at Camden Yards". I really liked this stadium. The main distinctive feature of the stadium is the brick warehouse on the right field side. I'd always assumed that it was right up against the right field bleachers, but as it turns out, there is a street in between.
You can walk off the street straight into the outfield bleacher seats. It is really quite cool. I also appreciate that Camden Yards is located in Baltimore, within walking distance of the CBD and harbour area. This is much better than stadiums that are located in the middle of fucking nowhere...like Angels stadium.
I hadn't bought a ticket on Stubhub before I arrived in the city. I figured there would be plenty of seats for a weeknight game against a non-contender. So here is my paper ticket I got from the stadium ticket line:
Here is the view of the stadium from just down the road. Walking straight ahead gets you to the same point as in the first photo (but facing in the opposite direction).
How was the food? Pretty good actually. Camden Yards has a concession stand called "Boog's Barbecue", which was founded by a former Oriole player. It serves barbecue that is passable by regular standards but terrific by ballpark food standards. I got some beef which came with a roll/biscuit and some crisps. I particularly liked the horseradish sauce you could dollop on.
What about the baseball? It was okay. The game was a low-key meaningless late August game. The Orioles probably weren't going to make the playoffs (and they didn't). The A's certainly weren't going to make the playoffs at that stage. The whole event felt like a relaxed casual nice thing to do on a Monday night, without there being any tension or pressure. The crowd was pretty good and the atmosphere was pleasant. It wasn't quite as laid back as Anaheim, but it wasn't quite as charged as Fenway. My seat wasn't the greatest, so I couldn't see much detail of what was going on:
I wasn't too concerned though. It was a lovely Summer's evening. I didn't even bother spending some time standing in the walkway area behind home plate to catch more of the action.
There was one cool baseball thing from the game. I got to see the only ambidextrous pitcher in the majors, Pat Venditte. He isn't particularly good (basically mediocre to bad with either arm), but it was freaking awesome to see him pitch. He has this custom-made glove that he can swap from hand to hand, depending on what arm he is throwing with.
Watching baseball at Camden Yards was a thoroughly decent and enjoyable experience. It was the 3rd best time I had watching baseball on my trip. The stadium is beautiful, the food was nice and the crowd was good. I would go back.
The baseball stadium in Baltimore is called "Oriole Stadium at Camden Yards". I really liked this stadium. The main distinctive feature of the stadium is the brick warehouse on the right field side. I'd always assumed that it was right up against the right field bleachers, but as it turns out, there is a street in between.
You can walk off the street straight into the outfield bleacher seats. It is really quite cool. I also appreciate that Camden Yards is located in Baltimore, within walking distance of the CBD and harbour area. This is much better than stadiums that are located in the middle of fucking nowhere...like Angels stadium.
I hadn't bought a ticket on Stubhub before I arrived in the city. I figured there would be plenty of seats for a weeknight game against a non-contender. So here is my paper ticket I got from the stadium ticket line:
Here is the view of the stadium from just down the road. Walking straight ahead gets you to the same point as in the first photo (but facing in the opposite direction).
How was the food? Pretty good actually. Camden Yards has a concession stand called "Boog's Barbecue", which was founded by a former Oriole player. It serves barbecue that is passable by regular standards but terrific by ballpark food standards. I got some beef which came with a roll/biscuit and some crisps. I particularly liked the horseradish sauce you could dollop on.
What about the baseball? It was okay. The game was a low-key meaningless late August game. The Orioles probably weren't going to make the playoffs (and they didn't). The A's certainly weren't going to make the playoffs at that stage. The whole event felt like a relaxed casual nice thing to do on a Monday night, without there being any tension or pressure. The crowd was pretty good and the atmosphere was pleasant. It wasn't quite as laid back as Anaheim, but it wasn't quite as charged as Fenway. My seat wasn't the greatest, so I couldn't see much detail of what was going on:
I wasn't too concerned though. It was a lovely Summer's evening. I didn't even bother spending some time standing in the walkway area behind home plate to catch more of the action.
There was one cool baseball thing from the game. I got to see the only ambidextrous pitcher in the majors, Pat Venditte. He isn't particularly good (basically mediocre to bad with either arm), but it was freaking awesome to see him pitch. He has this custom-made glove that he can swap from hand to hand, depending on what arm he is throwing with.
Watching baseball at Camden Yards was a thoroughly decent and enjoyable experience. It was the 3rd best time I had watching baseball on my trip. The stadium is beautiful, the food was nice and the crowd was good. I would go back.
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