qatar

Looking back on 2019 (and the last decade)

December 27, 2019 by boltonpoints

2019 was a lot of things; a down year in travel it was not. I visited seven new countries as well as some new North American cities. My work travel has been mostly west coast based, which has certainly made life easier. I also had a long stint of time at home, which was much needed considering my flight mileage for the year was close to 150,000 miles.

The decade

The decade was an interesting one for me. The beginning of it I was fresh out of college in the middle of the Great Recession. I dreamt of traveling the world but didn’t have the means to do so, perhaps supercharging my desire. It wasn’t until 2011 that I took a job in Charlotte, North Carolina that I got the opportunity to start traveling for work. My job took me to Los Angeles every week, while my new girlfriend Leigh of 3 weeks (and now wife) stayed home. I was home so infrequently that I gave up my apartment and moved in with Leigh, only to never look back!

We traded Charlotte’s mild weather for Miami’s beaches in 2014. To say this was life-changing would be an understatement. If you’ve visited Miami before, you know that the culture is night and day from anywhere is in the US (I would have plenty of opportunities to practice my Spanish)! After nearly four years in South Florida – and making some lifelong friends – we moved West, to San Francisco. Moving to California was something we’d always wanted to do and two and half years in, we’re having a blast. The Bay Area has a never ending list of things to, so we do find that we drive for more day or weekend trips, versus getting on a plane.

In 2017, I finally (finnnnally) popped the question! We married in early September 2018 in Savannah, which is where Leigh is from. It was the sweatiest day of my life (see early September in Savannah).

I surprised Leigh with her parents being present for the BIG question

It’s been a hell of a ride thus far. On the one hand, we’ve lived the life that both of us always thought we might live: nomadically wandering the world. On the other I’ve been “gone” more than I haven’t been (due to work). As John Mayer put it, I miss the Home Life. In just six years, we’ve been to almost 35 countries and six continents (Antartica in the future?).

Through a lot of trial and error, I end this decade much smarter than I started it.

Statuses

Airlines

United 1K

I began the year on a 1K challenge, which I barely hit. After a few months as a 1K, I immediately came to appreciate much of what United offers its elites. I just requalified for 1K and am excited with the the things that United is doing, like the introduction of PointsPlus and its robust international route network. I’m not sure how I feel about the move to a strictly revenue qualification system for 2020. At the end of the day, I live at a fortress hub and United is the best option out of SFO. 1K also comes with Star Alliance Gold status which provides a plethora benefits.

American Platinum

Weird. That’s the first time I’ve written out my soon to be Platinum status on American. After seven straight years as an Executive Platinum, I finally “broke up” with American. Why? First and foremost, they’ve decided to be uncompetitive on the west coast and their route network no longer works for me. Their further degradation of the Alaska relationship was the final nail in the coffin. The other reason I had no problem cutting ties with American is due to its continued downhill slide in just about everything. The leadership at American has provided no vision to their employees and its unclear to consumers whether they want to be a low cost carrier or a premium airline. What’s left is an airline that is good at neither and a new reputation that they no longer care about comfort or on time arrivals. I hit platinum primarily based on an inexpensive partner business class fare that earned me far more qualifying dollars than I actually spent. Platinum keeps me as oneworld Sapphire, which allows me business class lounge access when flying internationally.

Hotels

Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite

I managed to keep my Ambassador status another year which is great, because I really like my ambassador, Alie. While not earth shattering, I do find having an ambassador to be a nice perk. Having a single point of contact for everything is incredibly helpful when you’re busy. Given how big Marriott is now, it’s also the best way to ensure upgrades, special treatment, etc. Being Platinum no longer means much (other than free breakfast), so I’m happy being two levels above. With that said, I’ve become disenchanted with Marriott through the merger process. Communication was minimal and they absolutely did a bait and switch when they moved to peak/off-peak award pricing. The way it was represented to everyone is that it was based on the season, but in reality it’s dynamic pricing based on occupancy levels. Points Advance was effectively killed, and Suite Night Awards seem to be harder to confirm. At the end of the day, Marriott has hotels everywhere and the legacy SPG portfolio has dozens of aspirational properties that make it hard to leave Marriott.

Hyatt Globalist

Hyatt is new for me this year. I completed a challenge using my American Executive Platinum status that got me Globalist status after just 18 nights. Four months in, I’m really impressed with Hyatt overall. Unlike Marriott, where you need a VLOOKUP to figure out where breakfast is complementary, Globalists get free breakfast at every property. Globalists also get suite night awards that are incredibly valuable, allowing suite upgrade confirmation at time of booking. While still small in comparison, Hyatt has also done an excellent at increasing their footprint through some recent acquisitions. Looking to 2020, I’m planning to double down on Hyatt and make them primary hotel chain.

Hilton Diamond

Ah Hilton, my first hotel status. I’ve been Diamond off and on for years, though Hilton hasn’t been my primary hotel brand in 5 years. Why? I moved to SPG and fell in love (RIP) and frankly, Hilton doesn’t have a long list of aspirational properties, though that’s changing. This year I managed to get Diamond through a status challenge that only required 8 stays. Upgrades are hit or miss, though that’s primarily a function of the Hilton Aspire card providing diamond status, so the numbers are much larger. Because Golds get many of the same benefits – including free breakfast – I don’t put a huge price on Diamond status. Hilton has always been my “back pocket” brand and one I always try to keep some points. Remember, no matter where you go, there’s probably a Hampton Inn nearby.

Rental cars

Living in San Francisco – where we don’t own a car – I find rental car status to be valuable, but most probably don’t. I won’t got into a lot of detail, but I ended up with Avis Preferred, National Executive, and Hertz Presidents Circle, all of which give me access to better cars and easier check out.

2019 stand outs

Places

Moorea, French Polynesia

Our trip to French Polynesia was a random booking due to award availability at the Le Meridien there and two, United starting service to Tahiti with incredibly low fares. We spent five nights in Bora Bora but what really stood out was our two day, one night stay on Moorea, a small island just off the coast of Tahiti. Unlike its more famous cousin Bora Bora, Moorea offers visitors with far more things to do than lie on the deck of their overwater bungalow like in Boring Bora (as the locals call it). With plenty of hiking, water sports, and the ability to be self sufficient through renting a car (again, unlike Bora Bora), there’s non-stop things to do and the French Polynesian island that we said we will return. The Hilton Moorea offers a great points option for those visiting.

British Columbia, Canada

Another trip that was helpfully dictated by points. I’d purchased a Marriott vacation package using points, which netted some incredible deals. Part of the deal was a seven night stay at a Category 1-4 hotel. Normally a low category hotel is the last place I want to spend a week, but we find a gem in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby at the Element hotel. As an extended stay hotel, it offered us the ability to cook for ourselves, not to mention it was pet friendly. Even though it wasn’t in the heart of the city, the hotel was less than 10 minute walk to the rail that takes you into downtown Vancouver. It also offered a great jumping off point to explore the region, such as Grouse Mountain and Whistler, where we stayed a night. We went around the July 4th holidays, so the weather was absolutely perfect for being outside. We also took the ferry to Victoria for a night and had a blast. In an effort not to backtrack, we took the ferry straight back to the United States, arriving at the Port Angeles terminal. We spent 10 days hiking, swimming, eating, and exploring the best of British Columbia and can’t of recommend visiting enough.

Lake Como, Italy

Not a bad view from the pool, Hilton Lake Como

Wow. That pretty much sums up how we felt about Lake Como. On the same trip we visited Florence, Cinque Terre, and Venice, but none of them struck us quite like our time on the lake. The scenery is jaw dropping and mixed with the culture and food of Italy, it’s a can’t beat destination. We were initially supposed to rent a boat for our anniversary, but the winds that day had other ideas, so we slummed it by the pool instead. We stayed two nights at the Hilton Lake Como using points. We will return.

Bonus round: Uruguay

My dad, brother, and I have started a somewhat tradition of taking a trip every year. This year we went to South America, specifically to Buenos Aires and Uruguay. While Buenos Aires needs no introduction, Uruguay is probably not a place that many people have heard of. Getting inspiration from Anthony Bourdain, we added Montevideo to our list (along with some day trips). What we were rewarded with was a country as interesting as any place I’ve been. A socially liberal country – they’ve legalized weed and same sex marriage – with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, Uruguay sits just across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires. While there are many similarities between Argentinian and Uruguayan culture – and they both love wine, beef, and fútbol – Uruguay has a distinctive flare and plays the part of the “less famous cousin” really well. We made a day trip to the beach town and capitol of the superrich Punte del Este, where we found warm weather and locals frolicking on the beach.

Best flight:

Qatar Q-Suite A350-1000

I almost feel stupid for even including this. Thanks to some dumb luck and a willingness to fly out of the way, we flew in the Q Suites for the second time in September. Honestly the flight was better than the first Q Suite experience, not to mention the new plane factor (spoiler: the A351 is my new favorite plane).

Best hotel:

St Regis Florence

On our trip to Italy, we stayed at two of the premier hotels not only in Marriott’s portfolio, but the world. Although the Gritti Palace was a close runner up, Leigh and I felt like the St Regis in Florence was on another level in terms of service. From coffee being delivered daily to the room, to the sabering of the champagne every night at the bar, to every other little detail in between, the St Regis Florence is a cut above anywhere else that we’ve stayed.

A close runner up: Las Alcobas Napa Valley – you can find my review here.

Did 2019 live up to all your travel ambitions?

A Suite Honeymoon: Qatar Q-Suite review

November 8, 2019 by boltonpoints

Aircraft: 77W / 777-300ER
Route: Chicago (ORD) – Doha (DOH)
Seat: 9E and 9F
Cost per person: 75K AAdvantage miles

Africa is not an easy place to get to from North America. Though we’re starting to see more direct flights to Africa from the US, most still seem to connect in Europe, which is exacerbated by airline alliance loyalty/miles. For instance, most oneworld routings take you through London on British Airways, and many Star Alliance flights will take you through Frankfurt, and most SkyTeam routings will take you through Paris or Amsterdam. None of which are exactly “on the way”, depending on how far south you’re going.

Well, one of the best ways to get from North America to Africa on points is on Qatar, connecting in the Middle East. American charges 70k miles for business class from the US to the Middle East, and another 5k to get to Africa (American has some pretty poor routing rules, but they do permit connecting to Africa and the Indian subcontinent via Qatar, breaking the third region rule).

This flight was for our honeymoon, and our routing was Savannah – Seychelles. Initially, we were routing through Philadelphia, but that was on the A350-900, which didn’t have the Q-Suites. Since American allows unlimited changes to awards, I kept looking using British Airways website for one of the Q Suite routes, which at the time included:

Chicago
Houston
New York JFK
Washington Dulles
Los Angeles

Low and behold, space opened up on the Chicago route. I called the Executive Platinum Desk, who was able to rebook my flight in about 15 minutes.

Tip: For couples, you’ll want to select odd numbered (rear-facing) seats in order to take advantage of the double bed feature. For those traveling solo, stick with odd numbered window seats or even numbered rows in the middle.

Day of travel experience

Our entire itinerary was going from Savannah, where our wedding took place, to Charlotte, the onto Chicago – Doha – Seychelles. Sadly, American doesn’t offer a direct flight to Savannah/Hilton Head Airport (SAV), so we were forced to do the Charlotte connection.

Savannah’s airport is quaint and easy to navigate, and is only about 20 minutes from downtown. After some initial drama getting the house car at our hotel to take us, we ended up in the worst Uber we’ve ever had (it did NOT include seatbelts). Anyway, we arrived with plenty of time, but exhausted from celebrating our marriage with my parents the night before. My parents honestly party harder than we do (and we’re not exactly slouches)!

Lucky for us, Charlotte had a Minute Suites, and we were able to use Priority Pass to enter for free (for an hour). I can’t tell you how much of a lifesaver this was. We wanted to be fresh for our Qatar flight, so the nap really hit the spot. It also happens to be next to a Chick-Fil-A. 😉

After another uneventful flight, we arrived in Chicago. We came into concourse H/K, where American has a Flagship Lounge. Having flown through Chicago dozens of times over the last several years and taken the elevator past the Flagship Lounge (the regular Admiral’s Club is on 3, and the FS Lounge is on 2), I was excited to finally see the space.

The views are essentially the same as the regular lounge, but they do have much better food and drink options. I didn’t take many pictures, but there are plenty of reviews out there. Like here.

The way the Chicago O’Hare is divided is really not the easiest to navigate if you’re connecting onward via the international terminal. For American connections, that means taking a bus from the end of concourse H. The bus schedule is kind of, sort of fixed, so you really do need to allow yourself some extra time in the event you miss it and need to take the next one. You’ll need to show the agent at the podium your boarding pass, after which they’ll give you lamented “ticket”, which they’ll collect from you after you get off the bus at the terminal. We just barely missed the one we wanted to take, so we waited around for another 15 minutes. The bus ride itself took about 10 minutes. All-in-all, the process of getting from the American terminal to the international one took about 30-45 minutes.

Once in the international terminal, we actually still had some time to kill, so we headed to the British Airways First Class lounge, where we were turned away due to capacity. As a oneworld Emerald, I’m entitled access to oneworld first class lounges with one guest (who also must be flying on a oneworld flight). Disappointed, we walked over to the Air France lounge where Priority Pass would again come in handy (thanks to my Chase Sapphire Reserve and/or American Express Platinum cards). The lounge was forgettable, but did have some pretty good wine options, along with a cooler full of ice cream! My only complaint about the lounge isn’t about the food or drink, but rather the fact that it faces west, and in the afternoon, essentially becomes a sun room. The temperature must’ve been 80+ degrees! The ice cream treats managed to cool us down!

Onboard experience

The boarding process was chaotic. We checked in with the gate prior to walking to the lounge, and they said boarding would start in 45 minutes. Well, it started much earlier than that, and there was a long queue to search and approve carry-on bags. Each passenger was required to get a Qatar bag pass in order to board. We were frustrated since we’d just been at the gate 45 minutes prior and they made no mention of it.

We finally boarded, and we were still one of the first business class customers on board. Upon entering the plane, I was speechless. I’ve never been so blown away by an airline product than I was entering the business class cabin. The finishes were modern and sleek, but tasteful. The Q Suites were just gorgeous. I remember telling Leigh “I can’t believe this is BUSINESS class!”

With each seat being a fully enclosed suite, it clearly offers a lot of privacy. The seat also offers more than ample storage, power outlets, and USB chargers.

At each seat was a pillow and the softest blanket I’ve ever used. Seriously – this is the kind of blanket you want on your couch at home! I was also impressed by the amenity kit, which included Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio products (lip balm, face mist, lotion), an eye mask, socks, and ear plugs. Toothbrushes and mouthwash were not included since those are well-stocked in the lavortories, which I came to appreciate mid-flight. Normally I’m searching for the amenity kit or I forget it and need to go back to my seat, so having a toothbrush there without needing to think about it was great.

Within a few minutes, we were both warmly greeted by the Qatar staff, offered a menu and a drink. We both chose the sparkling rose (Dappier Brut Rosé de Saignée), which hit the spot (for our tastes, that means not too sweet).

The Q Suite

I’d always heard how good Qatar’s soft product is, and boy, this flight didn’t disappoint. Every interaction was genuine, hospitable, and friendly. I never felt like I was bothering them, which I do many time on US-based airlines, even in premium cabin. Case in point, there was an incident where all of the power stopped working at my seat (yes, everything except the TV), and the FA working (Jamie), couldn’t have been more helpful or apologetic. The power failure meant my seat needed to be reclined and lifted manually, which he did without hesitation. He offered to move us, but we would then lose our connecting seats. Since I was just lounging at this point anyway, I had the seat adjusted for it and just opted to stay put. Plus Leigh was very comfortable and I couldn’t justify having to move ourselves and our belongings.

The food was the best I’ve had on a plane to that point. I had the steak and it was cooked perfectly, while Leigh had the salmon. She really enjoyed her dish as well. I didn’t get pictures of the mains because I was too busy enjoying everything.

Of course we couldn’t resist ordering snacks throughout the flight. We had the lobster mac and cheese, octopus, and the panini. All were really good, but the mac and cheese was the star. Shocker, I know!

The pictures of the food aren’t great, but trust me, it was good.

Somewhere over eastern Europe, Jamie came out with a beautiful dessert, and the plate had “Enjoy Your Honeymoon” written in chocolate. Wow!

Of the 15-hour flight, Leigh and I both slept about 7 hours, which was prefect, because we wanted to do the Doha city tour when we arrived.

Doha Airport and city tour

We arrived into Doha, and within about 15 minutes, were off the plane and into the main terminal. With Doha being the only airport in the country, there are no domestic flights, so you basically just walk off the plane. The airport is model airport of efficiency, and of course there’s the giant teddy bear!

One of the unique things about Qatar is that they offer city tours since a lot of people end up with long layovers. We knew we wanted to do the tour since we’d never been to the Middle East. After deplaning, we went straight to the city tour desk, which is located in the main atrium. The tours cost about $10 USD and leave every few hours.

After killing some time walking the airport, we met at the tour desk about 15 minutes before scheduled departure. They then led us through immigration, which took a surprisingly long amount of time, thanks to yours truly. For some reason, my passport would not scan, and I ended up holding up the tour group of 40 people. Finally, I was through and we stepped outside into the Middle East sauna, which hit me like a hot blanket. Thankfully, the bus was ice cold and we were off shortly thereafter. Our first stop was a market where we could buy pretty much whatever you might want. While much of it was very interesting – fruits, spices, coffee, tea – there was a dark side. There was a fairly large contingency of men selling animals, many of which I’m sure came from poachers.

We made a couple of additional stops, then headed back to the airport.

As soon as we got back to the airport, we went straight to the Al Mourjan Business Class lounge to take showers to wash off the sweat from the heat. Although I’m oneworld Emerald, I was not given access to the first class lounge due to Qatar Airways’ policy. While I think Qatar adds more to oneworld than it takes (and the airline industry in general), it’s frustrating that they’ve created a “faux first class lounge” in order to skirt oneworld’s rules. Qatar CEO Al Baker has a history of railing against US carriers, and this is probably just another shot at them. With that said, since our trip, Qatar has started selling access to the first-class Al Safwa Lounge for $165/pp, regardless of cabin, which can be a good deal if your layover is long enough. For two people, $330 is hard to justify.

Having had some Arabaic coffee on our tour, followed by a shower in the lounge, we were wide awake. We decided to have some wine and food. The lounge is a little confusing, as there’s a “deli” on the main level, which is where we were immediately drawn. The food turned out to be lackluster, and it wasn’t until asking someone, that we learned that there was an entire restaurant upstairs!

The buffet was certainly not the most impressive that I’ve ever had, but overall it was tasty, albeit a bit heavy. I wish they had lighter options beyond just curries and stews, but I suppose when in Rome…

We finished eating and set out for our gate a little more before our flight (which left at 3am!). We ended up buying some rum at duty free with the leftover change we had from our tour, which ended up being a nice to have in Seychelles.

Overall Thoughts

In summary, our Qatar experience was next level. Although my seat broke, I appreciated the effort that Jamie put towards mitigating the issue. The individual touches, including the custom desert for our honeymoon, took the Qatar business class soft product to a level I’ve not even experienced in international first class. For 75k Aadvantage miles, Qatar is undoubtably the best way to get to Africa, especially for the price. My primary advice is to ensure that you’re on a Q Suites flight, which you can double check via the list above or by looking at the seat map.

Have you flown the Q-Suites yet? If so, what was your experience like?

Looking back on 2019 (and the last decade)

The decade