It has been almost 2 months since I was discharged from my quarantine and in this period, we have seen the case counter going up from 29 (on 6 Feb 2020) to now more than 3200! That is a staggering 100-fold jump in just slightly over 2 months! A lot of things have happened too in these 2 months – we went from a life with minimal disruption and mask being only for the sick to a significant movement restriction and mask being compulsory.
In less than 48 hours, I will be finally released from jail! Ok fine – this is many times better than jail. After 1 week in a quarantine facility how did it feel? Other than being lonely and inability to leave my room, I would say the place isn’t too bad.
Here is my review of my stay in one of the designated Government Quarantine Facility.
This is not going to be any review nor anything to do with award travel but more to do with the current novel Coronavirus(nCoV) and the state of things it has caused.
For once in years, I have all the time I want in the world but only within the confinement of the 4 walls of my quarantine room. Today is day 5 post exposure (another 9 more days to go) and thankfully I am still fine. I have yet to get the result of my swab test and I believe (and hope) it should be negative.
Why hope? Is it because I am worried about the virus itself? Well, no. What I fear, is the fear itself. From all the photos sent to me via Whatsapp, I was shaking my head non-stop looking at the long queue, the supply-grabbing and even condoms are not spared! (hahahah – wonder why).
It has been an extremely busy 3 months and I have not been able to find time to write my review on my Fukuoka hotel and ryokan. But as of today (and the next 10 days), things have changed.
I was looking forward to end of February for a few reasons:
Once again, a big thanks to JC for more pictures. On her return trip, she managed to get the highly acclaimed Apex Suite that is featured on selected 777-300ER and the new 747-8i. On paper, the 2-2-2 configuration doesn’t sound appealing, but what made the Apex Suite so special is the fact that ALL seats (that is right ALL!) have direct access to the aisle! How is this done?
The 2 seats at the window are slightly staggered (one in front of the other) giving the window seat a small aisle to access into the main aisle directly. This also gives an excellent amount of privacy to those at the window seat. The suite is also excellent for those traveling with kids as the proximity to the child and the lack of a huge divider (like those found on reverse herringbone configuration) allows one to attend to them easily (while having the benefit of being next to the window, unlike those traveling on a 1-2-1 configuration).
I would like to thank JC, another friend whom I managed to ‘squeeze’ some pictures out on her recent trip to Sapporo with her family on Korean Air Business Class. Both legs were operated on the wide body jets which still uses a rather dated angled flat product. Regardless, this still wins being upright in Economy Class!
At slightly less than SGD $2k per person, this is quite a good price for Business Class as Economy Class on Singapore Airlines to Japan in December can easily hit $1.4 – $1.5k per person! The only drawback? Skyteam is not exactly a great alliance to accrue your miles.
Nope, no Seattle inaugural this year. Compared to 2018, I only clocked about 68,400 km this year. 2019 had been a very busy year at work but it lays the foundation for an exciting year in 2020!
Highlight of 2019 was still my American trip in June and trying out new airlines such as Air China, Copa and Thai Airways.
2019 saw the upcoming demise of the Airbus A380-800. Announced in February, Airbus is dropping the A380 in favor of the A350 series. We will still get to fly the A380 in the near future, but the end is coming sooner than later.
Qantas has also selected the A350-1000 for the project Sunrise , while the 737Max accidents were indeed unfortunate and it demonstrates the cost of corporate hubris.
After trying out the Air China First Class from Houston to Panama City, here comes Air China in Economy Class on both regional and short haul flight.
My recently concluded family trip to Fukuoka was on Air China via Beijing. At only $2.8k for 6 person, this is an excellent price as the price for Singapore Airlines for the same date came up to $9.2k! Top up another $400 and you can get yourself on Air China Business class which frankly is not a bad deal.
When Bank of China Elite Miles card was launched, it showed a lot of promise as a miles card. With one of the market best earning rate at 1.5 miles per dollar (MPD) locally (2 MPD till 31 December 2018) and 3 miles per dollar for foreign currency (FC) spending (5 MPD till 31 December 2018), what can go wrong? Well, I was dead wrong!
Another friend of mine, ET recently flew on SQ 32 (San Francisco direct). Singapore Airlines operates 10 direct flights to San Francisco in a week (7 on SQ 32 and 3 on SQ 34) on top of the daily flight via Hong Kong on SQ 2.
Although the product is the same on the Business Class for all 3 flights, they operate on different planes. SQ 2 uses the 77WR with 48 J seats, SQ 32 uses the long haul A350 with 42 J seats and SQ 34 has the most J seats with 67 on the A350 ULR.
Personally I have no preference between SQ 32 and 34 (probably slight preference towards SQ 34 due to the lower overall plane density and a better flight timing) but I would prefer the direct flight over SQ 2 anytime.
