With our conference being held in Gardens Hotel itself, naturally the delegates were housed here. Due to the less than ideal timing of the flights (SQ 118 and SQ 119), we had only 8 hours in our rooms!
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With our conference being held in Gardens Hotel itself, naturally the delegates were housed here. Due to the less than ideal timing of the flights (SQ 118 and SQ 119), we had only 8 hours in our rooms!
A question from Colin, a fellow doctor I met on my recent conference to Kuala Lumpur.
“Is it more worthwhile to do Business or First redemption?”
There is no right or wrong in this but let’s examine it using some parameters. I have did some random search for return travel to 4 different regions on a random date in November:
One of the most common question someone new into redemption would ask:
ISN’T IT BETTER FOR ME TO DO A LONG HAUL ECONOMY/PREMIUM ECONOMY REDEMPTION INSTEAD OF REGIONAL/SHORT HAUL PREMIUM?
The answer is NO. The 2 rules I will tell my friends would be:
I have broken both rules before – and this was for a special reason – SQ22 Inaugural and SQ21 return.
Now, for the second part of the trip – the flight back from Melbourne. SQ 217 let her try a day time flight with the full service while SQ 218 allows her to try out the sleeping overnight in the Suites.
Total miles burnt was 160,000 miles per person for return (pre-January devaluation).
Melbourne is one of the location with a dedicated First Class Lounge. Here are some of the pictures:
My partner, AF recently traveled to Melbourne with her hubby on their maiden flight on SQ Suites. Being their first trip in Suites, they had lots of fun (not to mention food) even before they step foot onto the plane!
Here are some pictures from their flight:
In my previous review of Holiday Inn Osaka Namba, I had put up some pictures of foods of Osaka. Here are some additional recommendations:
I am not one who is good at writing on food, but this is one place that I cannot ignore and it deserves my compliment. Wa Yamamura is the restaurant of owner cum chef, Mr. Nobuhiro Yamamura. This is certainly a must-visit in Nara – It is the one and only restaurant in Nara with 3 Michelin stars. Despite the rating, the food is reasonably priced (still pricey, but it is cheaper than most 1 star rated restaurants worldwide!). Kaiseki is a traditional multi-course Japanese meal – showcasing the art and culinary skills of the chef and chef Yamamura did well!
The Holiday Inn Osaka Namba is a reasonably budget hotel excellently situated in Namba, just at the fringe of Dotombori (read food!) It is very well connected to transportation hubs namely Nippombashi Station (Kintetsu line to Nara, Hankyu and Keihan Line to Kyoto) and Namba Station (Midosuji Line to Umeda and more importantly Nankai Line to Kansai International Airport). Next to Namba station is the OCAT where there is a direct bus (KIX Limo bus) to the airport as well. During winter, one can utilize the Namba walk (an underground shopping link connecting Nippombashi station on one end and Namba Station on the other).
There are plenty of food choices to go around in Namba and Dotombori, so feel free to book a room without breakfast plan. The hotel came with a 7-eleven (and another Lawson nearby), making it extremely convenient for breakfast and supper too!
This ryokan came as a recommendation from my wife (from her read up) and after doing some search of my own, it came recommended by many. As it is situated in Nara, it allows me to do a Ryokan stay and visit Nara at the same time. Kansai International Airport has a direct bus (2050 Yen per person) and the journey takes about 1.5 hours. The bus is comfortable and comes with on board toilet too! Do check the timing online before planning your journey.
There are currently 2 flights to Osaka daily (3rd one coming in April), either the red-eye at or a noon flight. Although I would have preferred to try out the Dreamliner, the timing was rather not conducive for my short travel as I end up losing one day. I opted instead for the ungodly hour of SQ618 which departs at 130am (for 5.5 hours flight).
