After the highlight which was Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, it was time to leave Canada. Our next stop was Tokyo but unfortunately the flight out of LAX is pretty early at 10am. Hence, a night’s stay in LAX cannot be avoided. One thing I dislike about airports in USA is that there are no hotels connected to the airport. This make transit in USA rather tedious as one has to take another transport from the airport to the hotel.
LAX used to be the other route operated on Airbus A380-800 besides JFK. Things changed as of October 2016 when it was downgraded to a 77WR with a second service to LAX added (SQ7 and SQ8, at the expense of SQ15 and SQ16). SQ11/12 operates via Narita and SQ7/8 operates via Incheon. While getting Suites on SQ11/12 was not easy, it wasn’t tough either. Since the change, it is almost impossible to get even one seat on First Class, let alone 2 (especially you have no status on Krisflyer)! With only 4 seats, getting 1 will definitely be tough. Business Class on the other hand, was still doable.
I was initially due to fly SQ7 via Incheon and onwards to Male. I decided to change my itinerary and switched over to SQ11 with a Tokyo stopover. SQ7 previously cost me about USD $370 per person while SQ11 cost me SGD $145. In total, I paid 68,000 miles (+ another $290) for my flight, which would cost otherwise 93,500 miles if I am not willing to pay USD $100 for the stopover. Currently, you pay 88,000 miles but you only pay $23.60 for tax! Flight timing has also changed, SQ11 previously leaves LAX in the evening, arriving Narita at 730pm and Singapore at 330am! With the change, SQ11 departs at 10am, arrives Narita at 130pm and Singapore at 9pm. This new timing is more palatable for those arriving in both Narita and Singapore for sure.
I initially planned to do this flight in Business as the price difference between Y and J was minimal ($300+ vs $400+). However, price for Tango dropped significantly and I bought the tickets at $191 (excluding seat selection and baggage fee) while the price of Business Class remained at about $460. One month before travel, I tried my luck with a bid of $120 USD per person for upgrade but as expected the bid failed. I wasn’t too hard up for the upgrade especially after my experience on AC 307 (this flight was operated on Airbus A319). It has the exact hard product as the A320 (which wasn’t great).
Looking forward to my upcoming long trip (after my last one in 2015). Will be doing the following reviews:
Date : 19 to 22 November 2015 (3 nights)
Price : SGD $899 (including tax)
Type of room : Studio Suite
Inclusive : Breakfast
Residence Inn in Downtown LA is located at one of the newest part of downtown, named L.A. Live. The hotel building is actually 2 hotels in 1 (i.e. Residence Inn and Courtyard, both under Marriott Group). I booked this hotel via Expedia (for the 6 miles per dollar under Citibank promo) as it was cheaper than booking with Marriott directly.
Hot and sunny Los Angeles
After one and a half weeks of cold eastern weather, finally we had some sun. The weather in Los Angeles was a complete contrast from what we had in New York, Boston and Toronto. We spent 3 nights in Los Angeles including one day in Universal Studios in which we also tried out UberX for the first time. We used it for travel within the city, it was definitely cheaper than the taxi. Getting a car via the Uber app was also very fast and straightforward. One of our trip on UberX was from our hotel in Downtown LA to Union Station. For our trip to San Francisco, I booked the Amtrak Coast Starlight to try a different mode of transport.
Canada was fun but a little hectic. 3 nights in 3 different locations:
We were quite lucky that the both days we were in Toronto and Niagara Falls, the temperatures were higher than that of Boston! The day we left Toronto for Niagara Falls, Toronto was enveloped in thick fog while for Niagara, it started to rain. Thanks to a clear weather, we had a magnificent 360 degree view of Toronto from CN Tower (where we had our dinner). A sunny noon in Niagara gave us opportunity for photo taking of the falls and the weather held up the following morning to allow us to enjoy Hornblower Cruise. The good weather we had in Niagara allowed us a magnificent view of the falls from our hotel, Sheraton On The Falls. Not long after we left Niagara, it started to rain pretty heavily.
That Time Of The Year! 