Kinglobjaw's Blog

Archive for September, 2009

I don’t play baseball, but I do hit grand slams occasionally. In US Airways baseball, of course. I have just posted the first 12 suggestions on how to complete the US Airways Grand Slam 2009 promotion to your advantage. 12 hits gets you 12,000 redeemable miles + 4,000 preferred qualifying miles. Check back often as the list will expand. Good luck!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

I was busy the entire day today and I got the press release via text in church and it has been bugging me all day to see the new US Airways Envoy Suite. I’m a big fan of US Airways, but in all honesty , the Envoy Suite looks world class. If not told what airline was introducing the new business class and if shown to me in another color (Singapore’s brown/khaki would look good on this seat), I would expect an Asian or European carrier like ANA or Swiss to launch this seat. US Airways even made a snazzy flash tour to feature & promote the new product. Very classy approach.

What’s nice is that the herringbone layout of a 1-2-1 configuration a la Air Canada or Air New Zealand faces away from the aisle for more privacy and comfort. Everyone gets aisle access which is superior to what United or American Airlines can offer in business class, or even Lufthansa in business and 747 First Class!

A couple of thoughts do remain, however:

• Why must it take so long to re-configure the A333? Summer 2012 seems far away from today.
• What will be the new Envoy seat count on the A333? Will they remove some coach seats or will the Envoy cabin be very tiny, but exclusive.
• I rarely rely on IFE since I can always find something to do, but the 12.1 inch screens seems a bit small. 15 inch or higher would be more appropriate.
• For a short while, US Airways will offer 5 different Envoy configurations- 767, new Envoy Suite on A332, old Envoy A333, old Envoy A332 and old Envoy 757. The latter three being very similar.

How do you feel about the new Envoy Suite? Sound off below. Some FlyerTalkers are already complaining that too many couples will be seated alone. Still, I doubt they’ll be getting a separation after a 12 or 13 hour flight in such comfort!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Race to Preferred status faster than ever
Get ready for the fastest, easiest way ever to get (or keep) Preferred status. All you have to do is fly between October 1 and December 25, 2009 on any US Airways or US Airways Express flight, and you can earn Preferred status for 2010 when you fly just 7,500 miles by the end of the year. Think of it as an end-of-the-year shortcut.

Already earned Preferred status for 2010? You can stretch to the next level.

We’ll determine and award your Preferred status on January 10, 2010. You don’t need to register (we’ll keep track of your flights). We told you it was easy!

It goes on to offer a link with more details. A rush of excitement came- Chairman’s Preferred after 30,000 miles flown. You cannot be serious, I thought. Can you take a guess how well I slept after that email? I didn’t! From 3AM to 7AM I covered the entire continent for decent routings to the maximize miles for the lowest price.

I’m currently booked on part one  of Kinglobjaw’s crazy run for Chairman’s Preferred. Does Chicago to Tampa, via Vegas, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Phoenix again, Philadelphia and back for $335 sound like fun to you?

An interesting way of getting to Tampa

Here’s some other key information about this unique promotion:

• Targeted, meaning you had to receive an invite from US Airways. You can’t just register for it or join Dividend Miles to be eligible.
• Fly between October 1, 2009 and December 25, 2009 on US Airways, US Airways Shuttle and US Airways Express only
• Class of service bonus or other bonus mile offers don’t count towards this promotion
• If you can’t cover 30,000 miles, fly 22,500 for Platinum, 15,000 for Gold or 7,500 for Silver
• New Preferred status level awarded in the second week of January 2010

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Charlotte to Rio de Janeiro. It was supposed to start on 12/2. I know it by heart; I was going to fly that inaugural flight all the way down to Rio de Janeiro. Initial information I received mentions Brazil denying US Airways acess to serve Brazil for the first two weeks of December 2009.

That would make sense since I scanned availability and everything is zeroed out in both direction and both classes of servcie until 12/15.

The 15th of December shows an unsually early 8:30PM departure from Charlotte. The 16th (interestingly enough, two weeks after the Rio service should have commenced) shows a scheduled departure time. The first northbound flight would operate from Rio back to Charlotte on the 16th of December.

Since I still have plans to fly the inaugural southbound flight, I am eagerly waiting to confirm with Scott Kirby, the new inaugural flight date and the reason behind the change.

I will update as soon as I have more information.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

As you can see from my IC Mauritius review posted just minutes ago, Kinglobjaw is back. I’ve been away for exactly a month, and it wasn’t by choice. I’ll keep it short, but it won’t be sweet. Basically, a healthy 19 year old who has not even taken so much as an aspirin or tylenol in his entire life got really ill. I had a bacterial abscess in my sinus and I had to stay in a hospital for a few nights. Was no Ritz yet they charged me $1,800 per night. Here’s where it gets complicated. No antibiotics worked, so they had to make a hole in my forehead to drain the abscess= 5 hour surgery. I could have said no to the surgery, but then the ball of bacteria would: a) hit my eye nerve and I’d go blind or b) burst into my brain which would either cause me to undergo a brain surgery or die. And by the way, the bacteria was staph.

I’d like to kindly ask for everyone (who has done so) to stop blaming Africa for this illness! It could have gotten it anywhere…

There, I told you I would keep it short. Other than that, I’ve been on another antibiotic following my surgery and I’ve been generally weak and I’m not supposed to lift more than 5 pounds. I sure hope my keyboard isn’t that heavy. Oh, and I should be sleeping by now.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

We stayed at the Presidential Suite (room 1923 in building 9) for 9 nights from July 12, 2009 to July 21, 2009 and while the property itself was beautiful and staff friendly I found service to be mediocre at best, sometimes even poor. As this is a very new property, it is my hope and belief that service levels will improve with proper guidance from various managers who each have multiples years of experience on their “backs”. I very seldom talk about the hotels I’ve stayed at, but will categorize this review for an easier read.

Arrival:  Since we rented a car from Avis, we drove on our own. Getting to the hotel from the airport was rather easy as there was proper signage up until the Grand Mauritian. By coincidence we pulled into the Grand Mauritian and thought, wow how ugly the lobby of this hotel is. Then somebody then told us, the InterContinental is next door. Ahh, a sigh of relief! Upon arrival, Guest Relations’ Jameel was paged to meet us and offered us a welcome beverage. Off the bat, I thought Jameel was excellent. He handled everything quickly, gave us his personal contact information and lead us to our room.

Room:  From the moment we walked in, we were awestruck. Aside from the Conrad Maldives, this was probably one of the nicer hotel rooms I’ve stayed in. The room was huge and just as I thought Jameel had finished showing us our room, yet another door was mentioned leading to a side terrace and a second balcony. After Jameel left, I had to re-tour the room a couple of times until I could snap back into quick thinking.  Unfortunately, we did encounter some problems with the mechanics of the room.  One of the biggest problems was with the warm water. For the first three days water ranged from cool to lukewarm. Finally, when we decided to call a plumber, the water finally became hot, but every morning you would have to run it for about 5-10 minutes before it was hot enough. Normally, lukewarm water would be refreshing in a tropical destination, however as it was winter in Mauritius, we had to have our hot water! When it comes to the shower itself, the floor was not inclined so after every shower a puddle of water would form throughout the bathroom, which in my opinion is waste of water and towels. More importantly, be careful not to slip! Other quirks in our room included the lack of wall mounted hooks throughout the bathroom. I found it very annoying having to hang things on the door knob or lean it against a shelf. I also missed having an alarm clock/radio in our room; however the GM stated they are expecting alarm clock/radio/ipod dock sets “any day now”. Keep in mind the official grand opening will occur in September 2009.

Food/ Service at Restaurants: We mostly dined at the main restaurant (The Palms) which features a daily buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast was included in our rate, but normally costs 15EUR per person. Lunch we skipped as we preferred smaller snacks which we bought in a local supermarket. Both lunch and dinner cost 35EUR per person.  I found breakfast generally tasty, although I was upset at the poor selection of fresh fruits. I also opted to skip meat selections as they were outright odd in taste. On the other hand, I was able to have a delicious muesli with my yoghurt every morning. The various granolas and cereals had tasty spices that had quite the kick! What I also didn’t like about breakfast is how staff would pour tea and coffee from large thermoses instead of offering a hot tea kettle. It felt like I was dining in a cafeteria or canteen.  Dinner at the main (buffet) restaurant was a different theme every evening. Monday- Chinese, Tuesday-Indian, Wednesday-Seafood, Thursday- African, Friday- Middle Eastern/Mediterranean,  Saturday- Authentic Mauritian, Sunday- International Food Mix. I’d have to say my favorite was African and Indian.  Aside from the main restaurant, we were also invited for dinner to the seafood restaurant, Segala, by the Resort Manager.  As I’m not a fan of seafood, I opted for a Caprese Salad and a Filet Mignon. I thought Segala was top notch, including the service,  though I found  the plastic wine “cups” tacky. Two other premium restaurants are on premises- an Asian Fusion restaurant and an Indian restaurant. Keep in mind, the three non-buffet restaurants are closed on the days when the same type cuisine is served in the buffet restaurant.

When it comes to service at the property, I thought it was the low point of the stay. Throughout our stay we experienced many mistakes,  forgetful  & slow waiters and waitresses and a general lack of consistency.  Although the staff was generally polite and friendly, it felt as if some individuals didn’t really care- felt like they weren’t working in the hospitality industry. I didn’t like that hot buffet items were piping hot on a certain day and cool the next.  One evening we received check out  information and good bye letter just 2 nights into our 9 night stay. It’s these types of small things that really make you go “hmmm” in a five star InterContinental Resort!

Property/ Facilities: Grounds are stunning, but let that grass grow! The small “island” with only three beach huts offers a quiet retreat. The beach is wide and huts are spread out far away from each other so you really feel like you’re relaxing. The sand itself is a little rocky, and you have to watch out for more rocks in the lagoon. The lagoon is manmade keeping you away from the waves and the water is very calm so there’s no problem with swimming in the Ocean. There are two pools- a main pool and a separate, smaller heated pool.  Tons of activities are offered and they are complimentary for all guests which is a nice touch given all the nickel and diming going on at hotels. Definitely try Bocce Ball! It’s also worth noting that every Saturday evening, local dancers and musicians perform traditional Mauritian music and choreography.

Spa: Spa is run by Angsana and is a Thai spa. My Mom went there for a manicure and was really happy with the treatment. That’s about all I can say about the Spa. The gym is very modern but it’s a shame it closes at 8 PM.

Worth checking out: Casela Park (definitely do the quad safari while you are there). Ile Aux Cerfs- the nicest beach on the island of Mauritius. Also check out Triolet City Hindu Temple and be sure to take off your shoes when you walk in. Grand Baie is nice for some souvenir shopping and night life. There are two supermarkets, Jumbo and Super U (no food mart in hotel so buy your snacks/goods in one of the two). The souvenir shop with a very good selection- Le Dodo near the College of Dentistry in Baclava (5 minutes driving from the hotel). I’d also recommend renting a car. AVIS is the only car rental company at the hotel.

All in all, I’d give this hotel  4 out of 5 stars as service is the only real complaint I have about this property. That said, the managers are opening for comments and willing to make improvements, so I think time will bring positive changes. The grounds however are stunning and the beach/ocean/lagoon are as perfect as can be. You can really relax here. Would I go back? I would! Mauritius is beautiful and has a lot to offer.

Take a moment to check out the pictures of our room and of the hotel that are attached below.

1 of 2 roof decks in our presidential suite. This one has a jacuzzi.

Second roof deck with a sun bed.

Very comfy king-sized bed.

As you can see the room is a bright one.

Living room on the first floor.

Huge balcony...

... that comes with a great view.

Main building from beach.

Main pool and beach view from lobby.

Kinglobjaw's retreat. Only three beach huts on this patch of (is)land. Big time relaxation!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark