Award Airline Travel: Scam or…Scam?

I’m currently on hour 42 of my “free” flight back to Hanoi. I still have roughly 20 more hours to go until I’m back in my apartment, but only 2 more until I’m in HCMC where I’ll spend the night.

There’s nothing much to say about my 60-hour trip from Honolulu to Hanoi, unless one wants to focus on various frustrations that come from poor service on airlines, at immigration, in airport hotels, etc. I just passed through Hong Kong International Airport, which to me was the worst international airport I passed through on this trip.

Part of this was due to the Regal Airport Hotel where I stayed. It was an enormous hassle to go through customs—imagine how long it takes for a line with 120 people to be served by only 2 customs officers—just so I could take advantage of a day room facility. And the check-in area of the hotel, which was run by what appeared to be a gang of teenagers, was very inefficient—another 10-15 minutes spent waiting for them to confirm my reservation and enter my information on their computer. The room itself was comfortable and spacious, but not at all worth the $156 I spent on it (shockingly, the cheapest option at Hong Kong’s airport, and much more expensive than day rooms in Singapore and Tokyo).

Granted, the room was spacious and comfortable...

And the bathroom was nicely appointed and all shiny and clean...

And the view from the window was quite nice (or would have been if there hadn't been so much haze)...but it really wasn't worth what I paid.

Like at the day room at the airport in Bangkok, I was awakened early (after almost a day and a half without sleep) — this time by a too-eager maid who had no idea I was still in my room and asleep. It would have been nice to log on to the Internet from my room at some point, but that would have cost me an additional $17. To top it off, checking out was just as slow as checking in.

Were my frequent flier miles worth my $1500 ticket savings? Yes and no. I ended up spending quite a bit on airport day rooms and on airport food and drink—including the $5 bottle of tea that I bought at a kiosk right outside my boarding gate in Hong Kong, which was promptly confiscated five minutes later upon boarding. (Seriously, what the hell is up with that?) Also, it’s hard to justify wasting more than 100 hours of my life on a round-trip flight between Hanoi and Honolulu. Somehow, I still have enough miles to take two more free flights between Asia and the U.S. I’m either going to have to find some other way to use those miles, or I’ll have to hope that the airlines will find a much better way to make award travel less of a nightmare.

I do know this: if the only choice I have to use my award miles is to spend 2 1/2 days and pass through five different countries to travel what would take less than 20 hours on a normal ticket, I’m not going to do it. And I would highly recommend that others don’t do what I’ve done, even if the savings are substantial. I’m fairly sure that my expenses just in the airports I passed through on this trip cost upwards of $500. I didn’t have to spend that much on day rooms, of course, but then is going sleepless for two and a half days on a single trip worth it?

My next international trip will be sometime in June, when I move to Japan. I’ll see if I can use my frequent flier miles for the trip. If I can’t get a direct flight from Hanoi to Tokyo with United Airline’s Award Travel program, I won’t use the miles and will make immediate plans to cancel that credit card. The option of “free” flights is obviously nice, but it seems rarely worth it in the end.

Postscript: I can’t even express my relief upon arriving in HCMC. Not only did the city, on the short ride from the airport to my hotel, feel more relaxed (so did the flight from Hong Kong, where suddenly most of the passengers were traveling in bare feet, often propped up on the armrests of the seats in front of them), but interacting with the super friendly taxi driver and hotel staff was a kind of revelation…or a re-run of past revelations. Aside from the terrible traffic, increased population density, and the occasional pushy person, I love HCMC.

I liked Kim Yen a lot and will stay there again if I have an overnight in HCMC.

I stayed the night at Kim Yen Hotel, which is only 4 km from the airport, and after 4 hours of sleep—I had no idea what time it was when I woke up; at 2:15 a.m. I thought I might be late preparing for my late morning checkout—I wandered through the streets of Phu Nhuan looking for morning com va ca phe. I couldn’t find anything to suit my tastes at 6 a.m., so I went with a two egg and mixed-everything-else sandwich (20,000 dong / $0.96) and a coffee (10,000 dong / $0.48) from a small restaurant in front of my hotel. It was heavenly.

Why are you looking at me like that? I just want to show the world what great sandwiches you make...

And why are YOU looking at me like that? Did you see me photographing the sandwich cart guys up the street or something?

Talk about inviting! Look at that beautiful, cheap, oversized glass mug of ca phe sua da.

This might look like a boring place to eat a breakfast sandwich and drink coffee in Saigon, but at 6 in the morning, with the city at its near-quietest and near-coolest, this was a little piece of heaven for me. (By the way, that's not me at the table. I'm behind the camera lens with half a sandwich stuffed in my mouth and the rim of my coffee glass wedged between my lips.)

Kim Yen Hotel is at 126 Nguyen Trong Tuyen Street, 15th Ward, Phu Nhuan District. Tel: (84) 8-3997-7005/6/7/8. Fax: (84) 8-3997-7010. Email: kimyen@kimyenhotel.com.vn. Web: http://kimyenhotel.com.vn/en/

Back at the airport, where I had to deal with all kinds of line-challenged travelers, I got through things easier than expected. I had a suitcase weighing about 20 kilograms more than the allowable limit, and while I was ready to pay as much as $75 (I had to pay that much once before, though for an international flight), they only charged me $36. Good to know. It helped, I think, that I spoke Vietnamese to the airport staff. The women—who delayed my payment by getting the phone number of a German tourist about 65 years old — all said I was handsome, to which I said, "No, I’m ugly, I'm not handsome at all," at which point they cackled together and then wrote down the amount I was to pay. I have no idea if they gave me a flirtation discount, but I certainly tried.

A Trip Home and Some Experiences with Airport Hotels

My carbon footprint is shamefully large. With all the travel I do, it’s unavoidable—unless I stop traveling, which doesn’t appear to be in the cards for me. But the trip that I’m currently on, and for which I’m using 40,000 United Air Miles to travel for free (taxes and handling fees cost about $80) between HCMC and Honolulu, increases my footprint substantially. The itinerary for my flight home is taking me from Hanoi to HCMC, HCMC to Bangkok, Bangkok to Narita, and Narita to Honolulu. Total travel time including layovers: 35 hours. Countries passed through: 4, counting Vietnam. This is better than my return trip, which will take me more than 50 hours, through 5 countries, to go from Honolulu back to Hanoi. All to save about $1400. Is it worth it? I’m not really sure…

I did get bumped up from economy to business class on my flight to Bangkok, but it was only a 90-minute flight, so the upgrade was over almost as soon as it had begun. It was my first flight with Lufthansa, and I must say I enjoyed it. Especially the massage function in my chair, which felt good on the 2 square inches of my lower back that it worked on. But it was fun pressing the buttons on my console to make my seat wiggle slightly. The hulking German flight attendant was a bit scary and overly serious—I thought flight attendants are supposed to smile—but nonetheless the service was good.

When I got to Bangkok, I was faced with an 8 1/2-hour layover. Thinking that I’d do well to get some sleep—I can never sleep on planes—I decided to look for an airport hotel. That was, if I could get to the transit area through the mass of passengers bottlenecked in front of the only escalator going to the second floor, which was controlled by an airport employee who only allowed maybe 20 passengers to ascend every minute. It took 10 minutes just to get to the second floor, at which point I tried to locate an information booth to inquire where I could find and book a room. I was waved in a vague direction by a group of check-in agents chatting amongst themselves, and after five minutes of looking, I found two women at a tiny information kiosk, but they didn’t really seem to want to be bothered either. I interrupted them after waiting a couple minutes for them to end their conversation, and they, too, waved me lazily down some long corridor, saying the hotel was “at the end.” I walked and I walked, about 4 or 5 minutes total, but found nothing besides what appeared to be two private lounges. The corridor ended at a glass wall. So I turned back, found the information booth empty now, but tracked down the woman who’d misguided me and asked again where to find the hotel. This time she said it was halfway down the same corridor I’d traveled, across from departure gate A3. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?” I asked, but she just waved me off again.

(I seem to never have good luck in Thailand. So far: 2 hospital visits, a taxi “kidnapping,” hotels that falsely advertised, a sewage pipe that broke at the very moment I passed under it, an airline that dropped and broke my computer but refused to compensate me for it, riots, etc. So why do I keep going back?)

I found the hotel, but the prices made me think I was the victim of a bad joke. $89 for 4 hours? $130 for six hours? Highway robbery! I’ve stayed at airport hotels in Singapore and Seoul before, and the prices weren’t nearly so exorbitant. I asked if they had any photos of the rooms, but they only shook their heads. Well, what are the rooms like? I was told offhandedly that they were like rooms in any hotel. (Wow, such a helpful description.) Already exhausted from a poor night’s sleep, I decided to splurge for the 6-hour stay. Damnit, I wanted some shut-eye, especially since the next day would amount to 21 hours of sleepless travel. “Can I have a 4:30 wake-up call?” I asked. “Of course,” I was told. When I got to my room, it occurred to me that I didn’t actually see them program the call, so I rang them up to make sure they’d done it. “4:30,” I reminded them. They sighed. “Yes, sir, I’ve already set it up.”

The room was fine. I fell asleep after about half an hour. I was awakened by a call from the front desk staff, which had me leaping out of bed to answer it. When I turned on the light and checked the time, I couldn’t believe it was only 3:30! For $130, I certainly expected better. Especially since I double-checked with them about my wake-up time. When I checked out, I told the woman at the front desk—the same woman who’d checked me in—that she’d woken me up at the wrong time. I got no reply. Wanting a reply, I told her again. “So sorry, sir,” she mumbled, counting through a wad of money to return my $20 cash deposit on the room. The thrill she felt working there was palpable, and I felt it like a kick to my backside. I took my “free light refreshment” card to the second floor to see what I’d get, was asked to choose from among 5 items—juice, mixed fruit, water, tea or coffee, or toast/croissant—and opted for toast/croissant. Five minutes later I found myself being served juice, mixed fruit, water, coffee, and 2 pieces of toast and 2 mini-croissants. I guess it goes to show that not all miscommunications are bad…

By the time I got to Narita, I was already on hour 20-something, and I had another 5 hours to kill before my next flight. I found a day room with shower that was much, much cheaper than what I paid for in Bangkok. I ended up, rather self-indulgently again, paying $39 for three hours in a room with a bed and shower. Unfortunately, shortly after I lay down to sleep, I discovered that the hotel walls were very thin, and multiple guests, apparently, were using it in the fashion of a love hotel.

At least I could take a hot shower ($15 if you only use their shower facilities). They also gave me a bottle of water with the room, which would have otherwise cost me $2. So, I got a $2 water bottle, a $15 shower, and basically a $22 bed for 3 hours. But not really—the fact is it cost me $39.

For more about day rooms and shower facilities at Narita airport, check this URL: http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/guide/service/list/svc_37.html