Introduction: My Journey To The Stolen Jewel

Introduction: My Journey To The Stolen Jewel

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You guys asked for more reviews, and that’s exactly what you’re going to get. I’m trying to finish off the year on a high note when it comes to trip reports — Tiffany and I went to Romania, Ford and I went to California, and I also took a whirlwind review trip.

Now it’s time for the next review trip, where I’ll be spending the week criss-crossing the globe. As I’ve been doing lately, I’ll be trying to keep the review as close to “live” as possible without overwhelming you guys (meaning I don’t want to publish five installments per day). But I have quite an incentive to stay as “live” as possible, because I have another trip coming up right after this, and I don’t want to fall too far behind.

With this trip you can expect reviews of the following, among other things (these were largely on my list of airlines to review in 2019):

  • British Airways’ A350-1000 business class
  • Finnair’s A321 business class
  • Finnair’s A350-900 business class
  • Cathay Pacific’s A350-1000 business class
  • The Finnair Platinum Wing Helsinki
  • The Qantas First Lounge Singapore

Among many other things. 😉

With each individual review I’ll be talking about how I booked the flights, and will be sharing other relevant details.

So, why the title? Because my final destination is Singapore, and I’ll only really have time to check out the Jewel, this is the amazing shopping mall connected to the airport.

I put “stolen” in the title because Qatar Airways’ CEO, Akbar Al-Baker claims that Singapore stole the design for that from Qatar… even though the Jewel in Singapore opened years before the one in Doha will open.

This should be a fun/exhausting/energizing week, and I look forward to sharing my experiences! Thanks for reading, and stay tuned…

Conversations (19)
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  1. D3KingAmerican Diamond

    One World alliance represent !

  2. ron Guest

    This will be very useful and interesting as these flights are relevant for my travel pattern.

  3. dina lapoint New Member

    I'm curious, and understand if you dont want to address my question, but just in case I'm asking.

    You've mentioned several times that you're trying to get more trip reports in because your readers are asking for them. Is that a change on your part due to comments or was the direction your blog was going this year impacting financial s? You seemed happy to be spending more time at home. Could you maybe...

    I'm curious, and understand if you dont want to address my question, but just in case I'm asking.

    You've mentioned several times that you're trying to get more trip reports in because your readers are asking for them. Is that a change on your part due to comments or was the direction your blog was going this year impacting financial s? You seemed happy to be spending more time at home. Could you maybe include a little discussion on this in your end of the year post? It would be interesting to understand a bit about the underpinnings of your travel blog.

  4. Charles / Shanghai Diamond

    Wishing you happy and safe flights; the 'stolen' Jewel is worth seeing; I was fortunate that the water was flowing at this sight during my visit there last August; looking forward to your Finnair reviews (interesting that you are flying the A350s of three One World Carriers on this voyage (I loved your recent reviews of Tarom (Romania)); Finnair might have an interesting selection of Finnish Cuisine on offer

  5. DT Guest

    Enjoy Jewel. Apparently if you go at certain times of the day, the sunlight + glass roof + waterfall combines to form a giant rainbow:

    http://nowboarding.changiairport.com/discover-changi/instagram-worthy-photos-at-jewel.html

  6. Bill n DC Diamond

    Love the title and The Jewel. Visited on RTW19 2.0 in May. Found a Latino restaurant with counter seating facing the waterfall. The whole place was packed. Enjoy!

  7. Megan Diamond

    @mike G I used to live in Singapore. Loved it and would move back if I could. As for Changi it is an amazing airport - but not because of The Jewel or shopping or food. It is just so efficient. 27 minutes is my record - from the time the plan hit the tarmac to the time I got home (15kms away). This included clearing immigration (being a local I could use the automated...

    @mike G I used to live in Singapore. Loved it and would move back if I could. As for Changi it is an amazing airport - but not because of The Jewel or shopping or food. It is just so efficient. 27 minutes is my record - from the time the plan hit the tarmac to the time I got home (15kms away). This included clearing immigration (being a local I could use the automated gates), getting my bags and getting a taxi to take me home. A while ago I was on a delayed flight from Melbourne to Singapore (4 hour delay due to a problem with plane door). Meant lots of issues for people who had connections in SIN. I was first off the plane. Arrived to find a board with names of people who still had a chance of making tight connections - along with 10 golf carts to get them to their gates. For those who had already missed their connections, there were 6 tables and 12 staff waiting outside the gate to assist them. Awesome service.

  8. Mike G Guest

    Singapore is so good we're leaving and going to live there. Hello sunshine, goodbye freedom of thought.

  9. Niko Guest

    Super excited to see the Finnair posts, Helsinki is absolutely incredible and Finnair has been trying to position Helsinki as a new stopover hub. Highly recommend a nighttime visit to the loyly sauna, and the Clarion Hotel's pool is one of my favorite in the world (especially in the winter).

  10. Matt Guest

    Ben! We desperately need a review of ANA's 'The Room'!! Hopefully this is the among other things portion :)

  11. Aaron Diamond

    Will we ever get the MEA trip report?

  12. Ben Holz Gold

    Thanks Lucky! Much looking forward to it

  13. Howard Guest

    Oh Lucky, you can't write fast enough to overwhelm us <3

  14. Izz Member

    Love the title, haha!

  15. Willem Guest

    the title has Indiana Jones vibes

  16. JB Guest

    Enjoy! I went to the Jewel in July and the entrance from T1 was an amazing contrast (and that's with T1 already being above average)

  17. M Guest

    Looking forward Ben, safe travels.

  18. DB Guest

    Looking forward to these reports. Have fun!

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

D3KingAmerican Diamond

One World alliance represent !

0
ron Guest

This will be very useful and interesting as these flights are relevant for my travel pattern.

0
dina lapoint New Member

I'm curious, and understand if you dont want to address my question, but just in case I'm asking. You've mentioned several times that you're trying to get more trip reports in because your readers are asking for them. Is that a change on your part due to comments or was the direction your blog was going this year impacting financial s? You seemed happy to be spending more time at home. Could you maybe include a little discussion on this in your end of the year post? It would be interesting to understand a bit about the underpinnings of your travel blog.

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