- Introduction: Around The World For Allegris
- Review: Delta Sky Club Miami Airport (MIA)
- Review: Delta First Class Boeing 737 (MIA-MSP)
- Review: Delta First Class Airbus A319 (MSP-YVR)
- Review: Lufthansa Allegris Business Class Airbus A350 (YVR-MUC)
- Review: EgyptAir Business Class Airbus A320neo (MUC-CAI)
- Review: Le Meridien Cairo Airport, Egypt
- Review: Kuwait Airways First Class Airbus A330 (CAI-KWI)
- Review: Waldorf Astoria Kuwait City
- Review: Kuwait Airways Elite Lounge Kuwait Airport (KWI)
- Review: Kuwait Airways First Class Boeing 777 (KWI-BKK)
- Review: Coral Finest Business Class Lounge Bangkok Airport (BKK)
- Review: Turkish Airlines Lounge Bangkok Airport (BKK)
- Review: Thai Airways Business Lounge Bangkok Airport (BKK)
- Review: Thai Airways First Lounge Bangkok Airport (BKK)
- Review: Thai Airways First Class Boeing 777 (BKK-NRT)
- Review: United Polaris Business Class Boeing 777 (NRT-SFO)
Welcome to my next trip report series, covering the recent round the world review trip that I took. This was a super fun journey, as I not only tried one of the most anticipated new business class experiences out there, but also got to fly two new (for me) first class products. In total, I flew nine segments, and covered just under 25,000 miles.
In this series you can expect flight reviews of Delta’s 737 first class, Delta’s A319 first class, Lufthansa’s A350 business class, EgyptAir’s A320 business class, Kuwait Airways’ A330 first class, Kuwait Airways’ 777 first class, Thai Airways’ 777 first class, United’s 777 business class, and more. There will also be reviews of several lounges, plus reviews of a couple of hotels.
In this post I’ll outline all the basics of the trip, and then I’ll publish the entire trip report series in the coming days and weeks.
In this post:
Why I took this trip
This was a pure review trip, plain and simple. That’s to say that I took this trip exclusively to be able to review certain premium airline products, all while being away from home for as little time as possible. In total, I was gone from home for about five days, which isn’t too bad, given how much distance I covered.
This trip was planned at the last minute, for a specific reason. Lufthansa recently introduced its new Allegris business class, which has been a long time in the making, and is the most delayed introduction we’ve ever seen of a new premium product. When I saw that the inaugural Vancouver to Munich flight with the new Allegris cabins had business class award availability, I couldn’t help but book.
Since I was leaving home anyway, I figured I should “squeeze” as much out of this trip as possible, in terms of reviewing products that have been on my list. So I turned this into a round the world journey, including trying a couple of first class experiences that have been on my radar for quite some time (along with some new business class products).
The airlines I flew on this trip
I booked this itinerary as six separate tickets, so let me share the details of the tickets in the chronological order that I traveled.
To kick off the trip, I had to position to Vancouver (since that’s where my Lufthansa Allegris flight was departing from). I was booking at the last minute, and the best premium cabin deal was with Delta, allowing me to review Delta’s 737 and Delta’s A319. So I booked the following in first class for $762:
5/01 DL1565 Miami to Minneapolis departing 6:00AM arriving 8:51AM
5/01 DL2489 Minneapolis to Vancouver departing 10:05AM arriving 11:56AM
For the next portion of the trip, I decided to fly from Vancouver to Cairo via Munich, flying Lufthansa’s A350 Allegris business class and EgyptAir’s A320neo business class. I booked the following in business class for 90,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points plus $88.24 in taxes and fees:
5/01 LH477 Vancouver to Munich departing 6:50PM arriving 1:30PM (+1 day)
5/02 MS788 Munich to Cairo departing 3:55PM arriving 8:40PM
The reason I decided to continue from Munich to Cairo was both to review one of EgyptAir’s newer narrow body aircraft, and to position to Cairo, which is known for its attractive premium cabin airfare. One of the few remaining first class products in the world that I haven’t reviewed is Kuwait Airways’ first class, and I found an attractive fare out of Cairo that would allow me to review both Kuwait Airways’ A330 first class and Kuwait Airways’ 777 first class.
Kuwait Airways doesn’t have any useful partnerships for redeeming miles, unfortunately. So I booked the following ticket in first class for $2,042 (I used Amex Pay With Points, so since I have the Amex Business Platinum, this ended up costing me 132,730 Amex Membership Rewards points):
5/03 KU546 Cairo to Kuwait departing 11:20AM arriving 2:00PM
5/04 KU413 Kuwait to Bangkok departing 2:40PM arriving 1:40AM (+1 day)
From Bangkok, I was looking forward to checking out one of the other remaining first class products I’ve yet to fly, which is Thai Airways’ 777 first class. Once again, unfortunately there wasn’t award availability on the flight.
I booked the following ticket in first class for $1,881 (I used Amex Pay With Points, so since I have the Amex Business Platinum, this ended up costing me 122,265 Amex Membership Rewards points):
5/05 TG676 Bangkok to Tokyo Narita departing 7:35AM arriving 3:45PM
Then to return back across the Pacific to the United States, I found award availability in United’s 777 Polaris business class, which is a product I haven’t reviewed in quite some time. I booked the following in business class for 75,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points plus $94.09 in taxes and fees:
5/05 UA838 Tokyo Narita to San Francisco departing 5:05PM arriving 10:25AM
Lastly, I flew home from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale on JetBlue, but I won’t be reviewing that here, as I slept almost the entire way. I was exhausted at this point in the journey!
In addition to flight reviews, you can expect reviews of the following lounges:
- The Delta Sky Club Miami (MIA)
- The Kuwait Airways Elite Lounge Kuwait (KWI)
- The Turkish Airlines Lounge Bangkok (BKK)
- The Coral Finest Business Class Lounge Bangkok (BKK) — lol to the name, but this lounge fascinated me, since it’s the former Thai Airways First Lounge Bangkok
- The Thai Airways First Lounge Bangkok (BKK)
- The Thai Airways Business Lounge Bangkok (BKK)
At some other airports I wasn’t able to get full lounge reviews, either due to short connections, or because I’ve reviewed the lounges already.
The hotels I stayed at on this trip
On these review trips, I spend most of my time in the air, and not in hotels. On this trip I had overnight stays at two airports:
- Cairo (CAI)
- Kuwait City (KWI)
In Cairo, I had just over a 14-hour overnight, so I decided to book the most practical hotel, which is the Le Meridien Cairo Airport. You can’t beat the property’s convenience, as it’s connected directly to Terminal 3. While this hotel is starting to show its age and is getting to the point where it can use a renovation, there’s something I really like about this property.
Then I had a nearly 24-hour layover in Kuwait City. I wrote a separate post about my decision making process in choosing a luxury hotel in Kuwait, and I ended up selecting the Waldorf Astoria Kuwait City. I’m so happy I did, because my stay was phenomenal, and this is easily one of my favorite city hotels I’ve stayed at.
Bottom line
I had an awesome review that included flights on Delta, Lufthansa, EgyptAir, Kuwait Airways, Thai Airways, and United, including some products that had been on my list for quite some time. I’m so happy I had the chance to have these experiences, and also to visit some cool lounges and hotels along the way.
Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
Would you have an email address for The Le Merdien Cairo Airport? They only have phone numbers for the contact for the hotel. Thanks
Ben,
I know your "role" in a way requires you to do these breaking pieces, so in a way, it's a way to get an edge on the competition.
But I do wonder whether you carbon offset these things (even though carbon offset is a bit bs overall).
Being American, I know it's very easy to feel that climate change is not real etc etc etc. It does make me wonder what...
Ben,
I know your "role" in a way requires you to do these breaking pieces, so in a way, it's a way to get an edge on the competition.
But I do wonder whether you carbon offset these things (even though carbon offset is a bit bs overall).
Being American, I know it's very easy to feel that climate change is not real etc etc etc. It does make me wonder what you and your partner is doing to make sure your kid and other people's kid aren't going to end up "footing the bill".
More of a curiosity than anything because the benefit of the doubt says you'd do more than the "rest of America", but America isn't the greatest at that overall.
As someone whose company had to pay 10s of thousands to a "Green" consultancy firm over the last few years to please a customer/partner, the carbon offset credits are a total sham.
This is not to try and discredit climate change or efforts to reduce emissions, but this particular side part of the industry is smoke and mirrors.
Individual efforts on a personal level are feel good measures that won't do anything for the...
As someone whose company had to pay 10s of thousands to a "Green" consultancy firm over the last few years to please a customer/partner, the carbon offset credits are a total sham.
This is not to try and discredit climate change or efforts to reduce emissions, but this particular side part of the industry is smoke and mirrors.
Individual efforts on a personal level are feel good measures that won't do anything for the global situation as long as countries that don't care about climate concerns continue to pump out massive amounts of pollution. True change will come from innovation and technology making clean energy as cost effective and efficient as fossil fuels, not scaling back minimal amounts of first world consumer consumption.
I’m grounded. If they ever launch that boom overture I’ll come out of retirement.
Hi Ben!
That connection time at NRT was quite tight that didn't leave much room for delays. Since you were on separate tickets, did you have a backup flight booked just in case?
Out of curiosity, do you usually assume flights operate on time, when scheduling such itineraries?
YAY!! Ben finally reviews KU F Suites!! How long as it been on your list, Ben? Over five years? Definitely since before the pandemic.
Hope the service on yours was better than when I flew KU F. Gorgeous product, but the soft service was nonexistent both in the air and on the ground from JFK. I had better much service on the regional legs.
so r u taking ur kid in biz class or what?
Please rate Allegris on a scale of 1 to 5 Stars, for obvious reasons.
Unnecessary question. It's of course all of them.
1* + 2** + 3*** + 4**** + 5 ***** = 15 stars
Need to be in a particular place at a particular time because you have a life and now the points are pretty much worthless or a moderate cash discount.
I wonder if there's a lesson here.
Well said.
I find it interesting that even you couldn’t get award space for a couple of these tickets. If you can’t manage, what chance do we mere mortals have?
The airlines and products Ben chose to fly on this trip were all products he had wanted to fly for a very long time, but couldn't make it work before due to any reason (also including award space). However, Ben wanted to complete his goal of flying every First Class product in the world, and he was motivated to make progress on it for this trip, which is likely why he was willing to shell...
The airlines and products Ben chose to fly on this trip were all products he had wanted to fly for a very long time, but couldn't make it work before due to any reason (also including award space). However, Ben wanted to complete his goal of flying every First Class product in the world, and he was motivated to make progress on it for this trip, which is likely why he was willing to shell out cash for it (and use AMEX points to pay for it - despite being at not such a great price in terms of maximizing value). He had a price for the experience he was willing to pay. That's why the way Ben paid for the Kuwait and Thai tickets may not have been the best redemptions based on maximizing value, but it allowed Ben to make progress on his goal.
Second question, you didn't get any hotel in BKK for the 1:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. "layover"?
Was SFO => FLL in JetBlue Mint or regular ol’ economy?
Hi Chris. If you use AMEX points to purchase business class ticket, you get 35% back and no need to pick specific airline. Only for economy class you need to choose airline.
Thanks Arturas for your clarifying this.
Will the individual reviews include where you credited each of the paid flights? It would be interesting to read about your thought process of which programs you are accruing miles in these days.
It's incredible how cheap and plastic this Allegris cabin looks, Lufthansa should've reconsidered some changes before launching this Business Class, it really looks cheap for a premium cabin, it's been a failure, far behind other business seats debuting this year, the finishes are ugly, the color scheme is dull, hopefully Swiss' senses have better finishes.
"Look" is a matter of taste. But, how about the "feel?" It would be amusing if, after all of the delay and anticipation, the Allegris seat is "just another business class seat" relative to the current generation.
Ben, excuse my ignorance but in order to get the 35% rebate don't you have to have that airline designated for your $200 airline fee credit which theoretically is limited to changing just once per year? And, aren't the allowed partners mostly the US carriers?
Hey chris,
The Amex 35% rebate works with ANY carriers so long as the flights are purchased as a business or first class fare. Selecting the airline of choice is only required to get the rebate for economy and premium economy fares.
Thanks Stu for the clarification.
Your ignorance has failed you twice.
You failed to understand the T&C.
You failed to believe Ben.
@eskimo. That was unnecessary. and, to be clear, rude.
Hate to post this here - is there a better place?
It’s still breaking, but apparently Maldives is pumping the brakes on the Israeli ban due to many Palestinians (Muslims) having Israeli passports. Can we call it an Jew ban yet?
Hi Ben,
The Amex points used with the Plat Business does not include the 35% rebate yet, does it?
@ JJ -- That does factor in the 35% rebate. Otherwise you get one cent of value per point, so with the 35% rebate, you get 1.54 cents of value per point. It's not the best deal in the world, but it was the best option to try some experiences that have been on my radar.