Richard Moross 1/2/26 Richard Moross 1/2/26

7 Day Air Miles Adventure

A new year, a new adventure.

Ed and I started planning a second air miles powered trip back in May. Now, eight months later, we are just a few days away from departure. Our journey will take us to Tokyo, Taipei, and Bangkok, and will include some exciting new airline experiences, including JAL First Class and Starlux.

As before, the trip is just as much about the journey, so we have planned to maximise our experiences both on the ground as well as in the air, whist eating and drinking every good thing that comes our way.

Our flights are as follows -

Japan Airlines First Class from Paris to Tokyo on the A350

Cathay Pacific Regional Business Class from Tokyo to Taipei on a B777

Starlux Business Class from Taipei to Bangkok on the A350

Qatar Airlines First Class on the A380 from Bangkok to London via Doha

Our itinerary gives us 24 hours in Toky0, 48 hours in Taipei, and 48 hours in Bangkok. Not much, but enough!

JAL First Class was booked with American Airlines miles (90k + c$200 in taxes each). At first only Business Class was available, so we started with those (75k miles + $200 tax). Several months later a First Class seat opened up, with the second seat popping up two weeks prior to departure. The other thing that changed was that JAL switched from a 777 to an A350 on this route, upgrading the hard product with it. This is JAL’s new First Class and has been receiving rave reviews. There is so much to look forward to on this flight - this is one of the world’s very best First Class products.

The American Airlines online search tool provides a really good option to search for award space of this kind. It does not require you to log in, and you can (slowly) search months ahead for availability in Business/First, or just First, on direct and indirect routes. We picked Paris as our outbound airport as it was the closest available for the Tokyo route.

The Tokyo to Taipei leg was secured with 32,500 Avios (+$100 in taxes) and was booked via BA. It’s Cathay’s regional business class, so not that exciting. BA’s site is also relatively easy to use and seems to show a lot more premium Cathay availability than AA, where you may have to call and get the agent to book for you.

We had originally booked Thai Airways from Taipei to Bangkok, but switched over to Starlux as this is an airline neither of us has flown but were both very excited to try. Neither of us had any miles that would cover this part of the itinerary with a direct flight so we had to book with cash. Tickets were about $650 each.

On the way back to the UK Ed managed to snag a split First/Business Avios award ticket on Qatar Airways, back to Edinburgh. I used an EU 261 refund from a recent trip to part fund a cash ticket, which I booked at a discounted rate using the Amex International Airline Programme in combination with my Amex Travel Credit, so we’re both in First together through to Doha.

When it comes to booking accommodation, we have maintained the philosophy that these trips are so short that we’re not really optimising for the hotel experience, and therefore choose to stick to a strict budget. However, I take that as a challenge to find places that are both nicely designed and affordable: the designer-budget-luxury unicorn.

In Tokyo we have one night in the Muji Hotel in Ginza. They offer teeny tiny rooms (and bigger ones), but this was a great way to stay in a nicer environment for around $200 for the night. Their smallest ‘Category A’ rooms are 15m² and are perfectly fine for one person for one night.

This is Muji’s flagship hotel, and is situated above one of their large Tokyo stores. Having bought many Muji products over the years it will be very interesting to stay in their hotel.

For Taipei we initially booked Citizen M, but switched over to the Kimpton Da An when I saw a good Black Friday deal there. I’ve not stayed at a Kimpton before, so am interested to see if the boutique chain works under the IHG banner.

This was Kimpton’s first hotel in Asia, it was designed by Neri & Hu and was opened in 2020.

Bangkok is a city, like Hong Kong, that has a really good range of top hotels, many which are excellent value for money. Given that it’s January and we’ll be in a hotter climate for a change, I wanted somewhere we could enjoy a pool and outside space.

Previously, I had stayed at the Peninsula, which was a bit run down. The obvious luxury options of the Mandarin Oriental, or the Capella were way out of our price range for this trip, so we settled on the Sukhothai.

I booked this originally in June (7 months out), but kept checking back to see if the price had fallen, which it did in October, so I managed to switch our pair of Executive Suite category rooms to a new rate, saving roughly 30%.

With just a week to go, I’m beginning to get very excited about the trip.

Richard Moross 10/6/24 Richard Moross 10/6/24

48 Hours in Hong Kong

Where We Stayed

Let me just start by saying that I absolutely love Hong Kong hotels.

HK is perhaps the best hotel city in the world with a very wide range of luxury options, and a very high standard of both international and local brands to choose from. We stayed at the Upper House, and chose their Studio 70 room. This must be one of the best entry level rooms at any luxury city hotel - 70 square meters in size, a superb bathroom, great views (even if you don’t fork out for a harbour view), and beautiful interiors designed by Andre Fu. The refrained palette and use of natural materials throughout make this a warm and relaxing space, despite being fairly minimalist in design.

My OG hotel in Hong Kong is the Mandarin Oriental Landmark, where I’ve stayed many times over the years, from my first trip to HK as an adult. They did a refurb a few years back which refreshed the interiors, going from a minimal look and feel to a more maximalist and opulent aesthetic (liberal use of gold and lots of shiny surfaces) which, whilst very much in line with MO’s global hotel design palette, just isn’t as much my thing.

Where We Ate

Naturally we planned most of our meals in advance of the trip, doing our research on the best dim sum, Peking duck, and roast meat options in town.

Peking Garden for Peking Duck

There are lots of good places to go but this is one of the more reliable chain restaurants that will do a consistently good duck. My favourite place was Spring Deer, which was incredible, but has sadly closed down. I recently tried Mott 32, which is renowned, and is very good (not to mention expensive) but Peking Garden hit the nail on the head for me. Family style, not too formal, just really good.

Luk On Kui & Lin Heung for Dim Sum

These were both extremely good and quite similar in style, but you really have to work for your meal at both - fighting for a table, attracting the waiter, or getting the right trolley of steaming buns to pass by. Go to either, go to both, but be prepared to wait. It’s well worth it.

Kamcentre Roast Goose at Jardine House for Roast Meats

Kam's Roast serves some of the best Char Siu, Crispy Pork Belly, and Roast Duck, Goose (etc), that you can get. Their outlet in Basehall at Jardine House means that you can go large on all of the above, AND order from 10+ other outlets, mixing and matching your dishes with other cuisines.

Richard Moross 10/5/24 Richard Moross 10/5/24

Singapore Airlines First Class

The second leg of our SQ First Adventure was in their more traditional B777 configuration, and not nearly as good as the Suites on the A380.

Before we got on the flight, however, we stopped to check out the lounge. Singapore Airlines has a dedicated lounge for its First Class and Suites travellers at Changi Airport called the Private Room.

The first thing you notice is just how quiet it is in there. I’ve been there a few times and it’s certainly an elegant design, but it’s empty and super quiet which makes it feel totally absent of atmosphere. Personally, I like the more homely but refined vibes of the Cathay First Class Lounges, especially those designed by Ilse Crawford.

Once on the plane we had a second breakfast and napped a little on the four hour flight to Hong Kong. It’s a perfectly nice and extremely wide seat (35 inches), but there are a couple of strange design choices that I noticed.

Despite being wide, the seats aren’t very long. I’m 6’5 which is obviously tall but I would guess that they max out at about 6’2. That’s perhaps fine for business class but not for first. It’s especially strange when you consider that they aren’t using the full length of the First cabin. The seats are deliberately set back from the wall, with a passing space for crew behind the middle two seats. Given the very wide nature of the seat as a tall person you can just lie diagonally to get a bit of extra room but it just seems like a strange choice to limit the legroom for no reason.

The most obvious omission here, however, is a door. There seemed to be plenty of room to make these extra wide seats more private with a sliding door. The upside is a more open and light cabin but for individual comfort and privacy it seems like a strange choice.

Whilst the soft product (service, food and drink, amenities) is all the same, the seat just doesn’t compare. It’s a more standard open plan cabin, with seats in 1-2-1 configuration across one row. The most remarkable thing to say about it is the ratio of seats to lavatories (2:1), perhaps the most generous outside of private aviation, or on Etihad’s The Residence, where you get your own, which includes a shower.

Richard Moross 10/2/24 Richard Moross 10/2/24

24 Hours in Singapore

Where We Stayed

After landing from our overnight flight from Mumbai we went straight to get some shut eye at the Changi Crown Plaza Hotel to sync up with our new timezone.

Waking up around noon, we took our luggage to Kinn Studios, a relatively new boutique hotel in Chinatown, where we would spend the night. The hotel is pretty basic in terms of amenities but the rooms were nicely designed and good value for money at $150 a night. The low rise heritage building was a welcome change from the monolithic skyscraper hotels the city has so many of.

Chinatown is a great place to stay in Singapore. Much more buzzy and human-scale, it makes a welcome change from the hectic hotel hubs of Orchard Road or the Marina area, and has a great selection of bars and restaurants to choose from, all right on your doorstep.

An alternative to Kinn, and just around the corner, is the Mondrian Singapore Duxton, which is more upmarket and has more of the amenities, but less of the old world building charm. I stayed there later last year on another trip. Rooms are small and modern and the whole place is gives off a bit of a nightclub vibe but it was perfectly nice for a night or two.

Where We Ate

After dropping our bags we stopped for lunch at Liao Fan Hawker Chan for a quick plate of char siu and noodles, which was good but nothing special (despite the Michelin star). After a few hours walking around (and an obligatory stop at Tokyo Hands) we swung by 1A Crispy Puff in the Takashimaya Mall for a Chilli Crab Curry Puff, which was totally on point: buttery and crumbly, the perfect mid afternoon pick me up.

Our evening was about one thing - Satay.

At around seven we took a long sweaty stroll to the famous Lau Pa Sat, to pay homage to the art of meat on sticks.

After some furious research to establish which stall was best (good luck with that) we ordered from #19. It took about half an hour, maybe forty minutes, to get our food but it was worth the wait. We got the trio of pork, prawn and beef. All washed down with an ice cold beer.

Where We Drank

We spent the remainder of the evening at two fantastic bars, No Sleep Club and Live Twice.

No Sleep Club is a neighbourhood walk in bar, located in a colonial building on Keong Saik Road in Chinatown. Super friendly and accessible (it’s open all day for coffee and food), we enjoyed a few of their signature drinks, many of which include house-brewed mixers. There is molecular gastronomy feel to their drinks as a result, especially when the mixologists start throwing the liquid nitrogen around, making for a wonderfully theatrical experience.

Live Twice is hard to find. So hard that we actually found it by mistake. We had originally intended to go to Gibson Bar, but took a wrong turn when entering the building and ended up in Live Twice by mistake.

The interiors of Live Twice were inspired by the mid century aesthetic of Japan, more specifically James Bond’s 1967 film You Only Live Twice. Certainly niche but also a very clear design brief!…The walls were all panelled plywood, and the soft lighting, and low seating made the vibe super chill and yet achingly cool. You can read more about the interior design here.

This was a great place for a late night drink.

After a couple of Vesper Martini’s it was bedtime. We only had a few hours before the second leg of our Singapore Airlines First Class flight to Hong Kong.

Richard Moross 10/1/24 Richard Moross 10/1/24

Singapore Airlines Suites

Singapore Airlines operates an A380 between Mumbai and Singapore, so we had just under six hours to max out in their luxurious (and massive) 50 square foot suites.

This is one of the most ‘affordable’ routes for both cash and miles redemptions for SQ Suites. We booked BOM>SIN>HKG, with a 24 hour stopover in Singapore costing around $2,ooo one way, or 126k miles if you can find availability. Not cheap, but something of a bargain in premium airline terms and a sweet spot for miles redemptions especially if you include the stopover and onward flight to Hong Kong.

We reserved 1F and 2F, allowing us to put the divider down, doubling the size of our Suites. For couples these can be combined in bed mode to make a very smart double bed.

Both Ed and I embraced the late night menu and wine list, pre-booking our meals via SQ’s Book The Cook option. I went for the Lobster Thermidor , and paired it up with a Meursault 1er cru Château de Blagny. To be honest I should have gone for the Indian Thali menu. I’ve had the Lobster before and it’s more of a novelty dish than one actually I enjoy eating on a plane. The wine, however, was excellent.

Given the jet lag headwinds for a multi timezone trip in such a short timeframe we had fully intended to stay awake all night, and catch up on our sleep on arrival in Singapore. We booked a day use room at the Crown Plaza at Changi (which is a one of the better airport hotels). However, after a very long day and a back to back red eye we got our beds made up and got a few hours before touching down into Singapore.

I’ve flow on a lot of different First Class products but there’s nothing quite as good out there as SQ Suites for me. The sheer amount of space you get, the incredibly attentive service, and superb food and drink set it apart from everything else I’ve tried.