World Traveller 73 
Our travel to Sydney, Australia tonight had us departing exceptionally late in the evening with a departure time of 11:40 PM. There is a certain gap in time when such a flight doesn’t qualify as an evening flight or an over night flight. With this gap, there isn’t much you can do to fill the time other than spend time in a lounge. We aimed to visit the Plaza Premium Lounge which had just been completed (at the time) at the Vancouver International Departure D Concourse.
This post is one chapter in our trip to Australia on Air Canada & Qantas Business Class and United Airlines. This trip was booked using British Airways Executive Club Avios and Starwood Preferred Guest (Marriott Bonvoy) points. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read more from this trip:
- Trip Introduction: Hitching a Ride to Australia via Air Canada & Qantas Business Class and United Airlines,
- Plaza Premium Lounge International – Vancouver International Airport
- Air Canada Business Class: Vancouver – Sydney
- Four Points by Sheraton Sydney Darling Harbour, Australia
- The Historic Landmarks of Sydney, Australia
- A Harbour Front Walk Past the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House
- A Day at Shelley Beach, Sydney, Australia
- Bondi Beach and the Bondi to Bronte Coastal Walk, Sydney, Australia
- A Day at Camp’s Bay by Watson Cove, Sydney, Australia
- Calling on the Koala Bears at Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia
- Qantas Business Lounge, Sydney Kingsford Smith Domestic, Australia
- Qantas Business Class: Sydney – Adelaide
- Sipping the Wines of McLaren Vale Region, Adelaide, Australia
- Restaurant Review: The Star of Greece, Port Willunga, Australia
- Exploring the Wines of The Adelaide Hills, Adelaide, Australia
- Tasting an Australian Icon “Penfolds Grange” Wine
- Qantas Club Adelaide, Australia
- Qantas Business Class: Adelaide – Sydney
- Trying to Fly Standby out of Australia’s Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport
- United Airlines: Sydney – San Francisco
- American Express Centurion Lounge: San Francisco International Airport
- Air Canada Rouge: San Francisco – Vancouver
Review: Air Canada Executive Business Class B777-3, Vancouver International Airport – Sydney Kingford Smith, Sydney, Australia.
About Air Canada Flight AC 33 / 34:
The Air Canada Vancouver – Sydney route was the premier Air Canada route on the West Coast for a number of years. Departing from Vancouver, it beats out all the Asian Pacific Rim destination flights in terms of duration and length. At the time of writing, the flight was listed as the 28th longest non-stop flight in the world. With a flight time of fourteen and a half hours, it’s fair to say that it’s a long haul flight.
The Air Canada Vancouver – Sydney route is normally assigned a Boeing 777-200ER. On today’s flight, Air Canada decided that they were going to schedule maintenance for their 6 Boeing 777-200 aircraft, and had substituted their Boeing 777-300’s to serve the route instead. Aviation geeks will note that the AC Boeing 777-200ER is configured to hold 42 in business class and 228 in economy class, with a range of 17,446 km / 10,840 miles, whereas the regular AC Boeing 777-300 is configured to hold 42 in business class and 307 in high density economy with a shorter range of 14,958 km / 9068 miles (a shorter range of 1,780 miles). This meant that the aircraft, despite having an additional 80 seats, was “load restricted” with a specific weight limit required for the shorter range of the Being 777-300 to make it all the way to Sydney. In practical terms, this meant that the weight of the aircraft was being scrutinized closer than ever before. Even with a wide open seat map, while flying standby, there were no guarantees we would get on.
Boarding Air Canada:
We headed over to the gate area from the Plaza Premium Lounge Vancouver International at about 10:45 PM, or about T-60. I had our first night’s hotel in Australia already booked and the 24 hour cancellation policy was to pass in 15 minutes time at 11 PM Pacific Standard time (which was 6 PM Sydney Australian Time). I was hoping to get a secret handshake from the gate agent: a wink, a smile or a nod indicating that it would be okay and that we were likely to get on, so that I wouldn’t be out any unnecessary hotel costs by canceling after the 6 PM cancellation deadline.
I was called up to complete a last minute document check at the podium but I didn’t leave any the wiser, with the gate agent mentioning that the entire cargo of the plane had to be weighed to determine the amount of passengers they could let on. Amongst our group, we ended up having a quick discussion amongst our traveling group and risk managed it out- if I didn’t get on, my sister and wife would travel ahead and I would travel a day later and play catch up.
Our flight tonight Air Canada Flight AC 33 originated in Toronto with a stop in Vancouver. It’s typically sold and marketed as Toronto – Vancouver – Sydney. On arrival, the transit passengers from AC 33 Toronto – Vancouver portion were in the departure holding lounge. Tonight’s flight was served by gate D50, a swing gate at YVR that can serve both as international and as a domestic gate.
The gate was pretty busy. The construction underway surrounding the gate made the matters a little more cramped than usual. There was also a full double flight crew, with two first officers and two captains waiting in the holding area for the aircraft to be turned over to them.
As with many direct flights, the flight posted a minor flight delay. As we waited, we again re-assessed our travel plans. We decided as a traveling group flying on standby, that I would stay behind if there were not enough seats for all of us as the time for canceling our hotel without penalty had now passed.
While we were waiting, at T-20, the concierge proceeded to hand out seat assignments for the contingent travelers. My name was called, and I was fortunate to be assigned 57A (a window!). I was super stoked about this simple achievement. Hey- it’s better than one of the 63 rows of middles. It’s an example of how down to the wire standby travel is for those that work in the aviation industry. You really don’t know if you’re leaving at times until the very last minute- in this case a mere 20 minutes before the scheduled departure. I received a ML5 / C5 comments on the boarding pass, reflecting the lowest standby priority level.
My sister and Mrs WT73 were lucky enough to be assigned executive class seats thanks to exercising annual options per benefits, after all upgrades and paid upgrades are completed. There are finite limits to this and unfortunately, the privilege did not extend to me. I ended up taking one for the team and riding solo in the back while they rode up front.
Air Canada
Executive Business / Economy Class
YVR-SYD (Vancouver International Airport – Sydney Kingford Smith International)
AC 33 – Executive / Economy Class (standby)
11:40 PM – 10:10 AM + 2
November 2014
Scheduled: Boeing 777-200
Flown: Boeing 777-300
On Board Air Canada’s Executive Class:
Air Canada Executive Business Class is configured in a 1-2-1 configuration on the Boeing 777-200/300. The load upfront on this flight was 42 out of 42. Given the night time departure with a dark cabin, I have some recycled photos from a previous flight of the Boeing 767 & Airbus 330 configuration which is 1-1-1. The seat set up and style was identical, featuring a full flat angled seat with direct aisle access at every seat.
Pre-Departure Services:
A pre-departure beverage was offered. Mrs WT73 went for the champagne / sparkling. This was followed by the usual warmed nuts, which is accompanied with a cocktail beverage. Some photos from her portable camera. . .
The menus were passed out with dinner orders were taken on the ground in Vancouver. The menu has been dressed up a bit lately, having had the same format for the last 5+ years. Despite the newer design, the menu items are similar to as in past. This means that the beef tenderloin favourite remains a fixture on “le menu”.
This was followed by the usual eclectic Air Canada Wine List from all over the world (and in no particular order). MrsWT73 enjoyed the New Zealand Matua Sauvignon Blanc, which isn’t all that expensive at home at $22 CAD ($17 USD) a bottle.
The flight got underway with a night time departure over Vancouver, Canada. The flight was underway and no waits on the outbound.
Meal Service: A Late Full Dinner:
Thanks to a near midnight departure, the dinner service started almost immediately. Out of four entrée items, by the time the last of the orders came around, MrsWT73 was left with either the Risotto or the Beef. It’s worth also noting that her order was intentionally taken last behind all of the other status and paid passengers. If you are on a fully paid fare, you’re likely to have greater selection.
MrsWT73 didn’t have rave reviews about the catering; calling it the usual Air Canada fare. Based on prior experience, the catering is typically predictable. I would describe it as “traditional”, with an attempt at being contemporary.
MrsWT73 skipped dessert and went with some port to finish off the meal.
Unbranded Amenity Kits:
Air Canada has upgraded the amenity kit compared to the last flight that we took with them. This one was branded in the new colors of the Air Canada Boeing 787 aircraft with striking red and grey cloth. It also had a magnetic clasp that closed the kit, containing the usual amenities. It was definitely better than past Air Canada kits, and made for a handy souvenir.
MrsWT73 skipped the usual mid flight snack, opting for 9 hours of comfortable, horizontal full flat sleeping. She commented that the sleeping blanket felt like it had been upgraded to a thicker, more comfortable variety. Despite that, she finds the pods a little firm for her liking, being a side sleeper. She also alleged that she returned to visit me in economy on several occasions, but I only saw her the once about 45 minutes before landing.
Prior to landing, a breakfast service was provided. MrsWT73 went with Greco yoghurt and fruit. She passed on the main.
Overall, MrsWT73 enjoyed the crew on this particular flight, noting their personable service. She reported sleeping for most of the flight, which is probably a good sign. Amid all the AC long haul flights over the years, there was nothing that stood out about this particular one, other than it’s longer than usual length.
On Board Air Canada’s Economy Class:
Meanwhile, while MrsWT73 was enjoying luxury travel in Air Canada Executive Business Class, I had settled into life in economy class. Starting with boarding the aircraft, my experience went as follows.
The configuration in Air Canada economy class is the 3-3-3. Each seat features Advanced Video on Demand (AVOD) and 2 out of 3 seats feature EmPower in seat power and 3 out of 3 seats feature USB charging. In our bank, only 1 – 2 Empower outlets were working and 2 out of 3 USB chargers. Some had appeared to have collapsed due to regular wear and tear.
The AVOD system isn’t really anything to write home about and isn’t anywhere near some of the other larger players like Etihad or Cathay Pacific that feature a massive library as part of the experience. I found it a bit lacking, with not enough content on it to truly compete with some of the better world class carriers out there. It contained enough movies to watch on the way down, but I think it would come up short on the way back.
The Economy Meal: A Late Supper
As in business class, the dinner service in economy class was served promptly after take off. Tonight’s economy choices were chicken with potatoes or beef stroganoff. There were no printed menus here tonight like many Asian carriers in economy class. The meals were also pretty tiny. It had been a while since I had done an international long haul in economy and had forgotten how small the servings were in the back.
The cabin light were turned down in economy class with purple mood lighting for the ceiling.
I settled into the movie Lost in Translation for a bit. My sister was kind and brought me a Conde Nast Traveller magazine from the front, to help pass the time.
I crashed out at around 3 AM Pacific Standard Time and slept for about 5 hours. I woke up as the plane was crossing the intersection of both the international date line and the equator as the sun rose for another day. While I was sleeping, there was a small cello wrapped chicken salad sandwich service along with Peak Freans bran crackers that had been dropped off on the seat next to me as a mid flight snack. I always find great sunrise views for the middle of nowhere.
I ended staying up awake for the rest of the flight. I had a group of 4 kids behind me spread across two rows with only one parent amongst them – a bit of long trek for them. She did her best to keep them settled.
The Second Economy Service: Breakfast
In economy class, breakfast was served about 90 minutes prior to landing. Again, the portion sizes in economy class have shrunk compared to 20 years ago when I was flying around with my parents. It was a small egg dish with potatoes for breakfast.
Landing at Sydney Kingford Smith:
Finally, after fourteen hours, we were on the approach for landing in Sydney. We had some beautiful coastline on the way in, along with sunny skies.
There were some nice large wide body aircraft on the ground in Sydney Kingford Smith International Airport as we taxied to the gate. We don’t often get to see these carriers in North America so it’s especially cool when you get to see these airframes around the Pacific Rim.
Usually, I’m one of the first off the plane to get ahead of everybody at immigration to avoid the lines. This time, being in Seat 57A, there was no chance for that. I ended up being toward the last getting off the aircraft.
A quick visit to the flight deck:
After everyone had long gotten off the plane on the ground at SYD, we managed to get a quick, supervised visit to the flight deck. We had a nice chat with one of the pilots’ who was clearly proud to be flying for Air Canada.
It was my first time in the flight deck of a Boeing 777-3 and I was surprised at how roomy it actually was. Seating was of course in two rows of 2, with two seats immediately behind the Captain and first officer chairs for pilots not flying. I googled “Boeing 777 cockpit” photographs and came up with 2 million photograph hits so I figure there are no security concerns about posting these cool snapshots.
Clearing Immigration into Australia:
One major advantage to flying business class are the fast track cards that are made available to business class passengers. These cards were distributed, branded with the Air Canada logo (all carriers use the same styled card, branded with their logo). They were of tremendous use as they applied for both the immigration line and the customs / quarantine line which were both really long. I waited around while the women were kind enough to stock up on duty free on arrival before we hit the immigration checkpoint.
My thoughts Air Canada Long Haul Vancouver – Sydney:
There is nothing like non stop convenience to get from one destination to the other. With Air Canada’s service to Australia, they offer Canadian’s and North American’s a very convenient way to get from the West Coast of North America to the continent of Australia. The service on Air Canada is always friendly, if not a little forgettable, and you’ll get to your destination reliably and comfortably. The seats in business class are comfortable, reliable and offer direct aisle access. If you can find Aeroplan reward space, this is a great way to get from North American to Australia.
It’s worth noting that Air Canada offers the only non stop direct aisle business class in Star Alliance to Australia. Air New Zealand offers similar pods, however their Australia service involves a stop in Auckland. The United Business Class pods operate in a 2-4-2 configuration (Boeing 777 ex Sydney) or a 2-2-2 configuration (Boeing 787 ex Melbourne), meaning that single travellers will have to step over someone if they want the window seats. Unwittingly, Air Canada appears to have a strong competitive advantage for single travellers if aisle access is a priority for you.
If you regularly fly to Australia, what is your preferred carrier for doing so?
Our travel to Sydney, Australia tonight had us departing exceptionally late in the evening with a departure time of 11:40 PM. There is a certain gap in time when such a flight doesn’t qualify as an evening flight or an over night flight. With this gap, there isn’t much you can do to fill the time other than spend time in a lounge. We aimed to visit the Plaza Premium Lounge which had just been completed (at the time) at the Vancouver International Departure D Concourse.
This post is one chapter in our trip to Australia on Air Canada & Qantas Business Class and United Airlines. This trip was booked using British Airways Executive Club Avios and Starwood Preferred Guest (Marriott Bonvoy) points. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read more from this trip:
- Trip Introduction: Hitching a Ride to Australia via Air Canada & Qantas Business Class and United Airlines,
- Plaza Premium Lounge International – Vancouver International Airport
- Air Canada Business Class: Vancouver – Sydney
- Four Points by Sheraton Sydney Darling Harbour, Australia
- The Historic Landmarks of Sydney, Australia
- A Harbour Front Walk Past the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House
- A Day at Shelley Beach, Sydney, Australia
- Bondi Beach and the Bondi to Bronte Coastal Walk, Sydney, Australia
- A Day at Camp’s Bay by Watson Cove, Sydney, Australia
- Calling on the Koala Bears at Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia
- Qantas Business Lounge, Sydney Kingsford Smith Domestic, Australia
- Qantas Business Class: Sydney – Adelaide
- Sipping the Wines of McLaren Vale Region, Adelaide, Australia
- Restaurant Review: The Star of Greece, Port Willunga, Australia
- Exploring the Wines of The Adelaide Hills, Adelaide, Australia
- Tasting an Australian Icon “Penfolds Grange” Wine
- Qantas Club Adelaide, Australia
- Qantas Business Class: Adelaide – Sydney
- Trying to Fly Standby out of Australia’s Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport
- United Airlines: Sydney – San Francisco
- American Express Centurion Lounge: San Francisco International Airport
- Air Canada Rouge: San Francisco – Vancouver
Review: Plaza Premium Lounge International, Vancouver International Airport, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
This lounge is about the Plaza Premium Lounge at Vancouver International Airport “International Departure D Gates”. For other lounges located on the same International Departures concourse, please see our experiences at the Skyteam International Lounge, the British Airways Galleries Lounge and the Cathay Pacific Lounge.
Getting to the Airport:
Keeping with tradition of my past trip reports, tonight’s journey started with dinner at The Globe at YVR located within the Fairmont Vancouver International Airport. It’s my favourite restaurant at the Vancouver International Airport and is attached to the Fairmont hotel property. It is accessed via the Fairmont lobby and overhead walkway just above the public US Departures concourse. Always pleasant, I enjoyed a Whistler Lager beer along with a clubhouse sandwich. MrsWT73 enjoyed a vegetarian pizza. I’ve visited here several times over the years, both before and after flights and it’s always been a great visit.
Checking into Air Canada:
We checked in using the kiosk and had our boarding passes printed. Air Canada, despite their clunky IT system on their public website actually had the ability for their contingent travelers to check the loads on the flight to determine how likely it would be that they would get on. I received my boarding pass, without a seat assignment & with SBY (Standby) printed in the seat area. Still, with only 3 hours before the flight, it was not confirmed that we had assigned seats.
Locating the Plaza Premium Lounge International:
We had a long wait at security (15 minutes) thanks to several wide bodies leaving tonight for Taipei (China Airlines), Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific) and Manila (Philippines Air) and only 2 security checkpoints working. The Nexus expedited screening lane was closed for the evening so we ended up waiting with the Asian Kettles.
From the checkpoint, we headed over to the Plaza Premium Lounge. The lounge is exceptionally easy to find since almost all international traffic passes right by it. The Plaza Premium Lounge is located immediately after the first duty free store at YVR International “D” Gates Wing on the left.
Map Courtesy of Vancouver International Airport Authority
One of the unique features about this particular lounge is that it offers a concourse terrace patio. The patio offers seating immediately adjacent to the concourse, allowing for some terrific people watching opportunities. This feature is especially prevalent from the concourse walkway.
Accessing the Plaza Premium Lounge International:
Access is granted on a complimentary basis for Amex Platinum charge card members as part of their lounge program. The lounge was also part of the Priority Pass program, which may offer free or lower cost visits dependent on your membership level within that program.
It is also the voucher lounge used by almost all other carriers, with a display on the door outside inviting members of Edwiless – Swiss Air, China Airlines, JAL, Eva Air. Only Air Canada, Cathay Pacific and British Airways run their own lounges on the International Pier in Vancouver and most of these lounges are quite small in size given the limited amount of departures.
We were on a paid lounge access tonight on our travels through here since we were flying standby and didn’t qualify thanks to any class of service on our ticket. As security took a little longer, and we only had an hour in the lounge, the host was kind enough to pro-actively charge us only one entry fee ($40 CAD) for the two of us. It was a surprisingly service oriented experience that we don’t typically experience in an airport.
Inside the Plaza Premium International Lounge:
The website advertised the lounge as follows:
- The newly opened flagship lounge boasts a whole new airport lounge design by renowned designer Kinney Chan of KCA.
- The new facility accommodates up to 180 guests in luxurious comfort. Spanning over 6,800 sq. ft., this lounge has multiple seating zones and a separate dining area, with interactive dining booths, serving international cuisine.
- Two food service areas provide guests with a wide array of hot and cold dishes, including our signature Hong Kong style Fish Ball noodles. Barista service is available at our beverage counter for our specialty coffees and teas. Need a private area for meetings? The lounge makes available a VIP room for rent. The business centre provides 4 computer workstations and the lounge is Wi-Fi enabled throughout. Magazines, newspapers and TV’s allow you to relax and enjoy your time in the lounge.
- The lounge has multiple computer workstations that are all Wi-Fi enabled, as well as charging stations to make sure guests can stay connected at the airport. For travellers who require a place for a nap – this lounge has 3 nap rooms available for use. Men’s and ladies washrooms and shower facilities are also available.
The lounge featured a nice, if not unremarkable seating area, with surprisingly the same chairs that we found in the Plaza Premium Lounge Muscat Oman from our travels earlier this year. The lounge was decorated in several contemporary shades of grey. Upon our entry, it was pretty empty.
The lounge was configured in several room areas, allowing for a private environment throughout the lounge space. The main lounge seating is split into several portions, all of which face the apron glass. As it was so deserted, no one minded me taking a few photos.
Immediately after entering, the left portion offered a few rows of chairs. I have previously seen this portion cordoned off and limited to Air France and KLM travellers, as marked by a sign and a velvet rope. This wasn’t on display tonight, as the place was so deserted.
The main portion of the lounge offered several rows of seating with the customary side tables along with soft lighting. While not a super exciting space, it was highly functional.
Probably the neatest feature of this lounge was the indoor terrace that overlooked the departure concourse, allowing for ambient light and open spaces.
Dining Area:
The lounge also offered separate dining areas. While there were tables and chairs, no one was dining on our visit.
Food and Beverage:
The food selection on our visit was pretty meagre. The offerings included a whole bunch of cello wrapped pastries that didn’t look all too appealing. However, this level of offering is pretty consistent for the Vancouver International Lounges, as there isn’t much frequent demand as most serve one or two flights a day. I was glad that we took an earlier dinner at the Globe at YVR, instead of coming straight here and attempting to eat dinner in the lounge.
I didn’t see anyone consuming the famous Hong Kong fish Ball noodles that were advertised in the website, nor were they obvious when I walked around the lounge.
There was also a simple wine and spirits menu list, featuring the usual well spirits. The presentation was a little institutional, but at least everything was there.
My thoughts on the Plaza Premium Lounge Vancouver International:
There are now lots of great lounges on the Vancouver International Airport International Departures Concourse. These include the Skyteam International Lounge, the British Airways Galleries Lounge and the Cathay Pacific Lounge.
Despite the snazzy write up, the Plaza Premium Lounge International D Gates was a pretty plain lounge that happened to be exceptionally clean and new. A bonus was that the hostess only charged us one entry fee at $40 for 1 hour in the lounge. The minimum charge was $40 for two hours. I’d probably find some value in it if I stayed the full two hours.
Next time, I think I’d spend a little more time at the Globe at YVR and not be in as much of a rush to get over here since there was much more food and beverage on offer at the Fairmont with a slightly nicer setting. If I was choosing between Priority Pass Lounges, I’d probably opt for the slightly more exciting Skyteam International Lounge, that is located a little further down the concourse.
If you’ve visited Vancouver International Airport, what is your favourite international departures lounge?
Trip Introduction: Hitching a Ride to Sydney & Adelaide, Australia via Air Canada, United and Qantas Business Class.
Background:
This story starts two years ago on a sunny summer day at a winery in the Okanagan area of British Columbia. After an exotic international courtship, Ms WT73 had decided to accept my hand in marriage set amongst the beautiful vines and August heat of Nk’Mip wineries.
Meeting later in life, our careers, like those of our many of our weddings guests and family, were already established. My sister, being the gracious traveler like myself, had offered us a unique wedding present. Instead of giving the usual wedding gifts of appliances, flatware or electronics, how about an offer to travel anywhere in the world on a strictly “standby” basis?
Some back history here… My sister, worked for a large legacy airline. We have approached travel from highly opposite ends. My travel has usually been intensely planned and organized. Our reward tickets were usually booked in first or business class, arranged sometimes a whole year in advance. I usually arranged time off work during quiet travel and work periods. I researched hotels, flights and attractions with intense detail, maximizing what limited holiday time we get. My sister, living a life of almost unlimited complimentary standby travel, has often had to plan travel on a flexible basis. Her travel, like a military battle plan, was highly fluid and situational. How would the two family travel styles mesh? Would MrsWT73 enjoy the spontaneity of unplanned, unconfirmed travel? You’re about to find out.
Trip Planning:
We started discussing this trip about 6 months out. I had to defer to my sister’s expertise on flight load levels on how to maximize stand by travel.
We had decided on Australia for several reasons: It’s nearly impossible to get there on first / business class reward tickets and the redemptions usually command hefty prices. The paid tickets are often expensive and these days, with many 50% earn rates in economy class, aren’t earning enough frequent flier points as they used to. Paid business class? Well, that’s several thousand dollars and it never seems to come on sale. We decided Australia would be a great opportunity to test out standby travel. With the continent of Australia being 1 or 2 flights away from Vancouver, it seemed like a logical choice.
Not being able to book any non-refundable hotels in advance thanks to unconfirmed travel, I settled for making placeholder reservations that I could adjust around the finalized days. Naturally, most came with 24 hr cancellation policies that would have to be managed.
The few days before the trip, both Mrs WT73 and I started getting irritable. Were we coming or going? What did we tell work? How credibly could we postpone meetings or work travel requests without sustaining repercussions? It wasn’t easy. We started to wonder whether this was a sound idea in the first place.
As most of us seasoned reward ticket redeemers around here know, there is a skill set involved with finding reward ticket inventory. Some carriers release seats well in advance, some release everything at the last minute, some play well, some don’t play well at all. Either way, there is predictability factor. You can edge your bets in knowing what will work and what’s not likely to work. With standby travel, there is no predictability. Everything is to the whim of the demand of the flight or weight load. You are not the person in control. And, if things go wrong, you’re left on your own to find your way to your destination. There is no concierge, no re-booking service or travel arranger to handle matters on your behalf.
About one week before travel, MrsWT73 my sister and I met up to iron out all the small details. Flight loads were looking good for our trip down. Even expert flyer was showing at least 20 seats open.
We decided to chance it and pre-book the internal segments we needed for our onward domestic travel within Australia, courtesy of British Airways Avios. British Airways Executive Club Avios are a great currency for business travel around Australia thanks to a distance based mileage chart as business class flights within Australia are typically quite expensive.
The Routing:
The routing ended up looking like this. With two stand-by tickets on and off the continent of Australia, it was a complete toss on our routing on how we’d get too and from each content.
The intercontinental routing looked like
- YVR-SYD
- SYD-ADL-SYD (British Airways Executive Club Avios)
- SYD-SFO-YVR
Disclaimer: This report isn’t about the finite details of flight crew contingent travel, nor about proprietary information related to the airline industry. Rather, it focuses on the experience of traveling as many airline crew do, on unconfirmed tickets. Needless to say, it was a different travel experience than our usual luxury planned travel, and a trip unique like any other.
This post is one chapter in our trip to Australia on Air Canada & Qantas Business Class and United Airlines. This trip was booked using British Airways Executive Club Avios and Starwood Preferred Guest (Marriott Bonvoy) points. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read more from this trip:
- Trip Introduction: Hitching a Ride to Australia via Air Canada & Qantas Business Class and United Airlines,
- Plaza Premium Lounge International – Vancouver International Airport
- Air Canada Business Class: Vancouver – Sydney
- Four Points by Sheraton Sydney Darling Harbour, Australia
- The Historic Landmarks of Sydney, Australia
- A Harbour Front Walk Past the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House
- A Day at Shelley Beach, Sydney, Australia
- Bondi Beach and the Bondi to Bronte Coastal Walk, Sydney, Australia
- A Day at Camp’s Bay by Watson Cove, Sydney, Australia
- Calling on the Koala Bears at Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia
- Qantas Business Lounge, Sydney Kingsford Smith Domestic, Australia
- Qantas Business Class: Sydney – Adelaide
- Sipping the Wines of McLaren Vale Region, Adelaide, Australia
- Restaurant Review: The Star of Greece, Port Willunga, Australia
- Exploring the Wines of The Adelaide Hills, Adelaide, Australia
- Tasting an Australian Icon “Penfolds Grange” Wine
- Qantas Club Adelaide, Australia
- Qantas Business Class: Adelaide – Sydney
- Trying to Fly Standby out of Australia’s Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport
- United Airlines: Sydney – San Francisco
- American Express Centurion Lounge: San Francisco International Airport
- Air Canada Rouge: San Francisco – Vancouver
If you love using frequent flier miles, what is your best strategy in order to get to / from Australia?
The Westin Bayshore is Vancouver’s second most historic luxury hotel behind the Fairmont Vancouver railway hotel, previously owned by Canadian Pacific Hotels. The Westin Bayshore has been in operation since March 27, 1961, and is recently celebrating its 60th years anniversary. It has hosted some famous guests including Queen Elizabeth II and the late Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, Price Charles and the late Lady Diana Spencer and was even home to eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes who resided in the hotel for six months. After visiting at many locations in the city, we opted for a stay at the Westin Bayshore for a recent visit.
Hotel Review: The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
“One of Vancouver’s most historic hotels, the Westin Bayshore blends the nature of Stanley Park, the scenery of the waterfront, and the convenience of being on the city’s 28 kilometre sea wall”
There are several Marriott Hotels in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. If you’re looking for another Vancouver property, please see our reviews of the JW Marriott Parq, The Sheraton Wall Centre and the Westin Bayshore.
For a Vancouver Airport Hotel, please see Westin Wall Centre Vancouver International Airport or the “in terminal” Fairmont Vancouver International Airport.
Planning and Getting There:
The rates for the Westin Bayshore usually command a substantial sum in the summer. Thanks to it’s great waterfront location in Vancouver right on the waterfront and being nearby to Stanley Park, its typically a popular place.
Thanks to no Alaskan cruise ship travellers in Vancouver this year as a result of the pandemic, rates this spring were much cheaper. Indeed, rates were very soft on the weekend rates and was able to grab a rate in January for a stay later in April for $149 CAD ($124 USD) a night. The rates here are typically upwards of $300 CAD per night in the summer months and a good rate would closer to $200 CAD.
It’s also worth noting that if you are booking rooms at this property, there are two buildings that make up the Westin Bayshores. The “Main” building, which is the original low rise structure built in 1962, and the twenty floor “Tower” built in 1970. While the “Main” building has a North – South building orientation with rooms facing West and East (water facing), the Tower has a 360 degree orientation, meaning that North / West / East rooms face the water, whereas South facing rooms face the sky scrapers of the West End.
The Westin Bayshore Hotel is a Marriott Bonvoy Category 6, meaning that rooms are approximately between 40,000 – 60,000 a night under variable pricing, with 50,000 pints a night as standard. If you value Marriott Bonvoy points at $0.005 a point, you’d have to spend more than $250 USD to come out ahead for a 50,000 point redemption. In the summer, this might represent a better value when the room rates climb beyond $300 USD per night or perhaps if you’ve visiting Vancouver on a cruise ship Friday or Saturday night when hotel inventory in Vancouver completely sells out thanks to those Alaskan cruise ship travellers. However, if you’re visiting in the off season, you’re much better paying cash. As a result, we ended up paying cash for two nights, earning Double Elite Qualifying Nights and Double Marriott Bonvoy Points on the “Better Two Together” spring Marriott Bonvoy promotion.
Suite Night Awards:
As the second pandemic year went on, it was looking more and more like I wasn’t going to be able to travel anywhere internationally or domestically for work. With several Suite Night Awards burning a hole in my Marriott Bonvoy account, I decided to put down some suite night awards against the reservation on the room. Marriott Suite Night Awards are for Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, Titanium or Ambassador members and can be used to upgrade to a selected room in the suite (or almost suite) category confirming it 5 days in advance of arrival.
The Westin Bayshore hotel has quite a bit of inventory in the suite night award category. Some of it is really good, whereas other selections seem to be a little junky. I ended up only selecting the Panoramic Suite and the Lanai Suite as the other options didn’t look all to interesting.
At about the 4 day mark, our Suite Night Awards were cleared into a Panoramic Suite. While we were able to get a $629 CAD ($519 USD) room for $149 CAD ($125 USD) is always a treat, the room itself was also a nice use of Suite Night Awards.
Arriving to the Westin Bayshore:
1601 Bayshore Dr., Vancouver, BC V6G 2V4
The property has a prime location. It’s situated right on the water in a mostly residential neighbourhood, with the Vancouver’s twenty eight kilometre sea wall running in front of the hotel, with Stanley Park (among the largest city parks in North America) to it’s immediate left, spectacular mountain views to it’s North across the water, and downtown about a fifteen minute walk to it’s east. As a result, this spot represents almost everything that is Vancouver and the Pacific North West in one location.
Being Vancouver residents, we self drove over to the property. Although it’s an older property, it’s been well maintained, given it’s prime real estate location.
We led ourselves into reeception. We had a bit of a wait at check in, even though there were three staff working.
During our check in, we were given the option of self parking at $41 CAD per night. We were going to park at the nearby Marriott Pinnnacle but the parking rate had gone up there and was now $36 CAD. For the $10 savings, we just opted for the convenience of parking locally, along with the “in and out” privileges.
During our check in process, we were thanked for our loyalty as Marriott Titanium level members. As a nice touch, we were offered the choice of two available room assignments in a Panoramic or Lanai suites. We were offered one Panoramic Suite on the 20th (top) floor with a south west orientation, facing over the West End and Stanley park, or a Lanai Suite on the 19th floor with smaller lanai balcony but facing the North Shore Mountains with no outdoor space. We opted for the Panoramic Suite on the top floor, and ended up being really happy with the room.
In terms of a Marriott Bonvoy Welcome Gift for it’s elite members, as Marriott Titanium’s, we were offered points or a breakfast option. The breakfast option during the pandemic was an offer of room service breakfast consisting of a entree + beverage with a waived delivery fee, or an offer of breakfast at the restaurants pop up restaurant “On the Drive” consisting also of an entree + beverage. We ended up taking the breakfast option instead of the 1,000 Marriott Bonvoy welcome points, and received two vouchers that we could use at either location.
The Lobby Reception and Check In were situated in the Main building. We led ourselves over to the Tower, which is a very short walk through a connected walkway. Being that we were staying within the pandemic, many of the lobby restaurants and retail outlets were closed by Provincial Health Order. As a result, the lobby looks a little quieter than it would during normal times.
The Room: A Panoramic Suite
One Bedroom Larger Suite, 1 King, Sofa Bed, Bathrooms 2, Harbour View, Tower
We led ourselves up to the twentieth floor and the top floor of the Tower building through a key carded elevator. We headed up to our assigned Panoramic Suite Room #2084.
The Panoramic Suites likely started off life as two separate rooms that have been joined through the removal of adjoining doors. Despite being older rooms, they are actually quite generously sized by modern day standards.
Upon entry into the room, we found yourselves entering into a small passage way between the two rooms.
In the Suite Entry hallway, there was a coffee station over top of a mini fridge. There was also a water station with ice bucket, with two bottles of local water.
The Panoramic Living Room:
Stepping out of the entry hallway, we immediately ended up in the living room and the corner “panoramic space”. The room featured a contemporary refreshed carpet in white and blues. There was a sofa and two chairs for entertaining. The couches were typically firm, and along with hotel furniture, was more built for industrial standards instead of actual comfortable sitting and relaxing.
The room also featured a sofa bed in a Murphy bed styled wall unit. The wall unit was a little imposing in a teak brown color, but fortunately, it wasn’t a focal point of the room. There was also a small suitcase stand space built in the wall unit.
For those relaxing on the couch and not looking outside, the room featured a desk and flat screen television.
Immediately off the living room, the panoramic suite living room featured a full bathroom including a stand up rain shower. The ensuite off of the living room had a somewhat small counter space by the sink, but was perfectly fine for an ensuite bathroom.
As if a sofa and two chairs and coffee tables were not enough entertainment space in a well featured room, there was also a chaise lounger by the window. The window featured a world class view.
The Panoramic Living Room featured a wrap around deck. There were two padded and comfortable loungers on the bed with excellent South and West facing views towards Stanley Park and Coal Harbour.
A Separate One Bedroom:
Heading over to the bedroom, the Panoramic Suite had a large king sized Westin Heavenly Bed. The bedroom was in a completely separate room, consistent with a true suite configuration.
The bedroom was rounded out by a chair lounger and coffee table combination, along with a corner reading light.
The bedroom also featured a combination desk, chest of drawers and room fridge. There was also a flat screen television that allowed for television viewing from bed.
The integrated desk cabinets featured a half sized fridge and the usual in room safe. Bottled Water was available in the bedroom, in addition to an ice bucket.
The bedroom featured a secondary deck, although this particular one was not a “wrap around” variety. It featured exclusively south facing views towards the high rise residential neighbourhood known in Vancouver as “The West End”
Just off the bedroom was the bedroom ensuite bathroom. The ensuite bathroom was a second full bathroom, featuring the usual Westin Shower. There was a bit more counter space here, which became the space to store all bathroom toiletries.
For those that were interested, the floor layout of the twentieth and top floor of the Westin Bayshore Tower was as follows:
MrsWT73 had her comments about the room. She specially called the room “old” but that the location of the hotel was the best.
The Panoramic Suite room was not the best suite night upgrade we’ve ever used (that award goes to the JW Marriott Los Cabos) but it was better than letting the Suite Night Awards go to waste. It was pretty cool to think that we were staying in the same room level as royalty and likely other VIP dignitaries that have stayed here over the years as well. I couldn’t help but notice the ever so cool Howard Hughes Suite on the opposite side of the floor, that was immediately opposite to our room. It was likely the same Panoramic configuration as this suite we stayed in as described above.
Features of the Hotel:
Room Service:
We were give the opportunity to redeem breakfast vouchers towards breakfast courtesy of Marriott Titanium status. These vouchers were either redeemable for the hotel’s pop up “On the Drive” restaurant, or for room service. At the time of our visit, for it Marriott Elite members, the hotel was offering one full entrée and one beverage for it’s elite breakfast benefit.
At the time of our visit, the Province of British Columbia was under a pandemic health order that only allowed dining in outdoor or patio space, or restaurant take aways. All indoor dining was prohibited. As a result, the hotel offered dining at “On the Drive”, a socially distanced pop up restaurant, which was situated immediately adjacent to their lobby arrival area. While it was in a covered area, there isn’t much ambience in dining in dead space at the conference center entrance.
At check in, we were given the breakfast menu for the pop up restaurant. Seating at “Off the Drive” was limited by space and offered on a first come, first serve basis. As Marriott Titanium members, we were given the opportunity to order any item on the menu (not limited to continental offerings) to enjoy at the restaurant Off the Drive.
While we had all great intentions of enjoying breakfast in the restaurant setting of the pop up Off the Drive, we ended up ordering room service on both mornings of our stay. The menu for In Room Dining room service was a slightly less exciting version of Off the Drive, missing Avocado Toast and Eggs Benedict, among other things.
On the first day, I was able to order Avocado Toast off the Off the Drive menu as room service without any issue. However, on the second day, the staff taking my order got wise to this and when I went to order some scrumptious Eggs Benedict, I was limited to the Room Service menu which was substantially less exciting. As a result, I settled for Two Eggs any Style, served with Bacon, Hashbrowns and Grilled Tomato and Toast.
Still, the breakfast was tasty and delivered within twenty minutes as ordered. On both days, our room service breakfast order came to $67.94 CAD ($56 USD) including the taxes; provided courtesy of our Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status.
Around the Hotel:
Outdoor Pool:
During our stay, we used the outdoor pool. While the pool doesn’t have any modern or new features like an infinity edge, or integrated waterfall, it does have an exceptional mature growth garden making for a beautiful setting for an outdoor deck and pool area.
The outdoor pool did have a surprisingly deep section at one part of the pool, making it an area where you’d have to strongly supervise children, if you were out here.
Indoor Pool:
The hotel offers an indoor pool that was more popular with the children. It was deserted while we were there. It also featured an indoor hot tub that was equally deserted. While indoor pools aren’t normally too exciting, this one had a floor to ceiling window view of the Vancouver Sea Wall that ran along the side of the hotel.
During our visit, the hotel was celebrating it’s sixtieth anniversary. The hotel had a feature in the lobby that had a display of some of the hotels’ memorabilia. These included state invitations from Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her husband the late Prince Phillip, including photographs of Prince Charles and the Late Lady Diana Spencer on another visit. It was an interesting feature of the hotel to be staying in an environment with so much history.
Around the hotel:
The hotel is situated directly on the Vancouver sea wall between the city and Stanley Park. The Hotel offered two free hours of bike rental with every stay, although there were only 4 bikes out front when we were staying in the spring. While we didn’t get to take advantage of the bike rental, we did get out for a walk towards the city. The Vancouver Sea Wall is one of the best features of the city, and it’s worth walking a portion of it while you stay at the Westin Bayshore.
The hotel is also very close to Lift Restaurant and Cardero’s Bar and Grill, both of which are independent restaurants less than 70 steps from the hotel.
The hotel is situated about 5 minutes by car / taxi from the Cruise Ship Terminal or about 17 kilometres walk. While it’s not the most ideally located for cruise ship traffic, the location on the water is almost unparalleled by Vancouver hotels. For visitors to Vancouver that are here on business, one of the more centrally located hotels such as the Sheraton Wall Centre Vancouver is probably a more convenient choice.
My Thoughts on the Westin Bayshore:
The Westin Bayshore is a premium Vancouver hotel that is perfect for first time leisure visitors to the city. It is situated in a unique world class location, with water on almost three sides of the hotel, in addition to the absolutely massive Stanley Park right next door. The twenty eight kilometre Vancouver Sea Wall runs right past the hotel and is a great feature to have. Although the property is a little older, it’s perfect for a leisure stay if recreation is in your schedule. If you’re visiting Vancouver for the first time, this is the hotel that you’d want to stay at, in order to take advantage of everything that the Pacific Northwest has to offer.
If you’ve stayed at the Westin Bayshore, did the location represent everything you needed from a hotel in the Pacific Northwest?
It’s hard to believe that it’s been one year since we launched the website http://www.worldtraveller73.com .
I just wanted to take a moment to recognize you, the readers, that make this place successful.
It goes without saying that it’s you folks, our readers, that make this all worthwhile.
Thanks to my Readers on the One Year Anniversary of World Traveller 73
How we got started:
When the pandemic started, we had lots of spare time. Although we only had about 6 weeks of hard lockdowns in British Columbia, Canada, we suddenly had a lot of extra time on our hands. All our personal and business travel was immediately switched off, and despite chasing and pursuing loyalty status and travel for well over a decade, I suddenly found my wings completely clipped for the first time in about fifteen years. Going from seventy to eight thousand miles per year to seventeen thousand flown was a stark skid across the tarmac as all travel ground to a full halt.
Why We Got Started:
I had been writing for websites for almost eleven years now and, being a keen photographer, had accumulated over fifty thousand travel photos. The pandemic gave us a break in our day to day lives. It seemed like finally a great time to take ownership of some of those experiences and put them in an easily organized area where it could inspire and benefit others for travel. Often, I found that it’s the insights into how a trip was put together that make the travel that much easier to plan.
Why Travel is Rewarding:
As a child from first generation Canadians, I grew up travelling from Canada to Asia and Canada to Europe. This inspired a love of travel and seeking new experiences. As a child, seeing split flap displays in the Hong Kong Kai Tak airport fascinated me of a world out there that was vastly different than my own.
Qantas First Class Lounge – Sydney International Airport
Later in life, thanks to collecting miles and points, we were able to experience travel around the world several times. We had used frequent flier points and hotel loyalty program points to fund outstanding adventures. With a little work, it was easy to leverage these opportunities into world class adventures.
Not to mention that experiencing something new in travel is pretty fun too. . .
The Sky is the Limit when Coming up with Travel Experiences:
It’s not that hard to dream up wonderful experiences. The sky is literally the limit.
Some of our more crazy ideas?
MrsWT73 wanted a great beach holidays, so we planned a trip to the atolls of the private islands of the Maldives, staying at the Park Hyatt Maldives.
Private Island Living at the Park Hyatt Maldives
MrsWT73 loves animals, so what’s better than seeing lions prance across the savannah in the Maasai Mara, Kenya?
The Maasai Mara on Safari in Kenya
MrsWT73 also loves sun tanning and been in the heat, so what’s better than doing that in the middle of a desert oasis surrounded by a luxury hotel at Qsar Al Sarab plunked in the middle of the sand dunes in the Liwa Oasis, United Arab Emirates?
Qsar Al Sarab, United Arab Emirates
Almost anything is possible in the world of points and miles. It only takes a little research and creativity to make it happen.
Why travel reviews are important:
Hotel and Airline websites all promise the lustre of real travel. As a rental property owner myself, properties always market themselves in order to put their best foot forward in order to make their property more appealing. But what if the real experience doesn’t meet what is promised? What if the beach isn’t as spectacular as pictured? What is the Ocean View isn’t actually a view at all?
Why pay for this Ocean Front View?
When you Get this Ocean View?
It is always important to research where you’d like to stay, in order to maximize your travel value on your hard earned dollars. If anything else, you’ll be well informed as to what to expect when you arrive at your destination, in addition to perhaps saving a little time on things around the area.
A well written travel review can help you get a realistic idea of first hand travel experience.
Why track hacking is important:
The truth is, it doesn’t take all that much effort in order to adjust your patterns in order to reap travel benefits available to everyone. Much like spending the five to ten minutes a day watering a plant, spending the equivalent amount of time focusing your efforts on maximizing travel benefits can really pay off. Using the right credit card, by earning points in a transferable points program, or by carefully researching what is needed in order to achieve any travel objective.
Upgraded into Business Class from a Discounted Economy Class Ticket
We were able to upgrade an Air Canada Executive Class Toronto – Lima flight, by using Aeroplan e-upgrades from a discounted economy class ticket.
Having a 4 course meal in a Cathay Pacific First Class Suite:
We were able to redeem AAdvantage Miles earned from the Royal Bank Visa Avion Card into Cathay Pacific First Class.
Cathay Pacific Seared Halibut with Krug Champagne
One of the Best Suite Upgrades Ever:
We were able to use Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Awards for a stay in an ocean view JW Marriott Los Cabos Umey Suite.
JW Marriott Los Cabos Umey Suite valued at $800 USD a Night
Through some pretty simply tips and tricks, you can turn an average stay into a great stay.
My Thanks to Readers:
In the meantime, here’s is looking forward to more travel adventures ahead.
If you’ve just started this journey, you’ll soon be on your way to great travel experiences. All it takes is a little time in order to plan, organize and sort your travel.
If you’ve come along to the blog, thanks for being here.
There are lots of carriers that offer air service too and from Las Vegas. Today’s choice of Alaska Airlines from Las Vegas to Bellingham was more of a matter of convenience over our usual Star Alliance carriers Air Canada, which offered non stop service, or United, that offers one stop service through Los Angeles or more typically, San Francisco. The Alaska First Class is a reasonable way to get around and it was a great alternative from the more expensive Air Canada.
This post is one chapter on our trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. This trip allowed us to earn through Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read more from this trip:
- Introduction: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA via Alaska Airlines First Class
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Bellingham – Seattle
- Aria Sky Suites One Bedroom Penthouse, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Aria Sky Suites: Pool and Resort Amenities, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- The Lights of the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- American Express Centurion Lounge, Las Vegas McCarran
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Las Vegas – Bellingham
Review: Alaska Airlines First Class B737-7, Las Vegas – Bellingham
“With many air carrier choices leaving Las Vegas, Alaska Airlines was a reasonable choice to get back to the Pacific Northwest“
We departed the American Express Centurion Lounge Las Vegas and took the 10 minute schlep back to the “E” gates and to gate E14 where the “final call” for our flight was being announced on arrival.
First Class
Alaska Airlines
LAS-BLI (Las Vegas McCarran – Bellingham International Airport)
AS 649 – First Class (P)
1:45 PM – 4:19 PM
August 19, 2014
Booked: Boeing 737-700
Flown: Boeing 737-700
The Alaska Airlines service from Las Vegas to Bellingham makes use of Alaska Airlines Hawaiian aircraft from their Bellingham – Honolulu routes. The aircraft transit from Hawaii, stopping in Bellingham and continue onwards to Las Vegas. They then around back to Bellingham and then onwards to the Hawaiian Islands. As a result, at the time of travel, the airframes were decorated with the Hawaiian Lei’s that decorated Chester on the tail fin.
On board Alaska Airlines First Class:
We had an older aircraft today with the vintage leather First Class Seats. Despite our late arrival, there was plenty of bin space was still available and we settled into 2A/2C.
We were offered a pre-departure beverage of water in a plastic cup. I was happy to get it after the alcohol consumed on this trip, a side effect of late evenings in Las Vegas.
As always, it is an interesting desert experience departing out of Las Vegas. There were unusual looking Air Traffic Control Towers, Las Vegas Strip views along side airplanes and United metal all about the apron and taxiways.
It is always interesting flying in and out of Las Vegas thanks to the views of the Las Vegas Strip and the desert surroundings of Nevada, United States. There were a few bumps on the outbound departure with some interesting photographs of Lake Mead (at its lowest water level in 30 years) and Lake Tahoe with the Heavenly Valley ski slopes visible.
There was some strange printing on the sickness bags today. Aside from the obvious, any Alaska regulars know what these are normally used for?
The Meal Service: A Light Lunch
Today’s lunch serving was chicken thigh with cilantro, carrot shreds and sliced jalepeno peppers. The peppers were hot. I usually take a dose of Tabasco, Sirracha or anything else to spice things up and this really burned! I started with Washington Merlot for drink but quickly switched to water.
We had a pleasant ride up to Bellingham with friendly staff. No movie or televisions on this flight like our last one so nothing to do except stare out the window. . . We had the same mountain spotting opportunities on the way up.
We passed over our usual Sea Tac Airport in Seattle, Washington, with nice approach into Bellingham today. We also had some views over the Gorgeous San Juan islands.
Thanks to no other air traffic, we had a quick landing in Bellingham. There are no jet bridges here, just a ramp attached to some wheels, over an open air sky.
The bags were out really quickly with only one plane on the apron needing to be un-stuffed. The last photo of this report comes complete with a baggage hall “running child”.
Before we knew it, we were off to Costco for a kilogram of Beecher’s cheese. After a tank of gas and 20 minutes up the road and we were back home without any problems.
The Bottom Line: Our Experience on Alaska Airlines First Class
All in All, Alaska Airlines staff were much happier than those from the legacy carriers. I don’t know what culture the CEO is fostering, but it was starkly a better service than many other United flights and Air Canada flights that I’ve taken in the past 10 years. Using the Bellingham airport was another terrific experience that made things much easier, instead of more complicated.
The Aria Sky Suites provided pretty good service. MrsWT73 has been talking already about headed back to Las Vegas and the Sky Suites are likely on the list. It’s not a true boutique hotel experience since you’re in such a massive hotel, but it did offer a more attentive stay than the public side. The nuances of the property were much more refined.
Thanks for reading. Happy contrails.
Have you travelled in Alaska Airlines First Class and was your experience better than mainline carriers?
American Express started opening airline travel lounges, inviting its members a place to relax before a flight. This is a crowded and expensive place to operate in, given the cost of airport rents, labour and food and beverage. American Express has done an outstanding job with their lounges that are located in high traffic airports around North America and the world. While the lounges are often busy places, they make up for these shortfalls in better food and beverage. Our visit to the American Express Centurion Lounge in Las Vegas was outstanding with the lounge providing a terrific space to occupy before any flight.
This post is one chapter on our trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. This trip allowed us to earn through Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read more from this trip:
- Introduction: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA via Alaska Airlines First Class
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Bellingham – Seattle
- Aria Sky Suites One Bedroom Penthouse, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Aria Sky Suites: Pool and Resort Amenities, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- The Lights of the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- American Express Centurion Lounge, Las Vegas McCarran
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Las Vegas – Bellingham
Review: American Express Centurion Lounge, Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America.
Getting to Las Vegas McCarran:
We had an easy departure from the Aria Sky Suites. Despite many advertisements and recommendations to check out via email, sms, or via the in suite television set, there was no line at the front counter and our check out was handled quickly and graciously. I had pre-arranged an earlier transfer of 3.5 hours at the McCarran Airport, which was changed from the default 2 hours with our Sky Suites reservation.
Our return airport transfer (included) was via a nicely appointed beige Cadillac Escalade. I personally prefer this over the blingy Lincoln Town Car limo that we had arrived in.
Checking into Alaska Airlines First Class:
We checked in at the deserted Alaska Airlines desk at the First Class check in desk in Terminal 3. It’s much better departing out of the domestic terminal than the tired Terminal 1 that handles the international flights.
Locating the American Express Centurion Lounge:
At the time of writing, Alaska used the “E” Departure Gates at McCarran, which is in the same building as the check in desks at Terminal 3. Alaska First Class flights departing from Las Vegas don’t include lounge access (unless you are an Alaska Boardroom member). We had 3 hours to go before our flight so we elected to head over to the American Express Centurion Lounge in the “D” Gates, taking the short train over.
Adjacent to Gate D1
The Centurion Lounge is centrally located near Gate D1 and is well marked. You have to pass through the carnival of slot machines first though…
We eventually arrived to a sleek, contemporary and crisp entrance from the concourse.
Once inside, we were met with a soothing green wall that has become a feature of many American Express Centurion Lounges around the Americas and the world.
Accessing the Lounge:
The American Express Centurion Lounge is accessible by holding American Express Platinum or Centurion Cards. Access with these cards are complimentary up to three hours before your flight, and include up to two guests. Additional guests may be invited in for $50 USD. If you are on a connecting flight, you are exempt from the three hour time limit.
At the time of our visit, access was also granted for other American Express Cardholders (non – Platinum / Centurion) by paying a $50 entry fee, per person. There was reasonable opportunity to make your money back on this fee. Unfortunately, this is no longer offered by American Express thanks to heavy use of these lounges by their regular card holders.
Inside the American Express Centurion Lounge:
After being processed through reception, we were welcomed in. We were advised by the host at reception of a Vodka Tasting event in the lounge today and given an introduction of the lounge’s features: complimentary wifi, free flow drinks and buffet by celebrity chef Scott Conant. We were given a jar of pickled pickles from MTO Johnny Dill Pickles as a welcome amenity- a first for me on a lounge visit.
The Centurion Lounge is an absolutely terrific domestic lounge. It is probably by far the best domestic lounge that I’ve ever been in, even beating out the old Air New Zealand Koru Club in Los Angeles Terminal 2. It’s fair to say that The Centurion Lounge blows all domestic lounges out of the water and raises the level of what an airline lounge should be like.
The seating arrangements are a bit odd, with cubby holes and bean bag cushions to sit on. There are various concerns with seating and some general areas. The lounge was quite busy on our visit. Once you got past that, the lounge as everything I could have asked for.
Corners of the Centurion Lounge LAS: Seating Under Art
The lounge was nicely decorated with pictures of musicians over time. This added a bit of personality to the place. Most airline lounges have pretty austere decorating thanks to the influx of business travellers. IT’s nice to see American Express take things in a different direction and mix it up a little bit.
There were communal work tables available for those needing a proper work surface to work on. The décor was great. It was actually refreshing to be in a lounge that was young, hip and stylish.
American Express offers a Member Services Card Desk for any assistance needed. This is a consistent feature throughout their lounges. It’s always a nice touch to have help available when it’s needed.
Food and Beverage:
The American Express Centurion Lounges are known for their superior food and beverage. At least they put a bit of effort in to the product by attempting to pair with celebrity chefs and by offering better wine and spirits. The American Express Centurion Lounge Las Vegas had a large seating and dining area.
Thanks to a special promotion, there was pretty much all types of food on offer today. We were able to get quite filled up thanks to an excellent selection of fresh vegetables, charcuterie and hot and cold products. Not only was the food plentiful, it was of high quality. Possibly rivalling the food served at the Lufthansa First Class Lounge and Qantas First Class Lounges Sydney due to the freshness and higher turnover of the food. Amazing to get fresh charcuterie in a lounge that was actually tasty. You’ll be hungry after these photos.
As if all that food wasn’t enough, there was even a wide selection of desserts available.
The American Express Centurion Lounge offers a travel oriented bar. They are one of the few lounges that offer mixed drinks worthy of something you’d find in an upscale restaurant. I really appreciate this feature as it offers the ability to try something different and new. The bar area was also neat and a meeting place to actually socialize and strike up conversations.
The bar was excellent and offered great martinis. Thanks to all the great food on offer, we were able to replace a meal with snacks from the lounge.
Although not a quiet and exclusive environment thanks to the high volume, the lounge made up for it in quality of food and drink quality. We easily found things to occupy our time here. Sampling celebrity chef Scott Conant food made it much easier…
My Thoughts on the American Express Centurion Lounge Las Vegas:
The only thing that the lounge did not offer that was advertised was travel magazines. Not even a co-branded “Travel and Leisure”! To be honest, we really didn’t miss it that much.
I’ve been in a few airport lounges in my time. I’m happy to report that the Amex Centurion Lounge was the best domestic lounge experience ever. It is totally worth an extended visit if you have nothing else to do. We would easily make time to visit here on our next trip through.
If you’ve visited an American Express Centurion Lounge, what was your experience like?
The Las Vegas Strip is the economic engine of Nevada. It contains a high concentration of casinos and resorts. It has been home to gambling since the 1930’s and through generations, casinos have been torn down and built up, attracting visitors through increased lights and amenities. Most famously, the Las Vegas Strip is among the world’s largest light displays with several million lights on display. It’s a must see for any visitor to Nevada, United States.
This post is one chapter on our trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. This trip allowed us to earn through Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read more from this trip:
- Introduction: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA via Alaska Airlines First Class
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Bellingham – Seattle
- Aria Sky Suites One Bedroom Penthouse, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Aria Sky Suites: Pool and Resort Amenities, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- The Lights of the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- American Express Centurion Lounge, Las Vegas McCarran
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Las Vegas – Bellingham
City Visit: The Lights of the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada, United States of America.
The Las Vegas Strip is one of the most famous gambling corridors in the world. Many of the largest hotel, casino, and resort properties in the world are on the Strip, known for its contemporary architecture, lights, and wide variety of attractions. Its hotels, casinos, restaurants, residential high-rises, entertainment offerings, and skyline have established the Strip as one of the most popular and iconic tourist destinations in the world and is one of the driving forces for Las Vegas’ economy.
We were able to get out and walk the strip as our stay at the Aria Sky Suites was conveniently placed in a central South Strip location.
A short walk from the hotel is the Paris hotel. The property is run by the Caesar’s Entertainment Group and is famous for its half size replica of the Effiel Tower out front. It’s one of these places that everyone knows about, but I’ve never actually met anyone that’s ever stayed there.
Bellagio Hotel and Casino:
Among the most famous of Las Vegas hotels and resorts is the Bellagio Casino. The property is designed after an Italian luxury villa but it is most famous for its choreographed outdoor dancing fountains, which were among the most famous in the world. The Bellagio fountains run every half and hour and attract a substantial amount of spectators on the sidewalks outside of the Bellagio.
Caesar’s Palace:
One of the other famous hotels on the Las Vegas Strip is the Caesar’s Palace hotel and resort. While it was one of the first mega casinos, it has a pretty interesting lobby and shopping mall located inside it’s grounds. It’s also home to the Spago Restaurant, one of the first celebrity chef restaurants in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Strip:
No trip to Las Vegas would be complete without a walk on the Las Vegas Strip. The lights here are like nothing else in this world and you could spend nights wandering through the lights and never see the same thing twice.
The Bottom Line: The Las Vegas Strip
Any visitor to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States needs to visit the Las Vegas Strip by night. It’s one of the premier attractions in Las Vegas. Walking past the Paris Hotel Las Vegas, the Bellagio Fountains and the Caesar’s Palace casino is a must in any Las Vegas adventure.
Do you think a walk down the Miracle Mile Las Vegas Strip is a worthwhile experience?
The resort features of Casino Hotels are always designed to keep you gambling instead of actually enjoying the property. As a result, it’s been my experience that the pools and grounds of casino hotels are pretty lack lustre when compared to other beach or mountain properties. The Aria Sky Suites was no exception to this rule, despite a resort “fee”. Despite this, the room was well set up for private dining. It’s surprising that the best resort experiences are being cast away in your own private Sky Suite room.
This post is one chapter on our trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. This trip allowed us to earn through Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read more from this trip:
- Introduction: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA via Alaska Airlines First Class
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Bellingham – Seattle
- Aria Sky Suites One Bedroom Penthouse, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Aria Sky Suites: Pool and Resort Amenities, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- The Lights of the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- American Express Centurion Lounge, Las Vegas McCarran
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Las Vegas – Bellingham
Review: The Aria Sky Suites Pool, Lounge and Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America.
This post is about the Aria Sky Suite Resort Amenities. Please see here for a review of the Aria Sky Suites One Bedroom Penthouse at the Aria Sky Suites, Las Vegas.
Aria Sky Suites Lounge:
Guests of the Aria Sky Suites are offered access to a “secluded lounge with complimentary food and beverage amenities including a daily wine and cheese pairing”. Given this description, I was perhaps expecting something of a large space with a view on a high floor. Instead the lounge is actually part of the windowless lobby of the Aria Sky Suites.
The atmosphere in the lounge certainly wasn’t one of exclusivity. All the arriving and departing passengers are paraded past the area. It is also occasionally used as the check in location for arriving guests. Since it’s a 2 minute walk from the elevator banks, heaps of people would stop by to load up their day bags with the free Fiji bottled water. There was such an exodus of product that the lounge attendant was apologetic to us that he was having trouble keeping the refrigerator stocked with cold water on our visit.
The food offerings weren’t very exciting on our visit through. It was sort of like the old and tired United Clubs where a sample of unappealing food was put out. We didn’t spend much time eating here.
The Pool Area:
Aria Sky Suites offers access to the other parts of the hotel. This meant a somewhat typical Las Vegas experience of the never ending party and groups celebrating everything under the sun. This can be both a positive and a negative depending on what your expectations are. The access back into Aria Sky Suites is quite discrete behind the marked door seen to the right on the green framed pictures.
The pool was jam packed on Saturday with hardly a spot to sit (without a cabana reservation). Aviation fans would have the opportunity to witness several, Eurocopter P135’s spinning across the pool overhead since the pool is on the helicopter sightseeing route. There was also lots of DJ Music Spilling over from Liquid Lounge overtop of the regular pop music soundtrack at the pool. It wasn’t a super serene experience but it was most certainly an entertaining one.
As with many large scale properties, the pool is a pretty dense location and unless you’re renting a cabana, you’re likely to share space shoulder to shoulder with many other guests.
There were some views of the large skyscraper of the Aria property from the pool. The property is certainly an imposing structure, much like all other Las Vegas casinos.
Food and Beverage: Room Service
One of the best features of the Aria Sky Suites was the dining room located in the suite itself. The room service was excellent, featuring a 24 hour menu with no annoying 11 AM cut off time for breakfast ordering. I would have guessed that room service orders would have been problematic for a hotel with 4,004 hotel rooms. Despite this, our order was correctly delivered and filled within 30 minutes of calling on all three days. We had breakfast in the suite every morning and enjoyed the unique strip view along with Wall Street Journal delivered newspapers.
I can’t quite make out the demographics of the people that the Aria Sky Suites directly target. It’s clear there is a stronger Asian influence in Las Vegas more than ever before. There were Asian (Mandarin Newspapers in the lobby), mandarin on the room service menu and the usual feature of Congee and other Asian dishes to dine on. There are probably a small percentage that are staying here on comps provided by the casino. In actuality, if those in the lounge are any guest representation, it’s a mix of Asian, late twenties with piercings, shorts and flip flops, and other couples late thirty to early forties couples gouging the free water and drinks from the fridge to take aware to their rooms.
All in all: does the Aria Sky Suites deliver?
Yes and no. The best features include the arrival service. It can be a great value add to arrive at McCarran and be picked up in a nice car. The immediate front desk check in was also a nice alternative than joining a queue on the regular side that always seems to be a mile long (no matter which Las Vegas Strip hotel you stay in). The added amenities of the lounge, although not as chic as advertised, was a nice place to stop for a quick drink on the way out onto the town. Despite this, we still went to CVS Pharmacy for extra drinks for the room fridge. The room was also very nicely appointed and configured. Room service, whenever you want it, with a strip view is absolutely fabulous. It was also nice to use the discrete taxi rank at the North Entrance with line priority thanks to the Aria Sky Suites branded room cards.
The downside of the Sky Suites are that, once you are beyond the pampering of all the Sky Suites, you are still in Las Vegas- the city of debauchery. Unlike riding First Class on an international airline carrier, where you are pretty much totally walled off from the rest of the world through the travel experience suites and lounges (and can stay that way on arrival through escorts and services), at the Aria Sky Suites if you want to go gambling, dine out or head to the pool, you get to head though the party of the masses and crowds of people that are staying there. This isn’t necessarily a negative experience. However, my observations are that the Sky Suites offered a different co-mingling experience in that peace and serenity was available at your room and behind the walled areas of the Sky Suites property, and the regular Las Vegas experience was available just beyond those guarded doors to the casino floor.
We would likely be return guests to the Sky Suites and enjoyed our experience there.
Do you think it’s worth staying at the Aria Sky Suites instead of in the regular Aria hotel?
Las Vegas, Nevada is a city that has almost one hundred and fifty thousand available hotel rooms. The choice and breath of these rooms make selection broad and expansive. The MGM Resorts own several of the properties on the Las Vegas Strip, including the Aria Resort which commands a Central South Strip location near many of the cities’ highlights. The upscale edition of the Aria property, the Aria Sky Suites, would be our home for three nights for this trip.
This post is one chapter on our trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. This trip allowed us to earn through Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read more from this trip:
- Introduction: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA via Alaska Airlines First Class
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Bellingham – Seattle
- Aria Sky Suites One Bedroom Penthouse, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Aria Sky Suites: Pool and Resort Amenities, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- The Lights of the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- American Express Centurion Lounge, Las Vegas McCarran
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Las Vegas – Bellingham
Hotel Review: The Aria Sky Suites One Bedroom Penthouse, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America.
This post is about a review in a One Bedroom Penthouse at the Aria Sky Suites, Las Vegas. Please see here for a review of the associated Aria Sky Suite Resort Amenities.
Booking and Getting there:
I’ve been staying at MGM Hotels and Resorts on and off for over twenty years. Despite that, I’m actually not a big gambler. However, I really like the restaurant scene in Las Vegas. Every celebrity chef has a representation of his or her restaurants in this postal code of the United States. It’s become a bit of a foodie destination with a different choice available each night.
The Aria Sky Suites are advertised from within a microsite linked to the main Aria webpage and is marketed as a boutique hotel of sorts. Many hotels in Las Vegas have attempted to capture the higher spend clientele by offering a hotel within a hotel. The Aria Sky Suites website advertised the following features:
CELEBRATE LAS VEGAS WITH DISCRETION: Arrive by luxury vehicle at a VIP entrance that few ever see, one of only 83 hotels in the world with a Forbes Five Star Award. Be whisked up to luxury via private elevator. Discover all this AAA Five Diamond Award-winning destination has to offer – restaurants from the world-renown chefs, mesmerizing nightlife, an indulgent spa and salon, and an acclaimed Fine Art Collection. Slip seamlessly, at any time, back into the privacy of your lavish Sky Suites retreat overlooking the city.
THE ARIA SKY SUITES EXPERIENCE
Your exclusive experience at the Forbes Five Star and AAA Five Diamond Award-winning Sky Suites includes:
• Exclusive porte-cochère entry with personal curbside welcome
• Private check-in available
• Secluded lounge with complimentary food and beverage amenities including a daily wine and cheese pairing
• Private key elevator access
• Complimentary newspaper delivered daily
• Access to over 2,000 Electronic Newspapers
• No-wait line pass to The Buffet and ARIA Café
• Complimentary iPad/Laptop use during stay
• Personalized concierge and special services upon request
In-Room and Resort wide Wi-Fi Access
INSIDE YOUR PRIVATE ARIA SKY SUITES RETREAT
The 1– and 2–bedroom suites and penthouses at Sky Suites feature the highest floor plans in Las Vegas with breathtaking views of the Strip and surrounding mountains, and an array of other exclusive amenities:
• Twice daily housekeeping service
• Custom ARIA mattress with triple sheeted 100% Egyptian cotton linens
• Stunning bathrooms with stone shower/bench, separate whirlpool bath, dual granite vanity sinks, private water closet with TOTO electronic fixtures
• Deluxe ARIA spa products, ultra plush robes and slippers
• Exquisite horticulture in all suites, including orchids
• 52″ HD television in living area / 42″ HD television in bedroom / 20″ in bathroom
• Plug and Play laptop, video devices, cameras and MP3 players
• Integrated one-touch control of guestroom features, including lighting, temperature, television/video, music, wake-up calls, draperies, and requests for services
The Aria Sky Suites portion of the Property is also part of the American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts Hotel Program for eligible American Express Platinum and Centurion Card Members. Booking through their portal entitles travelers to a further US $100 Spa services credit to be used during your stay, room upgrade upon arrival, (when available), noon check-in, (when available) daily breakfast for two, In-Room Wi-Fi, (exclusions apply) and a guaranteed 4:00 pm late check-out.
The Aria Sky Suites are located within the Aria Resort and Casino that consists of the Aria Hotel, the Vdara Hotel and the Aria Sky Suites. It commands a central south strip location that’s walkable to many attractions in the area.
After arriving off our Alaska Airlines First Class Bellingham – Seattle flight, we were met by our driver at the bottom of the escalator stairs at Las Vegas McCarran holding an iPad with our surname on it. The arrival service and complimentary limo transfer are made available for all of the Aria Sky Suites guests. Our driver assisted with the bags and escorted us out to the VIP car rank outside the arrivals hall. Fortunately, there was no long walk through to the parkade since the car was parked immediately outside the exit.
We were led to one of the 28 limos in Aria’s fleet. The limo had unique Aria branding throughout different areas of the car; something I’ve never seen a hotel or resort take the time to go for any of their hotel cars.
Don, our driver, offered us Evian branded water for the brief trip over to the Aria Sky Suites.
The obligatory leg room shot. Indeed, a stretch Lincoln Town Car offers quite a bit of room.
The ride over to the Aria Sky Suites property from Las Vegas McCarran International was a quick 15 minutes. The Aria Sky Suites has a private rear entrance off the east Interstate 15 access road. Once we were waved in past an unmarked security gate, we were led into a discrete entrance that was never busy during our entire stay. It was quite a quiet contrast from the arrival areas of most Las Vegas Strip casinos which are usually a gong show of some sort with crowds lining up at the taxi rank along with party revellers of all sorts. It was defiantly the right away to arrive to a Las Vegas hotel; a tranquil experience with out the need to battle various crowds and lines.
On arrival, Don led us through an army of staff ready to assist with the bags. Don lead us down the arrival hallway, and handed us over to the front desk whom had already identified us, courtesy of our driver. Some photos of the check in hall way and area.
After the check in, we were discreetly handed off to Rebecca who arranged to escort us to our room. We were escorted to the elevator, past the “Fine Art Collection” – in this case a beautiful Andy Warhol series.
Similar to the riding the elevator down to the limo transfer cars at the Lufthansa First Class Terminal our personal assistant, Rebecca left us to ride the guest elevator up to the room on our own. We found our own way to the room, with Rebecca bringing up the bags shortly after our arrival. It’s a bit strange being left on your own like that. For me it seems that an escort would be nicer and more hospitable and a better way to introduce the hotel and the area to the guest.
Today’s One Bedroom Penthouse Suite was actually on the 38th floor?? (laughing)
The Room: One Bedroom Penthouse Suite
The Aria One Bedroom Penthouse Suites feature 1,400 square feet of space with the following features
- Separate Living Room area
- Separate Dining Room area with wet bar, mini bar and separate fridge.
- Separate One Bedroom area
- One and a half bathrooms.
Essentially, it’s an excellent hotel room with three times the size giving it great suite like qualities
Here’s a floor plan from the website:
First impressions? Overall, it’s an impressive room that pleased Mrs WT73 to no end. “OMG this is nicer than our house. Hello y-es. I live here”. Well, you do for the next three days. Only.
The room had modern contemporary décor. It worked quite well for the hip surroundings of Las Vegas.
Immediately off the front entrance, was a small ensuite bathroom.
A Living Area:
The room entered into a living area, immediately after entering the suite. It had a great spacious sectional couch with terrific floor to ceiling window views.
The living area had a small alcove containing a desk area; not that anyone come to Las Vegas to work. It’s still important to feature a space in the rare event you have a work project that needs completing on the road.
A Dining Area with a Wet Bar:
The central room in the Aria Sky Suite one bedroom penthouse was a dining area with a wet bar. I really appreciate having a dining table in a hotel room, because it’s a comfortable way to enjoy in the indulgence of private dining. It’s a feature that you rarely get on the road, and sitting at a hotel room desk just isn’t as pleasant.
A Bedroom with a King:
The bedroom itself was terrific. It was nicely decoded and was a reasonable size. It wasn’t overly large but it wasn’t tiny either. Thanks to the large and spacious room, we didn’t spend a lot of time in the bedroom except for sleeping.
The room featured contemporary decor. I used the hands as a convenient wallet phone holder.
An Expansive Ensuite Bathroom:
The room featured probably the largest ensuite bathroom that I’ve been in. It ranked right up there with our large bathroom in the Park Villa at the Park Hyatt Maldives. MrsWT73 was impressed that she had not only her own sink, but a separate make up station, walk in closet, steam room, and bathtub as well.
The lighting and all electronics, as with all other rooms at the modern Aria, are controlled by a tablet device at the bedside. The tablet was pretty easy to use, without having to read a heap of instructions or guessing.
Overall the Aria Sky Suites offered a very impressive room. There was some light wear and tear but otherwise a very nice suite. After dropping the bag, Rebecca located some ice for us as well which was brought to the room.
A Room with a View:
The room also featured an eastward Las Vegas Strip view. The Las Vegas strip has grown up to be such a hap hazard collection of buildings and casinos the view is more of the general area and the lights than of any one individual feature or attraction. Despite this, I actually came to enjoy the feature.
My Thoughts on the Room at the Aria Sky Suites:
The Aria Sky Suites offered a great hard product with a room that had all the fit and furnishings of a terrific world class suite. The room was expansive with great views. The arrival experience of stepping off the plane and into a curtsied limousine to whisk you away to a private entrance is a much more dignified way to arrive to any Las Vegas property.
In our next post, we’ll take a look at the Aria Sky Suites Resort Amenities and features around the property.
Have you stayed at the Aria Resort and Casino, and did you enjoy your experience?
With a population spread out across wide distances in Canada, there is usually a lot of travel time between Canada’s cities. With only two major air carriers in Canada, the options for full business class are pretty lean, without a lot of competition as compared to our neighbours to the south. Air Canada has had a monopoly on business travel in Canada for quite a number of years and is the leading choice for regular business travelers. We used upgrade credits to land ourselves into Business Class for today’s flight into Middle Canada.
This post is one chapter on our trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. This trip allowed us to earn through Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read more from this trip:
- Introduction: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA via Alaska Airlines First Class
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Bellingham – Seattle
- Aria Sky Suites One Bedroom Penthouse, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Aria Sky Suites: Pool and Resort Amenities, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- The Lights of the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- American Express Centurion Lounge, Las Vegas McCarran
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Las Vegas – Bellingham
Review: Alaska Airlines First Class B737-7, Bellingham – Las Vegas
“Alaska Airlines departures from border town Bellingham, Washington, USA offers a reasonable alternative from expensive Canadian airports for lessor cost“
Instead of our usual departure from Vancouver International Airport today, we opted for Alaska Airlines leaving from Bellingham. Since there was less incentive to stick on our usual Air Canada Altitude Top Tier Status and Aeroplan Frequent Flier Program thanks to years of devaluations, we opted for a cheaper experience with Alaska.
We left the house. We self drove down into the United States via car. With a hop through the border with Nexus expedited customs screening and a 17 minute drive down the Interstate 5, and we were at Bellingham International Airport before we knew it.
It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Bellingham Airport. Now it’s a complete facility with private air park and ample parking for $8 a day- all within an easy 2 minute walk of the terminal WITH an option for a free shuttle bus.
Checking Into Alaska Airlines First Class:
It was an easy check in with the Alaska counter. There were no actual attendants for economy class- only kiosks. Three counters were manned, with one counter for first class / MVP, and the other two assisting bag drop. Overall, Bellingham International Airport is a bright, clean and modern facility – a contrast from many of the tired, dusty airports around the US like the Seattle Tacoma Airport which has seen better days.
There were only a few flights on the board today in an otherwise deserted airport.
Departures Board at Bellingham International Airport
There was a short line at security today. Although we were TSA Pre-Check flagged, the airport does not have the hardware to participate in it, as there is only one security lane. The TSA podium gave us a coupon to show so we didn’t have to remove your belt and shoes.
On the secure side, there are only 4 gates. Sadly, there are no lounge facilities here. We opted for the Scott Browns Social Lounge for a pleasant quick breakfast, which was handled without delay.
As it came time to board, there were lots of gate hang arounds today, made worse by the “check your bag for free” announcement which prompted a rush of people to the podium.
Today’s boarding call was for military, kids and first class all at once. We went outdoor to the apron since there are no jet bridges at Bellingham International Airport. Today’s boarding was double end boarding from both ends of the plane.
The Alaska Airlines service from Bellingham to Las Vegas makes use of Alaska Airlines Hawaiian aircraft from their Bellingham – Honolulu routes. The aircraft continue onwards to Las Vegas, then turn around back to Bellingham and then onwards to the Hawaiian Islands. As a result, at the time of travel, the airframes were decorated with the Hawaiian Lei’s that decorated Chester on the tail fin.
First Class
Alaska Airlines
BLI-LAS (Bellingham International Airport – Las Vegas McCarran Airport)
AS 628 – First Class (P)
10:03 AM – 12:33 PM
August 16, 2014
Booked: Boeing 737-800
Flown: Boeing 737-800
On board Alaska Airlines First Class:
Settling in on board, we were met with a new aircraft with very comfortable new leather seats in First in a 2/2 seating configuration. There was a full load of 16 in four rows of first class. Economy was configured in the usual three / three configuration in the back.
An interesting Navajo (or similar type) décor on the headboard of the cabin, coupled with Hawaiian shirt traveler. Sharp observers will notice that the in flight entertainment system, television or any type of projectors are completely absent.
No pre-departure beverage was offered today, one of the only carriers I have been on that isn’t offering this service in business class.
I always find that the in flight magazine is an interesting representation of any airline. Alaska Airlines’ Magazine was packed with fur advertisements and a guarantee for $20 voucher or Alaska Mileage Plan miles if checked bags are not delivered within 20 minutes of landing. Now that’s impressive service!! MrsWT73 agreed. She hates waiting for bags. In blogging spirit, I have no affiliation with any of the fur companies listed.
We were underway without any wait on runway 16L, headed for a southern departure over rural Bellingham.
There is no printed menus offered on Alaska short haul flights. Instead, I found the wine list in the magazine. Hey – there it is, along with our Lei’d napkins.
The Meal Service: A Light Brunch
A terrific tasting breakfast quiche was offered, with salad with low fat Rasberry Vinigrette, along with regular beverage top ups. I was happy to have the full breakfast back at Scotty Brown’s at Bellingham airport. There was no way that this portion was going to fully substitute for a meal.
Views from the Wing:
Today’s flight path took us down the western side of Washington state. We had great views of Mount Olympia and Mount Rainier from Seat 2A on the left side of the aircraft. I never find it tiring looking at mountains from the air.
Arriving to Las Vegas McCarran Airport:
The approach today into Las Vegas was over some fabulous arid mountains. We caught a glimpse of the Red Rock Canyon just west of Las Vegas.
Our approach led us around the south side of the Las Vegas Strip. It’s a better view when approaching at night, but it’s still interesting to see the “Million Dollar Mile” in the day time. We eventually passed over the suburbs of Las Vegas, Nevada; a stark contrast from the casino strip.
The Bottom Line: Our Experience on Alaska Airlines First Class
Overall, Alaska Airlines was a better than expected alternative than Air Canada. The on board service was friendly and frequent. The service felt similar to a small company rather than a large legacy carrier operating in a unionized environment. I would easily fly Alaska Airlines again in the future.
Have you ever flown the unusual Bellingham – Las Vegas route by Alaska Airlines?
The City of Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America is always an interesting attraction for those of us on the West Coast of North America. It’s situated relatively close to most major cities, with great air connections in and out of the city, and is perfect for a short adult getaway.
Trip Introduction: Las Vegas, Nevada, United States and the Aria Sky Suites via Alaska Airlines First Class
Trip Planning:
MrsWT73 has a thing for heat. She loves the heat. Most of our previous travels have involved visiting hot places like the United Arab Emirates and South East Asia. Since you can’t be in Dubai or Bali at every opportunity, Las Vegas in August is the next best thing. Arizona or San Diego isn’t quite yet our thing, since only one of us just turned forty and I don’t quite have a walker just yet.
For this trip, we joined the 5 million other Canadians who leave Canada every year for airports in close proximity to the Canada/USA International Border. We settled on Alaskan Air from Bellingham to Las Vegas. There is such a price disparity between the duopoly of Canadian carriers Westjet and Air Canada for the departures leaving from Canada that an Domestic First Class ticket in the USA, was almost the same price as a transborder economy ticket in faux Low Cost Carrier Air Canada Rouge, leaving from Canada. As a result, we ended up with a paid ticket credited to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.
Instead of our usual departure from Vancouver International Airport today, we opted for Alaska Airlines leaving from Bellingham. Since there was less incentive to stick on our usual Air Canada Altitude Top Tier Status and Aeroplan Frequent Flier Program thanks to years of devaluations, we opted for a cheaper experience with Alaska.
All in, we purchased a round trip ticket confirmed in first class for $389 USD (at 150% Alaska Mileage Plan frequent flier miles earned), whereas the cheapest economy ticket leaving from Vancouver was $330 on the cramped high density economy seats on Air Canada Rouge (at 50% Aeroplan Frequent Flier miles earned). As an added bonus, the flight times were reasonable- no 6 AM departures or other odd ball times.
This post is one chapter on our trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. This trip allowed us to earn through Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read more from this trip:
- Introduction: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA via Alaska Airlines First Class
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Bellingham – Seattle
- Aria Sky Suites One Bedroom Penthouse, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Aria Sky Suites: Pool and Resort Amenities, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- The Lights of the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- American Express Centurion Lounge, Las Vegas McCarran
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Las Vegas – Bellingham
We weren’t alone in doing this, as mentioned earlier approximately 5 million Canadians are leaving Canadian airports for cheaper fares in the USA with over 900,000 people alone from the Province of British Columbia in South West Canada.
World Traveller 73 
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