This was my third trip to Thailand in under a year. The first two trips hooked me bad and I was hungry for more. I figured with two trips under my belt, I was now a pro and knew all the ins and outs. Plus my Thai vocabulary was vastly improved – I now had 10 Thai words in my repertoire. And last but not least, I had kept in touch with Nat, a dancer from the Long Gun, who I met on my first trip and whose company I really enjoyed on my second trip. This was going to be the best trip yet. Famous last words.

Getting there

I consider myself a fairly intelligent guy, but when dealing with the air travel, I become a complete Mongoloid, no matter how much research I do. I had enough miles in my Continental OnePass account to get a business class upgrade. Long story short, the cheapest upgradeable economy fare from New York to Bangkok came in at a whopping $3,000 – even the person who quoted me the price seemed embarrassed, but she said there was nothing that she could do because it was a codeshare flight with Northwest. I then turned to good old reliable EVA Air and the flight in Evergreen Deluxe class came in at a very reasonable $889, leaving on Friday, Aug 22 – arriving at noon on Sunday Aug 24 and returning to Newark late Sunday might, August 31. Before booking this flight, I called Continental again to see what their price was for the same EVA flight but purchased through Continental. Why? Because if you purchased the EVA flight through Continental, the miles counted toward your Elite status. If you purchased through EVA, the miles could be credited to your Continental OnePass account, but not towards Elite status. At least that’s what the Elite Hotline told me when I checked this out after my last trip in March. That same $889 flight when purchased through Continental was $2,500. Plus, you only got Elite Miles through Taipei, not all the way to Bangkok. Continental: Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. So I booked through EVA. Here’s some potentially great news, however. As of Sept 9, my OnePass account was credited for the first leg of my trip; Newark to Taipei and all 7,000 miles was counted towards Elite Status! A mistake in my favor? A change in policy? I’m waiting to see if all of the other miles will also be counted towards Elite Status and will report back either way.

The last two times I stayed at the Omni Towers on Soi 4 and was very pleased. The suites were great, the price was right and you were within walking distance to Nana Plaza. But it’s in my nature to always try to improve. While checking out the rates for Omni on www.the-ascott.com I noticed another one of their managed properties: the Somerset Lake Point on Soi 16. It was a little pricier and looked a little classier. I decided to book my stay there at a rate of 2,500 baht per night for a deluxe one-bedroom suite, which included buffet breakfast and taxi to and from the airport. This would turn out to be one of my best decisions of the trip.

I had a busy few weeks leading up to the trip, going away on business a couple of times. One of my trips took me to Dallas and I flew there from Newark on Continental. Dallas and Chicago for Continental operate from Terminal B in Newark (same Terminal as EVA) and they had just opened up a Gallagher’s Steak House in that Terminal. I’m a steak fanatic and Gallagher’s in the Theatre District has always been in my top ten. I stowed away this information for my August 22nd trip on EVA Air.

I packed light again and didn’t bother to bring my golf clubs because I had been following the weather on weather.com and rain was forecast for everyday of my trip. Well, it was the rainy season, so no sense in complaining. I did pack my usual I Love NY T-shirts for gifts and brought a dozen each of toothbrushes and shower caps (the ladies really appreciate the shower caps).

I scheduled a car for 8:30pm from my office and was at the EVA check-in counter at 9:00pm. The line was huge for economy, but Deluxe, Business and First classes were empty. Upon check-in I got good news and bad news: They were able to change my seat to an aisle, but boarding was delayed from Midnight to 1:00am. Oh well, I’ll just linger longer at Gallagher’s and then get trashed at the Continental President’s Club (I had previously bought several guest passes on Ebay for $20 a pop – well worth it when you have a couple of hours to kill). I breeze through security and get a sinking feeling. There are three different sections in Terminal B and the Gallagher’s is not in EVA’s “section.” Nor is the President’s club. You would think these places would be outside of security so they would be accessible to everyone, but that’s not the case. So now I have four hours to kill, nowhere decent to eat and I’m starving. Plus, I know from my previous two trips on EVA that they serve food that would cause a prison riot, it’s that bad. Fuck it, I’m gonna cut my losses. I head back through security, over to the AirTrain and I’m back in the city by 10:00pm. I head over to Nick and Stef’s Steakhouse at the Garden to find they’re closed for renovations. This trip is getting off to a real bad start. I take a cab down to 14th Street to the Old Homestaed and 20 minutes later I have a 2.5 lb prime rib and a 2.5 lb lobster in front of me – my version of surf and turf. Finally something goes right. Head back to Penn Station and take the 11:30 train back to the airport. They’re having mechanical problems with the AirTrain and it takes an hour to get to the terminal. People are going ballistic. I breeze through security once again and am at the gate at 1:00am. We board at 1:45 and take off 30 minutes later. The connection in Taipei to Bangkok is tight – I will wonder throughout the flight if I’m gonna make it. But I’m drunk and full so despite not wanting to sleep until after we reboard in Seattle, I’m out like a light 10 minutes into the flight.

I hate having to get off and then back on the same plane in Seattle (especially at 4:00am) but that’s the way it is. I watch a couple of movies and then go back to sleep for almost the remainder of the flight. We land in Taipei at 8:35am – the connection to Bangkok was scheduled to leave at 8:30, but they push back the departure time to 9:00am to accommodate the late arrival. Three hours later we touchdown in Bangkok. Now I’m starting to get excited. And so, chapter 3 begins. . .

Wallstreet, I believe the policy has changed with respect to EVA miles in that they do give elite miles (at least to Taipei), at least that's what it said on the Continental website and the inflight mags that I looked at while going to AC. Your award of the elite miles seems to confirm this. Don't give up hope on Continental/Northwest b/c they've always come through for me while flying from LAX. There's a high and a low season and the NWA flys from Kennedy directly to Narita (maybe that's why it's so popular as opposed to LAX which has dozens of direct flights to Narita). There are more ways to earn miles on ONEPASS than you can shake a stick at and when you get to the elite status, the miles and bonuses accrue exponentially. If you go to AC, the upgrades to AC were easier to get since Continental operated these flights -- LAX, Honolulu, Guam, Manila and its operated by Continental throughout. If you're a FF junkie like me, you may want to check out flyertalk.com for some strategies and ideas. A lot of great posters there, and a few of us are Hobbyist in addition to FF junkies.

Wallstreet, you're hooked! God help you, and welcome to the club.

-DJ

YOU ATE A 40 OZ. STEAK before getting on a 20 hour flight? Dude, I doubt the FOOTBALL I'd crap about 8 hours into the trip would fit down those little airplane porta-potties chute! I bet that dinner cost more than your plane ticket!

Newark to Seattle, deplane, re-plane, to Taipei, change planes, to Bangkok sounds like a SERIOUSLY hellish trip. I thought my 30 hour bus ride from bumblefuck Mexico to LA was bad before my flight to Taipei-Manila. YOU are obviously a SERIOUSLY MOTIVATED TRAVELER! I like that!!!

Great intro, sounds like lots of 'uh ohs' are coming, and you have described a little bit of the disappointment with your duplicitous steady on the Asia chat board. I hope you got back in the saddle in a big way after that. You did take a week off work to prepare the report so we won't have to wait too long for the installments, yes?

As usual, your writing style makes for good reading. I am very much looking forward to reading the rest of your report. Since we are both avid golfers I would like to get your take on playing golf there during the rainy season. I have heard from some (some not) that even during rainy season it is possible to play golf since the rains are supposed to be intense but brief leaving a golf nut like me plenty of opportunity to play. I would like to get your take on that as you were just there. I plan to go at the end of September for a couple of weeks. If you had your trip to do over would you bring your clubs?

Merlin: I read that the EVA miles counted towards Elite Status in the May Continental in-flight mag, but when I called Continental to confirm, they said it was only on EVA flights booked through Continental. I'm going to try again to get my March EVA miles counted to Elite status - the worst they can do is say no. I haven't given up on Continental, hell I have almost 80,000 miles on them (but I'm still at Silver Elite - close to Gold - will be by the end of the year). Continental just started non-stop service from Newark to Hong Kong - I might try that next trip.

Porker: It's actually not that bad of a trip, I just don't like getting off and on in Seattle in the middle of the night. And changing planes in Taipei is a breeze - plus you're only 3 hours away from Bangkok, so you're motivated. And dinner was about $150, but I knew I wasn't going to have any real food for close to 2 days. EVA's food is that bad. And since I'm off the plane, I make good use of the restrooms in Seattle. The installments will be coming at least one every other day to completion.

Platinum: I played at the Thai Country Club twice on this trip - I will never again go to Thailand without my clubs. It rained on Sunday and Monday but the weather was picture perfect the rest of the week. More on that coming in my report.