ATT Wifi Premuim membership is an awasome deal!

Wifi connections in Europe are every expensive at hotels, one day may cost you 30+ euro, sign up this ATT Wifi Premuim membership for only 19.99 per month with 1 year contract, you can get unlimited wifi service with free roaming on thousans of international locations.

Many roaming services are provided by ipass.

Although I had some diffculty on first time using it, it's working very well after I figure out how the connection sofeware works.

US has the cheapest gas price!

I am currently in Europe now, one liter of gas cost approx 1 euro. the car I am driving has 80 liters gas tank. so a full tank of gas will cost 80 euro, approx 110 USD

In US, with a tank of 20 gallon and 2.5 per gallon, full tank will cost only 50 USD

US dollar is on its way to become toilet paper again

Just two months ago, US dollar was relatively strong, which makes international trip a lot cheaper.
now it is heading down SHARPLY

today 1 Euro = 1.39 USD, 1 pound=1.58USD

banyan tree Ringa

The banyan tree Ringa is located in a local Tibet village, 20 mins outside of shangri la town in yunnan Province, some hotel villas were even coveted from local Tibet home.

The view is stunning, and will be even better in May. the tempture different is huge during the day. I still didn't feel warm enough even after I turned all 7 Air conditions on. since the location is more than 3000 meters above sea level, I kept waking up at night due to highland effect.

Here are some photos from hotel

View from yard


bath room










Hot pot dinner

Some pictures from world tallest hotel-Park Hyatt Shanghai

I stayed in Feb, but I am too busy with many thinsg recently, so no time for me to even organize hundreds of photo for past month trip. Anyway, finally got some time to do it.

The hotel and building are owned by Japanese, so everything is very similar to Park Hyatt Toyko. The highest floor you can go in hotel is 93rd, above that, u need to pay and enter from world financial building.



View from room, but weather was very bad in Shanghai


very comfortable bed, but not as good as Park Hyatt Toyko.

Will have some trip report soon!

I am currently back to States for few days and will have some trip report once I got my camera later this week.

almost finish my trip planning

I will travel around southwest and central part of China in March, the trip will start from Shanghai and end in Beijing.

Shanghai-Hangzhou(car)-Lijiang(air)-Chengdu(air)-Jiuzhaigou(air)-Chongqing(air)-Yangzi river(cruise)-Yichang-Beijing(air).

Will stay in Westin Shanghai, Le Meridien Shanghai, Park Hyatt shanghai, Hyatt Regency Hangzhou, Sheraton Jiuzhaigou, Sheraton Chengdu, Banyan Tree Lijiang, Banyan Tree Ringha and River Explor Cruise.

Total time will be 1 month, then take a break in Beijing and plan my second trip in coming April.Can not wait......

Trip to Hong Kong on UA 869

Upgrade on UA new Business class from SFO-HKG is extremely hard, Inventory Management people try to hold seats until last minutes. I checked in at LAX 4.5 hours prior to departure and the service director on site told me they only sold 22 seats in Business class and I was #4 on the waitlist, she couldn't understand why the seat still hadn't opened up.

After getting into LAX RCC around 4 hours prior to SFO-HKG departure, upgrade finally cleared. My flight from LAX-SFO scheduled for take off on 9:35 and landed in 10:55, which left me 1 hour for the connection, but after I boarded the plane, Capital annonced that there would be a delay due to air traffic control at SFO.

The plane finally landed at SFO GATE 90 on 11:33 am and flight to Hong Kong still scheduled for departure on time at 11:55 am at GATE G102. I run as fast as I can from the furthest gate in Terminal 3 to THE furthest gate in international terminal. Cabin door closed right after I step into the plane. Although, I finally made on board, I was really worried about my checked luggage.

The business seat itself is very good, lie flat bed and it does make a better sleep than 170 degree reclined seat. IFE system is running all the time, so u don't have to wait until take off to enjor ur entertainment. However, the movie selection is still not great, I have watched most of them already. No comments on food since I am still on diet. Overall, Not bad if u just want to have a very good sleep.

BTW, I was happy to see my checked luggage arrive with me. :)

Made few more award redemption today

use 30000 BMI miles +105 british pounds for North America-Zone 8 one way business class award, whole process took less than 10 minutes, but they got my wife last name wrong, so had to ring back to correct it. Also, the taxes amount did not match to ITA, so will ring back tomorrow to ask for taxes detail.

In addition, redeemed 37000 km on Hainan Airline RT in F from SZX-PEK. was going to redeem from HKG-PEK, but Hongkong airline has blackout date until Feb 3rd, use SZX instead.

Booked my ticket to Hong Kong

JFK-LAX(stopover)-SFO-HKG-SFO-LAX-JFK, total is $1017, not too bad consider inbound is 5 months later and a stopover in LAX and W class, which can be upgraded with my systemwide certificate.

I was looking for fuel surcharge buster to drop fuel surcharge, but my return is too far away, the buster route has not release any cheap ticket yet, adding buster route only pushed the price higher.