Asia Travel Deals

New website for this blog

2011-12-20T17:46:00.002+08:00

Asia Travel Deals has moved to http://www.bestcheaphoteldeals.com - we will continue to bring you the best hotel and flight deals in Asia and around the world too!

In addition to this, we have also developed a unique hotel comparison shopping tool which allows you to compare prices for hotels in any city around the world from over 30 hotel booking websites! You don't need to go to each and every website to check prices anymore.

Hop over to http://www.bestcheaphoteldeals.com now and remember to subscribe to our RSS feed and Twitter to get the latest deals!

Cebu Budget Travel

2011-12-17T09:58:00.000+08:00

CEBU…THE QUEEN CITY OF THE SOUTH

Known as the Queen City of the South of the Philippines, you can get to Cebu either by air or by sea if you are coming from the capital, Manila. If you are coming from outside the Philippines, some countries do not provide direct flights to Cebu so you might have to stop over in Manila in order to get to Mactan Cebu International Airport.

From the airport, you can go to downtown Cebu via taxi. The taxi ride would cost you about Php200 (or about $5) and from here; you can find a place to stay in for the duration of your trip. The stay would cost you around Php500 for pension houses to 1,000 or 1,500 per day for luxurious hotels. After getting a place to stay in Cebu, you may now start touring and immersing yourself with the Cebuano culture. Travelling around Cebu is quite easy as the locals are very friendly so you can always ask them for directions and is quite cheap as most places could be travelled by a jeepney wherein the minimum fare is only Php8.50($0.20) so it is very friendly to people who are travelling on a low budget.

Most travellers’ start their tour with the Magellan’s Cross which is located in front of Basilica Minore del Santo Niňo. You can get there by riding a jeepney which would only cost you Php 8.00. After which, you might want to infuse yourself with the cultural heritage of Cebu by checking out its museums which includes the Casa Gorordo Museum, which is a jeepney ride away from downtown Cebu and Museo sa Sugbo which is located in M.J. Cuenco.

Getting around in Cebu is very cheap as most places could be travelled by a jeepney wherein the minimum fare is only Php8.50($0.20) so it is very friendly to people who are travelling on a low budget.

Cebu also boasts of foods that are unique to a Cebuano palate. These foods could be eaten in almost all parts of Cebu so you could go and walk around Cebu and hunt for these exotic foods such as Ginabut (Php20), Larsian(range of Php10-50) and cooked Bakasi(cooked eel at Php20). All these foods could be paired with a puso(Php2.50) which is rice cooked inside a palm leaf. One should also definitely try the famous lechon baboy of Cebu.

In every visit, Cebu will definitely have something new to offer.

Exclusive 10% off Hotels.com coupon code

2011-09-27T00:47:00.001+08:00

Exclusively available on Asia Travel Deals blog, here is a 10% discount code for hotel bookings on Hotels.com:

763218

Simply enter the coupon code above when you book on Hotels.com.

This coupon code can be used for bookings made on Hotels.com before 2 November 2011 and valid for stays till 17 June 2012.

Bangkok by the Sea - Book 2 nights in Bangkok, Get 1 night in Samui

2011-09-22T15:04:00.000+08:00

This is quite a sweet deal by Accorhotels.com in Bangkok. Stay 2 nights at Le Fenix Sukhumvit, Novotel Bangkok Fenix Silom or Novotel Bangkok Fenix Ploenchit and receive 1 night FREE at Mercure Samui Fenix Resort.

I've stayed at Le Fenix Sukhumvit before and I liked it for being on one of the most happening streets in Bangkok - Sukhumvit Soi 11, with 2 great clubs at the hotel's doorsteps so you can stumble back to bed after a long night of partying at Bed Supperclub and Q Bar.

With new flights recently launched by SilkAir from Singapore to Samui, this deal works well if you intend to have a couple of short weekend trips over the next 3 months.

Click the below image to find out more and book.

1-for-1 in Novotel & Pullman Bali Hotels - AMEX Cardholders

2011-09-17T10:11:00.000+08:00

AMEX has a promotional 1-for-1 offer with Accorhotels.com Novotel Bali Benoa and Pullman Bali Legian Nirwana hotels.

Stay 2 nights for the price of 1, and earn A|Club points as usual. This is a great offer as promotional rates usually do not allow points accrual.

What's more, A|Club Accor Advantage Plus members get an additional 10% off rates.

Booking period: 16 Sept to 29 Sept 2011.

Stay period: Before 26 Dec 2011.

This is only available for booking online at http://www.accorasiapacificpartners.com/AMBALI

Cathay Pacific HSBC Smart Savers Airfares

2011-09-13T23:53:00.001+08:00

Cathay Pacific often partners with credit cards to offer special airfares to card members.

This time, Cathay is offering HSBC credit card members special airfares from Singapore to various Asian cities.

All-in fares begin from S$308 per person to Bangkok.

Book by 30 Sep and travel by 28 Feb. Blackout dates apply.

Visit CathayPacific.com for more details.

SilkAir flies from Singapore to Bandung & Changsha from October 2011

2011-09-13T14:33:00.000+08:00

From October, SilkAir will fly from Singapore to Bandung, Indonesia and Changsha, China. This comes shortly after SilkAir announced new flights to Koh Samui, Thailand.

Located at the altitude of 768 m with the surroundings of lush and beautiful Parahyangan mountains makes Bandung's climate mild and pleasant. The city has been well known for the universities, apparel products and a great place for gastronomic adventure. Nowadays, Bandung has become a very popular weekend escape for people from Jakarta who would crowd the city on weekends and national holidays. Bandung is a great place to buy factory outlet clothes. SilkAir will fly to Bandung 3 times a week. Introductory Airfare is at only S$248 inclusive of taxes!

Situated in the river valley along the lower reaches of the Xiang River, Changsha is the capital city of Hunan Province. Changsha is a mysterious and miraculous city in China with many unbelievable but true records, sites and archaeological discoveries. I haven't been there before, but I've always wanted to go and with direct flights it's going to be easy now! Introductory Airfare is at S$548 inclusive of taxes.

SilkAir Holidays Roadshow

2011-09-13T14:26:00.003+08:00

SilkAir is running an exclusive promotion with MasterCard.

From 15 - 21 Sep, visit SilkAir Holidays Roadshow at Raffles City Level 1 to book the following offers:

Exclusive MasterCard Deals:
All-in 3D2N Free and Easy Packages from:
$358 Kuching, Phuket
$378 Kuala Lumpur, Penang
$408 Koh Samui
$438 Chiangmai, Langkawi, Siem Reap

All-in 4D3N Packaged Tours from:
$498 Medan and Lake Toba Tour
$838 Danang, Hue & Hoi An Tour

If your birthday falls within this period, you can get an additional night accommodation free, courtesy of SilkAir.

Win FREE Jetstar flights from Singapore to Ningbo

2011-09-04T17:55:00.001+08:00

Jetstar is launching new flights from Singapore to Ningbo from 9 September 2011. Introductory airfare starts from S$88, and for its inaugural flight, Jetstar is giving away 10 pairs of free return tickets worth S$682 (at regular rates).

Jetstar's entry into this route gives Chinese full-service airlines a run for their money - right now there are no direct flights from Singapore to Ningbo, and travelers usually need to transit in one of the key international airports in China to get there.

It's easy to win - just write down what you can do over a weekend in Ningbo in 25 words or less, and email it with your personal details.

Contest web page is at http://www.jetstar.com/sg/en/ningbo , and the deadline for submission is 7 Sep at 12pm.

The catch is, the prize is only valid for Jetstar's inaugural flight from Singapore on 9 Sep, and return must be on 11 Sep. So it's good for those who have the time and ability to take leave at short notice (today is already 4 Sep!) when the winners are announced.

According to the Terms & Conditions of the contest, prize winners will be contacted on 7 Sep from 3pm to 5pm, which means if you win you'll have to take last minute leave to fly and make hotel booking arrangements!

Anyway, since the effort required to enter is so little, I figured I will just give it a shot and worry about whether to redeem the prize or not when I win!

Koh Samui from Singapore flights launched by SilkAir

2011-08-28T10:47:00.000+08:00

Koh Samui is one of Thailand's finest beach destinations, with pristine beaches, a good variety of beach resorts and activities.

Currently, flights from Singapore to Koh Samui are only available via Bangkok Airways. I travelled on Bangkok Airways to Koh Samui before and honestly, it is a good airline but for budget travellers like myself, airfares are rather expensive - from at least $350 per person (including taxes) return trip. That's because Bangkok Airways enjoyed a monopoly on the SIN - USM - SIN route... until next month.

From 27 Sep 2011, SilkAir will commence flights from Singapore to Koh Samui. The introductory return airfare is priced at S$308 including taxes. This is an awesome deal and it sends a signal out that there will be some serious competition between the 2 carriers for passengers. True, S$308 may not be cheap for a 2 hour flight compared to what budget carriers offer, but at least it is a good start. I can't wait till the day AirAsia, Jetstar or Tiger Airways start flying this route - they will give SilkAir and Bangkok Airways some serious pressure!

What's great about SilkAir's new flights, besides price, is the schedule. MI 772 departs Singapore at 8.10am and arrives in Koh Samui at 9.00am local time, allowing you a full day of activities. This compares with Bangkok Airways' evening flight which means wasting 1 night of hotel accommodation on the day of arrival.

The best website to book SilkAir flights is actually not on SilkAir.com itself, but on ZUJI.com.sg - you can earn $25 rebate off your next booking if you use a MasterCard to book. If you use a DBS/POSB MasterCard to book, you get $35 rebate!

Budget travel tips and tricks: Getting cheap airfares during peak season with miles

2011-08-21T11:55:00.003+08:00

Planning to reward yourself with a year-end getaway but not willing to fork out too much of your hard-earned money to pay for peak season airfares at a premium?

There's a way out... make use of your frequent flyer miles. And, use your frequent flyer miles only during periods where you cannot get any cheap, paid airfares.

I'll first talk about how much you can save using frequent flyer miles to redeem flights, then about how you can earn those miles.

In my earlier post I mentioned I paid just S$120 for a return air ticket by Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Hong Kong, over the 2011 Year End - 2012 New Year period. I did this by redeeming my KrisFlyer miles. I used 22,500 miles for 1 ticket and paid S$120 for taxes.

How much is this redemption worth, i.e., is it worth spending 22,500 miles for a return air ticket to Hong Kong? Let's see.

On Singapore Airlines' website now, a promotional airfare from SIN - HKG - SIN during non-peak season is at a base fare of S$324 plus about S$120 in taxes.

For the dates I am travelling (30 Dec - 2 Jan), base fare is at S$605 now, plus taxes of about S$120. This means my 22,500 miles are worth almost double the value for peak season travel.

Now, next question is, how can you earn those miles?

For those who travel frequently on business, you should have plenty of miles to redeem from your business trips - don't leave them lying around unused like I did with my NWA (now Delta) miles... or you'll regret it when inflation sets in! It used to cost me just 20,000 miles to redeem a return ticket from SIN - Tokyo - SIN, but now that has tripled to 60,000 miles! In comparison, a flight redemption from SIN - Tokyo - SIN on Singapore Airlines' Krisflyer program costs 34,000 miles.

So, it's important to first choose an airline/frequent flyer miles program which gives you the best value. At the moment the best program if you are based in Singapore, is probably Krisflyer. Used to be NWA but now inflation has set in...

For those of you who do not travel frequently for work, like myself, fret not... as long as you are eligible for a credit card, you can earn frequent flyer miles when you spend on your credit cards too!

I use Citibank's Premiermiles Visa Signature card. It gives me 1.2 miles per $1 spent, and in return for paying S$180 subscription fee annually, I get 10,000 bonus miles. This means that If I spend about $10k on the card, together with the bonus miles, I can redeem a flight worth S$605! Effectively, this means a rebate of $605/$10,000 x 100% = 6.05%!

There are plenty of credit cards offering cash rebate programs, but they typically offer anywhere between 0.1% to 5% at selected stores only... still not as good as what I'm getting out of my mileage. Furthermore, if you spend S$5k per month, you get to earn 2 miles for every dollar spent. That means if you have a big ticket item to spend on, you just need to spend S$6k to get 12,000 miles... add on 10,000 bonus miles and you'll have an effective rebate of almost 10% if you redeem your miles for an air ticket worth $600!

Please feel free to post your comments and share your tips on how to maximise ROI out of FFP and credit card programs!

In my next post I will share more on how I managed to save almost 40% off my hotel stay in Hong Kong, also during peak travel season.

Budget travel tips and tricks: travel on a budget during peak season

2011-08-13T11:08:00.003+08:00

How do you travel on a budget during peak season?

I recently booked a year-end holiday to Hong Kong (I'll be counting down to 2012 there!).

Many of you who have tried to book year end holidays in previous years would know that most flights are sold out early or exorbitantly expensive. There were even media reports last year saying that some families booked business class airfares just because they had no other choices left!

Spending top dollar to get to a destination is against my principles. I don't mind spending good money on shopping, food and drinks, but I don't see a point in paying through my teeth to get from from one place to another... particularly so for a short flight of a few hours.

How much did I pay for my SQ flight + 3-night stay in a 4-star hotel (Metropark Hotel Causeway Bay) in Hong Kong? S$340.

Amazing isn't it, especially for a year-end weekend trip?

If you look on Expedia, Zuji.com.sg or even SingaporeAir.com.sg now, the airfare per person for flights departing to Hong Kong in the last week of December 2011 is about S$600 per person inclusive of taxes. I paid just S$120, or 80% off.

If you look on Expedia, to book a Standard Room at Metropark Hotel Causeway Bay for 3 nights over the new year period with 1 night on 1 January 2012, it'd cost you US$700, or about S$875. I paid just S$450, nearly half the price.

Want to know how I did it? I will share more in the next 2 blog postings... stay tuned for more!

Thinking of switching to Wordpress

2009-10-08T12:36:00.002+08:00

I started out with Blogger because I wanted to keep things simple and didn't think that I would need advanced features for this blog. But it has now come to a point where I think it'll be better to switch to Wordpress instead which allows for easier extension of features and better user interfaces.

I might also get a domain name while I'm at it. Once I have the time I will think about this. Meanwhile, stay tuned while I bring you more updates.

P.S.: If you know of any good travel deals, please drop me a note over Twitter or in the blog comments. Share the good deals please!

Why airlines deserve to lose money on fat-finger fares

2009-10-08T09:20:00.005+08:00

There is an ongoing fiasco involving British Airways. Apparently earlier this week BA had fares from the US to Mumbai going for a low US$40 base fare. This fare was bookable on various channels including popular online travel agencies such as Orbitz. However, once BA found out about the problem, the fare was pulled and all bookings for the "fat-finger" fare were cancelled.

This "fat-finger" fare might not have been apparent to many of those who booked - US$40 was the base fare and once taxes and surcharges were added in, the fare came up to US$500+. In travel ombudsman Christopher Elliot's opinion, only "industry insiders" would have known that this was a "fat-finger" fare since most normal customers would probably think BA was offering a fare special. Chris Elliot further stoked the online travel community by saying that people who exploited the "fat-finger" fare and had their tickets canceled deserved it because exploiting such fare glitches and making airlines lose money as a result, in his opinion, is an "immoral" act.

As much as I would like to get into Christopher Elliot's good books by agreeing with him since he is such an influential figure in the online travel space, I have to disagree.

First things first - BA was not offering fares for US$40 - it was a US$500+ fare after factoring in fuel surcharges and airport taxes... with the fuel surcharge component making up nearly US$400 of the total price. I am not sure if things work differently in the US, but in Asia it is very common to see airfares going for $0.01 or even FREE... one just have to pay the fuel surcharges, transaction fees and whatever other miscellaneous charges which would come up to quite a bit. In fact just last week I saw a S$254 fare from SIN - Osaka but after adding in taxes the total was nearly S$600 which made it just a normal deal.

Second, I argue that airlines making mistakes or having glitches on their systems should not expect customers not to exploit them. While it is definitely not 100% ethical to exploit a fare glitch, it isn't wrong either. "Fat-finger" fares surface due to errors made by the airlines or their employees. Instead of lamenting about people exploiting such fares, airlines should make it a point to learn from their mistakes, honor the bookings, and make it a lesson learnt not to repeat the same mistakes in future. People and corporations make mistakes all the time -- it is an inevitable problem. We may not be able to entirely eradicate human errors but we can learn not to make the same mistakes again.

Just as a student making a careless mistake in answering an exam question cannot expect to be given a second chance to provide a correct answer, airlines cannot expect consumers to accept their reasoning that "hey, we made a careless mistake and offered you some mistake fares... we are cancelling your tickets now and will make a refund to you". It just doesn't work this way - why should airlines be given second chances when most people don't get second chances in the workplace or in school? In fact, if there is a specific individual responsible for BA's mistake fare, he/she may have already received a warning letter or gotten the boot for creating this fiasco. If that's the case, all the more we should not give BA a second chance.

A-Club promotion pulled 2 days before official deadline

2009-10-01T15:22:00.004+08:00

Time and again, marketers (or their agencies) from the hospitality and travel industry come up with ridiculously poorly thought out promotions that not only provide awesome deals for consumers, but also create massive financial losses for the companies and brands they work for.

From the way things look, it seems that many online marketers are still not aware of how Internet-savvy consumers today are. Either that or those online marketers are just not smart enough to come up with foolproof promotions that will not be over-exploited.

One case in point is Accor's recent A|Club anniversary promotion, where new members who signed up between 10 - 30 Sep 2009 received 2,000 A|Club points that can be redeemed for a free EUR 40 or USD 60 hotel voucher usable in almost all Accor properties worldwide.

The promotion was pulled 2 days in advance on 28 Sep, presumably due to heavy exploitation by Internet-savvy consumers. Some users bragged on online forums that they managed to order up to hundreds of vouchers. One wonders how much money this promotion had cost Accor, and what was the process by which the promotion was conceived and approved for implementation.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that one person can sign up for hundreds of accounts under different names in order to earn vouchers. And it doesn't take much to prevent such a problem from occurring in the first place - marketers need only include a simple clause such as "Only 1 voucher per household" in the promotion terms and conditions to prevent excessive exploitation and the resultant financial losses.

To be fair to Accor, I noticed that cookies were used to prevent multiple member registrations using the same browser - however, any reasonably tech-savvy user will know how to clear the cookies from an Internet browser - I am sure even 10 year-olds know how to do this.

Personally, I signed up my family members and we received a total of 4 vouchers - I am not supportive of unfair exploitation, and I always urge people to play by the rules (T&Cs) and not create 'phantom accounts' out of greed. Overtime, such exploitation will just make marketers wary about coming up with generous promotions and this effectively will kill the deals for everyone.

Another recent example - Expedia.co.uk's Refer a Friend Promotion
Expedia.co.uk recently ran a Refer-a-Friend promotion which gave out GBP 40 vouchers for each successful referral of a new member. Each referred member also earned a GBP 20 voucher. This was also heavily exploited, and for a while vouchers were invalidated by Expedia but the company eventually made good on its promise and re-activated the vouchers again.

Although the T&Cs stated that each member could only earn a maximum of 10 vouchers, the problem with this promotion was that people could set up 'phantom accounts' to earn more vouchers. Also, the voucher values were also too attractive for people not to exploit the promotion - GBP 40 can easily buy 2 nights' accommodation in some Asian cities.

What made things worse was that Expedia's system had certain flaws that prevented users from using more than 1 GBP 40 voucher per account and credit card, although each member could earn up to 10 vouchers according to the T&Cs. This meant that users ended up creating more accounts just so that they can use the vouchers they earned.

Besides the lack of foresight, another possible reason why this fiasco happened might be the fact that marketers often have to justify for marketing budget with measurable results - by having lots and lots of new accounts being created from a promotion, it may seem on the surface that the promotion was a huge success - however the caveat is that many of those new accounts were simply clones created by people exploiting the promotion.

Bangkok package deals from Zuji.com.sg

2009-09-30T17:07:00.000+08:00

For those of you who can't get enough of Bangkok like myself, ZUJI Singapore is offering flight + hotel packages from S$221+ for 4D3N. What's more, over the next 4 weeks, for every pax booked on a package to Bangkok, receive a free voucher for a massage/buffet/dinner show/admission to Siam Ocean World. Travel must be completed by 31 Dec 2009.

Week 1 (Book from 29 Sep to 5 Oct): Free 2-hour Thai Herbal Massage at Let's Relax (worth at least around 800 baht - ~ S$35)

Week 2 (Book from 6 to 12 Oct): Free Buffet Dinner at Ramayana Restaurant at King Power Complex (worth 600 baht - ~S$26)

Week 3 (Book from 13 to 19 Oct): Free Buffet Dinner and Show at Siam Niramit (worth 1200 baht - ~S$52)

Week 4 (Book from 20 to 26 Oct): Free Admission to Siam Ocean World

Take a further $20 off using a voucher you can earn from completing a simple questionnaire here.

Get up to $50 worth of Jetstar vouchers when you fly

2009-09-29T13:19:00.004+08:00

Here's a new, targeted email campaign by Jetstar Asia which is not available on Jetstar's website. Get a $25 or $50 Jetstar voucher free when you book a return flight from Singapore before 2 October 2009. Travel must be completed by 31 October 2009.

Steps:

1. Since this promotion is only available to JetMail (Jetstar's email newsletter) subscribers, sign up for the newsletter here, if you are not already signed up.

2. Make a new booking for a return flight at Jetstar.com by 02 October 2009, where the return date for your trip is on or before 31 October 2009 (First point of departure must be Singapore).

3. Make sure you use the email address that you have used to register for JetMail (ie. the email address we have used to mail this email to you) in the booking process.

4. Jetstar will email you either a $25 or $50 Jetstar flight voucher* within 28 days to put towards your next flight.

Terms & Conditions:
1. The first point of departure must be from Singapore. The outbound and return flights must be for travel between the same ports, and be booked in the same transaction.

2. To use your voucher, you must book and travel within 6 months of the issue date. One voucher per JetMail subscriber. If you book a return flight for more than one person you will receive only one voucher. The voucher cannot be used to book the return flight in step 1 above. Further conditions apply.

*Promotion only applies to Jetstar Asia and Valuair flights. Voucher amount is dependant on the city pair booked. Receive a $25 voucher for the following destinations: Kota Kinabalu, Bangkok, Jakarta, Denpasar, Phuket, Kuching, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Ho Chi Minh City and Medan. Receive a $50 voucher for the following destinations: Haikou, Hong Kong, Manilla, Macau, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Yangon, Taipei and Surabaya.

Scouting for deals in Bangkok

2009-09-18T12:21:00.002+08:00

I will be in Bangkok for the next few days, scouting for more awesome deals for my Bangkok budget travel series writeup. Don't be alarmed if I stop tweeting for the weekend - I'll continue updating when I return!

Bangkok on a Budget - Part 1: Accommodation

2009-09-17T20:30:00.001+08:00

When I talk about budget, I don't mean staying at the cheapest places and eating the cheapest street food one can find - to me, budget means to get the most bang for buck without scrimping too much. I have been to Bangkok more than a dozen times over the past few years, with another trip coming up later this month.

I will share tips for planning a budget trip to Bangkok in a series of articles. This first installment will be on accommodation.

You can get cheap (US$5) beds in Bangkok at Khao San Road inns but that puts you in a location far away from the nightlife and shopping areas in Bangkok. You save on your accommodation but end up spending more on transportation - trust me, taxis from the Khao San area to places like Siam Square or Sukhumvit are not easy to get during rush hours, neither are they cheap.

If there are 2 of you, then a hostel won't be much cheaper than a budget hotel room anyway. For me, a good hotel in Bangkok should have the following - good location near a BTS or subway station and in a fun neighbourhood with decent nightlife options, clean and decent sized rooms... and of course, low rates.

My favourite hotel in Bangkok has changed several times over the past few years. I used to like staying at the Ambassador Hotel in Sukhumvit Soi 11 when it was charging about US$35 a night via online travel agents. It's in a perfect location 5 minutes away from Nana BTS station and a few minutes' walk away from the best places to club and drink in Bangkok. It has an AWESOME buffet breakfast that should not be missed. However, the hotel raised its rates and so I stopped staying there.

Then for a couple of years I stayed at the Mandarin Hotel Bangkok (not the Mandarin Oriental) - it WAS a short walk away from a subway station, and 10 minutes walk to Silom/Patpong. The buffet breakfast WAS good, and the rooms WERE huge and comfortable. I used past tense because, sadly, the hotel burned down a few years ago - apparently it's sprinkler system was not functional.

My current favourite is the Manhattan Hotel in Sukhumvit Soi 15 - 5 minutes walk from Asoke BTS and Sukhumvit subway stations, still in the heart of Bangkok's nightlife area, decent rooms and buffet breakfast for about US$30 a night (The rates seemed to have gone up recently). I don't think there is a better deal out there, because cheaper rooms in the same area are in dodgy-looking motels, while the better ones are in the league of Westin and Sheraton (US$100+ a night).

To me, the Manhattan Hotel has a perfect location - my favourite massage and spa place is just across the road (King & I at Sukhumvit Soi 12; THB 400 for a Thai massage), and so is my favourite restaurant in Bangkok (Cabbages and Condoms, also at Soi 12). A Robinsons department store, TOPS supermarket and a 24 hours McDonald's is just around the corner, and the main Sukhumvit Road comes alive every evening with street stalls selling all sorts of tourist favourites.

Here are some other hotels I like in BKK for the value and excellent locations they have (click on the hotel names to have a glance at rates) - Le Fenix Sukhumvit (~US$50; Soi 11), Asia Hotel (~US$55; Siam Square area), Samran Place (~US$30; Siam Square area), Baiyoke Boutique (~US$40; Pratunam).

If you ask me I think at current rates Samran Place provides the best value-for-money with rates inclusive of breakfast and its location steps away from MBK shopping mall and Siam Square.

Accor Hotels A-Club sign-up bonus

2009-09-08T20:30:00.001+08:00

A|Club is Accorhotels.com's relatively new loyalty membership program. It currently offers a basic (free) membership as well as a "Favorite Guest" (paid) program which comes with additional benefits.

To commemorate A|Club's first anniversary, Accor is having a sign-up bonus - get a EUR 40 / USD 60 hotel voucher FREE by just signing up for a free basic membership. The free voucher comes in the form of 2,000 Accor reward points credited to your membership once you sign up. You can then redeem the 2,000 points for a USD 60 voucher which will be mailed to you!

The vouchers can be used at all Accor properties - in some Asian locations (i.e., Bangkok) you can get 2 or 3 nights' worth of accomodation for about USD 60! This deal is not going to last for long, going by my experience... so sign up while it is still on, ONLY through this link.

Win 2 return tickets to Europe on KLM

2009-09-08T14:14:00.003+08:00

Wego.com is a comparison shopping website where one can search for hotel rates and airfares from multiple sources on one single site. They are currently running a contest with 2 return tickets to Europe on KLM up for grabs. Simply sign up for Wego.com's newsletter (click on the banner above) and stand a chance to win. Refer your friends to sign up as well and you get more chances to win.

What is the best credit card for earning FFP miles?

2009-09-01T11:15:00.001+08:00

Frequent travelers may want to consider getting a credit card which can help in earning miles on their frequent flyer programs (FFPs). Here in Singapore there are a number of such cards:

Maybank Horizon Visa Platinum

S$2.50 per mile or S$0.50 per mile - the latter for purchases of air tickets, travel packages, overseas transactions and purchases at selected stores in Changi Airport

AMEX Krisflyer

S$1.60 per mile - but may get better rates during promotional periods
Currently the best card for earning Krisflyer miles due to their 2009 promotion for 100% more Krisflyer miles earned this year (T&Cs apply)

OCBC Titanium MasterCard

S$2.50 per mile

UOB Visa Signature

s$1.25 per mile
Free travel insurance
Many other travel privileges and rewards available (i.e. redeem points for travel vouchers, Visa Signature travel benefits and promotions)

DBS Altitude AMEX

S$0.83 per mile
Other travel privileges available, but less than what Visa Signature offers
Free travel insurance
Best card for earning Asia miles

Citibank Premiermiles Visa Signature

S$0.833 per Krisflyer or WorldPerks miles
S$2.50 per Asia mile
Earn 20,000 bonus miles for hitting minimum spend of S$50,000 a year - that's a free air ticket within Asia on WorldPerks!
Get 10,000 bonus miles on renewing your card subscription per year
Other travel privileges and rewards available
Free travel insurance
Only card for earning WorldPerks
Best FFP credit card overall

As you can see Citibank Premiermiles Visa Signature offers the most perks/miles per dollar spent. It's easier to earn more miles when you get a supplementary card and give it to your significant other or parents for swiping so that their purchases translate into more miles for you!

Why I don't visit NATAS (or any other travel fairs)

2009-08-30T14:30:00.000+08:00

This is for readers from Singapore. As most of you should know by now, NATAS is a travel fair held annually and attended by hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans who are keen on scoring good travel deals. Although I am always on the lookout for good deals, I always shun NATAS and other similar travel fairs for the following reasons:

1. Contrary to popular belief, the best deals are not found at NATAS - instead, they are found at the in-house sales held by individual travel agencies in the few weeks' run-up to NATAS - prices for travel packages can be few hundred dollars lower than at NATAS itself.

2. Squeezing around with thousands of visitors ain't my cup of tea - especially nowadays with H1N1 spreading like crazy, it isn't such a good idea, in my opinion, to attend events like that.

3. Admission tickets cost $$$ - At $3 per entry, if you don't leave with a good travel deal you're just wasting your time and money visiting the show. Sure, it is a good place for those who want to see all the deals from different travel agencies under one roof, but most of the travel agencies in Singapore are located in the same area in town anyway.

4. Perhaps the most significant reason of all - I always get good deals off the Internet and seldom through travel agencies. In any case, travel agencies are better for group tour packages and not for free & easy travel which I prefer. So, stay tuned to my blog as I continue to bring you the best deals around!

Back from Cambodia

2009-08-30T14:28:00.000+08:00

I have been away in Cambodia for the past week, hence the temporary stop in posting about travel deals here. I'm back now and will continue bringing all my readers good travel deals in Asia! Stay tuned...

Malaysia Airlines Get-The-Deal Promotion

2009-08-21T20:30:00.000+08:00

Malaysia Airlines has a ongoing promotion in the form of a microsite called Get-The-Deal. Users can sign up for free to access the site where exclusive airfare deals are posted. Promotional destinations and fares change weekly, and include Malaysia as well as international destinations.

Fares are not as low as low-cost carriers', but hey Malaysia Airlines is considered a 5-star airline and the prices (I've seen as low as S$90 all-in for return tickets from Singapore to Malaysian destinations) are pretty decent when you take that into account.