Thursday, February 25, 2010

Zurich to Hong Kong


“I need to arrange a trip to Hong Kong and Singapore,” I explained to the travel division. “And make sure that you select upgradable flights on the St*r Alliance.”


“Upgradable? What does that mean?”


I must have forgotten that I was speaking with the misers at our outsourced Ebenezer Scrooge Travel Agency,” I thought. “Book a fare class that allows me to use frequent flyer miles to upgrade.”


They called a few hours later with the first option: Zürich to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Prague, Prague to Shanghai and Shanghai to Hong Kong.


Sounds like the kind of itinerary Darius would choose,” I thought.


“I’ve never heard of most of these airlines. Are they members of the Star Alliance?” I asked.


“No.”


“Then it doesn’t matter if the flights are upgradeable..”

“They’re not.

“Try again.”

The next option was equally convoluted and was equally rejected. I decided to be more direct by suggesting a non-stop flight on Swiss International Airlines, the Singapore Airlines Airbus 380 flight from Hong Kong to Singapore and Singapore Airlines nonstop from Singapore back to Zürich.

They offered an all-Singapore Airlines routing.

I like Singapore Airlines” I thought wondering how many miles it would take to upgrade to Raffles Class. However, I wasn’t impressed with the first leg which got me to Hong Kong via Singapore. (It’s sort of like routing a flight from New York to San Francisco via Hawaii.)

Negotiations continue.

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