Recent content by IMOA

I get the complaints about the duty free maze at Melbourne and some others but in Sydney? It’s a straight line with a wide corridor to the lounge escalators which is shorter than most airports I go to. There used to be a bit of a duty free maze at Sydney where but since the renovations finished...

Its not super relevant for tourists but there is a shinkansen IC card so you can either simply tap though the shinkansen gates and use the unreserved seats or book a seat on the website/mobile app and then use just the card. Worked pretty well so you could book your seat from the back seat of a...

Depends where you go, I don’t like to have less than 10,000 in my pocket and when I was living there I’d always have more than that. Know where you’re going, there’s still a lot of restaurants which will be 50,000+ for two who won’t take a card and certainly an enormous number of izakaya where...

I’d still head for Shibuya, its got the biggest concentration of sights which are very ‘japanese’ and its only 30 minutes and one change of train from Haneda (I would generally suggest Keikyu into shinagawa and yamanote to shibuya) .If you run out of hings to see its only another 5 minutes on...

Plat charge, about 6k a month in billing paying on time and 20 year member (about 10 years with plat) and haven’t received any advice on doubling points. Have taken the Qantas bonus and will ditch all Amex cards for cards which give less points but more value.

Gotta say that Amex is trying really hard to get me to ditch my charge card. This announcement has me looking into the options since I’ll get hit hard by the point earn changes (most of my transactions are international, travel related and restaurants/bars) and will get slaughtered by the point...

I had the ocean trout crudo and chairman mao's pork. The crudo was typically good and the pork was a bit better than I expected, kind of comfort food done very elegantly. Well worth a try if you're looking for something a bit substantial IMO.

It was pretty bad, particularly around the time of the second and third aborted attempt. Virgin managed to land about 20 minutes before the first aborted landing and about 20 minutes after the last attempt the weather cleared considerably. I was booked on 459 back to Sydney so once 458 couldn't...

I almost accidentally did this last night on QF. Was in row 24 on a 763 with the mini economy cabin (ie, galley directly behind me) so since I had no-one behind me and it was a very long week (and I'd spent a couple of hours in the lounge) as soon as the seatbelt light went off the headphones...

There's none, that's the point. About 18 months back macairports "closed" the free pickup area so that everyone picking someone up from T1 had to pay parking. To ensure they didn't lose revenue they made sure the legal framework and a million cameraboys were in place to fine anyone who tried to...

I'd say that once it became apparent that QF32 wasn't arriving the fact that there were a few thousand stranded passengers and around 30 cabs per hour arriving at the rank should have made the decision pretty easy all round. The cab I was in was a limo, I suspect he had been waiting for a pre...

I was on 556 to BNE which was delayed, delayed, delayed, boarded in a mad rush at 10:40 and then after the door closed we were kicked out due to curfew restrictions. While I do have my complaints about how qantas managed things on the night I have a very hard time seeing how taking off 5 minutes...

I was one of the lucky ones on QF556 who got to board, turn off all our electronic equipment, close the door and then got told to piss off. After getting downstairs and seeing the chaos I called a mate to tell him I'd be arriving on his doorstep as I figured there was no way in hell they'd be...

1. Yes 2. Yes, but not the end of the world For the itin a Oneworld award is going to be the best, 142,500 in economy, 282,500 in business. You'd have about 20,000 miles "left over" so you could tack on some sidetrips as well (actually, maybe not). The important conditions are that only 5...

I assume you mean the hilton in shinjuku? I'd suggest catching the Nex back to the airport as it will give you more time and you know it will be on time, on a trip this quick an hour extra can make a difference I enjoy the imperial palace but it's better in spring and I know a number of others...