2019 Harbin and Sapporo Snow Festival

[Matt_01]

I have not written a trip report before so I have decided to start this one well in advance and some of the troubles I have faced just trying to get this sorted. The post may become a novel 9-10 months in the making. The first few chapters are in draft so here goes.

Preface

Originally the main Characters were off to Canada and that was sorted. Then a friend of one of the main characters (SWMBO) spent the winter of 2017/18 in Toronto and Quebec which by all accounts was bitterly cold. SWMBO advised that a winter trip to Canada was no longer on the agenda and another winter destination needs to be considered. So cold Canada winter out, Northern China and Japan winter in.....not sure if there is this much difference. This adventure will begin in Australia travel through Northern China, Hokkaido, Tokyo and then onward to Australia a day or so later.

Having been on previous adventures this one was thought to be relatively simple, similar to any other however it soon became apparent that this was not the case. The story revolves around three main characters, HWNTBA, SWMBO and the Younger One. There are a number of secondary characters with odd names such as QF, SST, JL, MU, HH, SPG and one that is more than 2-3 letters – Golden Circle.

The writer would like to acknowledge the current and future contributions from a group known as AFF and their active participation, the first being here and will accept advice to finish this adventure.

Introduction

A new adventure begins, previously HWNTBA had planned a Trip to Canada over a Christmas holiday period so the Younger One did not have to take time off from her place of work/ learning AKA School, SWMBO also signed up to the idea. Emperor Joyce had rewarded HWNTBA faithful service and granted J seating for SWMBO and Younger One. Innkeepers had confirmed lodgings in various villages. Having previously been to Canada but not in winter, HWNTBA cunningly planned visit particular villages he could strap on his long skinny shoes and indulge in a past time not pursued by SWMBO.

One afternoon SWMBO suggested that we should go to Canada at some other time it is to cold in the winter, HWNTBA realised that months of manipulation, planning and compromises had gone south. What now? what location could HWNTBA find that SWMBO or the Younger One would want to go? it had to close to a place where the long skinny shoes can be used, even if for a day.

A request was sent to The Goggle., The Google suggests Harbin or Sapporo, Snow Festivals, ice slides and ice parks - Younger One was the logical choice to get on side. Unexpectedly, Younger One put up some resistance “I have been to Japan and China, why not France”. Time to move to plan B ask The Google for images of Snow Festivals, plan worked 2:1 in favor of Snow Festivals. Thinking these locations are reasonably close The Goggle was called upon "Freedom Bird" information HRB-CTS, The Google responds, and Kingdom of JL is included in the answer. One final call for information was sent to travellers who gather at a place called AFF, within the hour the call had been answered.

60 minutes planning - Harbin and Sapporo the adventure begins. How hard can it be?

Chapter 1 – Entering the Kingdom of QF

HWNTBA has been a humble servant of Emperor Joyce and those who came before him. Over the years of loyal service HWNTBA had been given titles such as NB, PS, SG and WP. Although a humble servant Emperor Joyce still fines those who cancel reward seating that is bestowed upon them. This was not a new, HWNTBA has been find many times.

To begin the adventure a small prayer was sent to the “Gods of Travel”, as faith was going to rest with QF IT these small prayers were sent to every known religion that may have a “God of Travel”. A deep breath was taken as HWNTBA knew that within a few clicks He would be entering the dark place, a world full of perils and unknowns, a place known to some as the QF Booking System. The QF Booking System at first glance is a rather friendly place and transactions can be handled with ease, however hiding in shadows HWNTBA knows there is the Dark Lord of Bookings. The Dark Lord goes by other names most commonly QF IT, a fickle entity possessing sorcerer like powers that can cause confusion amongst travellers and turn even the nicest travellers into raving lunatics and others into fits of rage.

All HWNTBA can do now was trust that prayers had been heard, the magic numbers and codes were entered, The Dark Lord granted access. Cautiously HWNTBA made His way to an area known as Multi-City, a simple journey, with the only obstacle to watch out for are the intruders known as ‘Chat’. The intruders want to know for what reason you have entered the Kingdom and can they help these faceless intruders are easily overcome, and HWNTBA arrived at Multi-City.

 

[Major]

Having contributed to the profits of the Sapporo Brewery I should join you for your great trip report

 

[Matt_01]

Chapter 2 – Will SWMBO and The Younger One get to Harbin - Part 1

Once at Multi City HWNTBA checked the QF currency points available and so not as to evoke the wraith of the Dark Lord slowing and deliberately entered his wish:

• ADL-SYD and selected a date
• SYD-HRB and selected a date

The magic button was pressed, have the prayers been heard, will the Dark Lord cast the spell of frustration on me HWNTBA wondered. Time seems to be going backwards as HWNTBA watched the little dots flash as entry into the innermost sanctum was being decided, would he be shutout or given access. Success, however the Dark Lord had presented options.

As HWNTBA reviewed the options an uneasy feeling came over him, what if this is a test, one may need to choose wisely. An extra city had been provided and a choice would need to me made.

• ADL-SYD-PVG-HRB or ADL-SYD-PEK-HRB with the coveted J seating options available.

Also what was this new kingdom MU, had Emperor Joyce secretly entered into an agreement with Emperor Liu. HWNTBA wondered how can this be they are from separate alliances. He pondered what would happen if the Kingdom of MU was chosen. HWNTBA had no badges of loyalty, no shinny cards, and no DWKWIA status. This is a problem for another day thought HWNTBA and moved on.

Knowing that Emperor Joyce had two tired Freedom Birds with the range to make the journey from SYD-PEK, HWNTBA turned to his trusted adviser EF. EF confirmed this was truly a test, selecting PVG would seem to ensure that seating is 1-2-1 selecting PEK may result in an undesirable 2-2-2 seating arrangement.

As the HWNTBA continued to explore the inner sanctum a pain suddenly came upon him, Emperor Joyce had allowed the Dark Lord to bestow J seating, but it comes at a cost, Emperor Joyce imposes heavy taxes one those who wish to use the meagre offering made available to select groups of QF servants.

 

[Matt_01]

Chapter 3 – Will SWMBO and The Younger One get back to Australia

Now realising that getting to HRB would be possible, one final wish needed to be asked, can SWMBO and the Young One be returned to Australia. HWNTBA pondered the potential outcome and secretly smiling thought an answer No may not be so bad.

Once again HWNTBA found himself at City HWNTBA and deliberately entered his wish:

• NRT-MEL and selected a date
• MEL-ADL and selected a date

The magic button was pressed, have the prayers been heard, will the Dark Lord take kindly to a second request being made on the same day. The Dark Lord was angered by this insolence and HWNTBA wish was not been granted and access was denied.

The outcome was not unexpected as from previous adventures to was known that Emperor Joyce and the Dark Lord makes sure loyalty offerings from the Land of the Rising Sun to Australia are few and far between. But there was final roll of the dice that could be had, HWNTBA had the title of P1 bestowed upon him and knows He can call in the ‘special favours’ only available to those with the title of WP or higher.

To be continued.....

 

[Matt_01]

It has been a while since I last updated this thread and as the time for travel is about 2 months away I thought I would share my booking experiences.

Back Ground.

As stated above, from the out set not a lot of thought or planning when into this trip, just seemed a good idea at the time. The goal x2 J redemption seats for all internal sectors and one revenue seat on the same flights. Accommodation preference was in chains we have status with for free upgrades, breakfast, lounge access. Finally and most spend as little as possible. When I refer to ‘we’ it is actually me as MrsM and MissM are coming along for the ride, so all lack of planning is my doing and to be honest are very first world issues.

Proposed itinerary start on the same day from Adelaide and Melbourne, meet in Sydney travel to Harbin (Ice Festival), travel to Sapporo (Snow Festival), a couple of days in Tokyo then back to Melbourne and finally back to Adelaide for MrsM and MissM. The goal was to maximize time on the ground, quickest travel time with very few and quick connection times when ever possible.

With elite status across 3 airline programs, 4 hotel chains, more points that I can poke a stick at how hard could this be. It was not as easy as thought.

 

[Matt_01]

Getting to Harbin.

*W - QF with the MU partnership proved to be the easiest and the only real option to meet our needs. CX and JL could get us PVG or PEK via their homeports but getting to HRB on rewards was not possible. There were also availability issues with rewards.

SQ and *A. Using SQ it was possible however SQ only fly into HRB with TR 3 days per week and timing did not work. Connecting to another *A partner was possible but added additional connections. Using *A out of AU (any port) was problematic due to timing, availability and connections. As we would be returning ex NRT we had a strong preference to travel direct to AU rather than transfer.

In the end QF was the easiest as we could get redemption flights ADL-SYD-HRB-NRT-MEL-ADL. It was also cheaper for the revenue flight as it was booked during a promotional period and offered a direct flight back to MEL. The revenue flight also started life as a double points booking. Not sure if these will stick but also not that fussed.

There were some interesting issues with ticketing these flights details posted here

HRB- CTS

When doing the initial plan (or lack of it) the Google indicated there were direct HRB-HND JL flights by the time of booking there was no such flight. So either the Google got it wrong or JL changed their schedule, which I get. I thought *A combinations of CA, HN, OZ, BR, ZH would win out over *W. Short answer was no, there was one option with CA however rewards were unavailable. The long and the short of *A options that be redeemed were either inconvenient times or long layovers.

HRB-PEK (Plan B)

After the *A failure I realised that there maybe some flights I would have to pay for and started with MU. The choice was based on earning a few QF points and if anything did go pear shaped maybe SST would be able to weave some magic based on the alliance with QF.

Booking the flights was straight forward, however I am somewhat perplexed at the MU fare structure and booking system. In the end booked x3 F class (same as our domestic business) as at the time of booking F fares were AUD330.00 per person cheaper than Y. That may have just been lucky timing as the F fare is now significantly higher than when we booked.

PEK-HND-CTS (or so we thought)

We were able to redeem J flights PEK-HND-CTS with JL, however when ticketed the flight was PEK-HND. After a quick call to QF we were advised that due to the OW or QF/JL agreement the HND-CTS rewards could only be booked 60 days out, so around early December.

HND-CTS-HND (Plan B)

With a few AMEX travel vouchers to use we ended up using these for HND-CTS-HND in F. In our case this worked in our favor and this was a lower cash outlay than the Japan Explorer Pass, OW Yokoso Visit Japan, or Welcome to Japan fare in Y.

Now after a bit of ginning around all flights are combination of J or F for all international or domestic.

NRT-MEL-ADL

Had to request the reward J seats and from memory this is not uncommon for Australia - Japan flights.

 

[Matt_01]

Accommodation

This also proved to be more problematic than first thought. We have not been to Harbin before so the location of accommodation was based on walking proximity to the ice festival and other locations using Google maps.

Sydney - Most likely to be the Rydges but have not booked anything as yet.

Harbin - many accommodations are available but I was surprised that the Hilton or Discovery (GHA) chains are not represented in Harbin. The Marriott chain has a Sheraton but that seems to be about 20km from town center. There is a Marriott opening sometime Feb 19 so timing did not work. Accor have a Mercury and Sofitel again both of these seemed to be out of the way. In the end we decided to stay at the Shangri-La, Harbin as it seems centrally located,

Beijing – Over night at Hilton PEK Airport – Hilton points sorted that out.

Sapporo – Another area without hotel representation from Hilton, Marriott, Shangri-La or Discovery (GHA) chains. During the snow festival period it appears that room prices surge. Ended up using a combo of AMEX travel vouchers and the Accor+ free night to get accommodation down to a reasonable price.

Tokyo – Stayed there many times before so booking was be easy. Currently in the Tokyo Hilton but that is likely to change.

 

[Matt_01]

Final itinerary looks like this:

Flights
30/1- ADL-SYD and MEL-SYD (QF)
31/1- SYD-PVG-HRB (QF,MU)
4/2 - HRB-PEK (MU evening flight)
5/2 - PEK-HND-CTS (JL)
8/2 - CTS-HND (JL)
10/2 - NRT-MEL (QF)
11/2 - MEL-ADL (QF)

Accomodation
Rydges Sydney International
Shangri-La Harbin
Hilton Beijing Capital Airport
Mercury Sapporo
Hilton Tokyo (may change)

 

[Matt_01]

It seems like yesterday this trip was booked however almost a year later we are on our way. I have not authored a trip report before so please forgive me if it is rubbish. I did contemplate what may be interesting to some will most likely be boring to others. So I am just going to call it as I see it if there are typos, bad grammar or comments that may cause offence, move on to another thread.

So here goes.

MEL- SYD in J. Caught up with an AFFer who I had not meet before, a really nice chap. These are the obligatory photos of the MEL Dom J Lounge.

 

[Matt_01]

Food on the plane was the afternoon tea service, the soup was Chicken and corn, it was nice however my food critiquing skills are limited.

 

[Matt_01]

A Night at Sydney Airport. For the record I have stayed at the Rydges many times but normally as a solo traveler and have very few complaints. On this trip there was 3 of us, we were upgraded to family suite with a king and queen bed. I appreciate the upgrade but it was hardly a suite more like a couple of beds squeezed into a space. The view of the airport was nice however I will stay in the city when having to overnight with the family.





From roof top bar for those who may not realise there is one.

 

[Matt_01]

Syd F Lounge a QF main stay and in IMO the most consistent QF offerings. Every time I visit the QF F lounge the service is great, food is consistent and staff are helpful. As normal I justified the corn fritters by starting with a bowl of fruit. And washed it down with some fizz.

MissM enjoys the deconstructed Pav so the staff made her one for breakfast, what the heck she only gets to go to the QF F a couple of times a year.

 

[Matt_01]

I will have nearly a 50 degree swing in the weather conditions in the next 12 hours





My home for the next 10 hours and the food and drink offering on the flight.

 

[Matt_01]

QF129 in J I was surprised at how few people were in J, 1 in the mini cabin 7 in the main cabin (we were 3 of the 7) so that is only 8 of the 27 seats occupied.

As for the food and as much as I would like to write something nice is just not possible and generally I am not critical of airline food as it is just that plane food. The QF food service on this flight managed to take bad to a whole new level.

The small plate was the soup that tasted like it was watered down to make extra serves.



The chicken biriyani well judge that for yourself



At least the ice cream was edible, the only thing that was not Neil Perry inspired



When it cam for the dinner service, all three of us ordered the three cup chicken and surprisingly or not all three did not eat the meal. The chicken was barley edible as for the rice I did not think it was possible to take something that is so simple and create something so bad.

I struggled to eat the chicken


MissM just would not eat it



And MrsM ate some but gave up.

 

[Matt_01]

The transit at PVG was relatively painless. On the final sector a domestic MU flight. Evening dinner option, fruit.



Seating was similar to most most narrow body J seats.



The plane landed around mid night and took about 30 odd minutes to taxi to the dis embarkation point which seemed to at some random place on the apron. The J class PAX were loaded onto a 12 seat mini bus and taken to the terminal, while other PAX were loaded onto a larger bus.



and it was cold


getting out of the airport and to the hotel seemed like a protracted process and it was around 2-2:30 (local time) when we arrived.

 

[Matt_01]

t was around 2-2:30 local when we arrived at the hotel Shangri-la Harbin. Not many photo of the room as it was late and the girls just wanted to crash.


There was also free stuff waiting.



Day one over

 

[JessicaTam]

Now I don't think I missed the explanation of HWNTBA - He who never travels British Airways perhaps?

 

[Matt_01]

As it was now light this is the view from the window. The Songhua River is frozen solid and people just walk across it.

I took a picture from the hotel information book to show what the river looks like in the summer. The boats on the left hand edge, I will post the winter version later. The green island below is the same as the frozen one above.



In the lobby there was a selection of gifts for sale as Chinese New Year starts next week.



This particular chap was a rather happy individual who took great delight in singing and escorting guests to the lifts and ensuring they went to the correct floor. He was more than happy to have his photo taken.



In the morning we found that after getting dressed to go to breakfast we needed to get changed again to include multiple layers and thermals, then it was a quick exit outside as it was just too hot to wear them in the hotel.

 

[Matt_01]

We went to the St Sophia Church, it must be have some work done on it as it has fencing around it.

I believe this is some type of light ball that is put up now and again.




These are not my images, rather they were taken from the fencing around the cathedral, but it give you a good idea of what the area looks like.


MissM convinced me that cotton candy was in order


Walking to the next location I noticed these in a shop window. Live turtles/ tortoises in plastic plastic balls, I only assume that they can be released in some way. I found it odd.

 

[Matt_01]

On to central street, a round a century old and one of the longest pedestrian streets in China. If I get the chance I wold like to head back in the evening when it is lit up but I may not have the time.




This was some type of pop up light show.


This a well known ice cream shop, it seems odd to eat ice cram at -10 but it was good and the locals go made for it.


May just look like jeans and a jacket, under the jacket there is a fleece, thermals, singlet, under the jeans 2 layers of thermals, on the feet 2 pairs of socks, thermal and ski and the shoes are my snow boots. MissM has on similar layers.