Lounge on The Status Carousel

Accor Toujours

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 17:51:29 +0000

When it comes to supporting naive status chasers, Accor is nobody’s fool.

Madame Coco Dior-Chanel-Smythe will vouch for that.

A missing points request can be filed through a form on the website.

The form comes pre-filled with all the details of each booking.

Lonely as a SkyTeam Cloud

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 05:52:45 +0000

I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats on high o’er lounge and gate, when all at once I saw a crowd — a host of golden status mates.

The Kenyans have opened a portal into the aviation status elite.

They’ve launched a status match from Accor Gold to SkyTeam Elite Plus.

Strike While the Iron's Hot? Not Quite

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 05:45:42 +0000

We’ll catch up as the shinkansens roll along.

July hotel prices in Japan sprang an unwelcome surprise.

We start in Kyoto.

In high season, Kyoto gives not only Tokyo but Geneva and London a run for their money.

I flew into Osaka from Seoul in the morning and headed straight for Kyoto.

Marriott Bonvoy

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 21:11:59 +0000

O Marriott, Marriott, wherefore art thou so stingy with the nights? And, while we’re at it, did anyone remember the status match?

Since last year, the British banking market has been busily rolling out quasi-miles products.

Brexit brought not only a new wave of emigration but changes to banking regulation too.

Sofitel: Buffet vs Lounge 🦞

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:58:31 +0000

Instead of the lounge, they offer two options.

Free soups, in two varieties, or a buffet for $12 for loyalty members.

For mere mortals the price is $60. That’s roughly the going rate for a seafood buffet elsewhere in Macau.

Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16 🫶

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:26:17 +0000

Bonjour, bloody hell.

My favourite hotel in Macau, damn it. It was.

The hotel is old — from 2008, the same age as the Grand Lisboa.

But location plus view — top, top tier.

I’ve already covered the price and the set-up.

Moneypenny-Bot 🤖

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:34:05 +0000

This year Marriott left its fan base out in the cold on double nights.

They want people not just boozing in W lounges but also finding out what life is like at a Fairfield.

The extra night is only for each new brand. A pub crawl of their own portfolio, essentially.

Grand Hyatt Athens 🏺

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 13:07:47 +0000

$67.54 — booked two weeks before arrival.

The sort of price at which Hyatt usually pretends you’ve come to the wrong hotel.

Arrived at 12:00.

While they were prodding at the computer, it emerged, quite by accident, that a Globalist had arrived.

Bourdain, Anthony 🫡

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 17:46:57 +0000

I have a lot of namesakes.

But it was this particular Anthony who took his own life on 8 June 2018, in a room at the Le Chambard hotel in Kaysersberg, France.

I’ve passed through that village many times. Often stayed nearby. I know these parts near Colmar well. I know all the main paths into the local vineyards.

Other People's News 🛫

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 07:51:06 +0000

I read the news and I’m envious. Everyone else gets adventures; I get obligations.

As though I’m trying very hard not to bother anyone.

Took the train to Chengdu. Nothing happened. Suspicious, frankly.

Then the metro to the airport. For a city of twenty million, the airport turned out to be remarkably compact.

Echoes of Mexico 🌵

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 09:32:28 +0000

For the second time in my life I’ve been hit by fraud on a physical card.

The first was 17 years ago on Sulawesi — bog-standard skimming at a shopping-centre cash machine.

For cash machines, blackjack and ****, I keep special cards. My first suspect was the lounge at MEX. Then, by a process of beer-based elimination, I remembered.

Hyatt on the Bund 🎀

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 05:38:16 +0000

A famous hotel. Cult, even. On paper it sits in the Grand Hyatt portfolio, but it markets itself under its own name.

At check-in, a trainee under the watchful eye of a senior colleague uttered the magic word “upgrade”. He said it with a Shanghai accent, which drained some of the magic out of it. The room turned out to be perfectly ordinary. I didn’t have the fight in me to go back and argue the toss.

Hyatt Regency Mexico City 🌮

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 19:03:36 +0000

In the evening the lounge served ceviche — a jolt of the sea and citrus enlightenment on a single plate.

The booze was carried round by two Mexican waiters with faces that said “we’re serving a sentence here, not following a calling”. They looked as if they were pouring the cocktails not for the guests but for themselves, on credit.

Hyatt Regency Mexico City

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:09:08 +0000

No Suites to be had — all snapped up for Día de los Muertos.

They gave me the best of what was left: Regency Club High Floor 1 King Bed — $653.

The bare minimum: 1 King Bed — $547.