If you are in economy and have an APEC card, or are over 70 years of age, you can access the inbound Fast Track Lane which is located between the 2 main immigration entry points.This is also available to all Bus and 1st class passengers of airlines other than Thai. For Thai you are directed to a ...

Thai requies 50,000 km on Star Alliance in a 12 month period, or 2 x 40K per year for 2 years. Gold status then valid for 2 years giving one free return upgrade award and one 50% award point purchase. I've been Gold for around 15 years and once even reached the elevated Platinum level but that is...

Agree. I frequently have 45 mins transit in HEL for BKK to LHR . You are not entering EU and gates are very close. I also transit to Dusseldorf which requires longer time as you have to formally enter EU and its quite a long walk to the Schengen departure gates. While the transit lounges (non-Sch...

Trying to get a taxi on arrival at the Maglev station in Shanghai is a nightmare. There is no real taxi rank, people scramble to grab them and there is a taxi mafia who rip off foreign visitors mercilessly. Especially if you have a baby, and don't speak Chinese it could be quite a traumatic exper...

The old train stations are in the middle of the cities - the new high speed stations are all as far away as the airports. Classic example is Guanzhou.. East GZ is city centre , the new GZ South is a 45 minute taxi ride away..

If you have anything more than a carry on bag I'd fly. The security, immigration and ticketing checks at Kowloon West are a nightmare with hundreds of Chinese dragging bags a strollers and passing the 8 different check points (all too small, bottlenecks) to exit HK and enter PRC. You need to arri...

I just returned from a 6 day round trip from Sydney to NY using QF/JL via Haneda. It was the easiest US trip ever and at 28 hours door to door not much longer than via LA. Transfer at Haneda was easy with great Sakura lounge for the 4 hour transit wait. Excellent sleeper beds in Bus on both se...

The China Eastern lounges at PVG are probably the worst I've been in . Always overcrowded, limited food and beverages and totally Chinese oriented. Only benefit is for some flights they load Bus Class passengers directly from the lounge onto dedicated C.E buses when the aircraft are on a stand- w...