Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) frequent flyer program EuroBonus will be launched in a version 2.0  in April 2014. There has been rumors about what will be new in the program but recently the secret was revealed. First of all: there will be a new Diamond level! The Pandion “level” will not be removed but it is still only by invitation only.  Read all about the new features on http://www.sas.no/en/eurobonus/new-eurobonus/

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

I enjoy having a drink with a view and in some cities there are many bars to choose from. I have been to Bangkok a few times and I was blown away by the view from Vertigo on the Banyan tree building (you can read one of my Bangkok trip reports on my homepage). The local paper here in Stavanger had an article the other day about new places in Bangkok that might be worth checking out. Here is the list:

 Up & above: Seems to be both a bar and restaurant and it is located at hotel Okura near Ploen Chit skytrain station. Located on the 24th floor.

L’Appart: French restaurant located in Sofitel hotel near Nana. The restaurant is located on 32nd floor and according to the article it is decorated as a French apartment and there is also a balcony where you can enjoy food and drinks.

Park Society & Hi So: another new place located at a Sofitel hotel. This time it is the hotel located near the Lumpini stop on the subway. Park Society is the restaurant part of this concept and it is located on 29th floor. Hi So is the bar and it is located on the roof.

Zense: this place is located on top of the CentralWorld chopping complex in the middle of Bangkok. It is “only” on the 17th floor but it can offer restaurants, bars, indoor and outdoor seat etc.

Speakeasy: this bar is located on top of the trendy hotel Muse. It seems to be located on level 24 and 25 and the hotel is on Langsuan Road. The bar also seems to have a cigar lounge called Blind pig.

Red Sky and Fifty five: Red sky is the bar part and Fifty five is the restaurant. It is located on top of Centara hotel at the Central World complex and the view is of course great from 55th floor.

Vertigo and Moon bar: I guess the original roof top bar in Bangkok. From 61st floor you get an amazing view of Bangkok. Located on the Banyan tree building on Sathorn Road.

Sirocco, Distil and Breeze: Sirocco sky bar is located on the top of Lebua hotel on Silom road. You get a very nice view of Bangkok from the bar on 63rd floor. Breeze is a restaurant on 52nd floor that offers great view of the river.

So if you are going to Bangkok – now you have a few places to check out if you want a drink with a view

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

Scandinavian Airlines (or SAS) has released a new app for iPhone (and Android if I’m not mistaken). The app allows you to see your upcoming trips, your Eurobonus points, boarding pass, buy tickets etc. I have downloaded it and I think it looks quite good. I was also impressed that all my upcoming flights were in the list – even the ones with Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines. You can read more about the application on this iTunes page. Which other airlines have a good app?

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

If you have travelled a bit, I’m sure you have heard about Seatguru or maybe you have even used it online on http://www.seatguru.com . This tool gives you an idea about the seats onboard the planes of various airlines and it gives you the opportunity to pick what can seem like the best seat at least. Now this tool is finally available on iPhone and you can download it from iTunes (see this page for more information). I do use SeatGuru all the time when I travel to get an idea where I will be seated and it can be great to find the right seat at least when you are traveling in economy and you want to avoid the worst seats! With this app you can have a great tool with you all the time to make sure you pick the right seat

Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

It is that time of the year again. Good old TripAdvisor has published the list of the best destinations – the Travelers’ Award 2011. But let’s not beat around the bush – the winner this year is Cape Town in South Africa. I have had the pleasure of visiting this city a few times and it is a beautiful city indeed. It can offer spectacular mountains, amazing views from the top, beautiful beaches, excellent wine districts close by and great restaurants at affordable prices. So if you have a chance to visit Cape Town don’t hesitate – it is recommended. Here is a Cape Town trip report with photos, links and maps that I made after our last trip there. This list continues with places like Sydney, Machu Piccu, Paris, Rio, New York City, Rome, London, Barcelona and Hong Kong – many of the usual suspects in other words. Click on the links on the various cities to read my trip reports. I also had the pleasure of visiting Sydney twice last year but that was more or less “all work and no play” so I don’t have the same feelings for that town as I have to Cape Town. Well, click on the TripAdvisor logo on top to get to the Travelers’ Award 2011.

A bit of old news maybe – SAS will reinstate the Oslo-New York route in 2011 and it is brewing up to be quite a price-war as Norwegian has also announced that they will start flights to New York as well (and to Bangkok). So it seems like SAS and Norwegian is taking the battle scene from Norway to world now. Hopefully this will result in good prices for the consumers but it will be exciting to see how Norwegian will be able to handle long-haul flights. You can read more about the SAS news on businesstraveller.com and you can read more about the new planes that Norwegian is getting to fly their new routes on Flightglobal.com.

It finally looks like it will be possible once again to get online while flying. I had the pleasure of trying this back in 2006 when I flew Scandinavian airlines to Asia. In advance I had read that it was possible to surf on the plane so I pre-registered and it worked like a charm. But obviously there were issues with this as it was discontinued in 2007. But now it seems like both SAS and Lufthansa will introduce this service once again. On the Lufthansa pages it says: “FlyNet is back on board – faster, stronger, smarter. Lufthansa is now offering boundless broadband communications. With WLAN-enabled devices, you can surf the Internet and utilise mobile data services on many of our long-haul flights. FlyNet brings the entire spectrum of mobile data communications at fingertip to passengers above the clouds” . You can read more about the Lufthansa FlyNet solution is this article.

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

Bangkok Post reports that Thai Airways are planning on spending “billions of dollars” on a makeover of their planes starting in 2012. The article in Bangkok Post will give you all the details but in general it seems like they are going to upgrade first class to be a light version of what you can find on Emirates A380 and the business class will also be upgraded to have a 180 degree full flat bed. I have had the pleasure of flying Thai first class (as you can see from the range of blog post here) and it was not bad at all but the problem is that the product varies from plane to plane and from route to route. Another confusing issue for me is that the photo of the new business class in the Bangkok Post article is identical to the Pearl Business Class on Etihad Airways. So is Bangkok Post just speculating or will they have identical products? Another thing that is worth noticing is that they will actually reduce the seat pitch on economy class. They have had about 34″ pitch before and now it will be 31-32″. Well, it will be exciting to see what the final products will be like when they are introduced.

This is from the article Quality Hunters on the Finnair homepage: "Ever dreamed of getting paid to explore the world? Finnair, one of the world’s longest continuously operating airlines, offers you the adventure of a lifetime. We are on a global search for four Quality Hunters; intrepid, outspoken and discerning individuals whose task is to travel to Finnair’s destinations in Europe, Asia and the US for a period of two months in search of quality experiences." You can find the article and the application form on http://rethinkquality.finnair.com/quality-hunters/ – but be fast. The application period ends on September 26th.

After years of planning, building, testing, delays etc I’m happy to inform you that Boeing’s new 787 (aka Dreamliner) plane has successfully completed its first test flight in the US. You can read more about this on BBC  and even see the TV coverage of the event. You can also read more about this on Boeing’s site . According to BBC the Dreamliner project has been delayed for 2 1/2 years due to various problems. When the Airbus A380 it seemed like Boeing were having a field day so I guess it is only fair that their project has also run into some problems. But now, a new plane is born and I look forward to trying it sooner or later. The first customer to get the 787 is ANA and that will be before the end of 2010.