Hello from San Francisco! Thank you for continually supporting us here at JakartaPotato! We’ve just finished writing the final review in our previous report, Sleepless in Seattle. As my beloved oneworld Emerald status will not be renewed, I decided to take a trip to make the best of the remaining time I had. As such, we’ll be going on quick hops between Jakarta, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur to celebrate that!

Background

The Covid-19 Pandemic changed a lot of things and travel has never been the same. Although I had been a oneworld loyalist for the best part of the last 8 years, good things also still have to end (for now). After flying on SkyTeam airlines over the past several years and acquiring SkyTeam Elite Plus status, it became harder and harder to maintain a oneworld Emerald membership.

This is more so the case considering that Cathay Pacific has one of the hardest elite requirements to maintain within oneworld. As such, this trip was focused on making the best of the time I still have and visiting a few lounges I’ve been wanting to visit that are closest to me.

Planning the Journey

As I had expiring upgrade certificates from Cathay Pacific, flying to Hong Kong was a no-brainer, allowing me to visit the newly reopened The Pier First Class lounge. As such, this automatically became the first part of the journey. While I tried to do a multi-city journey with a return to Singapore, I was unfortunately unable to book one without triggering a staggering reprice.

After finalising my flights to Hong Kong, it was time to find a way to go to Singapore to visit the many excellent oneworld lounges the airport has to offer. After seeing that Garuda Indonesia has scheduled its new Airbus A330-900neos to Singapore, I decided to redeem Flying Blue miles to fly their newest Business Class.

Then, to access the lounges in Singapore, I had to have a oneworld boarding pass. Flying Malaysia Airlines to Kuala Lumpur would be the easiest way to do that, so I did. I redeemed British Airways Avios to try Malaysia Airlines’ newly refurbished Boeing 737-800s in Business Class.

Finally, as my trip was over the New Years travel rush, I had two ways to get back to Jakarta – fly Malaysia Airlines Economy Class… or Malaysia AirAsia for a third of the price. In the end, I opted for the latter, allowing me to review AirAsia’s Airbus A320neo in their Hot Seats.

Time to go.

In the end, this is how the journey looked, which seems like a city-hopper between former British colonies in Asia (hmm).

I’ll write and share all the reviews from this trip, over the next month or so. Please refer to the following list of reviews to check out the written and upcoming reviews from this trip. As always, the list will be updated with links to the reviews as soon as they are ready.

• Cathay Pacific A330 Business Class (CGK-HKG)
• Cordis Mong Kok, Hong Kong
• Qantas Lounge Hong Kong (HKG)
• Cathay Pacific The Pier, First Class (HKG)
• Cathay Pacific A330 Business Class (HKG-CGK)
• Garuda Indonesia Lounge Jakarta (CGK)
• Garuda Indonesia A330neo Business Class (CGK-SIN)
• Carlton City Hotel Singapore
• Cathay Pacific Lounge Singapore (SIN)
• Qantas First Class Lounge Singapore (SIN)
• Qantas Singapore Lounge (SIN)
• British Airways Lounge Singapore (SIN)
• Qatar Airways Lounge Singapore (SIN)
• SATS Premier Lounge Terminal 2 (SIN)
• Malaysia Airlines damaged my bags!
• Malaysia Airlines 737 Business Class (SIN-KUL)
• Amari Kuala Lumpur
• The RuMa Hotel Kuala Lumpur
• Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur
• AirAsia A320neo Hot Seat (KUL-CGK)

Thank you so much and stay tuned~ ♪