torrenova
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Posts posted by torrenova
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Prices from UK 2 x prices from Scandinavia which routes back through UK anyway !
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Better than Etihad simply cancelling them !
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Only ever found them useful once. Website stuck in 1990s and of last few years, not even accurate on business fares.
Sad but inevitable as they were years behind the times. -
On 9/20/2019 at 2:31 AM, nkped said:
Avani Fitness Center closed on 31 July.
Thanks for the heads up. I just received this email response to my enquiry.
Greetings from Avani Pattaya Resort!
Regarding to your e-mail, we would like to inform you that Avani Pattaya Resort had ceased its operations of the AvaniFit fitness centre since 31 July 2019.
If you wish to use Jetts fitness centre, at the Second road end, of the Royal Garden Plaza Mall, adjacent to the hotel. Please feel free to collect your complimentary membership card, which is valid for the duration of your stay, from the Front Desk. Please enjoy this 24 hour amenity, at your leisure.
Look forward to warmly welcoming you back to our resort soon.
Best Regards,
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Back again in a few weeks.
Didn't stay elsewhere the last time, or the time before or before that ! It just delivers for me on so many levels.
I "want" room service 24/7 and maid service 24/7. I don't want to have to argue or get serviced at their schedule. Fuck that, I'm dictating when.
I could save 50% to 75% by going elsewhere which would be great when compared with Bt1000 places but the Hilton charges more and delivers less and others are either too far away or can't deliver IMHO.
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On 12/10/2018 at 12:11 AM, short said:
HH is nice, I have stayed there and they serve a great breakfast, but I found it to be just too far from everything. It is very viable if you are bringing sand to the beach.
torrenova, can I ask the question, why is a pool important to you in Pattaya? I go further south when I"m looking for sun and water.
Lazy days, passing the time, some exercise, I like poolside in a good location.
Can't be too crowded or just rows of chairs with 5cm between you and your neighbour.
Good service, charge to account etc.
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I had a huge motorised dish at one house but as others have said, it is old tech now and obsolete.
A fast internet connection is what you need.
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The Avani is messing me around with the corporate long stay rate for 2019 and as my upcoming trip straddles New Year, they are trying to get me onto a regular rate for 2019 until I arrive and sign the 2019 agreement. Of course, I'd rather know what the hell their proposed rate is for 2019 first !!!
Hilton is out, too long a stay for that place (27 days but could split in two if absolutely had to) and to be honest, I've been back at the Avani for so many years now that I've not kept touch with other developments.
Not worried too much about price, but I do want value of sorts. Decent pool, quality place etc.
Ideas ?
I should add that I expect free fast internet.
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I am thinking of a short cheap flight from Manchester to Europe where I can connect with a Thai flight!
No more Dubai or Qatar transits!
Go Eva from LHR ?
Too much fucking about going ex EU and no through bags. QR will sometimes interline with BA so you can use the EU QR deals.
I'm on QR QSuites in a week !
But ex LHR :)
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Not that BA business class is worth of the name but does anyone else have unused Amex 241 Avios vouchers ?
I sometimes don't use it as I earn the points for others to fly and I fly a better airline but if two people wanted to go, the normal deal is about 165k Avios and £1050 cash for 2 x tickets.
As you can now buy Avios for about 1p each, that is about £2700 for 2 x direct in business class, which is not bad really. -
Swiss Airways business class London - Zurich - Bangkok a couple of months ago and the single suitcase was left behind in Zurich.
Ground crew stopped by heavy thunderstorms and a tight connection fucked that up.
It arrived the next day but it was essentially a lost day in Bangkok.
I decided not to go running around for emergency clothes etc. and my hotel had all the toiletries I needed.
However, had it not turned up the following day, I could seriously have considered just flying back.
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As others have said, it is Sydney that needs the direct link, not some wasteland in the west.
I want to get back to Cairns and also visit friends in Melbourne and Sydney so the idea of flying into Perth is a joke.
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I flew both twice in the last month (and have flown both maybe 50+ times previously) and the A380 beats the 777 hands down.
The only way I'd choose the 777 would be in a scenario where the A380 was like BA, with 8 abreast in business whereas the 777 was like Etihad with 4 abreast.
Thus, it can depend on the airline and their configuration - check.
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It does seem that economy is getting to be more 'economical'... and conversely Biz getting better. I guess since most of the money being made on a flight comes from the premium cabins that is natural. I just did a Biz hop from Bangkok to UK on A380 equipment and it far exceeds some of the flights I took during my working career. It may sound snobby but you don't even see the economy passengers, except when you get off and they are trying to push through to disembark with the premium cabins (Held at bay like braying livestock). So increasing discomfort in economy is likely to be accompanied by improving comfort at the front. I hope the prices can stay the same.
Business class is being seriously pared back !
Look at Etihad.
Chauffeurs - gone, even for first class (outside UAE)
Wine - downgraded
Food - downgraded
Cheese - 2 types down from 4
Amenity kits - no kits for daytime flights (this shocked me)
Lounges - selling access to economy passengers and charging for spa treatments previously free
Mileage - huge devaluations and raised taxes
All in all, I work it out that the value (including the now missing 3x and 4x points which were regular items) the cost of a ticket has risen by 1/3rd netting off the lost items and the real world costs now incurred.
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Well Im 21 stone and I can still easily fit into a standard seat with no problem.
But my days of flying are coming to an end shortly
If you are 21 stone then whilst you may think you fit into a basic economy seat I can virtually assure you that those unfortunate enough to sit either side of you will not feel as if you do as your body sprawls over the edges of your seat and the shared arm rests become solely yours etc.
I sat next to a fatty in economy one time and insisted on a move as he was seriously encroaching into my space making my journey uncomfortable.
Fat people should be made to pay more, just as extra baggage costs more and they should not be allowed to squash themselves into small seats and inconvenience others.
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If you hold business class on Etihad they allow you to bid for first class and per sector (LHR-AUH) they take bids from around £650 to £1250.
As it is a shade over 6 hours, that is £100 to £200 per hour more than business class and for only have a one way trip (no first on AUH-BKK).
They do not confirm whether you are successful until very near to flight time so they can still sell out of first class and then no-one would win.
I suspect this economy bidding for another seat would be similar and you might find no-one wins on busy flights.
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Seriously I went into the town centre yesterday, a trip of just over a mile, a quid return!
Pity it isn't really worth going, beggars dotted around who all look able bodied, the police don't seem to worry about them. Shops are mostly charity shops, gambling shops and Pound Shops! No police about, but plenty traffic wardens.
If it were not for a rather good Wetherspoons......
I agree with the charity shops.
They only pay half rates (or none) I think and they have all staff bar one manager as "helpers" and as charities they get away with all sorts of tax breaks which means that they drive rents up because they are not well versed in negotiation and simply accept the first or second offer without reference to other nearby leases.
I pitched in for another place the other month which should have gone for less than £10k rent and come with rent free upfront and some other incentives and a local charity just agreed to no incentives and £14k a year.
That doesn't sound a lot but say £6k a year on a 15 year lease, £5k of upfront breaks, capped rent increases probably worth another £10k and a half rates for 15 years at about £4k a year and you have a total of £165,000 where they are better off. Add in the free staff and that rises to some £345,000 even before the fact that they get most of their stock for free !
Expand that over my group size and you are disadvantaged by over £5m through the life of the lease. Not exactly pocket change !
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My home town shopping centre is quite busy. They did a major rebuild of the shopping centre about 10 years ago and attracted some big name stores. It's paid off because it attracts plenty of folk to come into the town.
Anchor tenants are key to survival as otherwise you have to make two trips, one local and then elsewhere to get the remainder of what you want. Or you just go to the place where you can get it all.
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My UK town centre was busy as anything yesterday. The buses offer cheap special prices in and out. Pity most of them were foreigners who appeared to be mooching.
My retail stuff is largely in affluent market towns but despite most folk not really needing to care about parking charges, it is a pet hate and they simply drive their cars to elsewhere.
We largely don't have busses or at best one an hour for a few hours a day with none on a weekend in places.
It keeps the poor elsewhere
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Slight correction Midlife. The SFO crash was Asiana not ANA.
I was a pilot in my youth and so have always had interest in Aviation.
I follow these threads on Airline pilots forum .com and Prof Pilots rumor network. Interesting threads from pilots.
Spill a couple of links eh ?
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Ah.............I should have read the thread properly!
Years ago I used e.bookers to book a flight from Bangkok to Heathrow....?
All of them can do a price BKK-LHR but never good as the conditions of tickets bought in LOS are way different from the ones bought over the net from UK based agents.
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Its the reason many small towns are now little more than Ghost towns, Online shopping and huge out of Town supermarkets
Hardly. If no-one uses the banks then why would closing the banks stop people coming to town ?
The lack of free parking (ours just went up to £1.20 an hour) is the big killer and the lack of an anchor tenant to keep people coming in and then using the ancillary shops.
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There is a business opportunity there.
Getting quality input could be a challenge.
I got as far as design specs for a website and online database back in about 2007/8 which would not only include the usual bedrooms, price, area etc.but also other useful criteria like private pool, high/medium/low floors for condos, distance from an input location etc.
In the end the available talent in Pattaya couldn't come up with a technical solution to a relatively simple SQL database (or alternative) requirement and after months of frustration I dropped the project.
To date, nearly a decade later, there is still not a completely useful site with even half the options required. However, I don't think the money which certainly would have been there in the past is there today but if you knew how to do it yourself, you could find a market because all of the major players plus single owners could use your portal and even drop their own bespoke websites, instead either whitelabeling this one or simply having their site show their properties hosted on the portal database.
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I used quidco for a while and to put it bluntly was not impressed...... the last time I used them the cashback was a grand total of £5.62 on a spend of £1183 with Emirates..... they made the cashback worse by only paying out on the airfare, not airfare + taxes.
Also used quidco for a while when booking airport parking, but didn't take long to suss out that you could get much cheaper quotes via other means, even after the quidco cashback.
Agreed. TopCashBack is miles better but if you get a few quid back then why not, however the route.
Other sites tend to be offering "IT" or special fares with no flexibility and certainly not the flexibility the airline offers. You also have to speak to the intermediary to sort out changes and not the airline.
Condos built 2016-2020 that are well reviewed?
in Expat Issues
Posted
If you don't need in town and can live past Sukhumvit you can get a small house for less than 10k and have either your own pool or simply choose from the best pool in the area and pay to use that - or not, just use for free.
If in town, outside Stalag Nirun and associated bottom end stuff, then you are going to find it hard to look past VT1 as the cheapest option. A place there annually can come in under 100k.