Sailfast

That made my morning, thanks for posting it! Took a CNN columnist to fix my little problem with United. They are so nice once you have them over a barrel.

It's so nice to be able to sleep in aircon without it blowing directly on you. I just leave leave the bedroom door open and the living area unit on.

That is all fairly accurate. However, there are a couple of bars, restaurants and an internet cafe within a very short walk if you go left out of the hotel. Not that you will find loads of girls there, but perhaps a few. Also there is a good Mexican place just up the road in that direction, maybe 5 minutes walk. I'm not flaming Slipslopslap, but I would not call a 10 minute walk "out in the boonies". Directly across the street, in addition to the 7/11 are laundry, motorbike/quad rental, a very nice aircon massage place that will also do take out to your room.

Great minds think alike.

Aside from the obvious, like fresh fruit, etc. I would not, absolutely not, no way, no how, trust restaurant staff to understand the seriousness of your situation. Even if they do, I would not trust them to pass on the proper information to the kitchen. You could end up dead. Go, enjoy yourself but eat in your room or do more research by talking to management once you get there and then decide for yourself if you want to risk certain places. Also, there are some cooking schools you might want to try. At least you would get a couple of good meals that you where 100% sure where safe. The Residence Garden restaurant does a pretty good job of understanding my dietary requirements. That being said, it takes a few days to break in some of the wait staff. I am simply a vegetarian, but, they bring in some special foods for me. Anyway, if they screw up my food I'm not dead, so it's really not the same. Also, each room at the Res. Garden has a kitchen and fridge.

I think that regular customers should not get gouged on holidays or party nights. Having been in this situation, it just makes things difficult for everyone involved; Once upon a time, myself and two friends had barfined three of a bars most popular girls for a couple of days and had a great time. Along comes a special night and we are not bothered to pay the higher barfine as the girls want to be in the dance contest, but will wait for us and we plan on hanging out in our favorite bar watching the girls take the prize money and have a fun night of it. As the night rolls on the girls get prodded by the mamasan to make the rounds of the bar so some other customers will be buying them drinks. Well the girls are trying to make sure that we don't get away but have to make the mamasan happy as well. What ends up happening is that other punters start getting a bit peeved as they are buying ladydrinks and offering up barfines only to get turned down and left sitting alone after a few minutes. The girls just move along and come back to our table and we buy them drinks, then they get spoken to in Thai by the mamasan and head off to make the rounds in the bar again. After a while a pattern starts to develop, the mamasan is getting pissed and the other guys in the bar are getting even more pissed. We end up leaving and come back later to pay the normal barfine as we where getting looks and comments from the other punters. Also, as the mamasan is acting like a bitch to both the girls and us, sos we are not going to dole out any more cash to that cunt. I'm not afraid to spend money, but I'm not stupid either. If the manager had just gotten his head out of his ass I'm sure something could have been worked out. Oh, and the three girls took first, second and third in the dance contest, yet the asshat manager made them wait an hour to get their prize money as he knew we had returned to pay the barfines and we where fed up with the drama and wanted to leave. Now the bar could have been the FLB, the mamasan Jaem, and the manager shhh..ben, but of course it was not

I booked the ticket on China-air.com ORLANDO, FL to BKK No they don't actually fly from Fl to BKK. They do sell the tickets and use a US carrier to get you to LA. I don't recall who the carrier was from Fl to the west coast, but probably Delta.

My g/f recently flew CHina Air from Orlando to BKK. She did not think very highly of the entertainment, food or service. I guess if you are on a tight budget none of that matters much as long as you get there. On her case the prices from Orlando where pricey and this flight was several hundred dollars cheaper. For my money I would pay a little bit more for a better experience but YMMV.

IMHO... They suck, the cabin crews suck, the ground staff sucks and the manager at JFK sucks. They also lie and don't hold up to their promises. Oh and they suck big fat donkey dick. I actually did not show up on the final leg of a BA flight and used a voucher I had with another airline so that I never had to look the another BA employee again. Yes, stupid of me, but I was so pissed off at the time that I didn't give a fuck.

Yup. That's what the offer stated.

BA/Chase just sent me an offer. 50,000 BA miles for opening the card. Charge US$2000 in three months and get another 50,000 BA miles. They sent me the offer in the mail. Not sure if you can find the offer online but it might be worth looking.....

Not sure how to calculate the true cost of frequent flyer "free" tickets. I have booked two business class trips through United on All Nippon Air. These seats where fantastic. Cost me less than US$200 in taxes/fees for a very expensive ticket. I priced the fares out and they ran about US$6000 Some of the costs that should be included are: United Mileage Plus Visa yearly fee, about $US100 I don't carry much of a balance, but I'm sure that some interest does carry over. A portion of the cost of other flights used to build up miles. I figure that it still costs me less than an economy seat. As it stands now, I'm almost halfway to my next business class seat

Thanks Leo!!

I know, it's a silly question, but I'm not asking for myself.

The coffee at the Residence Garden is very good, especially the cappuccino. Plus I like the little caramel spider web they do over the milk froth

Welcome to the forum. Just wondering what your room rate was? Thanks...

True about the lack of safe. However, the safe deposit boxes are available 24 hrs and there is a bank across the Soi, so for me it wasn't a big deal. I think they opened at 1100 baht/night and I paid 1200 in few months ago, plus they upgrade me to a larger room most of the time. I stay there once or twice a year and make my reservations by email. I have no idea what the rack rate is.... OK, I just checked and it's 1600... eek, probably not the best deal in Bangkok for a room. Still not bad as it's very clean, fairly new and the staff is wonderful.

Royal Benja is over priced and...if he's not too sick to play...there is a joiner fee. I'm gonna throw my two cents in and suggest the Grand Business Inn, Soi 11, just off the corner of Sukhumvit.

Classic

I have used four methods, pre-book from a service, pre-book with the hotel, taxi meter, and airport limo counter. All three will get you there. The taxi meter is cheapest, you do run a risk of the driver getting lost trying to find your hotel in Pattaya. I have had to give directions to my taxi meter driver (using hand signals) as once he got me to Pattaya. Pre-booking is fine, but you will have to find your driver, drag you bags to his car in the parking garage, and there is a chance your driver won't show up. Pre-booking through your hotel will run about the same as a pre-booking through a service, and will cost about the same or a bit more. They will probably show up and should know how to get you to the hotel. The limo desk driver will probably speak fairly good english and be able to at least talk to you and your hotel in Pattaya on his cell phone if he gets lost. It would probably be the most expensive. I would not recommend the taxi meter for a first trip. Nothing unsafe or unsavory, just that I can't stand the thought of getting lost after 24 hours of traveling.

Can you "lock" the rotation? This is handy if you, for instance, like to read in widescreen while laying on your side in bed. (those of you who don't use an electronic reader are probably scratching your heads.. ??) The Kindle Application on my Iphone will do this and it's great.

I have the Kindle App on my Iphone. It's sort of OK, but... well... I think the next generation of humans won't care, but it just ain't a book. Good thing is that you can read without a secondary light and it fits in my pocket. Bad thing is that if my phone runs out of juice, I run out of reading material. Plus, well... it just ain't a book.

Yea, you are correct, I will just ask for the discount. However, they do know me and the guys I travel with very well. Finding out someone got a better price just naturally pisses me off.