Greetings from Bangkok, Thailand!
It didn’t take long for me to fall way behind on blogging about my quest for a million SAS EuroBonus miles – with all this travel, it’s been harder than expected to find time to get work done, especially since flying in economy there’s rarely space to work on my laptop. But I wanted to give you all a quick status report.
Literal Data Points
- Number of flights taken since November 10th: 14
- Number of qualifying SkyTeam airlines flown: 10 – AeroMexico, Virgin, KLM, Air Europa, SAS, Air France, TAROM, Saudia, Garuda, and Vietnam
- Number of flights posted to my SAS account: 7 – AeroMexico, Virgin, Air Europa, SAS, Air France, TAROM and Saudia
- I’m getting a “route not eligible” error when trying to claim my KLM segments. This seems to be a common issue, but nobody’s had any luck contacting SAS about it
- Everyone else except Air Europa (UX) has posted automatically, and I was able to get instant retro credit for my UX flight through the SAS website
- Shortest flight: Saudia JED-MED, 201 miles, 32 minutes air time
- Longest flight: Garuda MED-CGK, 4,972 miles, 8h46m air time
Flight Experiences
Garuda Indonesia 787 cabin with starry ceiling- Best flight: Garuda from MED-CGK seems like the obvious one since it was lie flat business (though not a particularly remarkable business class experience)
- Best economy flight: Saudia, it was a 33 minute flight and I had a whole corner of the plane to myself
- Worst flight: TAROM – cabin too hot, no service at all
- Best food: Malaysia Airlines (positioning flight from KUL-SGN)
- Worst food: Virgin Atlantic
Airport Experiences
“paper plane” art installation at JED- Best lounge: Plaza Premium Lounge at Jakarta (CGK)
- Worst lounge: Barcelona (BCN), though I wasn’t impressed with the Priority Pass lounges I visited in Jeddah and Madinah either.
- Worst immigration and security: Ho Chi Minh City (SGN). The lines were wild, and I got sent back to the ticket counter because immigration doesn’t accept mobile boarding passes. If I hadn’t had a APEC Business Travel Card I absolutely would have missed my flight.
Visa updates
- Based on reports from other folks who had transited Jakarta (CGK), I went ahead and applied for an e-Visa, which allowed me to sail through the eGates with no issues. (Several others, including Stephen Pepper at Frequent Miler, reported messy confusion when attempting to transit on separate tickets that ultimately resulted in them having to pay for a visa anyway).
- I ended up having to pay for a standard tourist visa on arrival in Jeddah (JED) – there was no option to get a transit visa on arrival and nothing ever happened with the transit visa applications I submitted online.
Fun outside-the-airport experiences
TeamLab Borderless Jeddah- Doing a streets and food tour and visiting the parliament building in Bucharest
- Exploring the incredible Teamlab Borderless installation in Jeddah
- Visiting the international food street in Madinah just north of the Prophet’s Mosque
- Riding the Saigon Waterbus in Ho Chi Minh City
- Watching the sunset from a rooftop bar in Bangkok with a former coworker who’s teaching there
I’ll be back soon with detailed reports on my flights and hotels – thanks for your patience!
Boom boom
Questions about part of your trip:
I am having difficulties with the Saudi e-visa website. I called their consulate here in the US, and that person said just due visa on arrival.
I have done visa on arrival in other countries, but don’t want any issues on arrival as I am getting in late.
How did you find the experience?
Were you traveling on a U.S. passport?
Any suggestions for making it go smoothly?
Did you have passport photo in hand, or a digital one?
Many thanks.
Are you trying to apply for a tourist visa or a transit visa? (The latter didn’t work for me, though it did work for someone I know.) There are two Saudi e-visa sites – ksavisa.sa and visa.mofa.gov.sa so you could try the other one…
To answer your question though I didn’t have any issues except that the contractor checking me in at OTP initially said I needed a visa to travel because he hadn’t read to the end of the visa requirements in the system. Upon arrival in Jeddah there was a clearly marked visa on arrival area with kiosks and several service counters. The kiosks ask the same information as the website does, so it’s faster and easier to have an agent do it – either way all you need is your passport. (And yes I was traveling on a US passport)
Tourist visa, and thanks!
About the photo, did you provide hard copy or digital?
Sorry, just realized you said all I needed was passport…not a photo also.