Get a great points deal at the new Crowne Plaza Sydney Darling Harbour hotel

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• Paul says:

  11 Jan11 January 05:19

  The Crowne Plaza is in a decent location in Sydney’s CBD.

  On your doorstep are the restaurants, bars and Merlin attractions (Sea Life, Outback Life and Madam Tussauds). Within walking distance to Circular Quay (Opera House, Museum of Contemporary Arts, The Rocks and Botanical Gardens), Hyde Park, Sydney Tower, Hyde Park Barracks and the Australian Museum.

  Walk a little further and you will hit the Domain, the Art Gallery and Harry’s Cafe de Wheels.

• Lynn says:

  11 Jan11 January 05:33

  I agree, a lovely location.

  • Lady London says:

    11 Jan11 January 15:49

    Is the food scene in Oz as good as the publicity? How do costs of eating out compare these days?

    • Shoestring says:

      11 Jan11 January 16:02

      my cousin was head chef in the restaurant in Auckland Sky Tower – always on NZ TV as well (probably same audience figures as West Country News 🙂 )

      then he got bored of it and quit chefing altogether

• Sandgrounder says:

  11 Jan11 January 05:46

  OT- I am currently in the Diamond Lounge of the VIP terminal at AUH. This is available with Priority Pass. The lounge is comfortable and not busy at the moment. My passport was taken from me and immigration completed while I was at my seat. I will pass through a private security lane and be driven over to the terminal in time for my flight. So far, a very pleasant experience. At a cash price of $145.95, it has to be (on paper at least) one of the very best value PP services.

  • Benilyn says:

    11 Jan11 January 18:30

    No additional fees on top for all that? It’s included in Lounge Key so might try it out.

    • Sandgrounder says:

      11 Jan11 January 21:36

      Nope, nothing on top just a standard entry. Well worth a look if you are passing through.

• The Savage Squirrel says:

  11 Jan11 January 06:15

  OT – Suggestions for a hotel in Birmingham walkable from New Street station? Taking my team there for a two day conference. Points options not essential. Have stayed in RadissonBlu before and not impressed…

  • Jane says:

    11 Jan11 January 06:43

    Crowne Plaza is walkable and if you have status the lounge is pretty good (plentiful drinks, minimal snacks). Upgrades are fairly frequent. There is also a Staybridge Suites easily walkable, the location isn’t so great there but they do have a nice managers reception 3 nights a week (Tue / Wed / Thur I think). if you want more upscale the Indigo is very nice but usually out of budget on our corporate site.

  • Capt Hammond says:

    11 Jan11 January 08:25

    New Street is a short walk from the Mailbox which has plenty of decent bars and restaurants for team bonding purposes. Hotels in the Mailbox are an Indigo, an AC Marriott and a Malmaison. There is a Crowne Plaza not far away but it’s a bit tired and dated now, plus a newish HI Express and a fairly drab Hol Inn. Indigo or AC would be my preference.

    • Tariq says:

      11 Jan11 January 08:34

      I like the AC – can be good value some nights too.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    11 Jan11 January 08:32

    Indigo at the cube about 10 mins walk from new street station. Within the mailbox complex so lots of restaurants and bars/pubs plus more in brindley place which is very walkable too.

    CP rooms are a little dated but the lounge is good and would get upgrade/lounge if spire and again not too far from Mailbox.

    AC is very clean, functional etc but ask for a room not facing the mailbox if you stay there.

    None loyalty you have malmaison and park Regis.

  • Grant says:

    11 Jan11 January 08:49

    Indigo or AC as others have suggested. Indigo preference in that area if the budget works. AC is very good value normally for what you get and I have often used it for mattress run purposes (along with the Marriott Five Ways which is very tired!)

    Hotel du Vin is a few minutes further walk away (but still easily doable from New Street) if points not important.

• andy li says:

  11 Jan11 January 06:15

  Hyatts, not Hyatt’s. It’s not a possessive.

  • pauldb says:

    11 Jan11 January 06:44

    Hyatts’ would be okay.

    • Shoestring says:

      11 Jan11 January 06:56

      clumsy, though – I know the shorter the better but for the same number of letters, ‘two Hyatts launch in Manchester’ would work clearly/ correctly/ elegantly

      • Andy li says:

        11 Jan11 January 22:11

        He’s changed it. I’m happy now.

• Craig says:

  11 Jan11 January 07:06

  OT: Has anyone tried an esim for use in China, planning to take advantage of the TWOV for a night at the Waldorf in Shanghai on the way to Hanoi.

  • Kai says:

    11 Jan11 January 10:19

    Order a CM-link sim card here – it’s roam-free in China and you can access Google / Facebook etc directly.

    • Craig says:

      11 Jan11 January 11:01

      Thanks Kai, that looks perfect for the 30 hours we are in Shanghai.

  • JenT says:

    11 Jan11 January 11:05

    We used China Unicom (CUniq) last time. Same as CM – access to Facebook, Google, etc while there. Sim card posted to home very quickly and the cheapest provider we found. Excellent service in China and all worked perfectly – you have to activate the sim first in the UK IIRC.

• EwanG says:

  11 Jan11 January 07:20

  Unfortunately it’s going to be quite difficult to avoid Iranian airspace if you have a plan which is taking off from *within* Iranian airspace, unless you have some sort of teleportation device!

  • Freddy says:

    11 Jan11 January 07:41

    +1

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  11 Jan11 January 07:35

  Bit harsh to blame the pilot.

  • Shoestring says:

    11 Jan11 January 07:43

    Respectfully disagree. The pilot has a high degree of autonomy, same at the captain of a ship. Unless he was unaware of the missile strikes from Iran into Iraq/ US bases a couple of hours before his take-off – in which case he is also blameworthy but I can’t see he would not have known, being at Tehran Airport and also in communication with home base Ukraine – he should have been using more caution/ prudence than normal and kept the plane on the ground until the immediate high state of alert/ tension had relaxed. imv.

    • Freddy says:

      11 Jan11 January 08:07

      I don’t think a pilot could realistically ground a plane till tensions in the area eased with no indication of when this may occur.

      I would also be surprised if Iran sent a memo round to the airlines saying they will be conducting a bit of warfare between 2-4am and to please avoid the area.

      • BJ says:

        11 Jan11 January 09:30

        I would guess he knew. The judgement call was risky either way, the crew and pax were potentially endangered and stranded in Iran for who knows how long if the flight hadn’t left. Sadly, it was the wrong call. It is possible this incident triggered restraint on the part of Iran and/or USA. We will likely never know for certain but if it did then those lives lost might have had the result of saving many more.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      11 Jan11 January 08:09

      Genuine question, was it the only plane to land or take off that morning?

      It also assumes the pilot did not show due caution when for all we know he may have sought and received assurance of safe travel.

      One assumption I will make, full details are unlikely to ever be released in the public domain.

    • callum says:

      11 Jan11 January 08:40

      People trying to be “respectful” tend not to slander the dead based on assumptions on what happened during an event they know little to nothing about…

      • callum says:

        11 Jan11 January 09:03

        Of course you can slander the dead. I’m certainly not trying to prosecute you so I have no idea why you’re consulting legal blogs! Check the dictionary definition of the word.

    • JImbob says:

      11 Jan11 January 08:56

      Flightradar24 on Twitter have some graphical flight data, showing the plane took a similar flight path to all the other flights that day. Appears to be wrong time, wrong place and a trigger happy Iranian 🙁

      • TGLoyalty says:

        11 Jan11 January 11:15

        QR flights have no choice but to fly over Iran

      • Jovanna says:

        11 Jan11 January 12:43

        Hopefully none of the Qatar flights are in the wrong place, at the wrong time…

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