When my sister and I decided to go to Beijing I was excited about checking another Park Hyatt off my list. After a reality check from almost everyone I spoke to that was familiar with Beijing, the unanimous recommendation was to stay closer to the sites (especially since we wouldn’t be in town for very long). I’m glad I took their advice!
Getting to the Hotel: We landed in Beijing around 7 PM. After a long queue in passport control and a failed attempt at Uber, we said screw it and hopped in a cab. We arrived at the hotel around 9:30 PM and we were immediately impressed.
Location / Amenities: The hotel is attached to a beautiful mall and is walking distance to the Wangfujing Night market. There’s a great (though WAY overpriced) sushi bar / lounge in the hotel. The first night we were there, we sat in the bar and listened to an awesome cover band while scarfing down unnecessarily expensive sushi and drinks. But if the Grand Hyatt is known for anything, it’s the over-the-top pool area. Picture Roman baths on steroids. Not my taste (especially when full of screaming kids) but I get the appeal.
Diamond Suite: I used a diamond suite upgrade to the Grand Suite King. As you can see from the pictures, it was large and very comfortable.
Bathroom: The room was so big that I was surprised to find the bathroom so tight. Seems like it would have been a better use of space to ditch the tub or the shower, no need for both.
Dressing Area and Bedroom: There was a separate walk-in closet just off the hallway between the living room and the bathroom. The bedroom was across from the closet.
Trip Report: Beijing [American Airlines Domestic First / Int’l Business Class]
Since moving to New York, American has become my airline of choice. I was amped when I saw they were offering flights to Beijing in business class from DC for around $450. I was even more excited when my sister agreed to join me for a long weekend!
DCA to ORD: There’s not much to report about this flight. Domestic first is nothing to write home (or this site!) about. We left an hour late and barely made our connection in Chicago. The flight crew was fine, though one member of the team was not very friendly. We’ll call him, Mr. Unfriendly. My sister and I were seated in the bulkhead, so we had to stow our carry on bags in the overhead bins during takeoff and landing. Before the aircraft door was even closed, Mr. Unfriendly scolded me about my purse. Rude doesn’t begin to cover his behavior. That said, during the flight he seemed very upset about a work situation, so I’m guessing he was having an off day.
Because we left in the afternoon, there was no food service. Instead, we were offered some truly disgusting “snacks”, including a curry chicken sandwich that had three slices of refrigerated deli meat and a foul smelling “curry mustard” spread. Dear readers, if you’re ever offered the curry mustard snack sandwich, do yourself a favor and pass! *cringe*
ORD to PEK: Since our flight into Chicago was so delayed, we literally walked right onto our flight to Beijing. This flight was AMAZING! From the flight crew to the food. Truly, truly excellent!
Seats and In-Flight Entertainment: American uses a 777-200ER on this route, which has their old business class seat in a 2-3-2 configuration. The seat does not offer a fully flat recline, instead offering an angled near-flat recline, but it was pretty comfortable. The main criticism I have of the seat is that my feet didn’t touch the floor when the seat was in the fully upright position. I’m 5’5” and my feet were literally dangling, which caused my feet to swell about an hour into the flight. Definitely something to be vigilant about on such a long flight.
The in-flight entertainment center wasn’t the *cough* most modern, (peep the picture below, the screen was tiny compared to AA’s new first class product) but it kept me entertained with a number of new movies.
Food: The food was another bright spot on this flight. I forgot to order ahead (have to place your order more than 24 hours before your flights), so the fish dish I was going to order was all gone.I know what you’re thinking. This is now the second time I’ve touted fish served on a plane. But you can’t deny that Miso glazed sea bass in a bacon broth, served with jasmine rice and vegetables doesn’t sound AMAZING. Sadly, I never got to test whether the ingredients lived up to the hype.Instead, I went with the beef filet and I was not disappointed. The steak was well seasoned and was cooked to perfection (which for me is more medium than medium rare).
In the interest of time, I’m not going to go say too much more about the food. The one item that deserves it’s own paragraph was the salad dressing. Yes, the salad dressing! It was so good that multiple pax were taking photos of the bottle (see mine below). Kewpie Spicy Sesame Oil dressing changed my life, y’all. It was THAT GOOD! Ever since I first tasted it I’ve been searching for a (reasonably priced) bottle and I’ve had no luck. So if anyone is reading this and has a Kewpie hookup, let me know!
Other Odds and Ends:
You can upgrade from discounted coach to business class for 25K AA miles and $350. Here’s the upgrade chart.
I love, love, love the retro amenity kits honoring all of the airlines that make up AA as we know it today.
Below is the full menu for our outbound flight. I didn’t take pics of the return but you get the drift.
Trip Report: Beijing [Flying the American Airlines $450 Business Class Fare to Beijing!]
I happened to be online when news broke that American Airlines’ flights from Washington, DC to Beijing were pricing out at $450 roundtrip, in domestic first/international business class. My husband couldn’t take time off so I asked my sister if she might want to go. Thankfully, she said yes and I snapped up our reservation before the deal died. Then came the wait to see if American would honor the fare. I paid for our ticket outright, instead of putting the reservation on hold. In the end, that made all of the difference. American honored the reservations that were paid for outright and cancelled all of the reservations that were placed on 24-hour hold.
Pro tip: Always pay for the mistake fare! Even if the fare is honored, there’s a decent chance the airline will let you cancel without a fee. That was certainly the case with this fare.
Now on to the trip report!
Part 1: American Airlines Domestic First / Int’l Business Class between Washington, DC (DCA) and Beijing (PEK)
The Mummies exhibit was very well done and kid friendly. #kidstravel #traveltot #passportessential #LA (at Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County)
Surprisingly kid-friendly Andaz West Hollywood. I guess rock stars and pre-schoolers are a lot like. 😜 #kidstravel #traveltot #Hyatt #andazwesthollywood #passportessential (at Andaz West Hollywood)
How sad is this scene of a baby mammoth watching its parent sink into the tar? Sheesh #TarPits #LA #kidstravel #traveltot (at La Brea Tar Pits and Museum)
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