As if Scoot has not enough problems with the evolving travel bans, its next line of defence – the call centre – will be hung up from today (17 Mar 2020).
Scoot announced early this morning that their call centre in the Philippines will be closed from 17 March 2020 due to a national lockdown.
What will not be available
The call centre in Philippines provides customer support in the following languages:
English
Japanese
Korean
Bahasa Melayu
Bahasa Indonesia
Vietnamese
Thai
Tamil
If you can only speak those languages, your only options are to self-serve on Scoot’s website (see more below), or wait until they re-open. Alternatively…
What’s still available
If you can speak either Chinese or Cantonese, their call centre will remain open. Scoot also said they have ‘reduced capabilities for handling English calls’, so you can also try.
So what are my options?
As airlines globally continue to deal with the daily evolving situation and coping with a huge backload of cancellations and re-accommodations, many airlines – including Scoot – are trying to work out automatic or self-service options.
If you have a booking with Scoot, this is what you can do:
Date changes, refund in the form of credit voucher – Self Service
For those who just want to do a date change, or request for a refund in the form of a credit voucher, it’s best not to call and simply self-service online.
If you need to make a date change, Scoot offers a free one-time date change that can be done online via the Manage My Booking function.
Free date changes apply to all bookings made between 10 Mar and 14 May 2020. Note that date changes must be made at least 4 hours before your original flight’s departure time or by 31 May 2020, whichever is earlier. You can move the date of your first flight latest to depart by 27 Mar 2021. Fare difference will apply (i.e. a top-up of fare if your new booking is more expensive than your original booking, but no refund if your new fare is cheaper).
If you want to do a refund in the form of credit voucher, Scoot said it will launch a self-service refund online portal by 19 Mar 2020, which allows eligible customers to obtain the full value of their booking in the form of a credit voucher.
This applies to bookings made on or before 15 Mar 2020, for travel up to 31 May 2020. Vouchers are valid for 12 months, and can be applied to future bookings.
Unfortunately that’s the limitation of Scoot’s website – you won’t be able to do a destination change through Manage My Booking. You will have to call in to make the change and top-up any fare difference.
Above all, if your flight is departing in the next 48 hours and you need to change/cancel, but you can’t seem to do it only, call.
Final thoughts
In this time of confusion and daily evolving situation, it’s best to hold off any action until your travel date is nearing.
Having said that, all of the above applies only to passengers holding tickets departing by 31 May 2020. Needless to say, if you are travelling after May, it’s better to just wait off first. Airlines will certainly extend their policies if things are still in the marshes at that time.
Hilton fans in Singapore will definitely be familiar with Hilton Kuala Lumpur. Located adjacent to KL’s main transport node KL Sentral, the hotel is a well-appointed property suited for both business and leisure needs.
Located conveniently at KL Sentral, Hilton Kuala Lumpur is literally next door to the train station and offers more than 500 rooms in its giant 35-storey building. The hotel also has 14 meeting rooms capable of holding business events for up to 1,500 people.
Hilton Kuala Lumpur lobby
While the hotel opened its doors back in 2004, it was last refurbished in 2013. At first glance, the hotel still looks pretty swanky to the extent of being a little glitzy; a big welcoming lobby, tall ceilings and a modern-looking cafe and bar at the lobby adds to the glamour of the property.
The hotel is part of a joint development with Le Meridien hotel located next door, which has been owned by Japanese billionaire Katsumi Tada since it opened its doors in 2004. Just a couple of years back in 2017, Tada has sold the hotel to the owners of Le Meridien next door, Daito Trust Construction Co, another Japanese entity.
Check-in
I tried checking in early at about 11.30am. Hilton KL is pretty good with its upgrades for elite members. As a Hilton Honors Diamond member, I originally booked myself into a Deluxe room, but I saw in my Hilton app that I was given an Executive Plus room.
As I checked in way too early, the front desk offered me a choice of either an Executive standard room if I wanted the room now, or a Executive Plus room if I could come back later in the afternoon. I chose the latter as I wanted to head out for lunch.
One thing to note if you are a diamond member, the priority check-in desk for Hilton Honors members is not located at the same place as the check-in desks. There is a small little signage just before you hit the desks that will point you to the right direction. If you need help, just ask the concierge and they will be happy to point you in the right direction.
Priority check in area for Diamond, Gold members
The room
I originally booked myself into the cheapest room type, but as a Diamond member I was upgraded to an Executive Plus room, which was one of the corner rooms on each floor.
Executive Plus room
While the room was not a junior suite, it boasted of a very generously sized bedroom, as well as an equally generous bathroom. The room comfortably fitted a King sized bed, as well as a couch right by the window which served us well as a daybed.
Work desk (right) and TV
There was also a full sized work desk if working in the room is what you need.
The bathroom had a generous bath tub, big enough for two people. As with all other Hilton properties, there are separate shower and toilet stalls, each with their own door. There was only a single vanity however, but this is often not an issue for me.
Bathroom vanity and bathtub
The amenities Hilton Kuala Lumpur uses is Crabtree and Evelyn, consistent with the other Hilton brands in this part of the world.
Crabtree & Evelyn amenities
One interesting offering by Hilton KL is a bath preparation service, with a complete menu of different scented baths that staff can prepare for you for RM58 nett. There are four options to choose from, including a jetsetter’s Boost Bath, which is a “refreshing blend of tangerine and lemongrass to sooth, relieve and revitalise the body.”
For couples on a getaway, there’s also a “Pure Romance Bath” for RM180 nett, which comes with two glasses of sparkling wine, not too bad a deal considering that a glass of wine costs at least RM50 in a hotel.
It might sound rather extravagant, but I can see how this is useful for couples on a romantic getaway, or even perhaps for parents who will want to delight their kids.
If you want something even more luxurious, there’s always an in-room massage service offered by the hotel’s spa, but I was shocked at the price tag which was something to the tune of over RM400 for an hour of bliss.
Bedside table – telephone, mini hotel guide
The room also comes with a Nespresso machine, as well as four bottles of complimentary bottled water. I am quite a water guzzler, so the first thing when I got to the room was to request for even more bottled water, which the hotel gladly acceded to.
Nespresso machine and bottled water
As with most hotels there’s also a fully stocked in-room mini bar right under the counter, which will be replenished daily and charged to your account if you consume any of it (you shouldn’t).
The only downside to the corner room is the fact that the room is not completely blacked out in the morning. The doors to the bathroom are a pair of translucent sliding doors facing the bed, and there are no curtains within the bathroom. Go figure.
Executive Lounge
Hilton Kuala Lumpur’s executive lounge is located on the 33rd floor. All guests staying in executive rooms and suites, as well as Hilton Honors Diamond members can access the lounge during their stay.
Hilton KL Executive Lounge
The lounge is open from 6am to 11pm daily, and serves up daily breakfast, as well as afternoon tea and evening cocktails.
The lounge runs on two sides of the corridor, a bigger lounge on the right side where the food and drinks are located, and a smaller lounge on the left side with the reception desk. Both rooms feature high ceilings and full length windows offering a view of the city.
View from the executive loungeThe other side of the excutive lounge
I managed to check out the afternoon tea (2.30pm to 4.30pm) shortly after returning to the hotel and getting my keys. Hilton KL’s afternoon tea serves an assortment of light savoury and sweet bites, along with coffee, tea and soft drinks. The bites of the day included tempeh sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, beef wraps and scones.
Sandwiches and scones served during afternoon tea
The sandwiches were delicious and right sized so despite being full from lunch, I went back for seconds. I was rather suspicious of the scones at first, but they turned out tasting better than they looked.
Evening cocktails ran from 6pm to 8pm. I tend to go up and find a choice spot just before evening cocktails begin, and even when I got there at 5.45pm, about half the lounge was already occupied. Right at 6pm, more people came in and practically every single table was taken up.
Evening cocktails refreshments, including salads, dips and hot food
Hilton Kuala Lumpur offers a good spread of hot and cold foods during the evening cocktail hours. There were some interesting bites, such as a savoury profiteroles with mackerel mousse, and also a rather amazing pasta seafood salad with generous servings of mussels. The sweets were slightly less appealing although there was still a rather good assortment.
Evening cocktail refreshments
A worthy mention here will be the level of service offered at the lounge, despite the crowd. Team members went table to table taking drink orders and served them rather promptly. The staff was also very proactive in going around the tables to top up wines during the two-hour window, and offering incredibly generous pours.
The very generous wine pours
What I didn’t like about the lounge was the fact that large families could bring young children into the lounge. A kid was screaming and running around the lounge for the good part of an hour, which I thought was a safety hazard. Personally I would very much prefer if Hilton could run their lounge like some other hotels where children were not allowed into the lounge during even cocktail hours.
Breakfastat Vasco’s
As a diamond member, I could choose to have my breakfast either at the main restaurant Vasco’s in the lobby, or at the executive lounge. Whenever I’m in Asia, I generally prefer to dine in the main restaurant as the spread tends to be a lot more generous and hearty than what you will get in the lounge.
Vasco’s – Hilton KL breakfast restaurant
The downside of having breakfast in the main restaurant is that it usually gets pretty crowded. On a Sunday morning at about 9am, there was a short queue into the restaurant, although I didn’t have to wait for long. With ample capacity to hold more than 100 guests, the restaurant was still packed and I didn’t get much choice as to where I wanted to sit.
Vasco’s – Hilton KL breakfast restaurant Seats by the window
Hilton Kuala Lumpur serves up a solid breakfast buffet. Apart from the usual American breakfast offerings, there was also a substantial Asian selection, including local breakfast choices of nasi lemak and roti canai, as well as Japanese and Indian fares. Each of these sections is a selection from one of the hotel’s wide range of restaurants, so I figure it’s also good marketing for each of these restaurants.
Roti canai
My choice of breakfast in Malysian hotels is always nasi lemak, and Hilton’s rendition didn’t fail to deliver. The curry chicken complements the fragrant steamed coconut rice, with the sambal chilli hitting all the right spots as well.
Oh, and if you are into noodles, don’t forget to try the curry noodles from the noodle station!
If there’s one thing I’d complain about, it’s probably the coffee. Not worth wasting your caffeine consumption on it.
For those who don’t have breakfast included in your room rate or as part of your Hilton Honors perks, the walk-in rate for breakfast is RM88 nett per person, so it pays to book a room with breakfast if hotel breakfast is your thing.
Outside breakfast hours, Vasco’s serve as an international buffet restaurant for lunch and dinner, with themes from month to month. If you fancy something else, there are four other restaurants on-site for you to choose from: Chambers Grill for your grill favourites, GRAZE which serves modern European cuisine, Chynna dishing out Cantonese favourites and Iketeru, a Japanese restaurant.
Other facilities
Hilton Kuala Lumpur is a full service hotel, complete with an array of facilities for any visit.
On the recreational front, the hotel boasts of a massive gym with a good range of equipment. Apart from the usual cardio machines, the gym is well invested, with a squat rack and also a good range of free weights for serious trainers. Within a gym also lies a group exercise room, complete with scheduled gym classes every day of the week.
Note that the gym and spa serves both Hilton and the adjacent Le Meridien hotel, so it can get rather crowded. The gym also offers public memberships for non-hotel guests.
Apart from the gym there’s also a full spa service, including in-room massage services if you are too lazy to even walk down to the spa. The spa shares the same changing rooms with the gym, and is fully equipped with a sauna, hot tub and steam room for those who like a good soak after their workout.
Outside the gym, there’s also a picturesque swimming pool and a pool bar. The swimming pool is not ideal for serious swimmers, but good enough for a lap or two or if you want to get some sun.
For event organisers looking to hold events at Hilton KL, this is probably one of the best options you can find in town. There are 14 meeting rooms in varying configurations, capable of holding up to 1,500 people.
Final thoughts
Hilton Kuala Lumpur is undoubtedly one of my most favourite hotels in the city, for good reasons. An excellent five star hotel, armed with a wide range of excellent facilities, dining options and an incredibly convenient location, the property is usually my first choice in the city and it takes a lot of consideration for me to stay anywhere else.
While some may content that the service is not as personalised as what you’d get at higher end hotels such as St Regis, I contend that this is sufficient for me. I typically get a little suffocated with overly attentive service, so this works just fine for me.
If there’s anything I might pick on, it’s probably just that the hotel is starting to show signs of age. Fading furnishing, tired looking facilities, but these are really minor details. After all, a good hotel is a balance of service and hardware, and as far as Hilton Kuala Lumpur is concerned, it’s pretty much there.
Hilton is definitely increasing its footprint in Kuala Lumpur, with a leap in the number of properties in the last few years. Just in the last two years alone, Hilton chose KL as the city for its first three Hilton Garden Inn properties in Malaysia: two in Chow Kit and one in Puchong. Just a little further down south, Hilton’s DoubleTree will also open its doors in Putrajaya later this year.
In the pipeline is also Canopy and Conrad KL, which I’ll definitely be looking forward to check out when they open over the next few years.
No change fees for all commercial or award tickets issued between 6 and 31 Mar 2020 for all destinations
Singapore Airlines has over the weekend announced that it will waive change fees for all Singapore Airlines and SilkAir tickets issued between 6 and 31 Mar 2020.
The change fee waiver is applied across both commercial and award booking, and for all ticket routing worldwide.
Singapore Airlines will waive change fees for all SIA and SilkAir tickets issued between 6 March 2020 and 31 March 2020. This new policy will give customers the flexibility to change their travel plans without incurring additional change fees, given the concerns over the growing global scale of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Global travel waiver policy
We will waive change fees for customers with SIA or SilkAir tickets issued on 6 March 2020 through 31 March for travel to and from all destinations. The new travel date must commence before 31 March 2021.
Top-up fees may still apply for fare differences in the new itinerary.
For cancellations, refunds would be in accordance with fare conditions of the ticket(s) purchased.
Singapore Airlines, 7 Mar 2020
What does it mean?
It means that all flights booked on a Singapore Airlines or Silkair ticket can be changed for free.
If you decide to change your flight, note that the latest you may change it to is 31 Mar 2021.
For those who decide to change their ticket down the road, do note that you will lose the fare difference if the fare for your new ticket is cheaper than your original ticket. If your new ticket ends up more expensive, you will have to top-up the difference.
However, refunds aren’t free if you want to cancel your ticket and they will be in accordance to your ticket type. If you have booked an Economy Lite fare for instance, it will notbe refundable at all and you will simply forfeit your ticket.
USD25 fee waived for award tickets
For those using Krisflyer miles to book award tickets, you will be familiar with the USD25 change fee to move your travel dates. In this case, the USD25 fee will be waived. Given that the SIA website automatically charges the fee when you make the change online, you will most likely have to call in to get your waiver.
Ticketing airline does not equate to operating airline
Note that the ticketing airline does not equate to operating airline. For instance, you could have booked an Air New Zealand flight to Auckland from Singapore, issued by Singapore Airlines. This is considered to be a Singapore Airlines ticket.
However, if you ring up Air New Zealand to book a code-share flight operated by Singapore Airlines, tough luck – your refund/change policy will be determined by Air New Zealand.
Final thoughts
With demand for air travel nosediving due to Covid-19, this policy probably helps to drum up a bit of demand (whatever that’s left), and help customers book their travel with confidence by allowing some kind of flexibility in their booking.
From a business perspective this probably helps to secure whatever revenue they can get, even if it means that this revenue should shift down the road as Covid-19 develops further.
More and more airlines are offering flexibility in traveling during this period of time, so my suggestion for those who are still comfortable to travel is to buy travel insurance and book your holidays as you normally would first, and adjust your plans down the road.
Citibank running a PayAll promotion targeted at Citi Prestige cardholders, earn 1.6 mpd if you spend at least $15,000 through PayAll
Citibank is running yet another promotion, this time targeted at Citi Prestige cardholders through their PayAll facility.
Citi Prestige PayAll promotion
To recap, Citi PayAll is a payment facility to payees who traditionally don’t accept credit card payments (such as private landlords, education institutions, income tax, etc). Citi charges a 2% fee for PayAll payments, so that effectively means that you are paying 2 cents per 1.3 miles (i.e. 1.54 cent per mile) earned on your Citi Prestige card.
The promotion mechanism
From 24 Feb to 31 Mar 2020, Citi Prestige cardholders can earn up to 11,000 additional miles on top of the usual 1.3 mpd when using the Citi PayAll facility.
There are simply two tiers:
Spend $15,000, get an additional 4,500 miles, or
Spend $30,000, get an additional 11,000 miles.
Note that there’s a 2% fee on the PayAll facility, so to clock $15,000 or $30,000 spend, there will be a $300 or $600 fee respectively.
The additional miles lowers to cost to buy miles from 1.54 cents per mile to about 1.2 cents per mile, making it a pretty good deal. Note that this 1.2 cent valuation is if you spend exactly $15,000 or $30,000, and that rate will increase if you spend over this threshold.
For example:
If you spend $20,000, you will get the base rate of 26,000 miles plus a bonus of 4,500 miles for a total of 30,500 miles, at a fee of $400. That works out to 1.31 cents per mile.
If you spend $50,000, you will get the base rate of 65,000 miles plus a bonus of 11,000 miles for a total of 76,000 miles, at a fee of $1,000. That works out to 1.32 cents per mile.
Note that all spend must be made between 24 Feb 2020 and 31 Mar 2020. For the avoidance of doubt, the payment must be transferred and posted to your account within this date to qualify as a spend.
Final thoughts
I’m really not sure who is Citibank targeting with this promotion, given that it has a very high spending threshold for limited types of payment.
Off the top of my head, I’m not sure who has a $15,000 tax bill to pay or even a $15,000 rent to pay. This is also not the month for school fees payment in a typical year as well.
The only way to clock this spend is if you can have an agreement with your landlord to pay your rent upfront for a period of, say, half a year.
Continue to earn 4.4 miles per dollar spent on your daily commute, up to $80 per month
UOB has been running a 4.4 mpd promotion for SimplyGo mobile transactions charged to the UOB PRVI Miles Mastercard or Visa since October 2019.
The offer has been extended once before, to end on 29 Feb 2020. But once again the offer has been extended another time, this time to 30 Jun 2020.
Note that registration for this promotion is required. If you have registered for the promo previously, you do not need to re-register.
How to register? SMS ‘PRVI’ and last 4 alphanumeric digits of your NRIC or Passport Number (e.g. PRVI 789A) to 77862
The promo
Earn 4.4 miles per dollar spent on SimplyGo transactions charged to your UOB PRVI Miles card.
Note that only the transactions made on your mobile wallet (e.g. Apple Pay, Samsung Pay) will count towards this offer, the spending using your physical card will not earn you this reward.
The 4.4 mpd is broken down as follows:
UNI$3.5 per S$5 spent on locally (i.e. 1.4 mpd)
UNI$7.5 per S$5 spent on eligible transit transactions (i.e. 3 mpd)
Note that there’s a cap of $80 per month for this offer per account. If you have a supplementary card, the cap is shared with the principal cardholder. And if you are holding both the Visa and Mastercard versions, both cards will also count towards a single combined cap of $80.
Bonus UNI$ earned between 1 Mar 30 and 30 Jun 20 will only be credited by 30 Sep 2020.
If you have been one of the first adopters for this promo, the bonus UNI$ earned from between 1 Oct 2019 and 31 Dec 2019 will be credited by 31 Mar 2020. Bonuses from 1 Jan 2020 and 29 Feb 2020 will be credited by 31 May 2020.
The full set of terms and conditions can be found here.
How UOB calculates bonus UNI$ for this offer
Most UOB cardholders will know by now that UNI$ Are only awarded on blocks of $5 spend, so how does UOB award bonus UNI$ in this case? The answer lies in the fine print.
For Visa cards, UNI$ are earned based on the accumulated spend on SimplyGo transactions per calendar month, and awarded on the 7th calendar day of the following month.
For Mastercard, accumulated fares are posted to the credit card account every 5 days or 21 transactions or S$15, whichever comes first.
Final thoughts
After all the good things running out since last month (e.g. GrabRewards devaluation, end of OCBC 90N bonus miles, and more), it’s pretty heartening to hear offers like this hanging around a little longer.
Although it’s going to be tough to accrue enough miles from taking public transport, but if you max out the offer each month, you are looking at at least another 960 miles for the next four months, so why not?
