All about the gameplay: How & why Team TYO booked their hotels, flights & activities for Party of 5

I’m hoping Food Network taught me well.

A few years ago, my wife and I stayed with some friends who liked watching some Food Network shows like Beat Bobby Flay and Chopped. We’d never watched them, but got into it and subsequently enjoyed watching Guy’s Grocery Games and Tournament of Champions.

In addition to being cooking competitions, all of those shows have a key feature in common – gameplay. You’ll often hear judges praise a chef’s dish, but castigate them for taking the easy way out by only including a tiny bit of a strange required ingredient in a sauce rather than embracing the gameplay element by truly incorporating or showcasing it.

Gameplay was top of our minds when planning out our half of the Party of 5 challenge, particularly when it came to our accommodation options considering Greg’s emphasis on that.

Our accommodation booking strategy

In Greg’s initial post explaining how the Party of 5 challenge would work, one of the key points was this:

A heavy focus of this year’s challenge is about finding great lodging deals

He went on to explain that bonus points would be on offer for the following categories (see this section for a full explanation of what each bonus entails):

• Sweet-spot bonus
• Bonus for using Greg’s certs & credits
• Privacy bonus
• Comfort bonus
• Luxury bonus
• Frugality bonus
• Novelty bonus

Carrie and I knew that we’d be hard-pressed to find accommodation that would incorporate every single one of those features, but hitting at least three or four of those with any given accommodation should be doable, while hitting each of those features multiple times during our portion of the trip should also be possible.

Another massive part of the gameplay element for us was to showcase multiple ways of booking accommodation. Sometimes paying cash will snag you the best deal. Other times booking with points is best. Free night certificates can be the best option in some circumstances, redeeming points for upgraded rooms can work well with some chains, while other times you can get great deals by taking advantage of hotel benefits on premium credit cards. Depending on the room layout, booking a suite can provide savings versus booking two standard rooms.

With six nights of lodging to take care of in Asia, a focus for us was to showcase as many of these booking methods as possible. In the end, we were successful with that aim as all five properties we stayed at were booked in completely different ways that maximized value, ensured comfort and provided luxury (in nearly every case) for the entire Party of 5:

• Airbnb – incredible and spacious property with 8 bedrooms & 16 beds + a couple of stacking opportunities
• Paid stay – 3 rooms (including a private room for Greg) + ran an experiment with the IHG shareholder rate
• Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts – a rare opportunity to stay at a Four Seasons for not much out of pocket
• Award stay (belatedly partnered with a paid stay for one of three rooms) – three spacious suites, including a premium suite solely for Greg + lounge access for all of us
• Cash + points upgrade – two spacious suites both with an outdoor terrace + lounge access for all of us

Our flight booking strategy

Carrie and I were starting off in Japan and, unlike Team SFO, had the added constraint of having to get us back to Tokyo by June 8 in order to make our ANA first class flight.

That left us with a decision to make. Should we fly further afield in Asia and perhaps only have time to visit one other place due to the longer flight times involved (e.g. 7+ hours to Indonesia, 10+ hours to India, etc.), or should we stay closer to Japan to reduce our travel times and thereby increase our opportunity to visit two other countries in addition to Japan? We were open to either option, but the latter option felt like a better choice and that’s how things ended up working out.

One of the reasons we went with the Party of 5 theme for this year’s challenge is because a number of readers had commented in the past that while it’s (relatively) easy finding award space for one or two people, it’s far harder finding award space for a larger family.

Carrie and I therefore hoped that we’d be able to book all our flights in business class as it felt like finding availability for five people on multiple routes would be a decent achievement. That didn’t end up coming to fruition, but we did manage to book business class for all five of us on two of the three routes we booked which was still a decent result, especially seeing as the route where we flew economy wasn’t long-haul.

Our activities strategy

Carrie did a tremendous job researching all our activity options for Japan, the Philippines and Macau. We had a long list of potential activities, but there wasn’t much we could book ahead of time. Some of the time that was simply because the activities didn’t need to be booked at all. With others, they had to be paid for in cash and so it was a case of first come, first served rather than being something we could lock in ahead of time.

An important consideration for us was the cost of the activities we planned. Different families of five will have vastly different budgets they have to play with for the activities they do on vacation. However, with Greg paying for five of us to travel overseas for two whole weeks, we wanted to be as respectful as we could with his resources, particularly his cash when it came to booking activities. That meant that Carrie and I focused on low and no cost activities that would still be a lot of fun, thereby providing a lot of bang for Greg’s buck pesos, pataca and yen.

Another key factor we had to take into account was weather. June in southeast Asia is during their rainy season, so we had no clue if we’d have bright blue skies, monsoons or something in between. As a result, we (and by we, I mean mostly Carrie) collated a list of all kinds of potential activities that we could pick and choose from depending on the weather outlook. We were fortunate in the Philippines that the rain mostly held off, but got unlucky in Macau with some torrential downpours that had a big impact on our ability to do fun activities there.

Tokyo was the only place where we bought tickets for an activity ahead of time. We’d bought the tickets very early on during our planning stage before making wholesale changes to our plans due to getting an extra couple of days to plan for during the trip, but those changes meant we could no longer visit on the date that we’d bought tickets for. Thankfully we were able to switch our dates for no additional cost, so that worked out fine.

When planning the challenge, the five of us had discussed as a team the need to have work time each day which is one of the reasons why we didn’t book some accommodation options as there wouldn’t be internet available at a couple of them. When planning our schedule for the Team TYO portion of the trip, Carrie and I therefore wanted to include 2+ hours of “free” time each day. That wouldn’t necessarily be down time, but it would give us a chance to get some work done, chat to family back home, etc. – whatever we wanted and needed to get done each day. Fitting that in meant that we didn’t want our activities each day to become too jam-packed, but it also meant we weren’t able to do as many activities as we might’ve liked.

Our meals strategy

One of the rules for the challenge was that we had to ensure everyone got three square meals each day. There was only one day where we failed with this, but that was more of a technical fail – we had a chance to have lunch, but we were all still full from breakfast and so none of us were hungry enough to eat more at that point.

Breakfast was included each morning at all of the hotels and Airbnbs we booked. Dinner was provided at the Airbnb, with another night’s hotel having access to their Club Lounge which provided a great selection of food. Other days we were able to take advantage of meals on flights (in both economy and business class) as well as in airport lounges. On our final day in Tokyo three of us weren’t particularly hungry and wanted to get work done, so we hung out in the lounge and snacked on nuts and cookies while Greg and Tim went for sushi. Fine Hotels & Resorts covered our lunch another day which meant that we didn’t have to pay for any restaurant meals during our half of the trip other than Greg and Tim having sushi in Tokyo and us all having a quick snack on our way to the Airbnb in the Philippines.

Although the Airbnb we booked in the Philippines came with a private cook (well, two of them), we did have to pay for the food separately. The host went to the market each day to get fresh food based on what we wanted to eat, with that costing ~$9 per person per meal.

Carrie had found some backup dining options for each location in case something fell through, so that gave us peace of mind that none of us would go hungry.

For people who are all about eating locally on vacation, our approach likely wouldn’t appeal. However, for those on a budget, having most of your meals covered by hotels, airlines and lounges would be a positive feature.

What we booked & how we booked it

Carrie republished a daily update post throughout the challenge, but that only had a broad overview of what we did each day. In this post we wanted to give a full breakdown of everything about our trip including why we picked the flights, hotels and activities that we did, along with how much those and our meals cost. Team SFO will be doing the same thing tomorrow, then Greg will be publishing another post detailing how many points we earned each day, so stay tuned for those.

June 2

Transportation

After arriving at Tokyo Narita, we had a quick turnaround time to get to our next flight from Narita to Manila. We’d originally booked that flight for the morning of June 3 before discovering that the ferry timings to Puerto Galera (where our Airbnb was located) wouldn’t have lined up.

That meant we needed to get to Manila the night before. Thankfully there was award availability on Japan Airlines for all five of us, albeit only in economy class. Seeing as we were flying to Tokyo on Japan Airlines, Greg called to try to get them to add the NRT-MNL flight to our SFO-NRT itinerary. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible, so he had to book that separately.

NRT-MNL was – in theory – bookable via Iberia using 11,000 Avios + $26 per person. It wasn’t possible to book that online though, so Greg would’ve needed to call to arrange that. Instead, he decided to redeem 20,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles + $27 per person as that could be booked online. Just under a week before our trip our plans were set in stone, so Greg rebooked the flight using 11,000 British Airways Avios + $120.70 per person to conserve his AAdvantage miles. The taxes when booking with BA Avios had been $166.40 per person previously, so those had dropped in the meantime.

The cash cost for this specific flight was an absurdly high $1,524 per person. That would’ve given a 13.62cpp redemption with Iberia Avios, 7.49cpp with AAdvantage miles or 12.76cpp with BA Avios. More realistically, there was a JetStar flight costing $303.20 per person. The true cost of that flight would’ve been even higher though as that fare only included 7kg of carry-on baggage which wouldn’t have been sufficient for any of us. It looks like increasing our allowance to 14kg would’ve cost an additional $35-$40 per person.

We had to take a taxi to get to our hotel from the airport which cost ~$15.

Accommodation

Knowing that we’d be getting in to Manila so late and leaving early-ish in the morning, Carrie and I didn’t think it was worth booking some kind of fancy hotel. Instead, we went for a good value and convenient option – the Holiday Inn Express Manila Newport City.

However, this hotel wasn’t quite as convenient as we were hoping. The hotel’s website says it’s connected via a bridgeway from Terminal 3 and is accessible from other terminals. In theory, that’s correct. However, we landed at Terminal 1 and airport workers said we couldn’t walk from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3. There’s a shuttle bus to Terminal 3, but you can only take that if you have a flight that same day or the next day. We weren’t flying out the next day, so we had to get a taxi instead which took ~15 minutes as he had to drive us around the other side of the airport.

The paid rate for the Holiday Inn Express was ~$74 or 14,000 points per night. With the 10% points rebate from the IHG Select credit card making the award booking a net 12,600 points, that looks – on the face of it – like the better option seeing as 12,600 IHG One Rewards points can often be bought for $63. However, cashback through a shopping portal and an experiment I wanted to run meant we booked the paid rate as the cashback would’ve evened out the cost. We’ll have a separate post about that experiment in the future.

A practical hotel booking like this wasn’t going to earn us bonus points with Greg for things like luxury, but we figured it would earn us a privacy bonus as we booked three rooms – two with two beds and one with a queen bed. Greg had the room with the queen bed which meant he had complete privacy, while also hopefully earning a frugality bonus.

Activities

Arriving so late in Manila (our flight was delayed) meant we didn’t get to the hotel until just after midnight, thus no activities this day.

Food

After arriving at Narita, we had just enough time to pop into a lounge to grab a bite to eat before our flight to Manila.

Our Japan Airlines flight to Manila in economy included a full dinner which, as economy class meals go, was pretty good.

June 3

Transportation

We didn’t fly anywhere on June 3. Instead, we got picked up at the hotel and driven down to Batangas Port in a spacious air-conditioned van that Michel (our Airbnb host) had arranged. The cost was 4,500 PHP (~$80) one-way which seemed reasonable as it meant we could all travel together and arrive at the same time rather than having to take two separate taxis that would’ve cost a similar amount. We also gave a 500 PHP (~$9) tip.

Once at Batangas Port, we bought our tickets for the Island Calayan ferry. It was 620 PHP (~$11) for Tourist (i.e. economy) class and 850 PHP (~$15) for business class per person. Paying an extra $4 per person for business class was a no brainer, although the journey there wasn’t quite as comfortable as we’d hoped as every seat in the cabin was taken. We were some of the last people to board, so we were spread around the cabin.

Batangas Port charges a 30 PHP (~$0.50) terminal fee per person too.

Once we arrived in Puerto Galera, our Airbnb host met us with his jeepney. At the time we thought this transportation was included in the price of our booking, but we later realized it cost 1,000 PHP (~$18) total. We might’ve been able to arrange slightly cheaper transportation up to his mansion at the port, but that would’ve only saved us a few dollars and we’d have had to travel in at least two or three separate vehicles due to our bags. Besides, riding in a jeepney is a lot of fun!

Accommodation

We stayed the nights of June 3 & 4 at this Airbnb. The total cost for the two nights for the five of us was $419.13, or $209.57 per night. I’d bought two $200 Airbnb gift cards from Kroger when they were offering $25 Kroger eGift cards free. That meant I earned $50 in Kroger eGift cards; seeing as Greg paid for our trip and he doesn’t shop at Kroger, I figured I’d keep those cards but get him a $50 gift card for Zingerman’s instead which I know he’ll put to good use.

I entered Greg’s British Airways Avios number when clicking through from the Avios/Airbnb partnership portal, so he’ll have earned 3x Avios for our reservation too.

Activities

With us getting picked up in Manila at 10am and arriving at the Airbnb at 3pm, we decided not to plan anything for that evening and enjoy relaxing instead.

Besides, the Airbnb is so unique that we knew it would be an activity itself staying there. What was unexpected was that Michel gave us a 30-60 minute guided tour of the property, sharing more about its history, its design features, where he obtained its decor, etc. That was fascinating and also assisted us in deciding which bedrooms to stay in.

Jet lag hit some of us harder than others, so some of us snoozed after we’d had a late lunch while others worked, chilled or Facetimed with family back home.

Food

Our buffet breakfast was complimentary at the Holiday Inn Express that morning. It was far from being the best buffet breakfast we’d enjoy in Asia during this trip, but there was a good selection and it was more comprehensive than Holiday Inn Express breakfasts in the US.

We grabbed a bite to eat at Batangas Port before our ferry ride. It was National Donut Day that day and there was a Mister Donut kiosk which we meant to go to, but didn’t have time to stop there after getting something else as our ferry was boarding.

Greg, Tim and I went to The Shwarma Shack and each got a wrap plus one small portion of fries for a total of 180 PHP (~$3.25). Carrie and Nick each got a boba tea which cost 70 PHP (~$1.25) each.

Considering we hadn’t had much in the way of lunch, we were grateful that Michel had a late lunch ready for us after we arrived. We then had dinner at 7:30pm and so got in our three square meal requirements for the day! Michel had advised ahead of time that our meals would cost ~$9 per meal per person.

June 4

Transportation

June 4 was our only full day in Puerto Galera. We’d originally planned to have a rental SUV we’d have driven down from Manila, but subsequently learned that catching a car ferry wouldn’t have been possible.

That didn’t mean we had no way to get around though. Michel arranged for us to have access to the jeepney with a driver for the day. He quoted us 3,500-4,500 PHP (~$62.50-$80); we cut our day a little short as it was raining heavily by the time we wanted to go to White Beach, but we paid 4,500 PHP ($80) to include a tip for the driver.

Accommodation

The cost of the Airbnb is listed above for June 3.

Activities

We started off the day taking a carabao cart ride…

…up to Tukoran Falls where we got a waterfall massage while walking through the cascade…

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…then did a spot of cliff jumping.

That all cost 1,550 PHP (~$27.75) – that’s the total for the five of us, not per person.

Our jeepney driver then took us over to Tamaraw Falls (which is free to visit) for a quick photo op.

Our next stop was easily my favorite part of the day. We drove down to Muelle Puerto Galera pier for a snorkeling excursion unlike any that any of us had ever done before.

The outrigger boats we were taken out on had ropes on both sides. We hung on to those while the captains motored us along slowly over the coral in Muelle Bay. There was no need to swim and no need to wear fins/flippers – all we had to do was hang on and look down below us.

The coral was excellent, the fish were plentiful and colorful, there were giant sea turtles and it was a simply magical experience. Having the boats pulling us along meant we got to see far more of the marine life than we’d have been able to had we been swimming. Here’s just a taste of it:

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What made this experience even better was how ridiculously cheap it was. It cost a total of 2,100 PHP (~$37.50) for the five of us, so only $7.50 per person. We gave a 1,000 PHP ($18) tip too, but all-in that means we only spent ~$11.10 per person for an amazing snorkeling experience.

After that we walked around a mangrove forest which had tons of fruit bats up in the trees. Our jeepney driver then took us to White Beach which is meant to be a beautiful beach, but it was raining heavily and so we decided to go back to the Airbnb.

Food

We had breakfast at the Airbnb which cost ~$9 per person. While at Tukoran Falls we were offered the opportunity to have lunch, but none of us were hungry and so we declined that (the only time we didn’t provide three square meals on the trip).

We then had dinner back at the Airbnb which again cost ~$9 per person. They’d asked us what we wanted that day, so we requested pork adobo. They also made a delicious chicken curry along with shrimp, rice, fries, carbonara and fresh fruit.

June 5

Transportation

June 5 ended up being quite a long travel day with six different modes of transportation. It started with a jeepney ride back to the port which cost 1,000 PHP (~$18) total.

We then took the Island Calayan ferry back to Batangas Port in business class for 850 PHP (~$15) per person plus 10 PHP (~$0.20) per person in port terminal fees. This was a more comfortable ride than on the way over as it was less crowded, plus we all got to sit together in two rows rather than spread around the cabin.

The same driver who’d driven us from the Holiday Inn Express to Batangas Port on the way down drove us back in the opposite direction, dropping us off at Manila Airport instead this time. Once again this cost 4,500 PHP (~$80) one-way and we also gave a 500 PHP (~$9) tip.

Next up was our flight to Hong Kong. We found availability for five people in business class on the short flight there on Cathay Pacific. We had several booking options (prices listed below are per person):

• American Airlines AAdvantage – 22,500 miles + $10
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles – 16,000 points + $19
• Iberia Avios – 16,500 points + $10
• Air Canada Aeroplan – 20,000 points + $39

In an ideal world, we would’ve had Greg book using Asia Miles seeing as he had a balance of those he wanted to use up. The problem is that they only let you add up to five people you can book tickets for and he already had 2-3 people spoken for on his account. Iberia wasn’t allowing us to book online; that presumably could’ve been done via phone, but again – Greg was on vacation and understandably didn’t want to spend who knows how many hours on the phone with them.

He therefore ended up booking with American Airlines AAdvantage miles, so 22,500 miles + $10 per person. The cash cost for the flights was $558, so it was still a decent redemption, but not as great as if he’d been able to book using Asia Miles. For a normal family of five people though, that likely wouldn’t be an issue.

We arrived in Hong Kong late in the evening, so we couldn’t catch a ferry to Macau. Instead, we took two taxis to a bus terminal and then took the Hong Kong Macau Shuttle Bus across the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge which is the world’s longest cross-sea bridge tunnel. The taxis were ~$10 each, while the bus to Macau cost 65 HKD (~$8.30) per person.

The final leg of our journey involved taking a couple of taxis from the bus terminal to our hotel. Those cost ~$15 each.

Accommodation

For our first night in Macau we stayed at the Four Seasons Macau. We booked this via Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts, booking two separate rooms to take advantage of two separate $200 FHR credits on the personal Amex Platinum cards.

We had Greg book a Deluxe Room, 2 Double Beds room for two people which came to $296.34 (i.e. $96.34 out of pocket after the FHR credit). I booked the same room type but with three people as they could provide a rollaway bed. Due to the extra person, the cost for this room was $367.58, so $167.58 out of pocket after the FHR credit.

We both got upgraded to an Executive Suite with two beds which was a fantastic upgrade. The Executive Suite is several categories higher than a Deluxe Room and usually retails for closer to $1,000. The booking came with a $100 food & beverage credit per room and free breakfast for two people per room.

Activities

We’d left the Airbnb in the Philippines at about 10:30am and didn’t get to the Four Seasons Macau until about 11:30pm, so there wasn’t any time for activities that day.

Food

We had breakfast on June 5 at the Airbnb which was ~$9 per person. This included eggs, bacon, sausage, spam, rice, mango, pancakes, croissants and bananas. We were all shocked to discover that despite visiting Hawaii multiple times, Nick had never tried spam. We had to rectify this travesty:

Lunch was had in the Cathay Pacific business class lounge which we had access to thanks to flying in business class. They then served a meal on our flight to Macau which was our evening meal for the day.

June 6

Transportation

We took three taxis on June 6, although even that was a struggle (see the activities section for more). The total cost for those came to ~$30.

Accommodation

We took advantage of the 4pm late checkout at the Four Seasons Macau (a benefit of booking via FHR), then took the short taxi ride over to the Grand Hyatt Macau.

We’d initially booked two suites – one standard suite (Grand Suite Fountain View Twin) for 21,000 points for three people and one premium suite (Grand Deluxe Fountain View Suite King) for 24,000 points for two people. The cash prices for those suites were $560.94 and $567.54 respectively. In hindsight, it would’ve made more sense to book two standard suites as the premium suite for an extra 3,000 points didn’t seem to be noticeably better. We booked both rooms on my account as I have Globalist status, but made one of the rooms a Guest of Honor booking on Carrie’s account to ensure there wouldn’t be issues with the hotel only extending Globalist benefits on one room.

Both suites were due to have a rollaway, with me and Carrie sleeping on those. Our plans changed the day before our stay though as a result of an email from the hotel. They advised that we’d have Club Lounge access for two people per room but would have to pay 1,379 MOP (~$171) for the third person in the standard suite to have lounge access.

That was an excessively high fee, so we came up with a cheaper and better solution. The cash rate for a standard room was lower at that point than when we’d made the original bookings as it was only $149.49. We therefore booked one of those rooms which had the added benefit of meaning Carrie and I would have proper beds rather than rollaway beds to sleep in. I replied to the hotel to let them know about this and asked if we could get an upgrade to a standard suite. In the meantime, I reached out to Hyatt Concierge on Twitter to ask them to apply a Club Access award to the stay in case the Grand Hyatt wouldn’t have extended lounge access to a second room on my account. The Hyatt rep on Twitter replied within 10 minutes to confirm that was done, although it ended up being a moot point as the hotel also confirmed that all rooms would have lounge access regardless.

Paying an extra $149.49 for the stay therefore wasn’t ideal, but it meant Greg got a premium suite to himself, Tim and Nick got a standard suite, Carrie and I got a standard suite and all of us had lounge access and free breakfast in the restaurant.

Activities

Oh dear, our activities on June 6 were a complete bust. We got very unfortunate with the weather because the morning started off with a torrential downpour, with rain being forecast for much of the day.

We had a long list of outdoor activities we wanted to do – go karting, a hike, a gondola ride at the Venetian, wandering around the old Portuguese part of Macau and more – but the rain meant we had to go to plan B. The start of that included the partially outdoor and partially indoor Macau Giant Panda Pavilion. I don’t think any of us had seen pandas in person before, so this seemed like a great activity to earn us novelty points, with the added benefit that it’s completely free to visit.

We then planned to go to a Virtual Reality video game park which is where things became unstuck. The initial plan was to get a taxi, but it wasn’t a long walk and the rain was holding off, so we decided to walk it to see a bit more of Macau too. Unfortunately the route Google Maps wanted us to take took us up a single lane road with no sidewalk which wasn’t safe. We looked around to see if there were any other sidewalks or routes to get there, but alas – there were none.

That wasn’t – in theory – a big issue as we figured we could hail a taxi. Spoiler alert – it was an issue. First off, Uber doesn’t operate in Macau any longer. You can get taxis from outside hotels and casinos, but you can’t hail them by the side of the road and we weren’t in a part of town with any hotels or casinos. There’s a taxi app locals use, but you have to have a phone number from Macau, Hong Kong or China in order to use that – none of which we had.

After spending about an hour trying to sort this out, it got to the point where it was too late to get to the VR park, but we couldn’t even get back to our hotel as that was up the same one lane road with no sidewalk. We eventually found an apartment building with a front desk agent who used that local taxi app to request a taxi for us.

That evening we tried going out to do more activities, but the bad luck continued. We went out to watch the fountain show at the Wynn Palace which was fun. The original plan was to ride the Skycab Cable Car during one of the shows, but there was a huge line for that, so we abandoned that idea.

The rain had stopped a couple of hours earlier, so we walked over to the Venetian to do a gondola ride as those were supposed to continue into the evening. However, the bad weather had appeared to shut that down for the day.

No problem – we’d go over to the St Regis as they have a jazz bar which was our Nick-themed activity for the trip (in addition to Macau in general). When getting there, the person at the front wasn’t the most welcoming and seemed to look down on us snootily, like we weren’t of the caliber they wanted for people entering their jazz bar. Despite the place not even looking like it was half full, we were told that we needed reservations or we could come back much later that evening – so late that it wasn’t going to be worth it.

It was therefore an incredibly frustrating day as there was the potential to have had a lot of fun if weather, transportation and other issues hadn’t gotten in the way. On the positive side, it did mean we were very careful with Greg’s money as both the panda experience and fountain show were free.

Food

What made the disaster with the activities particularly disappointing is that the day had started off so well with the breakfast at the Four Seasons. There was an incredible array of food that was so extensive that we were given a guided tour of the buffet when entering for breakfast. There were lobster claws, an egg station, tons of hot options, bagels galore, numerous unique cream cheeses (e.g. almond butter with bacon), fruit, donuts, salad and more. You name it and they probably had it.

They even had century eggs. Don’t worry if you don’t know what those are – most of us had never heard of them either, but Tim encouraged us all to try it. Here are our reactions:

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Breakfast was complimentary for two people in each of our rooms, so we only had to pay for one person which cost $35 but which was covered by the $100 food & beverage credit from the FHR booking.

After the first half of that day’s activity debacle, we headed back to the Four Seasons for lunch. We decided to use up our remaining food & beverage credits by ordering room service. I think we ended up going a little over the two sets of $100 credits, but only by about $35 or so.

For our evening meal we took advantage of the decent food options in the lounge at the Grand Hyatt Macau, so that was free too.

June 7

Transportation

Our ANA first class flight headed back to the US on June 8. Carrie and I didn’t want to risk flying back to Tokyo on June 8 just in case inclement weather or some other issue affected our ability to get back in time for that important flight. We therefore decided to return to Tokyo a day early and spend a little bit of time there.

To get to the airport we first took a taxi from the Grand Hyatt Macau to the bus station which cost 140 MOP (~$17.50). We then took the Hong Kong International Airport Cross Boundary Shuttle Bus Service directly to Hong Kong airport which cost 185 MOP (~$23) per person and also takes the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Before arriving at the airport, you have to get off the bus, take all your items and then go through immigration. That was a quick process, then we reboarded a bus and continued the rest of the short distance to the airport.

Our flight from NRT-MNL had been in economy and from MNL-HKG had been in business. For our flight back to Tokyo we wanted to try to ensure we all flew in business class so that 2/3 of our flights will have been in luxury rather than economy.

We’d originally booked flights on China Airlines from HKG-TPE-NRT. There was availability for all five of us in business class and booked using 35,000 Delta SkyMiles + $59 per person. That involved a fairly long layover in Taipei, but not quite long enough to do one of their free or self-guided tours.

A couple of weeks before that flight we found availability in business class for the five of us on Japan Airlines. That was preferable as it was a nonstop flight from HKG-JND which meant we didn’t have to leave Hong Kong as early as we would’ve had to if flying China Airlines. Flying with JAL also meant we’d be flying into Haneda rather than Narita which would make it easier to get to our hotel that night.

We had a few booking options for the JAL flight (prices below are per person):

• 30,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles + $42.70
• 22,000 Iberia Avios + $42.70
• 30,000 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles + $114
• 24,000 British Airways Avios + $892(!!!)

Needless to say, using BA Avios was out of the question due to the crazy taxes and fees. Iberia would’ve required a phone call as the availability wasn’t showing up online. Availability did display on Cathay’s website, but threw an error when trying to book online. Greg therefore chose to redeem 30,000 AAdvantage miles + $42.70 per person.

The cash cost for this ticket was $1,487 per person, so this represented a 4.81cpp redemption value.

From Tokyo Haneda airport we took the Haneda-Airport Limousine Bus to the Mitsui Garden Hotel Prana Tokyo Bay stop which was only a block or two from our hotel. This cost 1,100 Yen (~$7.75) per person which was much cheaper than an Uber was due to be (I think that was pricing at ~$120).

Accommodation

We stayed overnight at the Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay. This is a category 4 property, but rather than booking with points or free night certificates, we wanted to showcase another booking method.

Hyatt lets you upgrade to standard and premium suites using points when paying cash for a room on an eligible rate. The cash price for the night we stayed was pretty low compared to the points rate – $165.73 vs 15,000 points for a standard room. We therefore booked that rate for two rooms, but redeemed 6,000 points per room for an upgrade to a 2 Twin Beds Regency Terrace Suite. The cash rate for that suite was $680.43 per room, so paying $165.73 + 6,000 points per room was significantly better value as it meant we got 8.58cpp of value by redeeming those points. As an alternative, we could’ve redeemed 21,000 points per room for those suites, but that would’ve meant redeeming 15,000 points to save $165.73 which is only a 1.1cpp redemption.

Activities

This was another fairly full day of travel and so we didn’t have a chance to do any activities this day.

Food

The day started with breakfast in Mezza9 restaurant at the Grand Hyatt Macau (the lounge doesn’t open until after breakfast). There was a great spread, although not quite as extensive as at the Four Seasons Macau. Having said that, the service at the Four Seasons was mediocre/non-existent, whereas it was stellar at the Grand Hyatt. When getting more food at the buffet, employees would rush over to take our plates from us and carried them back to our table for us. They were also very attentive with getting us drinks, clearing plates, etc.

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We had access to numerous different lounges at Hong Kong airport due to flying business class and our Priority Pass memberships. To try something a little different, Carrie and I picked the Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club which, ironically, allows you to enter with a Priority Pass membership but not with a Chase Sapphire Reserve card (Greg tried). The lounge didn’t hold a candle to some of the Cathay Pacific lounges at HKG, but it was interesting checking it out.

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Dinner that evening was on our Japan Airlines business class flight back to Haneda. I requested the Western option as the food listed for the Japanese option didn’t really appeal to me. The flight attendant said I should order the Japanese option, but I reiterated that I’d like the Western option. She refused to accept that though and insisted that I had to have the Japanese food even though they did still have the Western option available, so I ended up giving in. It sadly didn’t hit the spot and I wished I’d been even more insistent than her about my choice.

June 8

Transportation

To get to our activity on our final day of the Team TYO portion of the trip we took an Uber which cost 8,453 Yen (~$59.50) with tip. We’d taken our bags with us, so from there we took an Uber to the airport which cost 11,185 Yen (~$79) with tip.

Accommodation

N/A.

Activities

For the Tim-themed activity, we booked tickets for all of us to visit TeamLabs Planets. Tim had mentioned this interactive art display many months before and Carrie had somehow remembered it. Tim mentioned it several more times during this part of the trip, so it was hard making out as though we didn’t have it planned even though we did already have tickets!

I can understand why he was so keen on visiting. I’m not an arty person, but this place was incredible. Here’s some video footage, but it doesn’t to justice to how amazing it is to experience in person.

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Tickets were 3,200 Yen (~$22.50) per person.

Food

The suite we booked included access to the club lounge; that wasn’t open for breakfast, so it was provided in the main restaurant instead. Even if the suites didn’t include club access, they were booked on Greg’s and my accounts and we both have Globalist status which entitles us to free breakfast.

At the end of breakfast Nick and Carrie had an eating competition to see who could eat a disliked food the fastest. Carrie had gotten some okra which would ordinarily be fine, but it was in some kind of dodgy sesame sauce that could be best described as sandy slime, although that doesn’t do justice to its consistency or flavor.

Greg had found something to challenge Nick – a marshmallow omelet. Yep, the Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay has a number of ingredients you can add to an omelet which includes marshmallows. For Nick though, that quirky addition wasn’t the issue – it’s eggs that he dislikes, so eating an entire omelet was a proper challenge.

At stake were 10,000 points. Who won? Watch this video to find out:

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After a filling breakfast, Nick, Carrie and I weren’t particularly hungry for lunch and also wanted to get some work done. We therefore hung out in the lounge and snacked on nuts, cookies, etc…

…while Greg and Tim went out for sushi at a nearby restaurant which was apparently delicious. Their lunch came to a total of ~$30.

Our flight on ANA in first class left Haneda airport just before 11pm. We got to the airport a few hours early in order to enjoy the ANA Suite Lounge for first class passengers and so had a light-ish dinner there before our flight.

Final Tallies (TL;DR)

That breakdown was almost 7,000 words, so here’s a more concise tally of what we spent and redeemed during the Team TYO half of the Party of 5 challenge:

Transportation

Flights

Here’s what was actually redeemed for our flights:

• NRT-MNL (economy on Japan Airlines) – 11,000 British Airways Avios + $120.70 per person (55,000 Avios + $603.50 total)
• MNL-HKG (business on Cathay Pacific) – 22,500 American Airlines AAdvantage miles + $10 per person (112,500 AAdvantage miles + $50 total)
• HKG-HND (business on Japan Airlines) – 30,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles + $42.70 per person (150,000 AAdvantage miles + $213.50 total)

That means what was actually redeemed for flights was:

• 262,500 AAdvantage miles
• 55,000 Avios
• $867

That’s an average of 63,500 miles + $173.40 per person.

What’s worth noting is that some of these flights were bookable for less – Greg just didn’t have time to spend on the phone with Iberia booking them. Here’s how low the total pricing could’ve been:

• 165,000 Iberia Avios
• 80,000 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
• $438.50

That means the average cost could’ve been as low as 49,000 miles per person + $87.70 per person for three flights, two of which were in business class. Keep that in mind when reading the roundup by Team SFO tomorrow 😉

Other Transportation

This is the total cost including Ubers, taxis, ferries, jeepneys, buses, etc.:

• $893.75

Accommodation

Here are the total points and cash costs for all our accommodation:

• Hyatt – 57,000 points
• Cash – $1,386.01

Activities

We managed to keep our activity spending nice and low – here’s the total expenditure for everything we did:

• $195.75

Food

With many of our meals included at hotels, on planes and in lounges, our meal expenditure was low too – here’s the total expenditure:

• $295.75

Other Expenses

I think there might’ve been a few other miscellaneous expenses (e.g. snacks, drinks, other things I’m not thinking of) that were paid for with cash and which I forgot to track, so we’ll add another $50 to the total.

Absolutely Final Total Costs

• 262,500 AAdvantage miles
• 55,000 Avios
• 57,000 Hyatt points
• $3688.26

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