Farewell to Thai's Airbus 345

[calvinoeh]

Homewood Suites Round Rock

I had to move to Homewood Suites in Round Rock which was a 30 minute commute to and from work as the Embassy Suites and other hotels in Austin were fully booked due to SXSW. Homewood Suites is an extended stay hotel that comes equipped with a kitchen. I was initially excited about the possibility of cooking but after 16 hour days, cooking was the last thing I wanted to do.









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[calvinoeh]

Extended Stay Austin Southwest

I had a "gap day" in which I couldn't find a preferred Hilton hotel for a reasonable price. When situations like this happens, my preferred booking method is through hotels.com where I get a one free night for every 10 hotel nights.





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[calvinoeh]

Austin to Los Angeles

I arrived at Austin airport after a slow day at work and spending part of the day looking for places to stay at Austin. I had actually gotten to the airport way too early at 3pm for a 7pm flight since I was already tired from the house hunting and didn't have a hotel at this point. The plan was to chill out at the United Club with some gin and tonics.

When I tried to check-in at the automated kiosk, the machine offered if I wanted to get an on earlier flight but could not complete the request when I said yes. A ground agent had to help out and got me on a flight to Los Angeles via Houston that was leaving in 30 minutes. After rushing through security, boarding for the United flight to Houston was already underway.

The short flight to Houston by a pretty brand new 737-800 that comes with the new interiors but there were no PTVs on this flight.





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[calvinoeh]

Los Angeles Layover

I had a whole day to spend in Los Angeles. I checked out of the Radisson LAX around noon and headed back to LAX on their complimentary shuttle before catching another shuttle to Hertz to get a rental car. By the time I got the car, I was starving and headed to Korea town for some authentic Soon Tofu and BBQ ribs at a restaurant I used to frequent going to college at USC.



I spent a good part of the rest of the day at USC just walking around and restocking on my USC gear. The last time I visited was about 3 years ago and the new buildings





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[CarbonMan]

That's a nice American-sized slab of meat!

[9V-SIA]

Never did get to try TG A345

I like staying at Homewood Suites in the US with the kids. Good value

Thanks for the pics

[calvinoeh]

Los Angeles to Bangkok

I got to LAX at 5.30pm and the check-in counters for my Thai flight to Bangkok were still occupied by Turkish Airlines. They were already a couple of other passengers waiting for the counter switch over to happen and for check in to start. While waiting, there was a couple who showed up and were shocked they couldn't check in for their flight to Istanbul even though it was 30 minutes to departure and obviously check-in had already closed.

Check-in started about 45 minutes later and I was the forth passenger in the business class line. I tried to pay for an upgrade to Premium Economy but it would have costs me an extra USD $850 since I was supposedly booked on a cheap economy class fare. Oh well but at least I did manage to get them to open an aisle seat at the last row for me.





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[calvinoeh]

Bangkok Layover - Indra Regent Hotel

Thai offers day rooms to passengers which long layover and I opted for a day room in town since I had close to a 12 hour layover until my flight back to Penang. The day room also included transfer provided by AOT Limo to and from the airport in a Toyota Camry and meals at the hotel.

The hotel is a typical 3 star frequented by big tour groups. The rooms were slightly dated but adequate for the couple of hours. The complimentary breakfast and lunch provided was disappointing and I should have just eaten out





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