This was my second stay at The Bolton Hotel in Wellington. In a previous job I’d stayed here for a couple of night right after the hotel opened back in 2004 (I think it was ’04… it was a boozy trip… so the memories have faded!).
The hotel is just off The Terrace in a really convenient location near the Beehive and just a 15 minutes walk to where I was working.
The Bolton Hotel, Wellington, New Zealand
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On my recent trip from Sydney to Bangkok I decided to upgrade myself from Economy to Premium Economy using frequent flyer points.
On the Qantas 747 premium economy is a 2-4-2 configuration and you have a couple of more inches of legroom over normal economy class. On my plane there were 32 seats in a curtained off cabin that is situated between business and economy just behind the main galley. The area would have been standard economy seats before premium economy was introduced.
When you board you are offered water, juice or champagne, just as you would in Business Class, but I’m sure that you’re getting cheaper champagne than at the pointy end. I had the champagne and it was OK… I even asked for, and received, a second glass.
After takeoff a bar service was offered before dinner was served. No plastic ‘glasses’ either, real glass!
Dinner was a vast improvement over standard economy, think domestic business class food. No tinfoil plates, you get a china plate and proper cutlery (but still plastic knives). It was just a better experience than a standard economy meal. Dessert was the standard economy class icy-pole.
About an hour before we landed in Bangkok our steward came through the cabin asking is anyone would like a toasted sandwich and drink. I had a rather nice toasted chicken sandwich which certainly filled the spot.
The seats are slightly larger than economy, and I would compare them to an older business class seat or the current domestic business class seat. It was very comfortable and you get a couple of extra inches of width and of legroom so you don’t feel so crammed in.
Everyone gets a in-armrest video display that is larger that the economy screen but smaller than the business screen. It does have a touch screen, but mine wasn’t well calibrated so when I pressed a button the one next to it got selected. I just resorted to using the handset controls.
My only major gripe with things were that when the person in front reclined their seat they hit your screen and knock it out of position. I had a squirmer in the seat in from of me so it became very, very annoying. An extra inch between seats would have fixed the problem.
What was the same as economy?
What was the same as business?
This was a day flight, there may be other differences on an overnight flight. I did try to upgrade myself for the return flight but both Business and Premium Economy were full… who said that airlines were doing it tough!
Overall, a good investment in points or cash for longer flights if you can’t justify the price of a business class seat.
you end up in a swish hotel in a new city. You don’t know your way around, so you play it safe for a couple of days by eating at your hotel.
Towards the end of the week you have some spare time, as you’ve completed your work early, so you decided to do a little reconnaissance mission around the neighborhood you’ve been staying in, and during that trip you find several local food halls that offer the same quality and quantity of food that you’ve been eating at the hotel, with the major exception that the price is around 10% of what you were paying previously.
Well… welcome to my week in Bangkok!
Let me start off by saying that this is the crappiest hotel I’ve had the displeasure of staying at in the past 2 or 3 years. And I’ve probably done between 300 and 400 nights in hotels in that time!
Medina Grand, Perth, Australia