YBBN/BNE - Brisbane - Pullman - October 2023

Location

The Pullman is one of the only two on-site hotels at Brisbane, a short walk from the Domestic Terminal and adjacent to the Ibis.

Rooms / View

There are ten floors, floor 10 is the executive floor with access to the executive lounge on this floor. I stayed in room 1001 which is a deluxe executive room with two double beds. The room faces south east towards the International Terminal and the approach to 01R / 19L climb out. 

Room plan showing lounge and room location

Inside the lounge

View from the room towards the International terminal

View from the lift lobby, over the car park, towards the north east, 19L and 19R approaches.

Lounge

The lounge is next door to room 1001 with a similar view. It is unattended and I assume open 24/7. I spent several hours there and never saw anyone else apart from the hotel staff topping up the soft drinks and snacks. The lights could be dimmed at night allowing a better view.

The newer runway 01L/19R is behind both the room and the lounge but any action behind can be seen easily as there are windows at all ends of the corridor. While you can see all movements, most of the domestic terminal is obscured.

Summary

The Pullman isn’t cheap, but the facilities and lounge is superb. In addition to the hotel restaurant and room service, there is a reasonably priced restaurant open to all at the Ibis next door. Even without the lounge access, the windows at the end of the corridor will ensure you won’t miss anything on the move.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/76vdyWitALp4ujXE9

KSAN/SAN - San Diego - Wyndham Bayside - October 2023

Stayed here on what was a family holiday. Seemed to be a good location to be near the tourist attractions and still have a good view of SAN.

Was pleasantly surprised as to just how perfect it was for spotting. Booked a 2 Double Bed Premium Room. Asked for a room as high as possible at check in and got the 12th floor (one floor from top?) room 1257.

Although you can’t really see planes on the gates. What you have is a good view as they land on runway 27 ( in over the city ) and the taxiway out to runway 27. If the opposite runway was in use I think viewing would still be good.

In addition you have a view of cargo and the biz jet ramps. In good light and if not too hazy a 300mm lens will give you photos where the bizjet regs are readable, as will a good scope. I couldn’t read them with 10x bins so used my camera as I had no scope with me.

The balcony has no screening from the other rooms so you are visible to anyone else out on theirs.

The room also gave some views out to North Island. ( see photo )

Can’t comment about food / supermarkets as was out and about at times during the day with the family.

Note: the hotel had a limit of up to 3 devices on the WiFi for one room.

The hotel advertises a free hotel shuttle. Which I did not use but it was seen in use.

The main train station is about 10 minutes’ walk away.

We had a hire car and there was a $40 a night charge to park onsite. The only negative thing about the stay IMO.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/wjFz55PNugo1e3gK9

RJTT/HND - Tokyo Haneda - Tokyo Metropolitan Hotel - October 2023

Our base for our stay was the Tokyo Metropolitan Hotel at Tokyo Haneda.  This new 4* hotel is located close to Terminal 3 and was 50% cheaper than  the Royal Park or Villa Fontaine Grand hotels which are next to T3 Rooms between 23 and 31 on floors 8, 9 or 10  give good views of movements but you need to be quick to get the departures from 04/22 so rooms 23/24/25 are probably the best due to the better angle. These rooms are known as the airport view rooms and have a small premium (<£6 per night).

In addition to the obvious spotting from the room option there is a roof top terrace which overlooks the airport which I'm sure you could stay on all day but as the viewing deck at T3 is so close in my view there isn't much point in doing so.

To get there you need to head for the Tenkubashi station, cost <£1 from the airport, on either the Monorail or Kekio line. Close by is the Keikyu Ex Inn which is on the other side of the river and evidently also gives airport views.

The hotel was booked via Bookings.com  and were understanding when we had to request a cancellation for our first nights pre paid booking  at the last moment due to being unable to get on the direct HND flight from LHR.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/8UM8piXtaHeDFx1Z7