Goodbye, Young Travelers of Hong Kong…

…and hello, The Alviator.

We’re rebranding as The Alviator

This is my eleventh year of blogging, and I’m hugely grateful to all of you who have clicked onto Young Travelers of Hong Kong to read our reviews, guides, musings, and so much more.

I work a full time job and don’t post as often as the average Joe on the blogosphere (or even on BoardingArea), so I’m really really grateful that our insights, reviews, and random rambles have garnered some readership. Over the years we’ve had over a million clicks onto this blog, which would’ve blown the mind of 13-year-old me when I created this blog.

That being said, a couple of things have changed:

• We’ve grown from 13-year-old “young travelers” to adults that work and travel for more than just fun
• I don’t live in Hong Kong anymore (I live in London, where most people think my current blog title is spelt wrong anyway), and neither does Jason, who is now based in Toronto

I don’t live in Hong Kong anymore

I’ve run an Instagram account called The Alviator for a while (YouTuber Josh Cahill is behind the name – thank you Josh!). I’d always seen that as a more viable long-term branding opportunity for the blog, though never pulled the trigger. Given that I’m now settling into working life in London and ready to push out a backlog of new and interesting reviews, this seems like an apt time for a change.

On Monday, September 9, Young Travelers of Hong Kong will become The Alviator. I’ll have a full welcome post once The Alviator goes live on Monday, though here are a few housekeeping things for those of you who read my blog on a regular basis.

• The wonderful team at BoardingArea are behind this rebrand, and they’ve let me know that the site will be down for an hour, likely in the morning Eastern Standard Time (this is roughly after lunch UK time, or around dinner time in Hong Kong)
• We’ll subsequently be based at thealviator.com (which will currently show a “Coming Soon” page)
• All thealviator.com links should automatically redirect to the new domain
• I’ll thus be contactable at alvin@thealviator.com, though emails to my current email address will still come through

Alvia: My New Flight Booking Consultant Programme

As part of the rebrand, I’ll be offering a new service called Alvia. The idea of Alvia is that using your cash and points budget, I’ll help you find options to get from point A to point B as needed, potentially using transfers to help you maximise your travel. I’m not necessarily offering expertise, but rather my time while I help you dig through the plethora of options you have to travel (which I love doing anyway).

I’ll particularly focus on business class and premium economy class travel (and a similar budget), though I’ll use your budget to work with what I can find on the dates you select. I’m aware that I’m new to this market, and am offering this service for free (for now), with an option to donate if you’d like to support me.

Alvia will debut alongside The Alviator on September 9, though just as a “contact me” type page. Slowly I’m hoping to work on developing an actual functioning working site. However, for now you’ll just be able to get your queries back within 24 hours, in the form of an Excel sheet with recommended options. If you’re really interested, treat this as a soft launch on alvia.me, with a “hard launch” on Monday.

If you’d like to support me on Alvia endeavours, I’ve started up a GoFundMe page (the service is free, though treat it as voluntary payment).

THANK YOU!

Without your support and readership, I wouldn’t have been able to build up the review and travel resource database that I currently have. I’d love to be an internet frequent flyer go-to for Europe-Asia travel, and continue building up a comprehensive understanding of business class and premium economy products longhaul, as well as within Europe and Asia. However, I’m so grateful to God, to my parents, and for you guys for supporting me and bringing me this far.

I hope to see you all soon, either through a meetup, on Alvia, or in the air sometime!

Thank you so much for your support over the past 11 years!