Part 1

Travelodge LHR T5

We arrived into to LHR T5 from Brighton on the direct National Express service and stopped by at Travelex to collect all of the currencies that I had ordered for this trip (using the Avis/BA link of course to get the best rate and BA Miles!) The shuttle bus runs every 20 minutes and was already on stand and waiting when we arrived. The 5 minute journey to the hotel set us back £8 each for the return journey. Upon arrival at the hotel there was a sizeable queue at check-in. Once a second member of staff began to man the desk, the queue vanished in a couple of minutes. We took the lift up the first floor to room 118. The room was a comfortable size and quite basic in facilities but for the price we paid – I would not feel right making any substantial complaints about the property other than the window didn’t seem to insulate the room from the noise of the traffic outside too well. Not sure if ours was faulty or if it was the same throughout the hotel.

Route: LHR-CPH
Airline: SAS (Ticketed on bmi codeshare)
Flight number: SK502
Class of service: Economy
Aircraft: MD-81/2
Seat: 12F
Scheduled departure time: 09:35
Scheduled arrival time: 12:35

The self-service check-in kiosk was easy enough to use for this first timer and quickly spat out two baggage tags and two BPs. Given that we had a connecting flight, I was expecting four BPs and once we got to the front of the bag drop queue (a wait of around 5 minutes) I queried it with the agent. She looked into it, asked a colleague and stated that they were not sure why that had happened but they could not issue the BPs either. They referred us to the transfer desk upon our arrival at CPH. As we had a 1hr 40min connection, I figured that there would be plenty of time for it to be sorted out there.

Security screening at 07:30 at LHR was surprisingly quick (again, around a 5 minute wait) and we were soon enough into the departure lounge. Without a valid *G card or a Business Class BP we were without lounge access. All of the times I had been through T3 over the last few years, I always made straight for one of the lounges (usually the London Lounge) but this time it was different. We took a slow walk around the shops, purchased a few small items and found a couple of seats together. It didn’t feel like too long after we had polished off our Boots Meal Deal breakfast, that I glanced at the flight departure screen and realised that it was 08:50 and time to start thinking about walking down to the gate.

Gate 11 has to be the closest gate to the departure lounge. So close that I figured that we had some time to talk a quick walk passed the SQ lounge to see if we could see the A380 on stand. Sadly, it was not there and so we returned to gate 11. The queue moved quickly and once into the gate area we walked straight onto the aircraft and took seats 12E&F.

This flight was operated by a SK MD-81/2 (I can’t tell the difference!) and had an economy seat layout of 2-3. It was interesting to note that the emergency exit door at the rear of the aircraft was actually at the back (as opposed to the sides). Due to the fact that this aircraft has its engines mounted at the rear rather than on the wings, it was also noticeably quieter than many aircraft that I have been one. The cabin itself was at least 90% full. The flight pushed back a few minutes early and we headed immediately for 09R. There was only one, perhaps two, aircraft in front of us to take-off making for a swift departure.


The aircraft climbed away quietly as I spotted Tower Bridge in the distance before we made a left turn to head north out of London until we hit the M25, where we turned right and shadowed the M11. There was food available for purchase onboard but we declined the invitation. We were quite impressed by the legroom available on this aircraft. Even with the seat in front reclined, there were still a couple of inches between that seat and my knees. The flight lasted 1hr 30mins and was generally uneventful other than the “Cabin crew, take your seats for landing” announcement being made over the runway at an altitude of around 20ft.

Route: CPH-OSL
Airline: SAS
Flight number: SK460
Class of service: Economy
Aircraft: MD-81/2
Seat: 11D
Scheduled departure time: 14:15
Scheduled arrival time: 15:25

We followed the signs to the connection centre to find that it was closed. There was another sign saying that we should go through passport control to another connection centre. We found it, used the ticket machine (just like at the Deli counter in Tesco’s) and were immediately summoned by the only employee working the SK desks. I explained our problem to him (i.e. bags checked through but no onward BP) and 30 seconds or so later and the BPs were in our hands.

With this now taken care of, we were free to have a look around the shops in the departure lounge. This time the money stayed inside my wallet and we saw about the last 20 minutes sitting on some seating close to gate D3. I was impressed by the airport; it was clean, modern and spacious.


After 5 minutes of queuing, we were taking our seats on another SK MD-81/82. Things started to fall into place and I told Mrs TEX277 that I found that we were back on the same aircraft. She agreed that the gate area looked like it was in the same location but neither of us noticed the gate number on the inbound flight. We decided that the only way that we could tell if it was the same aircraft was whether the small metal panel on the floor to the right of seat 12F was dislodged. We were in seats 11D&E this time couldn’t really check that out without looking nosy. There was no need. About 20 minutes into the flight the chap in 12F knocked the panel and as we heard the noise Mrs TEX277 turned to me and said “Yep – same plane”.

Thon Hotel Gardermoen Oslo

Not a true visit but more of an airport hotel stopover. We had booked the Thon Hotel Gardermoen and jumped on the S22 shuttle bus from bay B25. It cost 50 Kroner each (£5) for the 5 minute journey. The hotel itself was nice enough but we did not that it clearly stated ‘Budget’ on the hotel sign. £91 for a budget hotel? The missus was giving me a little grief for paying £115 per night for the Four Seasons at Vegas. Now it looked like a bargain.


We had only purchased 300 Kroner for the stay and after the 200 that would be required for the airport shuttle bus, we made the 5-10 minute walk to a nearby McDonald’s with the remaining 100 Kroner. As we needed a bottled drink to take back to the room, we popped into the adjoining petrol station to ensure that we did not overspend at McDonald’s. The 1.5l bottle of Coca-Cola company drinks looked like the best value at 29 Kroner (that’s £2.90!!!). 70cl bottles were going for 25 Kroner! Over at McDonald’s, our jaws almost hit the floor when we discovered that the remaining 71 Kroner (£7.10) would only be good for 2 cheeseburgers, a portion of large fries and a small ice-cream cone! Mrs TEX277 took great delight in stating that in Hong Kong for the price of one Norwegian Cheeseburger, we could afford a Big Mac Meal!!