Thought I would do a quick TR as this wasn’t one of our normal jaunts, principally because we were taking my father-in-law (“f-in-l”) with us.

We arrived early on Friday morning to give us plenty of time as f-in-l is hard-of-hearing and slow-in-walking. Checked-in at first class check-in and were issued with “Premium “ stickers and so went off to what we still call “fast-track”. Apart from the Emirates business man who was acting like he had never flown before (“laptop? Oh yes, it is at the bottom of my suitcase”) we were soon through and then setted in the first class lounge for breakfast (between us we had toast, beans, bacon and poached eggs).

We noticed the gate was to be 112 (yes, about as far away as you can get, over the airbridge), so we let early so as not to hurry f-in-l. When we arrived at the gate we noticed it was a nasty Star Alliance piece of metal and, upon enquiry, we found that our gate had changed to 43 (the one with the buses). Despite being bussed we were soon on board (I was welcomed by name, the ones in front of me were not) and then the people booked in seats 7B and 8B arrived. Although they were not over large, there was no way they were going to fit into their seats, which were still in club configuration! Engineer was summoned and were soon on our way.

Arriving at SLZ we were again bussed and had to wait a while for our luggage (getting priority tags never seems to work in Europe, but that’s a different discussion!).

On the way back to the airport on the final day we popped into the Hangar 7 museum, the home of the Flying Bulls. The museum backs on the airport, is free (including free parking) and is well worth a visit if you have an hour to spare.

At the airport check-in opened 2.5 hours before the scheduled departure time and both my partner and I were issued, without asking, with vouchers for €10 each as there no lounge (shock horror!). However, it was a glorious, very hot day so we sat on the outside terrace, which has a bar and enjoyed the view. Unfortunately there weren’t that many planes. When we saw our BA airplane land we went through security and almost immediately walked on to the bus.

We left very early and the flight was quite uneventful. Service was fine. We were offered a sandwich, which confused us as we weren’t expecting this. The cabin crew say that sometimes they give out sandwiches, crips or biscuits; they never know what to expect either.

At LGW I left my partner to take f-in-l onward to GLA; strangely they had to go through passport control and then back through main security. I duly went to collect my priority-tagged suitcase and received the usual treatment.