merry - you asked for it (my London weekend report):

check-in Zurich, Saturday, very early morning, with BA (my first flight ever with BA), party of three, eco: Zurich-check-in 5 min, even a deep look into the eyes of the "check-in-lady" didn't produce any upgrade (I did ask "hat vielleicht einer meiner Freunde einen Upgrade für uns erreicht?"). The flight was sold out.

There are no direct Zurich-London-flights of any StarAlliance-member or mileage-marketing-partner (BD British Midland, marketing-partner of UA and others, gave up that connection last April 98).

at the gate: passport controle (again), no problem of getting our hand-luggage on board.

on board: Swiss breakfast (and the always ice-cold bread they serve you in eco worldwide), and a SWISS TEA on BA!

arrival: no admittance to UA's Red Carpet (sea under the UA topic).

immigration: Swiss have to queu with/at "OTHERS", as Switzerland is not in the EC (and not member of the Commonwealth either as we killed all austrian-german kings in 1291 ...).

the piccadilly-line (6 zones £7 for unlimited weekend-travel) is faster for us than Heathrow Express to Paddington, as we head for "The Connaught" near Knightsbridge: Gisela tests our credit-card-limits at Harrod's, I have a short business (beer) meeting at the hotel and a nearby Pub.

Hotel: The Connaught: wonderful british, as one of the Old-Bonds-Street-clubs (for men only), and a first-class-restaurant (Michelin 1*). Hotel prices in London beat even New York.

afternoon/evening/night/early morning: "whistle down the wind" latest musical from Lloyd Webber (Aldwych); THE roastbeef and Yorkshire pudding at "Simpson's at the Strand"; Pub Crawl on our way from Covent Garden to Soho (looking out for merry flyer- in vain - every second man looked the way he described himself); jazz at Ronnie Scott.

Sunday: another midday-lunch and afternoon Pub-crawl (and our two ladies had a late lunch at the Had Rock Cafe).

Piccadilly Line again to Heathrow, check-in at the hand-luggage-only-counter: the (nice) lady did call for another BA-employee to look at our handluggage (he checkid it and decided that we had to check them in: 10kg - allowed are 6kg only), no upgrades again (sold out again), free Diners Club Lounge at terminal 1 (to my surprise even this late-Sunday-night-flight out of Heathrow was on time).

Flight-comfort: I had the impression that BA's eco-seats provide a little more space than other airlines do (or at least their practical designe let me stretch my legs/feet better).

Zurich-Parking: SFr 48 ($33) for 42 hours!

And now I have 1'000 AA-miles (for flying BA) - and they will very probably be lost in three years from now.