I needed a few more TPs to retain gold for the next year and after arguing with BA over a flight I missed because I was ill and whether they would give me the TPs or not (they didn't), I needed to find somewhere to go. A few clicks later and I had booked a trip on the Iberia website to Bilbao - a city I hadn't been to before. Final routing ABZ-LHR-MAD-BIO-----BIO-MAD-LHR-ABZ. I was pretty excited because the MAD-LHR leg was booked on the big A340 which Iberia uses on this route sometimes.

Fast forward a few weeks and after a hellish few days at work, I could relax and look forward to a weekend of travelling.

After a relatively early start of 6am on a Saturday, I was out at the airport in no time. I think we passed only 3 cars on the back country roads out to Aberdeen airport. Security was painless as always and I was in the lounge before I knew it. There's a new guy on the desk and he was pleasant enough. 2 double espressos later and we were called to board. Business UK ticket holders and Goldies were called forward first. I got on board and was greeted with the warmest smile I think I have seen in a long time. And then she spoke. In that wonderful Irish accent. 'S' was an absolute gem. In a lull in boarding she came over and gave me the personal welcome with some chat about my plans for the weekend. I wish she could have just stayed chatting to me the whole time!



We let a few Eastern birds come in before we took off. Bye Aberdeen!



S came round and explained all of the options for breakfast - traditional hot breakfast "with sausage" (lol), cheese omelette or a croissant. I passed knowing that I would grab breakfast in the Flounge at T5 but did have a few cups of (watery) coffee which was topped up proactively by S.

We landed on time at a wet T5 but the guidance system wasn't working to take us on to the stand so someone guided us in. Then the thing that attaches to the plane wasn't working. So we had to wait until someone fixed it. Then they fixed it. But because we were manually guided in, we weren't far enough forward for the thing to reach the plane. S was agitated and kept apologising. The guy in 1C was stressing he was going to miss his connection - only 40 mins. "Oh Jayyyysus, let me see what captain says". S disappeared into the cockpit. I don't know what she did (probably nothing) but the door was opened within 2 mins and were down the stairs, into the rain, then up some more stairs to get into the thing that attaches to the plane and then into T5. What a hoo-ha!

Anyway, I made me way to the Flounge and was pleasantly surprised to see that the furniture has been given a bit of a revamp. I grabbed a glass of Tattinger (2006...) and then got some breakfast from the buffet.





Breakfast of champions!!!



Quiet champagne bar area...



The departure time of the Madrid flight kept creeping back so I spent the time watching some iPlayer and sipping some good red wine. A18 for boarding so not too far to go from the lounge.

Bye wet London!



Hot scented towels handed out on the ground by the friendly member of cabin crew.



After taking off, the drinks and nuts service started. The cabin crew lady saw me picking out the cashew nuts and immediately offered me another bag to balance out the fact that I didn't have many nuts (insert own joke here.....).



Hello winglet....



The cabin then filled with the smell of something fine cooking for lunch. Choices were salad with a chicken skewer on top or cod on a base of miso mash with veggies. I went for the cod which was brilliant - very, very tasty/



After lunch, I had another champagne and spent my time watching The Hunt on iPlayer and looking at the great views out of the window.





Coffee and whisky time!









And that was the end of another great flight with BA. A very smooth landing into Madrid followed by a short taxi to the gate. No issues getting off the plane this time!