Seconds away, round 2! Here we go again, back to Bucharest and the dentists.


Today is a slight departure for me, these are reward flights for this weekend and the outbound pair are going to be in Euro Traveller rather than Club Europe. I only booked these three additional weekends about six weeks ago and for some reason the 27th and 29th were incredibly expensive, approximately £1,300 as I recall, so it was time to roll out the Avios. There was no business reward availability on the outbound and hence it is off to the back of the bus. I’ve reserved exit row seats for both flights so unless the business cabin expands dramatically I’ll still have plenty of leg room.

It’s also a good excuse to try out the highlife cafe and so I’ve pre-ordered for the NCL-LHR leg due to the shortness of the flight but I’m leaving it to chance on the LHR-OTP leg on the minuscule possibility of an operational upgrade or a decent priced Airport Upgrade If no upgrades forthcoming then maybe it’s time for something a little different.

These three weekends are going to be much the same yet also each somewhat different to the other.

Weekend 1: This weekend is the simplest, almost entirely a flight, restaurant, and lounge review weekend. My standard NCL-LHR-OTP flights with no reschedules or cancellations so far. A planned arrival at the hotel 4pm or later this afternoon and then dinner at Hanu Berarilor. Saturday is a guaranteed long day in the dentist chair then probably hotel business lounge or hotel restaurant for dinner in the evening, depart early Sunday OTP-LHR-NCL.

Weekend 2: Early rescheduled departure from Newcastle due to cancellation and, because of this, a 10 hour! transit in LHR. Working from the lounge for a few hours and then planning a lounge safari for the second half of the day, probably mostly in the business lounges as I did a first class lounge tour on the last trip. Arrival at the hotel should be close to midnight. Saturday is expected to be some, currently unknown, amount of time in the dentist chair, and then out for a meal at the iconic caru cu bere in the evening. Early departure Sunday but travelling back OTP-LHR/LCY-EDI then LNER to NCL. This will be my first time ever in LCY and on City Flyer so looking forward to that.

Weekend 3: Thursday night LNER NCL-EDI and hotel in Edinburgh. Early Friday afternoon departure from EDI to LHR which will be another first for me as my previous planned flight from EDI was during the recent NATS failure so I took advantage of LNERs generosity and jumped on the train instead. A short connection onwards to OTP, late arrival at the hotel. Saturday is reserved for dentist just in case, but if not needed then this is the day I’ll go to Bran and Peles castles. If I am needed in the chair then I’ll book dinner in the other iconic Bucharest eatery, Hanu lui Manuc. Early departure Sunday, 5 hour LHR layover due to another reschedule so almost certainly another first class lounge safari, and finally back to NCL

The messing around in Edinburgh is because weekends 2 and 3 are booked as one BA holiday to get an additional 480 Tier Points.

Hand baggage only this weekend, the suitcase appearing to be overkill for two nights but is mostly filled with rain gear, fleece, and a wide array of dental cleaning devices Accompanied by what has now become the bag of many tags with thanks to corporate-wage-slave for the subtle flyertalk tag




And with that War and Peace length introduction to weeks 2-4 it’s time to wash the coffee mug and await the taxi to take me to the airport.