Wandered over to the airport which is literally a two minute stroll from the hotel. BA checkin was in full swing but CE was clear and it was time to ask for upgrades



Newcastle to Heathrow was £63 and Heathrow to Milan was £107, both taken, after all, that was the point . I had also checked expertflyer before I left the hotel and there were seats for sale in both cabins on both flights so an OpUp seemed highly unlikely.

The one thing I am going to miss out on is the extra leg room, hadn’t factored that in but then again, this is a learning experience.

Security was a nightmare this morning, and once again I fell victim to the scanners and ended up waiting in the secondary inspection queue TWICE! First time for a dodgy image, second time for an iPad swab.

Overall rejection rate was probably 10% which is the best I have seen. The body scanners were performing very well, almost no secondary body screening there. I was told that one of them had broken down already, teething troubles I hope.

In total it has taken fifty minutes from the hotel to the lounge which I think is the longest ever at Newcastle.

Now settled down with the standard trio and ready for the gate to open