spicysoup

Hello All,

I am about to pull the trigger on the below to achieve Gold for the first time.



Would the collective wisdom be able to tell me if this is pretty straight forward? Looking for two nights in 'The Pods' in HEL and a night in The Vienna in OTP. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks All!

thebigben

If you think you will enjoy Helsinki (be warned it is going to be cold!) and Bucharest, I would say go for it. I have enjoyed both in the past and would go again.

spicysoup

Thanks. I was more looking for whether the timings would be at all tight and whether there are any tricks i need to be aware of. I was kind of resigned to the fact I'd see very little of either city, haha.

thebigben

It seems alright, and you are apparently all on the same ticket, so that's good. As far as timings go, you just have to see if that's okay with your sleep schedule

Consider you could lounge hop in T3 at Heathrow.

LTN Phobia

Be warned Bucharest may be cold too. I had plenty of -20 degree days there

bisonrav

NWIFlyer

I’d echo this - at that time of the morning I’ve seen passport queues up to 45 minutes, so allow more time than you anticipate if you’re at all unfamiliar with how the airport works.

There are two security points - the one reached by turning left after entering the terminal (not signposted - it’s the non-logical choice because there’s a point directly in front of you as well) is larger and invariably moves much quicker.

However, you then have to double back for the passport check, where you come into conflict with the passengers exiting the other security point. It’s all terribly poorly laid out, but you get through eventually to be confronted by BUD’s next oddity - exit Customs, which consists of an arch and a man sitting on a chair, then a seemingly near random gate numbering system. Once you’re used to it it’s all fine, but getting your bearings so you know where to come back to for boarding isn’t a bad plan.

BA uses the TAROM lounge, a level up - take the escalator that’s behind you as you walk through. It’s nothing special, but much quieter than the scrum below.

KARFA

for a b2b at OTP there seem to be two possible immigration/connection points depending on what gate you get.

there is the one where you go up the stairs, see the man on the left, then get sent back down the stairs to the security point to the right as you come down.

there is also another point in a more modern bit of the airport where the connection channel is on the same level as the passport desks, it is off to the far right but normally roped off, you basically have to attract the attention of the immigration officer in one of the booths who will come to you and check bp & passport, then let you in to the security channel.

bisonrav

cupsandsaucers

I guess the only question you need to ask yourself is gold worth £800+ and 4 days of your time?? For me no way. But each to their own.

RG1X

Depends if you actually enjoy the travelling part. £800 sounds reasonable to me for the experience. That said, if it was me I'd probably want a little time to actually see Bucharest.

Edit - How many points is that anyway?