This months cocktails and menu. The first time I’ve seen it as the outbound was from T4

Me neither. The public spaces are slightly swisher, the menu more upmarket, maybe a difference in breakfast quality? Maybe someone here has stayed at both and can tell us.

They will miss you in the CCR when you are not flying with BA anymore. maybe they add a name plate with your name on it.

Smoked Salmon



Bacon Chop with a side of fries



And Treacle tart, extra warm



Thoroughly enjoyed all three accompanied by a fair few top ups of the champagne.

Now that I have eaten myself full there’s maybe 25 minutes before I need to go to the gate, just enough time to squeeze in a coffee and an XO Brandy

Just enough time before I head to the gate to close out this trip. The flight to Newcastle has been reported so many times that unless something noteworthy happens you can consider it as inoffensive as always

Firstly, a sincere thank you to everyone that contributed along the way. I love the interactions and it’s always great to wake up to a load of overnight banter.

Some final scores on the doors:Total trip time: almost exactly 400 hours

Total time spent in airports and in the air: almost exactly 100 hours

Total distance travelled according to circle mapper 40,175 km which is slightly over the circumference of the Earth

Favourite long-haul airline: Singapore airlines

Favourite Short-haul airline: Air Bulgaria!

Favourite crew: Air New Zealand

Favourite Hotel: although the intercontinental was far away the best hotel my favourite was actually Amadea, despite only having the most basic of rooms. The staff and the vibe were lovely.

Favourite airport lounge: has to be the Concorde room, I will definitely miss it after April.

Highlight of the trip: Hobbiton

Least favourite long-haul airline: Air New Zealand. Fantastic crew, but that new seat layout just needs to be trashed.

Least favourite Short-haul airline: no surprise at all, British Airways

Least favourite crew: Turkish Airlines SIN-IST by far

Least favourite Hotel: that award obviously goes to Hotel Niky

Least favourite lounge: probably the Aspire lounge at Newcastle because familiarity breeds contempt?

Lowlight of the trip: Ignoring the various maladies, that Singapore food tour because the spiel set high expectations.

Items packed and not used: only one, a pair of sandals as it was never dry enough to wear them.

Items I should’ve packed more of: instant coffee sachets!

Biggest Irritation: Flyertalk, Cloudflare, and Holafly. Cloudflare hated Holafly eSIM and re-authenticated every second post. Back to Airalo next time.

Sleep debt and jet lag - immeasurable!

With so many moving parts, I think this trip has hung together amazingly well. There’s been a few little bumps along the road but overall it’s been remarkably smooth. If I was to change one thing, I think it would be the return legs being much quicker and taking the pain. Over two full days to get from Istanbul to Newcastle is too long. It worked out this way because I was booking a redemption and that was the availability, I should’ve simply paid for the most efficient flight back.

Maybe there is one last thing to add.. an OPUP to business class on this final leg

And boarding, not
boarding

Now, that is a perfect ending! Thank you for making this Trip Report both informative and entertaining!!

Really enjoyed this JapesUK ! Thanks for bringing us along! Re. Singapore, you might want to just bookmark a few dishes like bak kut teh, char kway teow, chicken rice etc and go to the fav spots hihglighted by various SG glitterati (you can usually find various "best stall for..." lists online). More useful than a food tour in SG, plus you can bail anytime for some post prandial tipple.

Thanks again for this great TR. You know when everything goes as planned it would be borring. the anomaly brings the adrenalin and blood pressure up.

A nice perk to end the trip. Thank you for the trip report..

Another good TR; looking forward to the next one……..

Glad you managed to get the Currywurst!

Any chance of more TRs for this year?

Nothing planned except probably collaborating on the TR for the FT do to TLS next month. All my flying is back to the boring kind. I do have a mountain of avios to spend again, and am going to look for a similar but different TK trip later in the year so you never know, but definitely back into retirement for now.

I have enjoyed following you around the world, thank you for sharing. What was your favourite beer of the trip?

The Kura Kura that I had whilst sitting in the sun beside the ocean in Bali�. Location, location, location