It's been a while since I travelled that intensively :)

A very satisfying char Sui bun and a wonton noodle soup later and I’m comfortably ensconced in one of the viewing seats with a couple of drinks and a few Elizabeth Shaw mints…. Don’t tell my dentist! This will do me nicely for the next hour until it is time to wander off to the gate


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I’ve had a few of those, most memorable was leaving central Moscow at Friday mid afternoon following a customer meeting for DME-LHR-NCL, I got back home around 2000. Then Saturday morning at 0600 for NCL-LHR-LAS and on the strip by early evening, leading up to a sales conference.

Back to the present, after a week at home, I’m off to Germany AND……… OTP next week myself.

Still enjoying the report, keep it up.

wow, that sounds absolutely brutal, especially if you ended up on the strip at the finish!

glad you’re still enjoying the lunacy and typos :) When are you in OTP?

Gate 26 tonight so not too far of a travel from the CX lounge and boarding started almost immediately. We are T-28 minutes to our departure slot and people are streaming aboard.

Given how strong the jinx is with me today I have nothing further to add except…. Next stop Bucharest :D

Technically I’m there Thursday and Friday but there’s further lunacy. I arrive 0030 on Thursday and depart 0600 Friday. The airport HGI is the natural choice. 2 meetings in town on the Thursday.

T4 dep avoided. Among other things, I realised that the AMS-CDG-LHR connection I was eyeing included a 7:20am departure from AMS. Which explains why I couldn't see it in our corporate booking tool.

Anyway after some fiddling to make it stop suggesting I take easyJet, I got what I wanted and found some peculiarity about our company fares, apparently, BA is a preffered supplier now, and we have some special fares... and it works out that our special J fare is changeable and while it's more expensive than non-flex Economy... it's less expensive than changeable Economy?

Anyway the end result is, it's gone through and been approved by some anonymous officer somewhere far away in either the corporate HQ or pulling a night shift in a service center in Asia.
Unless my boss has an issue with it for reasons of optics or such and wants to spend extra on the ticket itself, and lunch out and dinner back, which otherwise I would get in the lounge... I'll be around in T5 in a couple of weeks.

Saturday though, so low chances of a meet-up I think.

Glad to see you're still around, after a mention in a previous TR by JapesUK, I got hooked on the Diary you wrote all that time back. Ever thought about doing a next installment? :)

Many thanks for this thread - although I'm petrified of dentists, I've kept with it! I've spent a few nights in Bucharest on previous TP runs, so your reactions have been interesting.

And maybe because I've got some Sofia trips coming up, the lounges in T3 have been on my mind! Alas, it won't be until my last flight of the bookings when I'll get into the CX F lounge again. Their Business offering was very acceptable yesterday though...

I’m with Fabo.sk on this, I thoroughly enjoyed that report, be good to see another.

Agreed, I like both their lounges and am more than happy in the business side. We are very spoiled in T3, there’s a wide array of lounges and they all have something going for them.

Unfortunately so..the weeks after next I’m actually going through AMS :D Have Gdansk and Wroclaw on my way to flying blue gold

I was wondering if you have finally landed :D there is a certain level of... naughty fun in these realtime TRs.

reminds me of one time I made a "create your own story" TR for readers on a different website, where I published a part 1 along with a poll on where should I go on my free weekend :)

I do need an XP run too, however I am leaving that until next spring. If you are passing through Sunday 19th mid to late morning or Saturday 25th in the evening, I will be more than happy to meet, though, for obvious reasons, not in the Crown lounge.

edit: visited Gdansk on my FTL Poland run back in... 2019? I want to say? And I enjoyed it. And Wroclaw, earlier this year, while driving across Europe. I heartily recommend their local Radisson Blu for a stay.

It was one of the best LHR-OTP flights I have had, solely down to the crew who were fun and engaging and did not hide behind the curtain at all.

I’d ordered the Hindu special meal and it was the chicken again which is really good. Having had this before and knowing that it completely overpowers the white wines I tried it with the two reds. i’m a white wine drinker so for me the Shiraz worked really well whereas the Cabernet Sauvignon was ‘too red’ coming over the top of the curry.


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The standard menu was the Thai curry or the beetroot salmon


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Thanks for the tip, and I have booked the Radisson already based on how much I like the Bucharest one. Talking of which….