Hi drminn. When all of the initial surgeries were being done and I was constantly healing from one after the other, absolutely not at all compatible with solid food of any sort. My diet for the first few months of this journey comprised exclusively of yoghurt, soup, porridge, and chopped up soft noodles and had the side effect of my losing all the lockdown weight I’d gained. It is only in the last couple of months that I have been eating ‘normal’ food at all, and even then I’ve been pretty cautious. You’ll notice there’s nothing overly sticky/chewy/hard in any of the food choices.

And we’re off. I was in Birmingham for a couple of nights on business again this week and only travelled home yesterday, arriving at around 6pm. Now about 10 hours later it’s time to hit the road once more! To recap on the plan for this weekend:

An early rescheduled departure from Newcastle due to my original scheduled flight being cancelled means I have a 10 hour! transit in LHR. Assuming we arrive on time this morning it’ll be off to the AA first lounge for pancakes before finding a comfortable spot in the BA first lounge to work for a few hours. I’ve a half day holiday booked so that around lunchtime I can embark on a lounge safari for the second half of the day. The safari will probably mostly be in the business lounges as I did a first class lounge tour on the last trip. The second flight is early evening and arrival at the hotel should be close to midnight. Saturday is going 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. It will be an 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.

Taxi is scheduled to arrive in 10 minutes time so as usual it’s time to finish my coffee and head off to NCL airport for the next instalment of this yo-yo trip to Bucharest.

Nearly fifteen minutes from kerb to lounge this morning, a small part of that due to the changed foot traffic flow in place due to the ongoing construction, but mostly due to me lollygagging and chatting to various staff about the construction and new scanners.

A remarkable clear and balmy morning considering the drenching the are has received of late, still some minor flooding on a couple of the roads heading to the airport this morning


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The BA desks were looking pretty busy but as I am hand baggage only it was straight through to departures. The initial boarding pass check was clear however the approach to security is completely changed. There is one of the new scanners immediately to the left as you approach security. Chatting to the security guys a little later they say that it should be coming online this week so maybe next week I’ll get to see it in action.


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Immediately after this there is a long temporary tunnel and all of the foot traffic converges into this


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Once through the tunnel the fast path lane reappears on the left.

Easily through security and after a few minutes chat to the chaps manning the security screening I was off to the aspire lounge.

All change here too as the plus lounge is now closed for renovations. A through the keyhole type view of the plus lounge space taken through the gap in the chained up door


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with an hour to kill it’s time to grab a coffee and take a look at the buffet

Traditional morning trio acquired and decided that I will pass on the breakfast this morning as I have a special meal ordered.

The lounge is remarkably quiet compared to my normal Saturday morning visits, rather pleasant overall.

As an aside, the very personable young lady on reception reminds me of someone and it has been bugging me for a couple of weeks now until the penny finally dropped. She bears a striking resemblance to the actress in the day after tomorrow, Emmy Rossum.


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With twenty minutes to gate it’s time to sit back and enjoy the fizz.

Gate 3 as usual and boarding already underway with 25 minutes to departure. We are on G-TTNF today and looking at the diary it’s my first time on this particular plane. Crew are off to Zurich after this one, which reminds me that it’s somewhere I must go back to as I have only ever spent a day there when I was living in Switzerland.

Row one today and currently sat in 1B to avoid the inevitable battering if I was resident in 1C during boarding. Seat spy is showing 1A as blocked so may have the three seats to myself, in which case I’ll stay here for most of the flight.


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Lovely, lovely leg room and proof that I can iron trousers when I know they’ll appear in photos :)

There are only four rows in front of the curtain so it should be a relatively easy run for the crew in Club Europe this morning.

Boarding complete with ten minutes to go, a good start to the weekend. Smooth flying anticipated and with the jet bridge pulling away there is every chance of an early arrival.

The jinx is strong within me this morning, the crew had a bit of a nightmare. They were quickly up and about preparing the meals for the flight deck when they found that the chilled was all over the place and covered in the contents of an exploded yoghurt pot. Took them a time to clear that mess and feed the cockpit.

In the meantime they’d discovered that the carts were broken so it was going to be a hand to hand service from the galley. Then another mess discovered and by the time they started serving we were 25 minutes in, and by the time they finished row 4 it was 10 minutes to landing.

And onto jinx number 2, my earlier comment of “ … I decided that I will pass on the breakfast this morning as I have a special meal ordered.”

Well, as it happens…. The cold platter was delivered still sealed, completely correct but unusual for the crew to do so


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And this was quickly followed by the standard hot option, again still sealed. Upon opening, I discovered this


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The food trolleys must have had some seriously rough handling with all the varied damage!

The cinnamon roll was my in flight breakfast :D

Landing was smooth and the taxi was short and pretty soon we were at T5. Passed this on the taxi in and it took me a few seconds to work out what was ‘wrong’ about it.


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T5 in all of its glassy glory

There was a bit of a ruckus going on at the Boarding pass checkpoint with the gentleman at the front of the queue demanding to be let through even though he didn’t have a boarding pass. Eventually with much huffing he went off back to the service desks.


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Once past this little delay everything was quick and smooth and it was actually one of my fastest T5-T3 transfers ever, 40 minutes end to end.

Into the BA first class lounge and a small english breakfast before now settling into the corner and getting some work done.


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Next up - lunch in Cathay business lounge and then a business class lounge safari for the afternoon (and maybe the occasional diversion into first ;) )

Praise for the Cathay lounges is almost universal and is well deserved. The business class lounge enters into this noodle bar and seating area


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the second part of the lounge is the food hall and the start of the window seating


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The third and final part of the lounge is the bar and the larger open seating area


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I had order some stir fried rice and Dim Sum when I entered the lounge and by the time I had taken these pictures and picked up a glass of champagne the buzzer was going and my food was ready


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I have no shame, I almost inhaled these, they were delicious.

wandered back to the food hall to see what was on offer and tried a little sample of a few things, everything was very good


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And now it is time to hit the showers as I was so tired last night I completely skipped showering :(

Successfully scrubbed and fit for polite company once more. The Cathay showers are definite a step up from the BA offering


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Next stop, the AA business lounge.

this is a pretty substantial sized lounge with a couple of nice nooks and crannies to hide away in.


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The food options always seem to lean heavily towards the sweeter end of the scale, always plenty of cake, cookies, and other sugary goodness.


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A couple of goodies, purely in the interest of science, I’m sure you understand ;)


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A lot of time when you read lounge comparisons the AA lounges always come in towards the bottom of the list. The food and drink offering in this lounge is more than adequate, Qantas is far poorer. I think that the problem is that the decor in this lounge is utilitarian, bordering on stark. No real efforts appears to have been put into making it look attractive or comfortable. It’s not a place you’d want to settle into for a few hours, I wonder if that is deliberate.

Time to enjoy the fizz and goodies and then maybe I’ll use my pass to go into the Aspire lounge to give a view of the pay to use lounge product

I noticed the sign for the showers so popped down the corridor to take a look. Not as nice as the Cathay ones but definitely a cut above the BA offering


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Its time to pack everything away and head off for lunch. In the intervening couple of hours I have been engaged in a little bit of horse trading in the lounge :) My side of the trade, a donation to comic relief flying start:


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All will be made clear in a future trip report.

Buffet here in the BA first lounge has been switched out to lunch and it is deja vu


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The jinx is definitely strong today! The post currently showing as #173 about leaving the first class lounge was originally #168 and now is out of order so if you read the previous post and wondered WTH?!? Then, me too! Maybe it’ll sort itself out and this will be the WTH post :D

I did mention at the end of my AA lounge posts that I would go over to the aspire lounge next, and so I did - No space available


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Time to deploy the rarely used Dragon Pass over at No1 lounge - definitely no space :D


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Oh well, I tried :). Next stop, BA galleries business lounge.

As you might expect, quite a spacious lounge, plenty of seating and broken up into different areas to baffle the noise somewhat.


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The food options are going to look remarkably familiar if you have seen the first lounge lunch layout


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Drink options are also very similar although there are some differences, mostly items available only in the first lounge and not in the business one rather than completely different brands or types of spirit.


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One thing I’ve not seen or noticed before are these sweets and bags sitting on one of the tables. They are incredibly popular, there have been people around them since i arrived

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Champagne is available in the business lounge on request so asked one of the fine chaps for a glass and then settled down into one of the little pods toward the far rear of the lounge


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Time to move on to the last business class lounge of the day, the Qantas lounge that I visited last week as part of the first class lounge tour. The downstairs bar and restaurant were closed again and upstairs was quiet. I will not go into great detail as you all saw it last week but I did stick my head into the shower rooms which look clean and ok, and also went for bartenders choice of drink and he decided on the passion fruit mai tai, not something I would have chosen for myself but very agreeable


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I look at my itinerary and weep. Another T4 dep proposed.

Sometimes I do the same, especially those days when I’m turning and burning through my house in less than twelve hours :D

It is now 4 pm so I have been bouncing around T3 for eight hours. I had a quick stroll down to duty free to be greeted like an old friend at the Jack Daniels stand :D. A sampling of the new JD and then back to the lounges. Currently in residence in the dining section of the Cathay Pacific first class lounge and waiting to order.


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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….

I hadn’t booked a pick up this week which was a mistake, the airport land-side was just a mess and multiple Bolt’s cancelled by the drivers until 20 minutes later one finally deigned to actually turn up. A quick drive to the Radisson and check in was around 1am. Upgraded again and if these pictures evoke some degree of deja-vu it’s because it is exactly the same suite as last week


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With that it is now 1:30am and I need to be up in seven hours time at the very latest, so it is goodnight from me for a few hours.

Talking of which, BTS is another one of cities I would recommend to visit, but are not MR-worthy destinations, and another Radisson Blu I can heartily recommend. Should you ever find yourself there.

[QUOTE=Fabo.sk;35717772]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./QUOTE]

Unfortunately I’m completely the other way around, Sunday evening of the 19th and I’m bracketing the 25th, out 24th, back 26th.

I’m sure our paths will cross eventually :)

I'm also passing in late afternoon 29th and morning 4th, but I gather as those are workdays, less likely to match.

19th evening I will be in London, unfortunately flying into Gatwick, so no point in trying there either.

Thanks! Never been there, will have a look at the BA sale tomorrow and see if there’s anything worth having. I still need to book about 800 TP in total to get GGL this year so more than happy to pick off a few weekend breaks to get there.