no bubbles for breakfast? :)

No bubbles…. Update imminent :D

Boarding was complete almost exactly on our departure time and I guess we’d missed our slot by then as we waited, and waited….

Standard safety announcements and demonstration but without the BA mania around smoking and vaping, seems quite odd to hear it only mentioned once rather than the BA five or six times!

Eventually we were pushing back a little under twenty minutes after our scheduled time . Then came the incredibly long taxi around Istanbul and we finally cleared the ground almost thirty minutes late. With a flight time of an hour and five minutes I should still be in Bucharest in good time.

A few minutes after the seatbelts were off the IFL came to take a drinks order and drape the tray. I chose a white wine as I’d sure there will be plenty of Ursus beer in the lounge this evening, plus I don’t really want to be in the dentist chair smelling heavily of beer! The tray table is also very generously sized which is a plus. The meal arrived soon afterwards. You have to pre-order your food when booking and I had chosen the lasagne which was not great, a lot of cheese and pasta, very little meat.

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The simple little side salad was fresh and crisp and accompanied by sachets of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The tiramisu desert was a decent serving size and very tasty.

Once the tray was cleared coffee and a further drink was offered and they had cognac!

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If this is considered Europes worst business class then someone somewhere is kidding themselves and the likes of BA and KLM are in real trouble! On a sample set of one I would prefer the TAROM in flight soft product to BA. The only food and beverage items that BA would score more highly than TAROM on is the half decent champagne and the main course.

All the departure delays were made up in flight and we hit the ground just after 11:50. I was literally finishing my cognac 5 minutes out.

Straight through security, same guy at passport control as a fortnight ago and he remembered me, highly amused at my 8 hour stay.

Ordered a bolt which was here and waiting and now heading to the surgery where I am going to be very early.

That was a good pleasant flight and definitely a pleasant surprise, let’s see what this evening brings.

Hello old friend

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Arriving 45 minutes early my consulting dentist was free and so checkup done with a clean bill of health and then a visit by the hygienist for a quick clean and polish and I was out of the surgery before the appointment was supposed to start. No charge for todays service which was another pleasant surprise.

A beautiful day in Bucharest

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Which is lucky as it’s an hours walk into the city if I want to go that far. Will see if Google can suggest somewhere nearer. I’ve hours to kill and there is not really anything left that I desperately want to do here, spent so many days and weeks here already over the past twelve months.

That looks like a pretty decent business class.

The lounge, on the other hand... You'll have more to enjoy in the iGA lounge, which I guess is the one for tomorrow.

Out of curiosity, how much is the transfer in the minivan?

I agree, from my one and only experience I fail to see why they are panned but that is only one flight. I really liked the 2-2 cabin, it was very comfortable. From some comments I’ve read I think they may fail badly on the customer service and irrops side, hopefully I will not find out for myself!

Yes, IGA lounge tomorrow so another lounge tour. And if you think that skyteam lounge was bad, Otopeni lounge coming up soon which as you’ve seen from previous trips, is dire :)

Minivan is fifty euros, so not cheap. Service on the two uses has been spot on. They even contacted me to be sure I was out and back in today, not all companies
would have bothered.

I had a change of heart and decided to head to the airport very early. Security was an absolute zoo again and I’m glad I had no time pressures and could just amble through, it took the best part of half an hour to clear

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And then something I have never seen before, absolutely no retail

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All of the retail everywhere is taped off and being de-stocked. I cannot believe this is a renovation, not all at once, must be a franchise change

I've been through many. But never before has a visit to the dentist ended without a bill:D

Pretty sure Japes has already paid the yearly salary of the receptionist in the past couple months :D a "free" checkup is the least they could offer :D

Both of them, and their stand in :D

I have a very bad experience with iGA lounge. I had to queue for almost 30 min to get in. Then it was overcrowded, no place to sit and almost no food.
having read all the positive reviews here, I guess I was just unlucky

See what tomorrow brings, today there was no queue. It is a pay to enter lounge too so I expect that can cause excessive swings in occupancy.

He can spend more on flight tickets. That means more TR for us! 😁

Now your visit to the dentist is successfully over, I can crack the obvious joke: "OPEN WIDE..." ;)

Well, after more than four hours camped out in the lounge and having consumed enough Ursus to drown a small bear it is still over 30 minutes to boarding. I think it’s time to decamp to the gate and hang out there just for a change of scenery. There is only so long you can spend in the OTP lounge and I passed that mark long ago!

Also there is something fishy about the scheduling of this flight. Tarom says 20:35 departure and a flight time of 1:40 which we know from the inbound is far too long. For the same flight flighty says a 21:10 departure. FIDS says 20:35, Internet results vary. All very odd.