UMTravels

Because of my early flight out of Berlin to London (and back to Seattle), I booked a hotel right at the airport.

When I was at the liquor store earlier in the day, I picked up some sparking German wine to have as a final toast with Horst.

 

And Horst was king enough to run down to the bar and get me a “bucket” of ice:

The hotel (like the airport) is only a couple of years old, so the rooms are really fresh and modern:

 

But the hotel restaurant is NOT cheap – good thing I’ve got Schnitzal!

But I LOVE the inserts in the hallway carpet!!!!!! Very Berlin 1936 Olympics:

Up at 4am, cross the street to the airport at 5am, flight at 7am.

But first, the lounge. Saw this in the Duty-Free Shop – almost bought one for a friend’s dog:

And the Lounge, though it’s run by a third-party vendor – and has COVID protocols in place:

Interesting – baked beans or scrambled eggs in Mason Jars!

And Kombucha!

Sadly, this is not my plane – it’s the TinTin plane from Brussels Airlines:

Sadly, I’m on British Air, with their ridiculously excessive surcharge fees – but I’m up front:

And at Heathrow, ANOTHER FUCKING BUS to the terminal:

But, at least I have access to the First Class Lounge even though I’m only flying in Business – my top-level OneWorld Emerald status gets me in…and a whole lot of other people:

And some of the food – you scanned a QRCode, pulled up the menu and put your location.

And they had some great posters in the bathrooms….

And, finally, a jet bridge!

But onboard, I realized I’ve been SCREWED. They downgauged my plane from a 787-10 to a 787-9. From the modern Club Suite to Piece-of-80’s-Crap-Business-Class-Seat-That-Doesn’t-Even-Go-Completely-Flat.

Look at how bloody cramped and claustrophobic the window seat is!

This is what a Club World Suite looks like:

One is NOT the other. Once again, BA has screwed the pooch. Last time for me to pay excessive fees and get screwed. But I have to get home. They moved me to an aisle seat which was much less claustrophobic, but still not all that comfortable.

At least I had my old seat open to throw my extra crap in.

And then the food and booze started:

An upside is that BA has brought back a traditional British Roast dinner:

Interestingly enough, The Points Guy did a review of this Business Class meal, even through he was in First Class – but they had run out of them (bigger portion, better cut of meat, but the rest sounds the same). Link is here: I flew to London to try British Airways’ roast dinner (thepointsguy.com)

His description is MUCH better than mine.

Panacotta and cheeses for dessert.

The meal brought my anxiety level down, and my exhaustion (and the crappy inflight selection of movies) brought me sleep after watching to Judi Dench movies, Murder On The Orient Express (which I’ve taken the train from the station with the hotel that the book was written in, north of Istanbul) and Blithe Spirit. Both lovely.

With my annoyance level of the flight, I just decided to sleep – which is exactly what BA cabin staff wants you to do. The feed you and expect you to go to sleep so they can chat with their friends in the galley for the rest of the flight. Again, no more BA flights for me.

Was at the gate at 4:20, was through customs/immigration by 4:40pm (shockingly quick – mostly because I didn’t get secondary COVID screening), called the upholstery place that was putting a new top on my convertible to confirm they were still open, and grabbed a Lyft to the shop, paid for the top, and was home by 5:20pm – an hour after I landed.

The advantage of sleeping the rest of the flight was that I was sober enough to pick up the car.

I’ll do a car blog post down the road, still working on some interior stuff.

Back to work for me. Arrive on a Friday, work Saturday, Sunday, then Wednesday-Sunday filling in for Jim

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