BA A350-1000 Club Suites Review
My first long-haul experience with British Airways in Club Suites
I booked this trip 7 months before the flight day, and was very much anticipating my next long haul trip. Time counted down, the day had come, and I travelled over to Heathrow Airport with bags in tow, ready for my trip over to Hong Kong and beyond!
British Airways flights mainly depart from Terminal 5 at London Heathrow – with a smattering of Iberia flights too – with only a few BA flights departing from Terminal 3. I made my way over to Terminal 5 to check in my luggage, to the large check-in desk array at the North end of the terminal – where there is a dedicated Business Class check-in area.
The Economy check-in is towards the middle of the terminal, with First class check in at the South end of the terminal.
My bag was dropped with the very friendly check-in agent who said she had never been to Hong Kong before, but was looking forward to going some time, and I made my way through Fast-Track security.
Very recently, Heathrow completed it’s upgrades at Terminal 5 – so now all of the scanning machines are the new type, which means you can leave your liquids and laptops in your bag whilst they are all scanned – and liquids can now be up to 2 litres in size. It really helps NOT having to open up bags, put everything in different trays for separate scanning and so on – a big time-saver!
I was quickly through to the departures area, and made my way to the South Lounge at London Heathrow. You can read more about the Departure Lounges at London Heathrow here. I charged up my devices, downloaded some articles on PressReader, and had a glass of the daily smoothie and some water, also topping up my water bottle to the flight.
I tend to get super dehydrated on long-haul flights so always try and drink water regularly – even if it means more trips to the loo!
My gate was called, as Bus Gate A10, and I made my way down to get on the bus over to the remote stand. I had used Flighty app to track the plane that was assigned to my flight, and saw it landed and parked up on a remote stand. Sometimes, planes do move around the airfield, but this time it hadn’t, and was still on a stand close to Terminal 3 at Heathrow.
I boarded as the last off the bus, taking some time to take some photos – when do you ever get to be that close to an aeroplane usually!
I put my rucksack and coat above me, I found a very thick and plump pillow along with bedding set (blanket and mattress protector) in the seat already, and very soon I was offered a choice of champagne or orange juice as a pre-departure drink, and offered menus to read through – my order would be picked up just before takeoff.
Please note, I have blurred faces of some passengers and crew so they are not identifiable.
The suite was really comfy, the seat must be kept upright for takeoff and landing and you must wear a 3-point safety belt (similar to a car!) for takeoff and landing, although in the night and upon lowering the seat to bed mode, you can use one safety belt only.
To the right of the seat is the door, which can be closed once the aircraft is in the air, but must be stowed in case of emergency on takeoff and landing. To the left there are three cabinets – one at around eye height, containing a small Amenity Kit and 500ml water bottle. My headphones are resting on the 2nd shallow cabinet, which can hold headphones, and shallow items, and the menu is on top of the 3rd cabinet, which is fairly deep and contains a universal plug socket, 2x USB-A charging points, and can hold a couple of bottles of water and deeper items.
The screen is a fairly fast responsive touch-screen, with a handheld mini screen and remote tucked away in the larger 3rd cabinet. This can show the interactive map at any time, even whilst playing media on the main screen. Sadly BA have not fitted the in-plane cameras so you can’t see a view below or above the plane – but you can view the position on the moving map, which sometimes has facts about the takeoff and destination cities.
I was then approached to take my dinner and breakfast order – menus below. Any drinks were available to order with the meal, which was nice, as I did fancy a chamomile tea to help me drift off to sleep! What would you order?
Boarding was complete, and it was soon time to take off, which was a little delayed – we were parked a fair distance from the runway. Upon taking off, the A350 was speedy but efficient and the noise inside the cabin was minimal – a really recommended aeroplane to fly on!
Within a few minutes we were climbing steadily and over Europe – with big fluffy clouds getting smaller below, and my home already hundreds of miles away.
Service started around 50 minutes into the flight – whilst I was enjoying watching some Glastonbury highlights on the entertainment system – with a hot towel and a round of drinks.
Then, around 20 mins later, the starters were served. I chose the smoked salmon and avocado dish, as I felt like something cool and fresh to start with – the dish was incredibly tasty and did not disappoint!
The salmon was absolutely delicious and complemented very well with the creamy avocado and light pepper cream – the rolls were also warm and tasty with the butter melting straight into them. The romesco salad was also superbly tasty with the charred vegetables – a solid and very filling start to the meal!
The main course was still tasty but definitely not as tasty as the starter for me – the beef being a little tough, the broccoli very well-cooked and falling apart, the oyster sauce brought the dish together a little more, but the dish was overall somewhat tasteless – and a little disappointing, considering how good the starter had been.
Unfortunately at this point, I was very full and did not even attempt to try a dessert – it would have made the journey very uncomfortable!
The crew however were really pleased to be on this flight and very positive. Nothing was too much trouble, at any point in the flight – including helping me out when the person sitting in front of me took my seat bedding from where it had been stowed above my seat, and refused to use his own – they superbly asked him very kindly to pass back the unused bedding kit that was in his pod (and he was attempting to take home with him…)
Once the bedding had been secured, it was then time to get some rest. BA provide you with a seat-cover and blanket for the journey, along with a very fluffy pillow. The pillow and blanket are brilliant – the pillow is large, fluffy and supportive, and the blanket is warm, light yet very temperature regulating and generous in size. I am a very wriggly sleeper and unfortunately couldn’t get the seat-cover to stay on the seat itself during the more horizontal parts of the flight. The seat itself is made of sturdy and durable material but I somehow managed to friction-burn my elbow whilst getting comfy to sleep – mainly as the seat cover didn’t stay on!
The atmosphere was also very drying – I left a bottle of water near me for sipping whilst awake between sleep segments, and this was finished by the morning. I tend to drink a lot of water normally, but being on the flight felt like lots of moisture was being removed from my skin and
I took a trip to the bathroom to brush teeth before sleep. I am usually a disturbed sleeper on a plane, and really enjoy opening the window-blind to take some sleepy shots of a dazzling world below, in a country I have never been to before. However this flight, I tried my utmost to sleep and rest – I could then spend the evening discovering more about my next location.
A few woozy hours followed, some sleep was had, lots of rest was taken, and I awoke around three hours before landing at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) as the aeroplane inhabitants were being prepared for waking and breakfast.
Our window blinds were allowed to be cracked open a little, as by this point it was light outside – around 12 midday Hong Kong time. A quick wakening bathroom trip and a wet-wipe wash was useful at this point – I also brought some very minty toothpaste which definitely helped to awaken my senses!
It was then time for breakfast – I had chosen the vegetarian option the night before.
This was just the breakfast starter – if there is such a thing! I very much enjoyed the lime wedge to squeeze over the fruit – it felt very much refreshing on such a long flight.
In its wonderful location knowledge, my phone says that this breakfast was taken over Sichuan province in China, near to the city of Chengdu! If that is the case, I would have expected a little more chilli and spice… sadly lacking this time 🙂
Plates were collected and we were soon 30 minutes from landing, sweeping in to Hong Kong landing towards the East, with a superb view of the mountaneous islands, and coming in over the HK-Macao-Zhuhai bridge – more on that in another post, but it is the world’s longest bridge, at just over 34 miles!
This approach to HKIA is particulaly beautiful if the weather is playing ball – as you get to see the blue hues of the sparkly South China sea and various remote and mountainous islands on the way. Some of them even line up very well with the window…
And with a small plonk, we were now landed at HKIA, taxiing to gate, and telephone data returned, devices chirped into action and we were once again on solid ground. I prepared for the next part of my trip by downloading some directions, whilst on the plane…
Here’s my flight track for the flight – taking a little longer than in previous years, as Russian airspace is closed to European airlines, so a large diversion South is required:
Altogether, a great, comfortable experience, with very positive and helpful crew, who felt energised and happy to be doing their job – and a comfy seat from which to watch the journey happen.
Heathrow T5 BA Departure Lounges
A guide to T5 lounges and how to find the one with the most space!
There are 5 different Lounges at London Heathrow and access is only allowed for passengers either with status, or who are flying in Business or First Class with the airline.
Here’s a list of who is eligible to access which lounges at the terminal:
| Lounge Name | Status Required; or | Class of Flight ticket required |
| Concorde Room (CCR) | BA Gold Guest List | First |
| First Class Lounge | BA Gold | First |
| North Club Lounge | BA Silver | Business/Club World/Club Europe |
| B Gates Club Lounge | BA Silver | Business/Club World/Club Europe |
| South Club Lounge | BA Silver | Business/Club World/Club Europe |
Full disclaimer here – I can’t review the Concorde Room as I have not taken a first class flight, I am not a Gold Guest List and also haven’t been guest-listed into the CCR, however from other reviews and videos, there is a suite of showers and bathrooms, a first class bar with champagne and premium quality spirits and drinks, first-class dining area with rapid service, and first-class menu changing throughout the day, and high quality food on offer, workstations and quiet rooms to do work in and a quieter, more reserved ambience. It is located on the first floor above Departures at the South end of the terminal.
First Class Lounge
I was guested into the First Class Lounge when flying on the same flight as a friend who had Gold status at the time of flying.
The First lounge is located at the South end of the terminal, on the first floor above Departures. It can be used by anyone flying First Class on a departng flight from London Heathrow, or any member of the British Airways Club who holds Gold status, flying on any flight with OneWorld airlines, from Terminal 5.
The Gold check-in at the south end of the Terminal takes you through it’s own Fast Track check-in area – which leads you through straight to the First Class lounge so you don’t need to mix with the throngs of usual Heathrow travellers!
There are a large number of bathrooms and showers available at the lounge, with a queuing system to enter at busy periods. There is a dining area but this has buffet-style dining only. Each table also has a QR code so you can order items to your table, such as champagne, drinks not on offer for pour-yourself at the bar, or freshly cooked food.
My visit was in the morning, so as well as the hearty buffet breakfast, you could order breakfast champagne, Eggs Benedict or Eggs Florentine to your table. Menus change throughout the day, so there is breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner – with various options appearing alongside salad dishes, sandwiches and snacks all day long.
There is usually ample seating room in a variety of styles of seating – tables and desks for work, dining tables near the buffet, sofas and relaxing chairs.
There are also drinks bars for serve-yourself soft drinks and alcoholic drinks, along with serve-yourself coffee machines, with options for all kinds of coffee and tea, along with biscuits and cake slices.
Departures are not called-out, to keep the lounge quiet – there are plenty of gate status screens all over the lounge so you can keep up to date and check when your flight is boarding.
Galleries Lounges
The BA Galleries Lounges are for Silver members of the British Airways Club, flying on a OneWorld flight from Terminal 5 in any cabin, and anyone flying on a Business Class ticket either to Europe “Club Europe” or longhaul to the rest of the world “Club World”.
There are three of these across the area:
- Terminal 5 North
- Terminal 5 South
- “B” Gates Lounge
All three lounges feature similar styles of seating to the First/Gold lounge – lots of individual sofa seats with power, some work pods, some meeting rooms, a Children’s Play area, dining table style seats near the buffet, more relaxed areas and more formal areas.
There are plans to upgrade all Heathrow lounges to have better seating and more charging and connectivity – the seating in this picture from 2024 has already been replaced with more recent and comfortable armchair style seats, all of which have universal plug socket charging, USB-A and USB-C Charging, and also wireless charging for those with wireless charging enabled devices.
Each of the three Galleries lounges is very similar in seating arrangements, facilities and layout. The North lounge tends to feel a lot more busy and chaotic as it is the smallest of the lounges at the main terminal and closer to Business / Fast Track check in.
Departures are not called out at any of these lounges, to maintain some peace and quiet – there are plenty of departure screens indicating gate status all over the lounges to keep up to date with.
Galleries South is quite a lot bigger and can hold more people – whereas B Gates lounge is set away from the main terminal, on the “B” satellite – it is much closer for anyone taking a flight that is departing from gates on the B or C satellite terminals, which tend to be longhaul flights.
If you want to see how busy the lounges are, BA publish this data through open data feeds, which drives displays at the airport. However, if you are not able to see these signs, you may wish to download the Loungebird app – which shows the lounge occupancy data in a few different ways.
This is interestingly showing that at the second this screenshot was taken, the B Gates lounge is quieter than the Concorde Room – so if you’re a fan of peace and quiet in your lounge, it may be best to go to the B Gates!
When I am looking to get to the lounge, I normally open Loungebird, see the North slightly busier than South, so tend to head for South and to an area furthest away from the sign-in desks – it tends to be quieter here. I will also look at B Gates and if I know I am flying from a B or C gate, I will just head there first and not even bother with South or North.
The Lounge is worth a stop-off if you are looking for an emergency meal, a quick snack or drink, replenishing your water bottle for free, a loo break, a quick shower, a bit of peace before your flight, or charging up devices for the duration of your flight.
Booking BA A350 Club Suite
Searching for, and booking, my first long-haul experience in BA’s premier product
Using my points strategy (you can read more about credit cards here and earning avios here) I saved up 110,000 Avios over the past year since my last long-haul trip.
In July 2025 I had a BA Premium Plus Redemption to spend, so was looking at Business Class long haul flights to BA’s Asian destinations for flying in Jan-March 2026 – avoiding Lunar New Year (as this is a popular time for travel so there is usually very low availability). I was flexible on destination and was going to visit a number of other cities – not just the destination of the first flight.
BA offer two different types of Business Class cabin – the first, which was the first lie-flat business class in the world, Club World – which is referred to by frequent fliers as “old-style” or ‘Yin-Yang” because passengers are sat facing each other, in a 2-3-2 layout. It was the first of its kind when introduced in 2000 with the world’s first lie-flat bed in business class, but technology has come a long way since then.
Unfortunately BA hasn’t updated all of it’s current long-haul fleet with its newer product, so many destinations are only served by older planes with the older product.
The second kind of Business Class seat is the Club Suite – Introduced in 2019 when BA had its first A350-1000 aeroplane deliveries – updating the Business Class offering to a much more modern suite, with more privacy and a closing door, in line with other airlines’ more modern and private Business Class offerings.
I specifically wanted to try out the Club Suite this time, so used Google Flights to work out which routes the Club Suite is used on – here’s a snip from a Google Flights search page:
On the right-hand side, you can see that this flight has “Individual Suite” listed as the seat type – which means that the Club Suite is installed on the plane scheduled for this route.
If the aeroplane doesn’t have a Club Suite, it will show “Lie-Flat Seat” on the Google Flights listing, as in the example above. This, for British Airways, means the older style Yin-Yang Club World seating – which does have a flat bed, but not the individual suite.
At the time of checking, BA’s route to Hong Kong was flown by an A350 – and other routes in Asia, such as to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Singapore, were flown by other aircraft with either no suite, or potentially a suite but maybe not. It’s always worth checking Google Flights as this contains BA’s published fleet allocation to the flight – and the fleet allocation can change a few times a year.
Once Hong Kong was chosen as the best place to start my trip, I was looking at dates to fly. I am fairly flexible and very thankful that my work is flexible with time off – I was planning to take around two weeks of leave, so was looking at dates in January 2026 to March 2026, but not around Lunar New Year.
I used Reward Flight Finder website (other reward flight finders are available!) to set up some alerts. If you sign up for a subscription with RFF, you can set date ranges for outbound and inbound flights, and it will email you when a reward seat of your choosing becomes available.
Availability changes all the time – so it is worth signing up to one of these seat checker websites if you have dates you need seats for, as it will tell you straight away when seats become available.
The Avios price you pay will also depend on if the flight is being taken on a Peak or Off Peak day for that route, with Peak costing more Avios. Whilst there is no set definition for Peak or Off Peak, If you use Reward Flight Finder, you can see which dates on the route you are looking for, are defined by BA as Peak and Off Peak.
On RFF website, the Off Peak days are listed with a coloured circle around them, and Peak days are listed with no background circle. When you hover your mouse over the date, it will also confirm if it is Peak or Off Peak.
The colours around the circle also denote which class of ticket is available:
- Blue for economy,
- Yellow for premium economy,
- Purple for business class and
- Red for first class.
I received an email in late July 2025 that some dates had become available within my range. The flights were 2 weeks and 1 day apart, and were in Jan-Feb 2026, which fitted my criteria. There was no other availability at this time, so I snapped up the seats!
You can do this too, by logging into britishairways.com with your BA Club login, and then under “book a flight” – choose “book a flight with Avios”. It will then let you pick your flights, use your Reward voucher, and pay for the taxes on top.
At my time of purchase, this was 110,000 Avios plus £600 for airport taxes – the prices have gone up slightly since then.
I then got to looking at other destinations in Asia, where I would like to visit, where is easily served, where is cheap and where is expensive to fly to, and what bargains could be had – to plan the rest of this trip, as I wasn’t just going to stay in the one city for two weeks!
Points Strategy – Earning Avios without a credit card
As well as booking flights, there are many different ways to earn extra points to add to your total.
Points always help with making redemptions and paing for flights with Avios instead of money.
To pick up the most amount of Avios you may like to consider reading about BA Credit Cards and how you can use them to get half-price vouchers on travel – a half price points ticket is definitely a massive benefit!
Here are some more ways to increase your Avios without a credit card
Shopping using the Avios Portal
One of the best ways apart from using a credit card, is to use the Avios Shopping portal to add to the number of Avios you can earn. If you shop through the Avios Shopping Portal for purchases, you can add even more Avios to your total.
A huge amount of retailers are on the Portal – for all kinds of purchases, both in store and online, and for all types of things – from insurance, to your weekly groceries, travel insurance, hotels… you name it, there will be a retailer on the Portal that will give you even more Avios for spending money on usual items!
Some retailers offer a number of Avios per £1 spent, and some offer a number of avios extra per purchase.
There are often deals on Black Friday, Christmas and sometimes even Valentine’s Day and Easter as well.
It’s important to keep cookies enabled and say yes to any cookies being offered when shopping, or some transactions will not post successfully – and you may have to chase the posting manually.
Check out the deals available on the Avios Portal here
Answer Surveys for Avios
Over the past few years, Avios for Thoughts has been a great way of receiving Avios for answering surveys. There is usually a bonus of Avios for you upon signing up, as well as the chance to earn Avios for each survey you undertake.
Some surveys return 50 Avios, others 1000 – it’s worth taking a look to see if you can earn extra avios!
Join and find out more at Avios for Thoughts
Purchase Avios using Balance Booster
This option will cost money – however it can lead to getting cheaper airline tickets to any destination!
The Avios portal regularly runs a “Balance Booster” promotion, where you can choose to buy avios to boost those you already earned this month.
Usually you can buy up to 3x the number of avios earned in a month, however some end of year, black friday or other deals have offered up to 6x balance boosts.
It is a good rule of thumb to see how cheaply you can purchase the Avios. The best rate tends to be at 3x the boost, paying just under 0.96p per Avios. But – look at the conversion rate of £ to Avios when purchasing, and be sure you aren’t getting a bad deal on them!
It’s also worth noting that British Airways can withdraw Avios from your account and close your account at any time, if you may have gone outside of any acceptable use policies.
In the past there have been a number of fraudulent Avios withdrawals and transfers to other OneWorld airlines that use Avios as a currency. BA can sometimes flag transfers of Avios between different carriers as “fraudulent” or may put a hold on the Avios transfer for a number of days. Therefore – it is not recommended to purchase a large number of Avios – as they could, in theory, be taken away from you at any time and for any reason such that the scheme operators see fit.
Having said that – if you are interested in balance boosting, Click here to look at the current deals available to purchase and boost your Avios balance.
Points Strategy – Credit Card Redemptions
How to save your points and miles and make them go further!
I funded most of my long haul trip to Asia in January and February 2026 by using a points-earning strategy – which anyone else can do!
I have been a member of the British Airways Executive Club for a number of years, earning Silver status with them for the past few years – which allows for free seat choices with any booking, access to lounges no matter what class you are flying, earning extra Avios (the British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Qatar and Aer Lingus equivalent of points or air-miles) on each flight, and earlier boarding than most other passengers.
In December 2024, BA announced that the Executive Club would be “enhanced” – and re-named to the Club (loss of executive!) with a whole raft of other changes. For now I am not going to discuss these changes but will come back to this later on!
One of the best ways to get value for money for your flights is to use an airline branded credit card, to help you accrue points. You can then use these points to spend on Reward Flights with the airline – paying for the flight with points/miles, but paying a small amount in cash to cover airline and airport taxes.
British Airways have two co-branded cards with American Express – here are the details of the benefits of using one of the two cards.
Blue / Economy Reward Credit Card
The Blue BA Amex card lets you earn 1 Avios per £1 purchased on it, to help towards redeeming them for flights. The Avios are transferred to your BA account once a month, at the start of the month.
If you spend £15,000 in a year on the card, you are eligible to receive what is called the “Companion Voucher” – a voucher letting you purchase a flight or trip for two people for the avios price of one, in Economy – and can be redeemed on any flight where there is availability. If you are a solo traveller you can use it for 50% off of your trip. There are no yearly fees, and you can also collect 5000 bonus avios when you spend £2000 in the first three months, on your card.
For an example – at the beginning of 2026 (after some flight cost in Avios have increased) – here are some destinations and the cost in Avios for off peak (usually not school-holiday) and peak (usually school holiday) travel times:
| Location | Off-peak Single trip in Avios | Peak Single trip in Avios |
| New York / Accra | 27,500 + £60 taxes | 33,000 + £60 taxes |
| Dubai / Abu Dhabi | 27,500 + £60 taxes | 33,000 + £60 taxes |
| New Delhi / Mexico City | 33,000 + £85 taxes | 38,000 + £85 taxes |
| Johannesburg / Cape Town | 33,000 + £85 taxes | 38,000 + £85 taxes |
| Tokyo / Hong Kong | 38,500 + £110 taxes | 44,000 + £110 taxes |
| Rio de Janeiro | 38,500 + £110 taxes | 44,000 + £110 taxes |
| Buenos Aires / Singapore | 44,000 + £135 taxes | 49,500 + £135 taxes |
| Sydney via Singapore | 55,000 + £160 taxes | 60,500 + £160 taxes |
I have not listed European destinations here – as you are getting a half-price ticket it is much better to spend this on a long-haul trip rather than a shorter one!
So, if you’re a solo traveller it would only cost you 60,500 avios to travel on a return ticket in peak times to Sydney via Singapore, plus £320 in taxes.
If you are a couple, it would only cost you together 88,000 avios plus £540 for a return trip to Buenos Aires!
Black / Premium Plus Reward Credit Card
There is also the British Airways Premium Plus credit card – which has a few more benefits and a few more drawbacks! The points accrued each month are transferred over to your BA account once a month, at the start of the month.
The Black BA Amex earns you 1.5 Avios per £1 spent on it, on general purchases, and 3 Avios per £1 spent on British Airways flights, and British Airways Holidays.
If you spend £15,000 in a year on the card, you are eligible to receive the “Companion Voucher” – a voucher letting you purchase a flight or trip for two people for the avios price of one, in Premium Economy, Business, or First – and can be redeemed on any flight where there is availability. If you are a solo traveller you can use it for 50% off of your trip.
There is a £300 yearly fee, taken at the start of your credit agreement and on the same date every year after, and you can also collect 30,000 bonus avios when you spend £6000 in the first three months on your card.
Here are some current (Early 2026) Avios prices for some longhaul destinations across the world for Premium Economy seats:
| Location | Prem Ecomony Off-peak Single trip in Avios | Prem Economy Peak Single trip in Avios |
| New York / Accra | 46,750 + £175 taxes | 66,000 + £175 taxes |
| Dubai / Abu Dhabi | 46,750 + £175 taxes | 66,000 + £175 taxes |
| New Delhi / Mexico City | 52,250 + £200 taxes | 74,250 + £200 taxes |
| Johannesburg / Cape Town | 52,250 + £200 taxes | 74,250 + £200 taxes |
| Tokyo / Hong Kong | 55,000 + £225 taxes | 85,250 + £225 taxes |
| Rio de Janeiro | 55,000 + £225 taxes | 85,250 + £225 taxes |
| Buenos Aires / Singapore | 60,500 + £250 taxes | 88,000 + £250 taxes |
| Sydney via Singapore | 88,000 + £275 taxes | 126,500 + £275 taxes |
So, if you’re a solo traveller it would only cost you 126,500 avios to travel in a Premium Economy seat on a return ticket in peak times to Sydney via Singapore, plus £550 in taxes.
If you are a couple, it would only cost you together 121,000 avios plus £1000 to travel in a Premium Economy class seat on an off peak return trip to Buenos Aires!
And lastly, here’s the equivalents to fly on a points redemption in Business class:
| Location | Business Off-peak Single trip in Avios | Business Peak Single trip in Avios |
| New York / Accra | 88,000 + £200 taxes | 99,000 + £200 taxes |
| Dubai / Abu Dhabi | 88,000 + £200 taxes | 99,000 + £200 taxes |
| New Delhi / Mexico City | 99,000 + £250 taxes | 110,000 + £250 taxes |
| Johannesburg / Cape Town | 99,000 + £250 taxes | 110,000 + £250 taxes |
| Tokyo / Hong Kong | 110,000 + £300 taxes | 121,000 + £300 taxes |
| Rio de Janeiro | 110,000 + £300 taxes | 121,000 + £300 taxes |
| Buenos Aires / Singapore | 121,000 + £335 taxes | 132,000 + £335 taxes |
| Sydney via Singapore | 159,500 + £500 taxes | 187,000 + £500 taxes |
So, if you’re a solo traveller it would only cost you 187,000 avios to travel in a business class seat on a return ticket in peak times to Sydney via Singapore, plus £1000 in taxes.
If you are a couple, it would only cost you together 242,000 avios plus £1340 to travel in a business class seat on an off peak return trip to Buenos Aires!
If you are looking to go on a long-haul trip using this strategy, it helps to get the most Avios you possibly can. Check out Other Methods to Earn Avios too – this will help your balance get to what you need for a redemption!
Let’s just go…somewhere
As a small child, I dreamed of travelling, escaping off to another world – or just even a different part of this world, where people were new, and words were spoken differently. I didn’t know much past the end of my back garden, and always wondered what lay past the ends of the walk to school.
What if I just went wandering? How far could I roam?
Growing up, we didn’t have a car. Back then, it wasn’t so novel to do this. There was plentiful public transport, with buses and trains, and a taxi if you got completely stuck – although everyone was loathe to do this, as it was more costly than a bus ever would be. The network of local buses became fascinating to me, as a way of getting from point to point, and perhaps, one day, taking a stop beyond the limit of my knowledge. What excitement lies in the new and distant?
My world was compact, the local town, the houses of family nearby, my school, and not much else. When my parents took me on holiday, we would take a grand journey by train, up and through London, and then out the other side, to visit family. The train journey was endlessly fascinating – isn’t it just a wonder what you can see from the window? This tiny mind was blown, by the time passing as we moved, further and further away from what I knew. It was all exciting and different.
A sense of adventure was born.
As I grew older, I would ask my parents for a disposable film camera to take away. One year, as a birthday present, I received a more sturdy, grey plastic cheap point-and-shoot film camera, to take with me on my adventures. I had seen my parents using their camera, and enjoyed playing around with the settings of this and taking the occasional picture, if I was allowed.
It made a little keepsake of time – the people frozen in that picture, in that time, in that place.
Since then I have been saving the photographs I have taken, and have a large library of pictures. Many snaps from the 80s and 90s exist only as printed photographs with negatives, but since my first few digital cameras, I have kept an archive of every picture I have taken and wanted to keep (and deleted many that have fingers over lenses!).
Most entries here will be dated at the time they happened – mainly for my recollections, so may not appear in any kind of congruent order. In addition, there will be some travel planning posts for the future, and much more up-to-date information about locations, should you wish to plan travels to these places yourself; inspiration is a grand thing!
I am aware of times and ages advancing, and so wanted to put together a small almanac of travels I have taken during life, sharing pictures and stories along the way. Everything will be frozen back in the time I was there, as moments are.
I aim to remember the past – yet also inspire more travels, to new, distant and interesting worldly places. In these modern ages of difficult times, it is easy to get swept away in moments, or sad at the state of things. Simplifying and slowing is the way. And sometimes there is no need to plan an adventure. It just happens.
Are you ready? Adventure awaits. Pack your bags, and let’s just go…
Let’s just go… to Bulgaria, Part 1
What a quirky location for an international trip, but a lot of personal firsts…
Let’s travel back in time to the 1990s. European bucket-and-spade holidays were all the rage – and a status symbol – and your author was starting secondary school at this point. Many school-mates were going away on trips to exotic sounding destinations – Zante, Crete, Benidorm, Gran Canaria. These holidays cost a lot of money though, and my family were not well-off. We made do with a trip to see family in the South of England each summer, and perhaps a day trip to London, Bath or York for some variety at another school holiday. Leaving the country wasn’t part of the plan.
However, your author very much wanted to leave the country, and see seas that only appear in dreams. Watching Willy Fog and his 80 Days Around The World, and reading the book, made me eager to explore worlds unknown to me at that point. Even more so, upon finding out that Mysterious Cities of Gold, the 1980s Anime, was actually JAPANESE, I also desperately wanted to add Japan as one destination to this world-explorer ticket, and see what the future looks like, because so many futuristic things came from there too.
The transition to secondary school was hurried and world-opening. From a tiny junior school with limited views to a large secondary schools with lofty ceilings and a multi-cornered library, I could see the possibility of new worlds that weren’t always open to a kid from a council estate. In an effort to make more new friends, I asked if it would be possible to attend some of the extracurricular school trips – heavily discounted – and with payment plans available for those on low incomes.
In the first year, we started a Duke of Edinburgh scheme project, regarding conservation of natural species – with the last task to be visiting Costa Rica and getting to see conservation efforts in action, whilst visiting the jungle ourselves – along with teachers and local guides. The total cost to each student’s parents would be £450 – which would have been a heck of a lot of money to my parents at that time.
I asked if I could get a job to try and help my parents with this money, but they said nothing. They each had their own priorities – my mother, with her new husband and his family, and my father, managing not being financially drained in paying child support, whilst on a low income, and his wife paying for both of them to survive from her low wage.
Without telling me, my mum wrote a letter to school asking to remove me from this project, and that I had become interested without parental permission to attend. I remember clearly the lead teacher taking me to one side and explaining this to me. However, I really wanted to still be a part of the project without going on the trip – and completed all of the work alongside my classmates, all of whom would be going. It was very bittersweet to hear their tales of adventure when they returned, glowing, and with new Jungle life experience, having seen many rare species on their trip, and experienced life in a rainforest.
I did not stop wanting to travel – this experience made me more keen to just go somewhere, if anything.
At school, an opportunity arose for a very very cheap, last minute trip to go skiing in Bulgaria. It was £150 for a week’s stay, including flights, transfers, ski and pole hire, course passes and food and accommodation at the ski resort. I had no idea if I could ski. But I wanted to go somewhere – anywhere – that was completely different to my own life. This presented that first opportunity. Costa Rica was too far, but would Bulgaria be better as it is closer?
I presented this to both parents separately. My father, being an adventurous soul at heart, but weighed down by the drudgery of life, immediately agreed. His daughter might get to see some of the world that we had been joking about since I was small – “you might even end up in the capital of Outer Mongolia, Ulaan Bataar! How exciting! I wonder what’s there?”
My mother absolutely disagreed, of course. On all grounds, but mainly that it meant I wasn’t in her sight for a week, and she would worry about what I was up to. And in a Soviet country? I could be kidnapped!
Over the course of a week or so, I managed to wear my mother down so much, by talking about it non-stop, and also getting my stepfather to agree that they could fund this trip – providing my father also added some money to the mix. My mother reluctantly agreed, but on the proviso I would call them from the payphone in the hotel every day to let them know how it was going. I was terrified and completely alight with the delight of it all.
I was also, terrible at skiing. I had never skied before and was put into Ski Kindergarten, and went on three trips to the local dry ski slope to practice before the trip. I fell over every time, and was absolutely not in control of what I was doing. I could step up the hill with skis perpendicular to the hill… then turn around and go down, which was fun, but in snowplough? no. And was it possible to stop? Also no, as I hadn’t got the hang of snowplough.
This was going to go so well, wasn’t it…
Departure day came around quickly. I packed a soft toy, a couple of tapes, my walkman, some cash in a wallet and some warm clothes, and was ready to go. Our salopettes and ski clothing was to be hired at the venue, so only warm basics and some jeans or a skirt for the evening was required. I also had no idea how to pack for such a holiday, being twelve years old at the time, but the walkman and tapes was the most important thing clearly.
We took a school coach down to Gatwick Airport where I had my first experiences of checking bags in, and going through to security checks. My friends and I sat in a small group with a teacher in the departure area, a little confused as to what happens next.
My family had visited a few airports – my stepfather had a great interest in aviation and so some weekends we would go to the outdoor viewing platform at Gatwick and look at the planes arriving and leaving. I never thought I might be able to get on one, any day.
My first time getting on a plane itself was interesting. I amazingly had a window seat and was fascinated to be able to see the wing and the world outside. My mother had made some very disparaging comments about Balkan Air who we were flying with – to the degree that the plane could quite easily break at any point, and she was expecting that to happen on this voyage.
We took off, people applauded, and the entire process of being in the air was so new to me – I had never felt anything other than being on solid earth before, so feeling this giant metal tube twist and turn and rise and fall was very spectacular – I did feel like it was an amusement park and this was an exhilarating ride, albeit one very difficult to get off from. The views outside were spectacular. I have always been fascinated by clouds and the sky – and getting to be a part of them, and seeing that the sun shines ABOVE the clouds was really rather wonderful.
When we entered some turbulence I was not feeling wonderful whilst seeing the airplane wings flex – or whilst watching the flaps changing for takeoff and landing – I distinctly remember asking someone who had been on a plane before “is the wing meant to move like that?” Now I know it definitely is, but before then, I imagined the plane as a rigid and inflexible being!
A meal was served on the plane despite us all being in economy – there was some pickled veg, meat, cheese and bread. None of the kids on the ski trip liked the pickled veg, and most of the meal went un-eaten. We also had tea, but without milk. This also confused a lot of the schoolchildren, as they were not used to this at all.
We landed in Sofia, late in the evening, and were told our coach connection over to the resort was running late due to snowfall. We were given time to wander around the airport, so after collecting our baggage and leaving this in a pile with a teacher, we went wandering.
I am not sure exactly how, as I knew 0 words in Russian or Bulgarian, but some friends and I managed to buy a cheese toastie and a lemonade from a cafe in the airport. We were told dinner would be served in the hotel when we got there, but the schoolteachers asked us to buy some food in the airport due to the lateness of the coach transfer.
A couple of hours later, the coach arrived. Our transfer was due to take 3 hours, but due to the snow, the coach arrival had taken 5 hours to get to us…
We of course then encountered the same issue traveling to our destination. We learned that Plovdiv airport would have been much closer, as the ski resort was in Pamporovo, close to the Greek border, in the Rhodope Mountains. We travelled for a couple of hours on a highway, and stopped at a service station so the coach driver could have a smoke. Someone at the service station offered us vodka. I am not sure if they offered the coach driver vodka, but it would perhaps have helped for later…
…
We pushed on and came to some windy mountain roads. The coach had to stop. There had been a traffic incident ahead. The snow was falling and the temperature had plummeted from Sofia – we were in negative temperatures here. As we waited for the incident to be resolved, the coach started slipping down the road very slowly, as we had parked on ice. The driver asked us all to get out of the coach, and stand out of the way. The road had rocks on one side, and a drop into the forest below on the other.
We waited for help. The coach needed to attach spike-chains to the wheels in order for us to make it up the mountain in such icy conditions. Would we make it?
Let's Just Go 