After a long, forced, hiatus, Willard is off on his travels again. Here is our planned route (provided by the Great Circle Mapper website) showing that we are off to New Zealand again, this time via Kuala Lumpur and Sydney. Why are we doing this? Well, it turns out that not all airline miles are created equal, and our miles in the KL/AF programme, Flying Blue, are set to expire this year if we do not use them, so, realising that, unlike Diamonds, Frequent Flyer miles are NOT forever, we decided it was time to do our last big trip on our FB miles, whilst they were still ours to spend. Of course, especially after such a long spell on the bench, Willard insisted that we should fly First Class, so we chose to fly with Malaysian Airlines on the long-haul segments, and, since MH no longer offer First Class direct to Aukland, we decided to fly to Sydney and redeem a seperate award to fly with Air New Zealand from Sydney to Aukland in Business Class. Willard also persuaded Pat to join us for this trip, making it her first trip so far away for over three years. Truly an occasion to celebrate!

Not a very good start to our luxury trip, sadly! We arrive at London Heathrow at roughly the same time as some of the worst gales to hit the South of England in a decade, and the new security rules require us to be dropped, it appears, about a quarter of a mile from Terminal 3. The idea of using a hotel limosine to ease our arrival is now looking a little ill thought out, as we are dropped far away from the terminal, to much laughing and pointing from the airport staff assembled under the shelter of the terminal roof, who are, presumably, employed to move the luggage trolleys that are completely absent from the drop-off area, and are instead placed usefully just by the doors to the terminal, just in case anyone suddenly decides they need one after they have dragged all of their cases through the wind, rain and puddles that seperate the drop off area from the terminal. Augh!

So, from Willard's perspective, he's been bundled into a limo at the hotel, driven to the airport, and then hustled into the terminal hidden under a coat. He's decided that this obviously means he's a celebrity, and so decides to don his shades at check-in to avoid being mobbed by his adoring fans!

After an interesting trip through Terminal 3 security (Fast Track is still there, which is nice, but there is now a completely seperate random shoe carnival section hidden after security. The foot-fetishists have now taken over BAA security, it appears (and this may not be far from the truth, as victims (sorry, selectees) seem to be predominantly female, I half expected to find them sniffing the bleedin' shoes, to be honest!) Anyway, we arrive at the Malaysian Airlines lounge, which Willard liked so much last time he was here.

The First Class section affords a wonderful view of the tarmac for the spotters amongst us. Willard looks at the United Airlines 777 and feels himself very lucky that he isn't on it!