And here is Willard, off again on his travels! Here we check in at the BusunessFirst Check-In at Manchester Terminal 2, for our flight to New York Newark. Elite check-in was quick (after the obligatory 3rd degree from security over our foolish plans to visit "the land of the free"), only complicated as we'd saved up a little surprise for one of our travelling companions, and that caused some commotion at check-in!

Interestingly, though part of SkyTeam, Continental has chosen to use the new "Escape" lounge at Manchester T2, rather than the AF/KLM SkyTeam lounge. This lounge is run by the airport management, but is definitely a cut above the shared lounges we're used to seeing. Large and airy, and not at all crowded (as we sometimes expect from shared lounges). Willard sat himself down, and was soon being fussed over by the lounge staff, who took one look at his impeccable demeanour, and assumed he was a celebrity (which, of course, he is!)

And, since we have bear uber-officionado Otto travelling with us, Willard has a fellow bear to keep him company. Let us introduce Otto's travelling companion, Little Dave!

And, elsewhere in the Escape lounge, we even have somewhere to lie back and, well, lounge! And the decor would drive Cruella DeVille wild!

And, after one of the least enjoyable boarding experiences we've had for some time (Busses and Wide-body planes do not go together, priority boarding was non-existent, and, perhaps not suprisingly, due to all this, the famed Continental Concierges had made themselves scarce at this point!). We find ourselves on a full flight in Business Class today. We try to placate Willard with a glass of Champagne, but he's not happy, and is wondering where his customary ottoman has gone! Meanwhile, we later on found that we should have made the best of the Champagne whilst we could, since Continental introduced a new phrase into our premium travel vocabulary - "No more champagne for you". Yes, this is the first Airline that any of us have ever been on that restricts drink availability in premium cabins. If I'd we'd paid the $5000+ full fare for this flight we'd have been pretty annoyed, as it is, it just helped to underline the huge gulf between US airlines and the rest of the world, oh how the mighty have fallen.