Thanks to the positive feedback from the previous guest posts of my parents’ holiday, and their seemingly insatiable penchant for luxury travel, I am delighted to be able to bring you news of their latest adventure. After spending time in South Africa last year, and realising that they wouldn’t be able to see all they wanted to on their trip, they decided to return. Thanks to an AmEx 241 voucher and a load of Avios (at pre-devaluation rates), they booked some First tickets…

We left a dreary wet Aberdeen Airport in economy on an A319 and arrived into Heathrow where it was dry and a bit warmer.

We had an easy transfer through flight connections, up to the concourse, and spent some time in Duty Free racking up some general spend. I am hoping to earn lots of Heathrow Rewards points which can be converted into Avios. There is a promotion at the moment where they can be doubled up if I convert than before end of December.

Having done the shopping, we then made our way into the Concorde room as we were travelling First Class on a British Airways 747, thanks to the AmEx 241 voucher. The Concorde Room was not very crowded and it was rather pleasant. We decided to have lunch in one of their little private booths and it was delicious.

However the service was a bit slow and we had to ask twice for the waitresses to attend us.

Despite having a few hours in the Concorde Room, we didn’t make it to the Champagne Bar in Galleries First, and neither did we manage to make it for the long walk to satellite gate C as somehow we managed to miss the turning. I did manage to get a coffee at Starbucks and was then straight through the crowds and onto the plane. This must be a first for us and BA! Usually it’s a mass of people all trying to get through at the same time and no order to the whole process. We were onto the plane, turned left and we had two very nice seats in to 2A and 3A.

The cabin only had nine passengers and we were very well looked after by the cabin crew. My husband invited me for a romantic dinner and we had a very nice meal albeit a little bit late as the plane has been delayed before takeoff.

It was caused by a passenger becoming extremely anxious and deciding not to fly. We then had to wait an hour while all the luggage was checked and finally offloaded. Thankfully we made up most of the time on the flight and were only a little late arriving into JNB.

One thing I will say about travelling First Class on British Airways is the quality of the goodies. I put on my first class pyjamas at for the flight and found that they were very comfortable. After dinner the cabin crew made up my bed with a very nice mattress and a lovely comfy duvet to go with it.  I actually managed to sleep on the flight which is unusual. I thought the contents of the goody bag was very good; it had the usual complimentary face creams, moisturisers, a little deodorant stick, toothpaste and brush, eye mask ,earplugs, pen… you name it, it contained it!