The last time I went on holiday with my Mum was August 2007. Newly graduated, and therefore penniless, with my girlfriend being much braver than I was and travelling off to teach in Hong Kong for a year, I went to Rome for a few days with Mum. She paid; I spoke. It was a combination that worked well.

This year, we decided that we would resurrect this travelling and blogging dream-team for a few days round Europe. Only this time, I am not penniless, and we will be competing to see who can get the points on the credit cards!  Not only will it give us the chance to earn enough TPs to both requalify for Silver, it will also give us the chance to try some of the quirks of intra-European travel, on aircraft more commonly associated with long haul travel.

So it is that I am currently sitting in the lounge at Dublin Airport. I flew from London this morning and Mum down from Inverness – I arrived about 10 minutes before her and was waiting at the gate.

The plan is as follows:

Fly to London and then onto Madrid on Iberia’s A340. We will then do a return from Madrid to Frankfurt on LAN’s 787, and then back to London on a BA 767. All of these will be in business class so we can compare them directly.

Whilst away, we will be staying in IHG hotels – the Crowne Plaza at Madrid Airport and the InterContinentals in Madrid and Frankfurt. This will go some way to completing my Accelerate promotion for the summer.

Both MummyAirmiles and I will be keeping you updated on our trip, and giving you the lowdown on the various aircraft. Stay tuned!

You can follow the whole journey here:

• Introduction
• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Episode 2 and a half
• Episode 3
• Episode 4
• Episode 4 and a half
• Episode 5
• Episode 6
• Episode 7
• Episode 8