I wanted to start this trip in Copenhagen to save money, but also need to be in Manchester to get to Wakefield fora family party. I therefore took advantage of the <24hr stop-over rule which meant that I could depart on a flight from Manchester at 11am as long as I arrived into Manchester after 11:01 the day before. It was just a case of selecting the right arrival flight and I was good to go!

Having left the Clarion Copenhagen Airport Hotel after breakfast, I headed over to the terminal and to the newly opened Eventyr Lounge.

It has had good write ups from various people who have been, and I can only say that I completely agree! It has a fantastic view of the airfield to keep the plane spotters happy.

The selection of food and drink is perfectly adequate, and I like the special wine dispensers they have.

After an hour or so there it was soon time for boarding and the lounge is perfectly located opposite the gate. This is great because it means that you can see if the plane is on stand and whether it really is time to make your way down to the gate!

Maybe it was the fact that this was  my first revenue flight after achieving Gold, or sheer coincidence, but as I was going through the gate, the lady called me back asked me to wait aside and then proceeded to upgrade my to Club Europe! My second ever upgrade! Whilst it was much appreciated, I don’t think that I benefitted that much from it. I had already eaten in the hotel, and was not hungry, I was driving later in the day so couldn’t drink, and I went from an exit row to row 2 so had much less leg room. Still – I didn’t have to pay for my coffee so I am not complaining!

On arrival into Heathrow I was connecting onto a flight up to Manchester so I went landside and through The First Wing again into the lounge where I had a light sandwich lunch.

The flight up was quick as I was travelling hand baggage only it was not long before I was on the shuttle to the car hire centre. This is where I got a little mixed up and missed the screens at Avis that would have told me exactly where my BMW 118i was waiting for me so I had to go in and find out; but it was fairly painless. I do like having Avis Preferred membership as all the data is stored and ready at the  point of hire.

I then had a very pleasant drive across to Wakefield to the Holiday Inn Express where I was staying the night.

I had paid for the night on points as it was only 15,000 points and I had loads – even though the cash rate was about £75 it seemed silly to pay given that I could use the money for other things on holiday. The room was perfectly acceptable and, much like the Holiday Inn in Brighton, the inside is much nicer than the outside!

After a lovely evening with family and a good night’s sleep, I was off early to drive back to Manchester. Returning the car was easy, particularly as there is a petrol station on the way into the terminal, and getting the bus round to the front took about 15 minutes in total.

I was greeted with a huge queue for check in to the Manchester – Philadelphia flight, but was able to eventually find the priority check in queue to get all my boarding passes. I headed over to the BA Lounge which was great for a short stay; I even managed to get a left-luggage locker so I didn’t have to drag my things round the terminal whilst I hunted for AA batteries and water.

Boarding was called and I was soon on my way to the American 767 for my first transatlantic flight in economy since 1993!

You can read the other parts of my Vegas2017 trip report here:

The background – Returning to Vegas on the cheap

Part 1: The Copenhagen Shuffle

Part 3: The Philadelphia Skip

Part 4: Homeward-bound