Day 2 March 28^th 2017

“Baby Baby is a wild world” Cat Stevens

Daily Routing LHR-HEL-PVG

It’s a beautiful morning in London, I wake up to a view of the greatest pinnacle of aviation man has yet created, Concorde. I hear we will trigger article 50 tomorrow, perhaps they’ll rev her up for a lap of honour.

Fire up the quattro…

Flight 1

Flight 1: LHR-HEL Finnair AY832 10:20

Aircraft: Airbus A350

Distance: 1134 miles

Tier Points: 80

Looking forward to my first trip on an A350 today, well 2 trips in fact. I print off some documents I’ll need for Visa’s in the next few days from the business centre and check out. Highly recommend the Garden inn, really nice hotel for the money.

I decide to time how long it takes from check out to getting to the Cathay Lounge at T3.

8.22 walk out of garden inn, walk to hatton cross underground station and catch the tube to Terminal 3. Up 2 sets of escalators, through fast track security and I’m in the Cathay lounge by 8.50. Less than 30 minutes from check out to drinking a coffee.

Flight is delayed by 30 mins, so boot up and get an hour of work in to kick the day off. Help myself to a delicious Cumberland sausage, scrambled egg and some mushrooms in the Cathay Lounge.

Head down to the gate to board and get some plane nerd shots in.

American Airlines (Dreamliner?)

More concorde …

and an engine nerd shot, the Trent XWB on the A350 is the latest Rolls Royce triple spool commercial engine with the world’s first ever triple spool RB211 hanging off the BA 747 in the background. What with the olympus’s on the concorde you’ve got one serious collection of British engineering there.

This flight’s a bit of an anomaly in that it’s a long haul plane on a short haul route, apparently Finnair use the A350 as the extra room for cargo is well utilised all of which means I get a bed, so after burning the candle at both ends for the past days I once again sleep through the entire flight to Helsinki.

I arrive, head into the Finnair lounge at which point I realise that the lounge seemed smaller than 3 years ago as they have separated short haul and long haul travellers, as my onward leg is long haul to Shanghai I’m directed into the business lounge which looks far more familiar.

The food offering is more extensive, but I don’t want to overeat so have some fruit, salad and a coffee and once again get some more work done.

The flight to shanghai is on time so I head off to the gate, no passport check needed prior to the gate, this airport is an absolute breeze to transit through.

Flight 2: HEL-PVG Finnair AY832 10:20

Aircraft: Airbus A350

Distance: miles

Tier Points: 140

Up until now I’ve just been burning cheap flights for points or positioning, this time I’m actually boarding a flight to get to somewhere I need to be. I’ll be meeting with a supplier in Shanghai and attending the F1 with them in 10 days time.

I’m on another Finnair A350, as this is long haul they give out a washbag, slippers and some bose headphones. First thing to note Is that the entertainment system is very slick on this place, touchscreen – it’s almost as responsive as an ipad which is a real revelation compared to what BA have on their A380’s in first class. I’m not really into movies so turn the screen onto camera mode for take off. Nice slippers..

As we leave Helsinki there are yet more stunning views of frozen lakes.

You know humans have got too clever when you can have a champagne cocktail, some crackers with fish dip while flying over the frozen deserts of Russia listening to cat stevens and blogging it to the internet over the in air wifi.

Dinner is a really nice beef dish, which goes down well with a couple of glasses of red wine served in a tumbler, here's a token picture. Tastes much better than it looks.

I get several hours of sleep and am woken up for breakfast which is reasonably decent, a yoghurt and frittata.

The A350’s been a great host, it feels a bit louder than the A380 but it’s smooth and very comfortable.

As we descend into Shanghai, the most populous city in the world according the the in flight information, it’s incredible that the airport is surrounded by tiny little B roads with people tending to fields of crops mainly by manual means.

I arrive in Shanghai on time, which leaves me with 7 hours until my next connection. I clear immigration on a transit visa and decide I need a hotel so book into motel 168 which is between terminal’s 1 and 2 just above the maglev station. 298RMB later (about £30) and I have a room for 6 hours to get some sleep. Not seen a dot matrix printer for a very long time, it seems they all got sent to China as it’s all they have behind the check in desk whizzing away frantically. There's a very interesting note on the desk in the hotel, and now it's time for a nap...