Day 1 – HKG – LHR (Hong Kong to London Heathrow)
Happy birthday Sir!
(know your frequent flyer entitlements)
Spending your entire birthday on a long haul flight is not at all the best case scenario , however we learned today it doesn’t necessarily have to be as bad as all that! We arrived for check-in at HK airport and thanks to my husbands platinum level frequent flyer status (there are up sides to those endless hours of business travel far away from family) we get to check in at the first class counters- regardless of which class of ticket we hold. This is a nice little perk, it saves queueing times and as any frequent traveler knows all those minutes add up. Add to that, the extra bonus that they will always priority tag your bags for you and you save even more valuable time at the end of that long haul flight, when your bags are in the first to come off the carousel. So, it is a good idea to research your entitlements if you are a member of a frequent flyer program at any level. Even the most basic levels will often have little perks for members. The airlines of course don’t always advise members openly of all these little perks, it is likely buried somewhere in fine print in that little “welcome to…” membership book. If you are an informed traveler though, know that these little perks are there and ask for them, they will happily oblige. Another little perk is being allowed to board the plane through the business class channel, again regardless of your ticket class- see another queue jumping advantage! Don’t get me wrong- I bristle as much as the next person when people push ahead and cut queues at amusement parks etc , however , if you are traveling with children (which can have enough challenges of its own) why not take full advantage of all the niceties the airlines may offer.
Another nice complimentary benefit is they will often allow you extra weight allowance on your flights.
I hear you asking what exactly does all that have to do with birthdays ? Well, as I said my husband is a platinum level frequent flyer AND it happens to be his birthday on the very day we depart for our European trip. The lovely check-in lady smiled broadly , congratulated his advance in age and offered him a complimentary business class upgrade for the 13 hour flight!!! So , if you are unlucky enough to spend your entire birthday on a plane and the ground staff don’t happen to mention it at check-in maybe remind them and who knows?????
This was an especially valuable birthday gift for DH as he had less than 2 hours sleep the day previous on a return flight from Delhi , so this allowed him the chance to recharge ahead of our busy itinerary.
The lovely girl also gave us passes to the business class lounge for the entire family to wait out the hours before our flight….so I say…..happy birthday to us!
I hasten to add our little caboose (7 yrs old ) and sharp as a tack, immediately asked if we can pleased plan our flights home at Christmas on HIS birthday (20h December!) since he thinks he’d like the same, thankyou!
