Tier Point Run to Sofia in Jul 2023: Day 2 – London LHR to Sofia SOF

Having arrived at T3 almost an hour earlier than my last three visits, I found that Fast Track Security was chocker – the queue reached out of the main doorway that leads into the security area. So it took a good 15 mins to get through security today compared to just two minutes on the last few occasions.

I decided to base myself in the Cathay Pacific First Lounge today and minimise the amount of lounge hopping I was going to do.

I’ve tried the others and there’s no doubt that Cathay offers the best T3 lounge experience. So, I headed straight into the First Lounge and found my perfect seat (the one in the very corner of the First Lounge).

From there I headed into the dining room and I ordered the Western Set with fried egg, brown toast and a cappuchino.

The mushrooms, which I always consider is the true measure of how good a breakfast is, were warm button mushrooms, but they weren’t very well seasoned. However, they were tasty enough. The fried eggs were good and the potatoes nice and crispy. Bacon and Sausage were more than adequate, but the big faux pas was the lack of proper baked beans – i.e. Heinz baked beans. The chef had gone for some alternative variety which were poor to say the least.

From breakfast I heard the call for the Finnair A350 flight up to Helsinki. I’ve been on that flight a number of times and it’s a fab aircraft to fly on, and Helsinki is a lovely airport. I miss going to Helsinki airport! So I thought I might head down to Gate 3 to see whether I could get a photo.

As it happens, boarding at Gate 3 had started and it was underway at Gate 1 as well. So there was no easy way of getting a decent view of the A350, so I gave up and headed up to the other end of the terminal.

After a good walk up and back, I wondered whether the Finnair aircraft might still be at the gate. Indeed it was. So I politely asked the gate staff at Gate 1 to let me through to the window to take a photo.

Since BA has stopped its service up to Helsinki, without any meaningful competition, Finnair has increased the price of flights to Helsinki, so I don’t expect I’ll be enjoying the Finnnair A350 any time soon.

Back to the Cathay Lounge and I decided to chill a bit. Unfortunately, my neighbour had an unfortunate knack for eating with his mouth open and therefore kept making a slapping noise. How uncouth?

Popped into the Cathay Business Lounge to take advantage of the super-hot Kung Pao Chicken and rice – it’s so tasty. That would keep me going for a while since it was likely there would be a hefty delay in my next onboard meal – the flight to Sofia was showing as leaving 10 mins late, but arriving in Sofia over 90 mins late, so that means we would be waiting for an ATC slot for a good while on the ground at Heathrow.

The inbound flight from Gibralta was about on time as far as I could tell. I tracked it on final approach and after landing, it seemed an age before it arrived at a gate. Perhaps that was down to the typical Heathrow issues? No spare gates and no one to turn on the stand guidance system?

It finally arrived and the gate for the Sofia flight was publicly announced: Gate 3a. I headed down there early to get a good position for boarding.

In the lounge, I recognised one guy who clearly has been doing SOF B2Bs every weekend for months now. He’s been on every flight I have been on! He seems a fairly quiet guy, so we said hello and that was about it. I’m not the most noisy person around!

We started boarding at around 14:10 and I was quickly on into seat 01F. It was nice to find no one in the seat next to me. I was expecting a delay, but it didn’t take long for the captain to announce the likely delay of 90 mins or so.

We were provided with bottles of water whilst we waited on a stand away from the gate. We were finally allowed to head to the runway at 15:55.

The drinks service started promptly after taking off. I had to ask for nuts.

No menus were handed out. By the sounds of the options presented to me by the purser, it was another new menu.

I opted for a chicken pasta dish with a lobster sauce, which was quite nice.

The starter was a classic mushy affair, although it was vaguely edible. No idea what it was however, although I got the impression it may have had some pesto in it!

The pudding was a very tasty pannecota, which went down quite nicely. To finish off the classic cheese and crackers with some pickle.

The rest of the flight was uneventful. It was a tad bumpy on final approach.

We arrived into Gate C1 as normal. It never takes long for the air bridge to be attached, the door to be opened and passengers start to disembark.

As I walked off, the cabin crew wished me a pleasant stay in Sofia. I said I would see them in 20 mins!

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Sofia in Jul 2023