Tier Point Run to Sofia in Nov 2024: Day 21 – London Heathrow LHR to Sofia SOF

By Nige on November 29, 2024 at 4:26 pm
Type: Post
Story: Tier Point Run to Sofia in Nov 2024 Category: Travel
Tags: British Airways | LHR | London Heathrow | SOF | Sofia | Trips

Hatton Cross wasn’t too busy, although busier than the last time I caught a train last weekend at 4am!

I jumped on the first train that arrived and forgot that the T4-bound train went to T4 first, where it waits for 7 or 8 mins before carrying on to T2/T3. Oh, well. It was my first time at T4!

Fast Track Security at T3 was pretty much empty, but there were a stack of cases waiting for a secondary check after going through the scanner.

That meant as soon as another case needed to head in that direction and there was no space, the whole scanner shut down. No cases were moving anywhere.

Eventually, I got my bag through, and I decided to head to the Cathay Lounge for a change.

I found a throne seat in the window of the First Lounge, but the dining room was full. So, I decided to head to the BA Lounge to take advantage of First Dining and another wonderful breakfast.

Whilst i was on my terminal walk, my mind was distracted with thinking about the urge to reach GGLfL status.

It’s been at the back of my mind for a few years now, and I’ve seen a few of my TP running colleagues either hit that level or expect to reach that level in the next few months.

If BA do not change their system for earning TPs, I’d expect to get there in 8 years or so. But we all expected BA to change things sooner rather than later.

Likely that TPs would be earned based on money spent rather than on pre-defined amounts for a given route in a given class. Similar to their recent move relating to the way passengers earn Avios.

If that happened anytime soon, any hope of me reaching GGLfL would go out of the window. I felt sad that I might miss out on achieving that milestone.

I suspected the BA announcement might be coming soon…

We departed from Gate 29. Whilst at the gate, I heard from Vick, who couldn’t get into her VW ID3.

The key fob hadn’t worked consistently, and now the emergency key didn’t even work. What a mess VW has made of their EV eco-system. No wonder they have joined forces with Rivian.

On into seat 01F and I was already looking forward to getting back to the hotel.

We pushed back a few mins late, but it wasn’t going to have too much of an impact on arrival time.

I suspected this would be a bus arrival based on Gary’s feedback on Lap 1. His first trip was on a Fri evening.

A menu was handed out shortly after taking off, and I was pleased to see the chicken balti with beetroot rice was on the list.

Cranberry juice was my chosen drink for the flight. Today was an opportunity for some champagne, but I didn’t really fancy it. So I didn’t bother!

Afternoon tea was very tasty. I bypassed the starter as I usually do. I still don’t quite understand what BA does to come up with such odd concoctions.

We landed at around 7:30pm local time, and it was throwing it down with rain.

We arrived at Gate B7, which up until today has always led to steps and a bus, but (perhaps) due to the rain, the airbridge was attached.

Perhaps I had the opportunity for a simple glass door transfer?

Tier Point Run to Sofia in Nov 2024