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The return trip went very smoothly and pretty much the same as the trip out. No dramas or problems.

Back 2 Back in Bucharest

The original plan was to do an overnight stop in Bucharest but I was tired and wanted to get home and so I changed my flight to return from Bucharest the same day. This meant I was returning on the same aircraft I flew out on and this is called a “back to back” or B2B. B2Bs and inherently risky. You have to disembark, sometimes clear immigration and customs, and then return to the gate to board all in about 30 mins. Obviously, this is easier at some airports than others and, in fact, it is actually almost impossible at some, particularly the larger ones. Bucharest is not large and doing a B2B there is pretty straightforward.

One of the strange things about B2Bs is that you often get the same crew back as was on the outbound flight and that makes for some interesting discussions as to why I might be travelling back immediately!

On this occasion the outbound crew was staying in Bucharest but they did inform the new crew that I was doing a B2B and so when I boarded I was greeted with warmth and interest. In fact, somehow, they had upgraded me to business class and this was most welcome.

Conclusion

Now that the TP run is over, looking back, what did I get from it?

The first thing that springs to mind is that I met some interesting friends on the way. The trip was inspired by my membership of the British Airways section of the travel forum FlyerTalk.com and I met up with others from the forum on the way round

With this trip and with the Round the World trip I amassed enough BA Tier Points to get Gold status. In itself this isn’t a great achievement. All I have had to do is fly enough and that isn’t difficult. However, it will mean that we now have access to the OneWorld lounges, priority security and boarding and some other benefits for the next 2 years whenever we travel with OneWorld airlines and that will make our travel a little more comfortable.

Personally, I have really enjoyed planning and executing both trips. It was quite a logistical challenge to ensure that the trip went smoothly and all the “i”s dotted and “t”s crossed. Planning and doing these “mega” trips is great fun and I would recommend it to anyone interested in air travel for air travel’s sake. I think most people would want to combine it with more stops to see more of the places visited but either way it is a challenge and fun.

I think that for now though I shall take a break from TP runs. They are time-consuming to plan and I have other things I want to do. Moreover, although I use the cheap flights the trips are expensive overall what with the flights themselves, hotels, other travel costs, it all mounts up and it isn’t something that I can afford to do all the time. It is a real treat to have done it at all and I thank everyone that has inspired me and helped me along the way… particularly my wife, Tracy, who has had to put up with my constant planning and re-planning not to mention accept that I will be away for 10 days at a time.

I will do more TP runs I am sure. My Gold status will expire in 2 years and I may want to renew it… who knows!

Thanks for following along.