Last week I did the trip to Dundee from Farnham in a Transit van to collect furniture from Mum's house to take to the care home she is moving into.
So now a week later Mrs D and I flew up to collect her.
I pre-booked parking at Heathrow for £59.90 which was brilliant. Just drive up to 1A car park and it read my number plate and spat out a ticket.
The flight up was uneventful, we were in row 2 so off quite quickly in spite of a 90% full plane. (I think there's something on in Edinburgh at the moment)
Booked a car through the Virgin site to get the miles and they had somehow given my name to the car hire people as Mr Perry, which it isn't. But a quick phone call and it was sorted.
The car was a manual VW Golf, but it had a weird electronic hand brake with a mine of it's own which was not good for joining a round about on a hill.
No problems got to Dundee by 1 p.m.
We stayed in a nearby hotel and were back at mum's by 8 a.m. and on the road by 9.45
As I was handing the car back Mrs D called the wheelchair hotline and within 5 minutes a man with a chair had arrived and took us to the Virgin terminal. I had already checked in on line but needed to print out the boarding passes which I did on one of the machines.
I had booked No.1 lounge with a fast track pass.
I went to the fast track and the woman on the barrier didn't want to let us through. I was trying to tell her I'd got a pass but while I was getting it out of my bag she just went on about which airline I was on and I needed to be flying an Upper connection bla bla bla. I kept saying "I've got a pass." and eventually when I produced it she said, "OK that's fine." Then why give me all the hassle?
So we got through security very quickly, only delayed by my 92 year old mum having to have a pat down for setting off the alarm.
No. 1 lounge was great although we only had about an hour there it was time for a spot of lunch and glass of wine.
We arrived at the gate as it opened for VS 3006 at 12.50 and were whisked straight onto the plane. Row 4 this time.
Took off pretty much on time and would have been early if we hadn't been held in a holding pattern for 10 minutes.
I think this one was 99% full so getting off was a pain as the last 20 or so passengers were in no hurry but in all honesty it probably only took 10 or 15 minutes.
There was a man with a wheelchair waiting and he mum to our car in 1A.
Leaving the car park the number plate reader meant I didn't even have to put my ticket in the machine.
M25 solid but by 4pm we were back in Farnham and getting mum settled in.
This means no more flights up to Scotland for me so I will lose my Silver status in March. I'll be three points short and don't think it makes financial sense to chuck in another two trips as Silver rewards aren't that great anyway.
Dick D
