After spending 2 lovely weeks with family and friends in Beijing, we’ve almost recovered from the outbound journey which was a poor experience to say the least. In this time we visited the Summer Palace (on a really clear day, too, which was hard to come by given the usual smog), spent a day in the suburb hiking and fruit picking, had a BBQ at my uncle’s old-fashioned courtyard house (which is going to be knocked down not far in the future to make room for higher-rises) right in the very centre of Beijing, sang our hearts out at karaoke (ok Mr W just sat and watched, but claimed to have enjoyed himself) and ate an awful lot of wonderful food. It was the first time since I left to visit at this time of the year, and all in all, I think it’s the ideal time to visit – it means we are not escaping the UK winter for somewhere 10 degrees colder (despite the festivities the Chinese New Year brings), or melting under the fierce sun in the height of the summer, so if you were planning on making a little visit to Beijing, I would highly recommend Sept/Oct as the best time.
It wasn't all plain sailing, though. We had quite a few complications with our building work which was happening back in Surrey, including needing to strengthen the foundation of the house
for the RSJ, the joiner managing to double book himself, and there being insufficient room in the ceiling for the ducting for the extractor, to name a few. 
But hey, none of them is unresolvable, and as to the delays and alterations - well, such is life. With that, it was time to head back to reality. Having learned the little tip about the part of the economy cabin that is guaranteed to be served first on either type of the 744, I watched the countdown to 24 hours before the flight and checked in as soon as it opened. I was pleased to see that it was the other version of the 744 (comparing to the outbound) where Y starts from row 28, as it probably means that this aircraft would be less run down than the outbound, and it was. The bulkhead seats were greyed out this time, presumably as BA was going to charge for them. Slightly confusing as we were able to request a bulkhead seat for the outbound during OLCI without any issue or payment. 29A, which was the non-bulkhead seat with extra legroom due to the lack of a seat in front, was free, but as 29B was not, I resisted and thought it best to sit next to the OH for such a long daytime flight.
We spent the rest of the hours leading up to departure chatting with my parents, and just enjoying some family time as it happened to be my mum’s birthday. Also finished packing, during which time I showed off those packing cubes to them
! My dad liked the look of them so I left one for him to try out. 
As the flight was at 11.15, we set off around 7.30 in the car, which got us to the airport in around an hour’s time thanks to the light traffic with it still being in the national day public holidays. Normally my parents would hang around the airport until I go through security, but apparently when they did so last year, they had to pay a parking fee of a whopping 18 yuan (approx. £1.80) as I took too long, they decided to drop us off and go this time!
This was after their "truthful words" during our chat the day before about how they would recommend us to have more than one kids when the time comes “just in case the first one doesn’t turn out great” (yes I’m their only child ), as well as “we weren’t too fussed with you when you were first born”. If I didn’t have my dad’s ears and my mum’s nose, I would seriously be wondering if I was adopted 
. Anyway, back to the TR. There was only a short queue at bag drop, and the helpful agents (there were two, and I assumed that one of them was a trainee) asked whether we wanted our luggage to be routed to LHR or CDG. As the transit at LHR is an overnight one, we explained that we will be heading home overnight so LHR please. No problem with that at all, and the agents showed us the luggage stickers to confirm. I asked whether the flight was on-time, and unfortunately the response was not what I wanted to hear – it was delayed by approx. an hour due to the late incoming aircraft. Knowing that we have 2 Lounge Club vouchers to use (they came with the Amex Gold) and one of the lounges at T3, the BGS Premier Lounge, was a participating lounge, I asked the agents what the lounge was like and whether it would be worth spending my vouchers on. The look on the agent’s face was enough to convince me to put the Lounge Club card back in our pockets
.Security etc was really quick, and before long we were through to duty free, and the wonderful shops and restaurants that the sparkly T3 has to offer. OH spotted some “loungers” right in front of the floor to ceiling glass windows, which were wonderful to rest on, and to kill some time. We were so well prepared this time that we brought a little Thermos flask to refill (though I noticed that there are cold drinking water taps too at T3) to keep us hydrated.
I tried to get the free airport wifi to work, but unfortunately it appears that it would only work on a mobile phone from mainland China despite some comments indicating that it might work on international phones. I played around with my relatively new camera for a bit, so I'll try and add some snaps shortly (have failed after 2 attempts currently so will add it in a reply).
Some plane watching later, and having tracked on BA’s website that the incoming BA39 had indeed landed over an hour late at 10.36, we decided to head to the gate just in case the maintenance team was very efficient at their job. There were a few people waiting, and a written board stating in Chinese, boarding at 11.35. There were a few announcements about the delay etc, but I was surprised that they were also only in Chinese, especially given that less than half of the passengers waiting were Chinese.
Around 11.30, the BA crews and pilots began to arrive. As the maintenance team was still doing their thing at that time, the ground crew politely asked them to wait. FFS, I heard one of the CCs say. Not the most professional in front of those waiting passengers.
About 5 minutes later, they were let through.At 11.40, boarding finally started, and it was dealt with efficiently. First impression of the plane was so much better – it was clearly a newer aircraft than the outbound (maybe even refurbished within the current decade), and appeared to be clean and better maintained. Although I had checked Seatguru before choosing the seats, I found it a bit strange that Y was directly behind Club World on this version of the 744, with all PEs and some of the CW on the upper deck.
Once everyone boarded, all the bulkhead seats were empty, and the load wasn’t very heavy overall, so a number of pax started moving around. The now “free” extra legroom seats suddenly became very popular, which required the CCs to interfere a couple of times, where they moved a really tall Norwegian (?) chap from further back. Seeing him had reminded me of a recent (heated
) debate on this forum, and it was nice to see that he was looked after suitably by the CC.Soon after we pushed back, and were airbourne without further delays. Flight time was 9 hours and 55 minutes, meaning that we were going to land about 20 minutes later than scheduled. Not bad at all.
Drinks and food were then served, and by that time I was pretty hungry. Thankfully the tip from the outbound CC was correct, and we were indeed served first. Chicken and rice or beef and mash were on offer (it’s hard to get more detail than that, oh how I missed VS’s menus
), OH and I both chose the chicken. It was good, if not a bit too salty.The IFE seemed to have a better selection this time, too, and I wonder if it was because of the October offerings or due to the system onboard being less dated. I settled down and watched a variety of TV programmes, ranging all the way from comedy to talk shows to wildlife to architecture. Out of curiosity I also watched the 20 minutes programme about being nervous at flying (which I’m not). It was reassuring, though, to know that it’s not a coincident that planes stay in the air.
I had a little snooze, before woken up to find a decent selection of snacks being offered in the galley. Another half an hour later, CCs came round to offer ice cream! This was unexpected, and certainly made me very happy. OK, it wasn’t quite hagaan daz, but it was more impressive than the fab lollies offered on the VS flights in Y
.Another few hours later, and around 2 hours before landing, my tummy wanted more food again, so some pot noodles were consumed, only to find that 20 minutes later dinner was served! This time it was either chicken with potatoes or ravioli. As the ravioli sounded like it could’ve been rather cheesy, I opted for the chicken again. Whilst I was surprised to find a thin layer of (thankfully not too strong) cheese on the chicken, I was ok to just brush/push it to the sign, and enjoy the chicken, which was really quite tender and flavoursome.
Shortly after that we started circulating above London, before making the descent into LHR, touching down at 14.35, around half an hour behind schedule.
Overall this flight was quite relaxed, perhaps due to the fairly light load. Quite a few pax were stretching out sleeping, and we didn't experience too much turbulence. The only thing that annoyed me slightly was when the lady in 29A (remember, this is the only non-bulkhead seat in the whole cabin with a huge amount of legroom, and there is no seat in front so she can walk around without disturbing 29B and C) - 29B and C were empty, so naturally she stretched out and was using the tray table in 29B instead of her own for her wine. However, instead of moving the wine, or indeed walk to the front and round, she got up, stepped onto the two empty seats next to her with her shoes on, and walked out that way.
It was really a bit unnecessary, don't you think?So all in all, my return flight was much more pleasant compared to the outbound, which did pull BA back a little in my head. However, as someone who values consistency, VS will still remain my airline of choice unchallenged.
As an aside, I've now come home to a house that's still standing, albeit without a kitchen, and also with no heating or hot water because the boiler has decided to stop working..
Still a week or so to go in this (unhabitable) condition, but I'm sure it'll all be worth it in the end... 
