I recently rediscovered the seasonal direct BA flight to Palma in Mallorca, one of Spain’s stunning Balearic Islands. This destination has always been on our travel list, especially with the new Virgin Limited Edition hotel, Son Bunyola, opening in June 2023.

When I started looking to book our trip to Finland, the obvious choice was Finnair – not only because they seemed to be the only full-service scheduled airline with Business class from Edinburgh to Finland’s capital Helsinki, but also that it was an airline I have wanted to experience for some time now, and this was the perfect opportunity.

Once we had booked international flights to Zanzibar and back from Johannesburg, our original intention had been to stay in Zanzibar for a week (two different locations) before going to Giraffe Manor after a stay at And Beyond Mnemba, then onward to Mozambique with And Beyond too. As it turned out however, we couldn’t (initially) get booked for either And Beyond property, so I changed things around such that we would travel to Mauritius for Christmas, still initially going to Zanzibar and finishing up in Johannesburg for New Year.

Qatar Airways stands as a pinnacle of luxury, innovation, and unparalleled service in the realm of aviation. Renowned for its opulent cabins, state-of-the-art amenities, and a commitment to delivering an extraordinary travel experience, Qatar Airways consistently elevates the standards of air travel. Stepping into the world of Qatar Airways is an invitation to immerse oneself in the epitome of sophistication, where every flight becomes a seamless blend of comfort, elegance, and world-class hospitality.

I have a huge interest in spas either as a destination in their own right, or as part of a normal vacation, so I booked to visit the Bürgenstock Resort at Lake Lucerne then I looked to see how best to get there. There was a decent choice of daily direct flights with SWISS Air (albeit operated by Edelweiss Air), or alternatively some indirect options too. The flight times suited for the direct, taking just 2hr 15mins between Edinburgh and Zurich, and the same on the return. There was an early morning flight on the outbound, getting me to Switzerland for lunchtime, then a later afternoon flight on the return.

Flying from the UK to Tokyo Haneda we’re initially flying business class on a Boeing 777-300ER (three class) to Dubai; the onward flight from Dubai is a Boeing 777-200ER (two class only - business and economy). I upgraded both our return flights from Osaka to the UK to first, so will write a business class blog on the way there and a first class one on the way back. Both journeys are on different aircraft so will compare the services on both.

If you book first class with British Airways you can pre-book a spa appointment at the Elemis travel spas in London Heathrow terminal 3 or 5A (link here). This can be done from 28 days before you travel up to 48 hours before your flight.

In the latter part of our Ecuador/Peru trip, we were heading back to Lima for a few days from the Sacred Valley before heading back to the UK.

Having decided to go to Ecuador and Peru, on checking flights (always OneWorld preferred) it seemed that flying with Iberia from Madrid gave the best options, with connections from the UK with either British Airways or Iberia.

We were looking to travel from Quito in Ecuador to Cusco in Lima, as always I go to my trusty Skyscanner to search for routings (and always by preference, OneWorld airlines).

I’m not going to do a full review here, it was just a relatively short (1hr 55min scheduled) domestic flight and, to be honest, there was just nothing special to merit a full blown review, sorry Aerolineas Argentinas! We were flying on an Embraer 190, flying under the brand Austral.

On the way to Ecuador, flying via Madrid with Iberia, we opted to fly a day early and have an overnight stop there to enjoy the city again (and try out a different ‘Leading Hotels of the World’ hotel).

Detailed review of a GOL flight between Iguassu Falls and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Overall the GOL experience was a very pleasant one - helpful staff, good aircraft, exemplary timing and standards, only minor issues were the lack of contact through Twitter (despite being acknowledged and chased), getting to the source of information on their mobile app and the inability to connect to GOL online during the flight.

All in all a good flight, cabin crew were ok and the aircraft new, spacious and comfortable. The flight routing was mainly 11.9km up at 39,000 feet - we arrived at the terminal 5C arrival stand on time.

Since Qatar Airways announced the introduction of Qsuites I had always wanted to fly on an aircraft with that service.  Despite flying with Qatar many times it seemed like it was never going to happen - either the route we flew didn’t have Qsuites, or the route did from Doha but the flight times from the UK just didn’t marry up.  

It’s been some since we’ve flown BA long haul, more recently preferring Qatar Airways. We decided to use up some Avios though and booked flights to/from Johannesburg as our route to Madagascar as both were overnight flights.