decided to go early and enjoy the CH, the heathrow express mentioned engineering works and reduced service/delays, so on a whim booked an addison less exec car (which seemed to be from tristar but cheaper), i'd be too early for DTCI so went for the desks

quick checkin, up in the lift but the door didn't open when i scanned my pass, not sure if it was because the channel was closed or if the door simply wasn't working, there were definitely staff in the area - i saw another post where someone mentioned having to ring the bell, this hadn't occurred to me!

went around to the normal lanes, which had few people but were moving exceedingly slow

swift trip to whs for a newspaper (why no nyt in the CH?) then up the stairs, it was about 0630, a couple of people ahead of me, the CH seemed to have been open a while

went straight for a shower, then settled into the gallery to have a couple of breakfasts, CH staff were on form, bubbly was kept refilled, with the area closed off for building the reduced space felt busier than usual and changed the feel

thought better of having another drink and headed to the gate, into the boarding lounge just as boarding started so i was first on, settled into my seat and had a quick gardet to reset my taste buds after the lanson, the second one tasted much better

takeoff was slightly delayed, the UC cabin was about 70% occupied

more bubbly flowed before and during the meal, which was ok, i skipped dessert and converted to flatbed to try and snooze away as much of the flight as i could manage

couldn't sleep much so watched the ab fab film (a bit bland, i wondered if it'd been edited for on-board play)

CC were friendly and efficient throughout the flight, received a 'welcome back' chat as well, first flight for a while where i've had/seen any AU welcome

we arrived more on time, with a short connection to make, i speed walked to a fairly clear immigration and plenty of free esta terminals, no hiccups there, but a looooooong wait for my bag to appear on the carousel - i watched tags and the UC bags were way back in the running order - no delay at customs and plonked my bag on the transfer to DFW

not worth doing a separate report for the DFW flight, it was on DL in F, seat was ok with good legroom, snacks and drinks on offer from cheery CC, arrived on time

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