The perks of a travelling business man...off to the windy city!

Mr Mars works away. A lot.

Not for long periods of time, but he literally can fly to London for a day and then fly home that same night. Not fun for him. No different for me. I just put his dinner in the microwave as usual and sometimes he comes home with some unused toiletries or an instyle magazine (he snaffles from the lounges - don't worry they are free, business class perk, he is not stealing).

He works all over the UK and the major perk of this has been large amounts of frequent flyer miles and a humongous spend in one year (I think it was £20k) when meant he then qualified for a companion flight.

What does all of this get you? A Business class flight to Chicago for the cost of the taxes only. I don't think you understand me.... we only paid for the taxes. For a business class flight to Chicago!!! Cost of these flights was £5,827!!! Taxes were still cost a lot, mind you...

Having travelled either Ryan Air or Easy Jet for the best part of my adult life I have no idea what Business Class entails.... I imagine champagne and unicorns. You get champagne, but I think they keep the unicorns for first class.

Thankfully the world wide web has lots of blogs by rich people who like to tell us about the things that us mere morsels will (usually) never get the chance to enjoy. I like this website, it is full of REAL pictures. God I love pictures.

The Luxury Travel Expert:

http://theluxurytravelexpert.com/2014/06/11/flight-review-british-airways-business-class-boeing-747-400-lhr-sfo/

So here is what it looks like I am in for. Excited, ME, Nooooo. This guy says the meal is a disappointment, I am still in awe of the fact that you GET A PLATE THAT IS NOT MADE OF TIN OR PLASTIC. Are you kidding me? Real cutlery? This guy should try economy and he'll see what a disappointment really is...

I'm also struggling with how I will manage to not ransack the FREE shops in the lounge or on board and store everything like a squirrel for when we reach Chicago.

Only take 5 bars of chocolate Mrs Mars... act like you fly business class all the time.... take the other 8 bars out of your bag...take them out...okay grab some peanuts...quickly...COME ON, DO IT...no-one is looking...

I will, of course, be taking pictures of everything. Even down to the toilet. I plan to use them to reminise about the time I flew Business Class with BA when I am shackled up on my next Ryan Air flight trying to hide my handbag so they do not charge me for two carry on and then counting how many euros I have left to see if I can afford a can of cola. All whilst sweating in my extra jacket as my suitcase was over 10kg.

There are OF COURSE catches to these flights see below (here is my understanding of them):

1) They are only available on certain flights and there is only 1 allowance per day. So everyone in the UK with a companion flight is fighting to get in first for these flights
2) Once you qualify it is only valid for one year
3) Only valid for a single flight (no stop offs or returns)
4) Only valid for a flight leaving the UK; and
5) You have to reach the £20k spend within one year
6) You only get this once
7) The big one - you can only use the companion flight to places you have enough air miles to cover. So you can't top up with cash and fly to anywhere in the world.

xoxo

Commonwealth Freebies

As Mr Mars is working at the commonwealth games, we got a couple of freebies!

He got the full kit - as picture below, you also get a bag, water bottle and umbrella. I snaffled the bag, bottle and brollie, but I won't lie - I used the bag once and it started to burst so did not seem the best quality or it could be that I rammed it full with my usual junk - I'm going with poor quality ;o). The trousers are really good and Mr Mars is going to keep them! They also got a big jacket and water resistant cagoule thing. I would steal the jacket but it is too big :o(.



They also got some thank you presents (also snaffled by me); a Clyde pin badge, some thistle seeds, a Clyde USB pen, a towel and a limited edition commonwealth games picture (I LOVE).





Then, whilst cheering on the road cycling, I got talking to a lovely girl who knew the Scotland support team and was in the car that follows the riders. We cheered and waved them as they passed in the support car - then she gave me a "Team Scotland" official pin badge - HOW COOL! What a lovely thing for her to do and it obviously made my day!

She was a very funny girl. She had a top on with shorts and no jacket; I asked her if she was not cold and she responded "I'm very very drunk right now". Ha! I was not drunk, therefore I had a large waterproof jacket on, hoodie and jeans and was still cold.
 

So that is it for my freebies so far. Does not help my hoarding issues...but at least I have some cool pin badges!

xoxo

Sunday Summary

Here is a summary of my Sunday!

 

Catching the Commonwealth fever I became slightly obsessed – after staring off with nothing I have now been to a fair few events. The finale being the Road cycling on Sunday morning. Up we got at 8am (after my sister called me at 8am telling me she was en route to my house with a present – I’ll detail in another post with pictures). Mr Mars and I then had some fresh roasted coffee and toast and fresh farm eggs (another present from sister) before walking into Glasgow City Centre.

 

Off they went:

 

Very much the same for a few laps but I did read that a storm was forecast and the weather did not disappoint… torrential rain ensued… we took refuge in a pub and watched on the TV until they were due to pass then popped outside!

 

The winner passing near the end, below. To give you a grasp of how fantastic a win for Wales this was and how horrific the conditions were, something like 139 started and only 12, yes 12, finished. WELL DONE to anyone who even finished!!!

 

After the race Mr Mars and I went a wee shop to the Nike store to the vegan restaurant Stereo, Mr Mars is not a Veggie, but he almost eats Veggie now because of me! Mwhahaha. He really only eats fish now, so he is almost a pescitarian! He and his friends really like Stereo (non of them are Veggie) because it is known for its music and very good food!

We both ordered off the specials board - the BBQ Ranch chickpea and mushroom burger with rashers – ohhh my goodness me it was sooo GOOD. Perhaps because I have been watching what I have been eating (she says after ramming two Quality Street chocolates into her mouth) but It went down and absolute treat. Shy of licking them, our plates were cleared. We then walked to Costa for a wee coffee and then walked to the BBC at the Quay to watch the Commonwealth Closing ceremony!

 

Picture of the Ceilidh they had going on before it started:

 

 

A brilliant finale - I don't care what anyone thinks, I really enjoyed it!!! With a sad Auld Lang Syne to finish. Maybe because I am soon to be leaving Scotland or because I am sooooo flipping proud to be Scottish, but I was sad at the end. Sad that it is all over, sad that who knows the when the next time I will see a random Ceilidh, or a fiddler playing Caledonia, or bag pipers just randomly walking down the street or people crossing their arms for Auld Lang Syne. But I was sad...

Here is to Gold Coast 2018! I think Oz will also do the games proud! If I am still living at the other side of the world, I can assure you I will be there!!!

xoxo