My Vietnam trip was a bit of a change for me. While I enjoy some aspects of travelling on my own its also nice to be able to share the experience with other people that also like exploring far flung places. So I followed an advert for Flash Pack on social media and decided it was worth a go. They organise tours with small groups of like-minded people from all over world to destinations around the globe. Getting there is up to you, but everything is sorted from when you arrive. That suits me because I like planning my flights!
I set about planning a route to Hanoi when my Flash Pack tour would begin, returning from Phu Quoc (as I’d elected for a couple of extra nights on this beach resort). At the same time I was looking for a comfortable flight and ideally some progress to attaining BA Executive Club silver status (which confers lounge access among other things).
BAEC Silver confers a number of benefits. For me the key ones are Oneworld lounge access (useful if flying from Heathrow T5) and Business Class check-in with priority security lane at Heathrow, which speeds up the process at the airport nicely.
I’d noticed that Qatar Airways had some good deals from Scandinavia and saw a reasonable fair from Stockholm, through Doha to Hanoi. The return trip would be Phu Quoc, Bangkok, Doha to Stockholm. This would net me 560 tier points, nearly all the way to the required 600.
I would need to position to Stockholm. There’s a number of ways to do this, one would be to use a reward flight with Avios – but actually when I looked I thought the Club Europe fair didn’t seem to exorbitant and would clear the 600 tier point bar and count toward 2 BA flights. I’d only need to take a BA return flight later in the year to confirm Silver. Flights booked!
I decide to overnight in one of the airport hotels in Stockholm so not to risk my flight the following day. I also had a fairly long layover in Doha, I’d travelled through there a few times before so I knew I could enjoy the impressive Qatar airways lounge but this time I decided to try something different and packed my swimming gear. The Vitality Spa in the main airport (accessible by elevators near the lounge) has a 25m pool. 175QAR (£40) is a bit pricey for a swim, but it turned out if I didn’t mind paying a little more for a treatment I’d have access to the pool and gym too. I opted for a classic massage, which included a fancy tea and cake then headed to the pool. That made a change from hanging around in the lounge drinking too much booze!
