Like winning a lottery even before started

First ever family backpacking since the girls.
Couldn't stop smiling even packing the bags before leaving.
All the bags for four of us to last a whole month are on this photo.
They weighed 25kg all together, lol.

When we arrived at the London Heathrow airport by the airbus,
the girls insist on carring the bags themselves as well.


At this very moment, something very significant happens.

I booked this flight online during January sale, London-Cairo return, for 1,000 pounds for 4 of us.
One could check-in online 24 hrs before the flight so I did it 2-3 hours after it became available.
But it was pretty full already so there was only one block of 4 seats to sit together so I got them quick.
I thought that there must be a lot of people using the online checkin service these days.

But as we approached the baggage drop desk at the airport, the staff politely assured us that we have seats confirmed to fly today, but asked if we could fly tomorrow instead as it was badly overbooked today.
the compensation included 600euros in cash per person and the overnight stay at a nearby hotel, hotel transfer and three meals at the hotel...

seemed very attempting and me and Pete exchanged really strong feeling about this and said ' YES, WE VOLUNTEER!'



Well, it was a voluteer scheme after all,
so we had to wait until 45 minutes before the flight time to see if the flight is going to be filled up or not.
So we got some free voucher for drinks waiting to hear the verdict,
so it wasn't too bad dringking juices and beers while waiting.


Yes!, we were chosen in the end.
we got bus tickets to the hotel which cost 4 pounds per person one way, and arrived at this expensive hotel.
we used to stay at the hotel like this when the girls were young but this trip is nothing like this,
so felt like fish out of water here.
The pilots and crews from all airlines were arriving, so our humble sandals and backpacks looked quite sad...



Aha! they allocated two rooms for us though I said that it's not necessary as they are still too you to have their own room.
But there was something called 'interconnecting room' which I can open a door to thier room and vice versa directly.

The girls were so excited to have their own space hence kicked us out and slept so well....
Read the price for a room a night on the door, and it says... 209 pounds a night!!!!
Well, the airline would never pay the full amount but if we came here to stay individually....

So we thought...'Never get used to this, girls! we are never going to have this on this trip, okay...?'


Well, expensive hotel doesn't always mean that the food is be nice!
But, wow! we were so impressed by the quality of food there, including proper rice and Miso soup for Korean air staff.

Ellie was enjoying her favourite food, baked beans, eggs, etc. for the last time for a month.


Spent a following morning before the flight in Hounslow town center for the girls to enjoy riding,
but the main reason being there was to deposit the compensation we got which was over 2000 pounds in total.

I calculated that we spent 3000 english pounds for a month, so in the end, we only spent a thousand pounds for a month for 4 people!

Check-in again the following day as usual. the Terminal 5 was so problematic when opening but look pretty cool inside.
But it was really hard finding a way to the terminal 5 from our place that the airport bus doesn't take you to the terminal 5 and the bus driver only intructs you to get off at the Hatton Cross station to trasfer to the terminal 5 but not telling us which bus nor whether it's free(It is free between Hatton Cross and terminal 5).