Day trippers, there's no such thing as a hard day's flight

Back when I was young and foolish, I occasionally did something really daft like fly to London for the weekend for the Oxford vs Cambridge varsity rugby match at Twickenham, or England vs Ireland.

It was the height of folly: leave Hong Kong on Friday night, having rushed to Kai Tak airport from work; try to sleep all the way, fired by red wine; arrive at dawn, and hit the ground running (on adrenalin).

After the match, I would race from the drunken revels or drowning of sorrows (depending on the result) back to Heathrow for the Saturday night flight to Hong Kong. I would arrive on Sunday evening, collapse, and emerge just about human on Monday for work.

Those were the days.

But it seems they are here again. Forget all that carbon footprint stuff; Cathay Pacific CEO John Slosar tells me that same-day return flights to London are all the rage now, especially since the advent of the CX business class.

If you decide to nip to London for the day on Wednesday November 7, for example, it will set you back HK$69,609 with taxes.

That means catching a flight at 1.10am, arriving at Heathrow at 6.20am, and returning just after 10pm on the same day to arrive back at about 6pm on Thursday. So you have lost a day to the eight-hour time difference, but you've had a very long day in London.