"Can I get you a drink before we depart, Ms. Cunningham?"
I fly a lot for my job, and I used to laugh when colleagues gathered in bars after work and started comparing loyalty programs. I heard the same conversation over and over ("Sure, I never fly direct, but we get a free trip to Hawaii every year blah blah blah...") and I mostly tuned out. Until I started accumulating points—and getting upgrades.First class on domestic flights is just nice enough to make you feel special. A personal welcome ("Can I get you a drink before we depart, Ms. Cunningham?"). More free drinks in flight (in actual glass). A meal with metal cutlery and a cloth napkin on longer flights. Bigger seats, more attentive flights attendants.
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| A meal - with REAL cutlery |
I always feel like a bit of a poseur, seated next to the man talking about his Bahamas villa or the glamorous woman with her Kate Spade tote, pretending that my H&M tote looks just as fabulous.
I know I'm equally important and unimportant when I sit in 26C. I know boarding first doesn't make me special. But—I hate to admit it—I like it. It's like a grown up game of pretend.
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| The view from first class |
"That's the way it should be"
On a recent trip I met an elderly man at the boarding gate. We got to chatting, and he revealed that he'd never flown first class. I offered him my seat."Really?" he asked, his eyes wide with excitement. "Are you really sure?"
"Of course!" I replied. "Just make sure you send me a glass of wine mid-flight."
"Deal," he said, smiling. "Red or white?"
We discussed the logistics; he was worried that they would discover he didn't "belong" in first class, and boot him off. I reassured him: you belong just as much as I do.
"Oh no, you look like you belong in first class," he told me. I laughed. My GAP pants and Uniqlo shirt were doing their part.
Mid-flight, he tottered back to my seat in row 11, wine in hand.
"Here you go dear," he said. "I think I'm finally getting used to sitting up there. I was a bit nervous at first!"
He was beaming. I was beaming. I felt like Father Christmas. I've never enjoyed first class so much in my entire life.
Well, except for the time my boss passed me by, heading back to row 25. Ha! He saw me and laughed, and I explained the joke to the woman with the Kate Spade tote. "That's the way it should be," she smiled.
Bosses aren't the only ones who deserve first class seats.