First Class

It wasn't even fifty bucks to upgrade to first class on the one hour trip back from Chicago, so I did. I never fly first class. I now realize if I never take Gary along on vacation I can spend that money on first class for me.

Pros:

Big comfy seats.

First class has its own lavatory.

First class has its own closet.

Free drinks before you take off.

"First class has the best seat because you you don't have to scoot in to see the window the window is right here." - the little girl sitting in front of me. She continued to spend the rest of the trip asking her father what everything cost.

First class gets to leave first.

I like the Left Turn once you get in the plane, but it still doesn't compete with the Long Walk to the good theater seats.

Cons:

The security for first class takes you two hundred yards out of your way. On a related note, I am never having Gary tote around those heavy overnight bags again. Roller bags all the way.

First class serves drinks, but there's no tray table.

In first class the engines sound really whiny and scary.

Unrelated to first class:

At 12:45, the departure sign gave me a gate number of, say, K18, and a departure time of 2:00.

At 1:40, I noticed we weren't boarding, and went to the desk to see what was up. Nobody there, no sign.

I found a departure screen again and found out that the flight was delayed to 2:15 and the gate changed to one five minutes away.

"Hey, you know there are six people waiting for the flight at the original gate," I said to the attendant at the new gate.

"I'll call the desk there," she said.

"No one's at the desk."

"Then they should go look like you did," she muttered to someone when I turned away because we were boarding.

That plane was boarded and on the move at 2:04.

I KNOW. Evil mean dirty trick. I didn't know I was being set up by the airline to miss my flight. I'll be camped in front of the departures sign from now on.

Also unrelated to first class:

I walked though concourse C and thought, wow, did they give this a new paint job? It looks so shiny and new. I wish they'd do this to all the concourses. And then I remembered concourse C is the one that got wiped out in the tornado a few years ago.

Comments

[~~Silk]

Once when The Man and I were traveling, we were told at the gate that the plane had to be replaced, they were bringing another in, and there would be a 2-hour delay. Everyone at the gate scattered, but there happened to be a bar near the gate that had sandwiches and TV, so we went there. Fifteen minutes after the announcement of the delay, we saw through the window that a new plane had arrived, they announced the flight was boarding, and we took off with something like five people on the plane - BEFORE the scheduled takeoff. I don't know what the other hundred or so people did.

[Hattie]

That interior looks so..bland.

[TheQueen]

~~Silk- that was you, then! I was trying to remember who had that experience. I guess it's easier for them than saying a flight is overbooked?
Hattie-well yes, there's no wood panelling.

[~~Silk]

Yeah. I think that was the trip to Minneapolis. And overbooking was my first thought, too. Many of the people who left probably went to change their flight. But, hey, five?

[hattie]

True dat, as we say around here.

[TheQueen]

~~Silk - Or someone could have genuinely miscommunicated.
Hattie - American gave me some bonus points for one of their unknown level achievements, so they're back in my good graces.

[Hot Mom]

The tray table is in the arm rest.

[TheQueen]

Hot Mom - I doubt I'll ever be in first class again, but still good to know.