Credit Where Credit Is Due – Part Deux

Subtitle: The Make-Up Call
Several months ago, mechanics for the airline on which I was scheduled to fly across the Atlantic all decided not to work at the same time. As a result, I had to take a different airline and fight for my frequent flyer miles.

I can hear myself. I already sound uppity and whiny, and I don’t like it. What I’m about to write is certain to engender even less sympathy from my regular readership of three snowed-in people in North Dakota.

I flew across the Atlantic again. Perhaps one of my readers in North Dakota has a cousin who’s a mechanic in Frankfurt and felt sort of bad about the whole strike and frequent flyer ordeal, because this time Lufthansa bumped my friend and me to business class for no apparent reason.

Despite having flown hundreds of thousands of miles, I had previously never ridden in business class while crossing an ocean. I discovered that there’s a lot to learn. In the space here, I’ll just cover the one that meant the most to me.

You know how economy has seatback pockets? You know, the ones where they repeatedly warn you not to store your laptop? Where they keep the in-flight magazines? Where you can place the book you’re reading?

Yeah, business class doesn’t have those.

Business class has miniature book bins conveniently located near your armpits. It took me six hours to find these book bins, and I was looking for them. I finally learned about them when my traveling companion pointed out that they’d left a bottle of water there for us, along with a business class souvenir package.

I’d like to show you some pictures of these nifty souvenirs, because while I remembered to snag my souvenirs, I left my book on the plane.

What might be included in such a bag? Let’s take a gander...

Unfortunately, I didn’t open my goodie bag until more than twenty-four hours after returning home. Think of all the in-flight possibilities that might have been, such as using the eye gear and toothbrush to endear myself to folks in business class with my best makeshift Zorro impersonation. Alternately, I could have used the fresh headset covers and earplugs at the same time to see if it drew strange looks. Or how about if I’d asked as many folks as possible if they’d let me...you know, I was going to make a joke here, but there really isn’t anything funny about lip balm or moisturizing cream.

Business class was neat. I’d trade it for economy if I could get my book back. I was looking forward to reading it a lot more than I was looking forward to owning travel-sized lip balm.