I’ve travelled First Class three times. The first was while backpacking and although we liked to refer to ourselves as ‘playboy backpackers’ we had never actually planned first class as part of the equation. Some total booking failure resulted in a mud covered friend and I somehow being directed upstairs on a 747 and inadvertently finishing off a three week hiking trip with champagne and personal DVD players (the nuts at the time).
There was something incredibly satisfying about sitting in our shorts and flip flops, aged 19, smiling sweetly at the array of middle aged grey suited first class aficionados. Grimaces flew back at us and they obviously weighed up the intrusion of such reprobates into their fully reclining world. The second experience was a reciprocal arrangement. It turns out that offering to take a load of pilots out for the evening to a nightclub opening in Miami is just enough airline credit to get you a return leg with all the trimmings. I was mildly concerned that the Pilot I’d still been buying shots for at about 3am was sitting in the cockpit the following day. It’s all fly by wire these days though right? No problems….
The third and last was on airmiles. Cheating I know but, at the cost of taxes only, I’ll take some time in the Virgin Clubhouse every day of the week. Don’t get me wrong, taking showers and being waited on hand and foot (that’s pretty accurate as you can get haircuts and manicures gratis) is fantastic but in reality very few of us can afford to live the first class lifestyle, let alone fly on a G6.
We can aspire though can’t we? No matter how down the hierarchy of needs you start, there is always room on the next step. Whilst this issue has a hint toward all things First Class; great Christmas gifts, amazing jets, gorgeous fashion and the like, remember that the finer things in life are all relative and they needn’t be monetary. Sometimes you find out in life that the truly first class things are the ones you never plan and can’t buy. That sounded like I should have been saying it from a lectern, Sorry.
Have a great Christmas and New Year people from all the penguins at Gallery. We’ll be back on the 1st February. Catch you on the flip side.
BD
