Although business class is so costly that it's painful, I firmly believe that flying business class on long flights is the thing to do. After too many uncomfortable international flights that left us exhausted, aching and occasionally ill, both myself and my frugal accountant husband, Lee, were willing to fork over the extra dough for our recent trip to Australia and New Zealand.
Was it worth it! We flew Quantas Airlines in business class from L.A. to Brisbane, Australia and home from Auckland, New Zealand to L.A.. It was wonderful from the time we went to Quantas Airlines and breezed by the block long line to the short elite line. With our boarding passes, we were handed passes for the Quantas Club. We entered the club and sank into the deep carpeting, soothed by the muted lighting and waved the server to bring single malt scotches to me and brandy manhattans to Lee. Our plane wasn't leaving until midnight so we spent two hours in the womb like club eating hors d'ouvres, watching silent CNN images and sipping our beverages encased in soft leather chairs.
When we boarded the plane, we were directed upstairs to Paradise. Some people call it Business Class. I don't know where First Class was, but I believe it would be referred to as Heaven. Once we were seated in our individual "pods", we were offered champagne. I don't even like champagne, but I had some to celebrate the moment. Then we were given our travel packs full of cool stuff like ear plugs, moisture cream, eye masks, grey pajamas with kangaroos jumping across them and our blankies and pillows. I texted my brother, who would be joining us later in New Zealand, to tell him we were rubbing rich moisture cream on our wealthy bodies and wondering what was the folks back in the real world were doing. Not really caring, just wondering.
I spent the next few hours eating a tasty meal accompanied by a good Australian cabarnet ((just what everyone needs at one o'clock in the morning), modeling my pj's, watching a couple of decent movies on my personal screen, listening to jazz on earphones and playing with the adjustments on my "pod". I finally drifted off to sleep and rested for the next several hours, waking occasionally to get snacks, go to the restroom and drink bottles of water.
Once the Quantas version of night was over, we got dressed, walked around, shifted our pods into recliners, ate 5 more pounds of food, drank gallons of water and wine, did some yoga and stretching, watched some more movies, read a couple of novels and we were there only 16 hours after we'd left home. As we were filing down the stairs to exit the plane in Brisbane, I looked at the bleary eyed, slightly disoriented vaguely smelly people lined up to exit coach and I said to Lee, "Right now, it's good to be me!"I exited the plane in Brisbane feeling happy, healthy, fat and sassy and a little bit poor.
If you want to fly business class or first class on your next long flight, there are many deals out there-especially if you are okay with waiting until the last minute. Just put the words 'discounted business class/first class airline tickets' into your search engine and follow the champagne!
What I recommend you put in your WisePack™ travel purse for a long flight is:
1. Your own music with sound blocking earphones because, even if there is no loud talker or crying baby near you, there's is still that loud hum that can get to you.
2. An extra battery for the above
3. Extra underwear and a backup outfit in case you spill or the luggage gets lost for a while
4. Hair brush or comb
5. Passport, credit cards and money against your back in the safe pocket where they belong
6.A book you are already into (nothing worse than starting a new one and finding out it's really awful or that you've read it before) and that new one just in case
7. Facial cleaners and a small bottle of your moisture cream
8. A deck of cards or small versions of games that don't require any batteries
9. Any magazines you have sitting around that you haven't gotten around to reading
10.A book or two about where you are going
