Like a Box of Chocolates

Hi all,

Sitting here in Detroit. Four hours to go until I board my last flight, so I'm writing things to be posted once I have an internet connection again.

The trip home started off interestingly. I was relieved to be sitting in 27c--an aisle seat. Two Ghanaian women quickly filled the other two seats, but I was fine with that--the women seemed nice and what do I have to complain about as long as I have an aisle? Then along comes this man that says I am sitting in his seat--27c. Uh-oh. My boarding pass also said 27c. We were both assigned the same seat. I know it sounds stupid but I started praying. I have to get up to use the bathroom a lot so sitting in the middle or by a window is horrible for me. Okay Lord, I know this is no big deal in the scheme of things, but if you could just work this out so I can still sit in an aisle I would be so thankful. It was several minutes before the attendant came back and announced that I was in the wrong seat. But I wasn't--my boarding pass SAID 27c. She said, no ma'am. You've been changed to seat 1E. Hold on...wait a minute...1E? Like the front of the plane? Could it be? Yes! It was! I had been upgraded!!!

It's amazing how quickly I got up and abandoned seat 27c for the promise of better things! LOL! I had heard that sometimes when you gather a lot of miles they will upgrade your for free but it never happened to me before. I am a coach girl. I was entering a whole new world! As soon as I walked up there all of the sudden I was important and treated like a VIP. I said "thank you" at one point and the attendant actually said, "No, thank YOU." Have you ever seen that Seinfeld episode where Jerry gets bumped up to first class? It was like that.

Reasons to like Business Class....
--Double arm rests (no bumping arms with your neighbor)
--Six feet between seats (not really, but it was a LOT of space)
--Laying down (it laid almost all the way down, my feet didn't even swell!)
--"Comfort Bag" (a zipper case with eye mask, ear plugs, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, lip balm, comb, pen, and other assorted goodies)
--Real dishes (glass glasses, real silverware and plates, even your own salt and pepper shaker!)
--Bottled water (No more waiting for them to deliver 2 ounces of water in a plastic cup. Nope. Here ya go--your own bottle of water and glass to enjoy whenever you please. Run out? Just ask for another bottle.)
--Fresh Squeezed Juice (yes really. Fresh squeezed apple, orange, and pinapple juice!)
--Deluxe bathroom (even the bathroom door was bigger! LOL!)
--Massaging chair (can you believe it?!)
--Real down pillow (I wanted to steal that thing!)
--Dessert ("Would you like one of our luxurious Belgium Chocolates ma'am?")
--Collector's Item (They even gave us little porcelain Dutch cottages that are individually numbered before we left!)
--"Priority Luggage" (I noticed they put a "priority" sticker on my luggage when I checked in but didn't know what it meant. What that means is my suitcase was one of the first off the plane here in Detroit to go through customs. Nice!)
--"Priority de-boarding" (Guess who got to get off the plane first?)

Can you tell I liked it? It was really nice. Of course my flight from Amsterdam to Detroit was back to normal, at the very back of the plane. But I had an aisle seat, and I had fun talking to the woman next to me (just returning from a mission trip to Kenya). I had taken some medicine before the Amsterdam flight so I actually conked out and slept most of that trip. Sleep on a plane is never real sleep though. I'm convinced of it. It's more like losing time and waiting up every half hour to see how much longer you have to go.

This has felt like the never-ending morning. There was breakfast (last) on the Accra flight. There was breakfast (first) on the Amsterdam flight. And then I got here in Detroit in time for breakfast! LOL! I have a date with a hamburger in a few hours.

Anita, from Detroit