#9 Fly First Class

Ahhh the luxuries of First Class flight. Special priority check-in, luggage, security lines, and boarding - breezing past the sweaty, travel-weary, long-line-waiting, jockeying-for-boarding-position peons. Excuse me sir, could you step OFF the red carpet so these PRIORITY passengers could get through? Music to my ears.

Preflight beverage service - in a glass! A real glass! Huge seats, ample overhead storage space, coats hung up for you. A reminder to all passengers to please use the bathrooms in their ticketed cabins.

A menu detailing your many on-board dining options, a little bowl of mixed nuts while you mull them over, and of course... an open bar, which was taken full advantage of by my five-bloody-marys-in neighbor and myself, to a lesser extent.

Since when is the SFO - IAD flight so short!?

But I digress...

Oh wait, no I don't. Domestic first class flights on mediocre aircrafts are really nothing at all compared to International Business. I had experienced the unparalleled deliciousness of United's lay flat seats on a Rome-DC flight about a year and a half ago, so when the email confirming my upgrade came through, the outlook for the next 11 hours of my life improved dramatically. Comforter-style blankets, fluffy pillows, personal on-demand entertainment systems with hours and hours of movies and tv and games and map-watching. A courtesy amenity pack complete with little sockys for your cold feet, Murad lotion, toothpaste and toothbrush, an eyemask, and a pen (for your customs forms of course). I board, I eat dinner, and I push the lay flat button. A full 8 hours later, I wake up to the smell of coffee and breakfast and the announcement we will be landing in an hour. My neighbor asks me how I slept? Beautifully, I say. Never better.

Now people... I know what all of this sounds like. I realize how indulgent and ridiculous it is to pursue such creature comforts. I understand your disapproval. And to you I say... too bad :)

And to my status-loving, travel-savvy, miles-obsessed friends, I say... you know JUST what I'm talking about :). (Oh and by the way, my flight was delayed so they gave us apology gifts of $200 off domestic flights, 10% off international, or 9000 bonus miles... which would you have chosen?)

Admittedly I am still intrigued by the International First Class cabins... especially the ones that are upstairs on huge aircrafts that the peons don't even get to feast their eyes on (myself included in the peonery). First item on my 40 before 40?