Coach-ing myself.....
I guess that many of us have not only had the privilege but also the luck of traveling in business class. In my case, I do this very often mostly due to my jet-setting job that takes me to three continents.
Clearly a blessing on the one hand but, on the other, a real curse. Why is this so? Simply because one gets so used to have more than enough leg-room, good selection of movies, dedicated attention and good food, that we tend to forget our own humble origins.
The other day I boarded a plane and came to realize that these are quite big....... Yes, they are !! As I usually only need a few strides to get to my seat, this time I had to walk like 5 minutes to get to the very last row in the coach section (I guess it was row 32).... I was amazed to see so many people and so many babies (all shouting), and so much stress because people had more hand luggage than what the overhead bin would typically allow for.....
However, the experience was somewhat gratifying since, lucky me, I was the only one sitting in a row of three seats (and you could lift the armrests !!) so I eventually managed to take a nap as good as the one I could have taken at the front section of the plane.
Here, you can really appreciate people's generosity, like mommeys giving away their kids to charitable, soft-hearted, baby-liking strangers so that they could sleep. Also, I witnessed a phenomenal amount of nappies' exchange (not change.... well, that also...) that materialized by the offering of spare ones to those progenitors that had run out of such a 'commodity'.....
I also noticed that, perhaps because of the amount of people, the cultural mix and not least the psychological profile of us all, the flight attendants seemed to be much more service oriented than at the front. As an example, a simple coffee would reach you within 2-3 minutes despite the 100 meters that he/she would have to cover to satisfy your needs. It take a good 5-10 minutes to get the same from business class stewards (not in all airlines of course) to whom you often times have to remind by pressing the 'call' button (but that is probably due to the fact that they are having a good coffee themselves or finishing dinner or just chatting.......). No time for that in coach !!
Good 60 meters of bird body to exercise and stretch your legs as compared with the maximum of 10 meters at the front where, should you dare to walk, you are faced with suspicious eyes....
Anyway, a good experience and a reminder that, after all, you can still feel like traveling in business class if you decide to make the coach experience a memorable one....
Clearly a blessing on the one hand but, on the other, a real curse. Why is this so? Simply because one gets so used to have more than enough leg-room, good selection of movies, dedicated attention and good food, that we tend to forget our own humble origins.
The other day I boarded a plane and came to realize that these are quite big....... Yes, they are !! As I usually only need a few strides to get to my seat, this time I had to walk like 5 minutes to get to the very last row in the coach section (I guess it was row 32).... I was amazed to see so many people and so many babies (all shouting), and so much stress because people had more hand luggage than what the overhead bin would typically allow for.....
However, the experience was somewhat gratifying since, lucky me, I was the only one sitting in a row of three seats (and you could lift the armrests !!) so I eventually managed to take a nap as good as the one I could have taken at the front section of the plane.
Here, you can really appreciate people's generosity, like mommeys giving away their kids to charitable, soft-hearted, baby-liking strangers so that they could sleep. Also, I witnessed a phenomenal amount of nappies' exchange (not change.... well, that also...) that materialized by the offering of spare ones to those progenitors that had run out of such a 'commodity'.....
I also noticed that, perhaps because of the amount of people, the cultural mix and not least the psychological profile of us all, the flight attendants seemed to be much more service oriented than at the front. As an example, a simple coffee would reach you within 2-3 minutes despite the 100 meters that he/she would have to cover to satisfy your needs. It take a good 5-10 minutes to get the same from business class stewards (not in all airlines of course) to whom you often times have to remind by pressing the 'call' button (but that is probably due to the fact that they are having a good coffee themselves or finishing dinner or just chatting.......). No time for that in coach !!
Good 60 meters of bird body to exercise and stretch your legs as compared with the maximum of 10 meters at the front where, should you dare to walk, you are faced with suspicious eyes....
Anyway, a good experience and a reminder that, after all, you can still feel like traveling in business class if you decide to make the coach experience a memorable one....
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