The Upgrade.

Thursday the 6^th of October saw term 1 come to a close in Singapore. I had a return flight  with Emirates leaving on the Friday which I got for the bargain basement price of AUD$520. Upon arriving home on the Tuesday afternoon and quietly checking my email over a cup of tea, I discovered an email from Emirates. Offering me a SGD$350 upgrade (AUD$270) to business class. Would I like to partake?

Well, there went my quiet afternoon (and almost my cup of tea ) as I clicked the ‘is the pope catholic’ button and lurched out of my chair and into my room hunting down the glorious credit card to secure my position in Business. Class. To my surprise, I managed to book through and the opportunity to pop my business class cherry was upon me.

So, How Was It?

First of all, The Lounge was excellent. A wide selection of steak, curries, crab cakes, smoked salmon stuffed with crab, cheese (CHEESE!!!! – normally out of the price range of a lowly teacher in Singapore), skewers of meats with dipping sauces, cakes and delicacies. and One choice of Champagne. Verve. Help yourself Verve. Just leave the empty bottle on top of the fridge Verve and we will replace before you have time to empty your current glass of Verve Verve. Clearly it turns out, that the choice of champagne whilst limited, was satisfactory.

There was also an open bar to help yourself, but I didn’t want to appear like an alcoholic. Furthermore, I still had a whole 8 hour flight ahead of me. On these occasions, one does need to demonstrate restraint and consider the fact that this event was to be a marathon. Not a sprint.

Once it was time to board the plane, a friendly message came across the loud speaker to let us know it was indeed time to board the plane. So, 6 glasses of Verve and 2 coffees later (marathon – remember??) I passed through the boarding gates and past the line for economy and was one of the first to board the plane.

Once settled, the stewardess ensured I had all I needed by handing me a glass of champagne (Moet this time J) and a bowl of nuts. So, I started to check out the viewing list, started watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother and settled in for the flight. By this stage, the economy passengers had been invited to board.  Grumbling past us in Business.

There was delays to take off due to the Singaporean Army taking their jets out for a spin (as you can imagine, air space is as much at a premium in Singapore as all other spaces).  The planes had to wait for 4 minute intervals between take off from Changi. Normally, in economy class when one experiences this, you start wanting to climb the walls and just get going, however, in Business, you have time for another glass of champagne and you already have access to the entertainment so you are really only left with one though: take as LOOOOOOONG as you like Changi!

Once in the air, we were served silver service a 3 course meal which was amazing. And we had real cutlery. 3 sets of it in fact! Much to many a person who may end up reading this’ disgust, I tucked into my meal whilst watching Justin Bieber’s “Never Say Never”. Don’t worry – I was waiting for one of the stewards to inform me that clearly there had been some mistake and I needed to go back down to economy for such appalling viewing choices. (Quite a good film though! Did come down with a touch of Bieber Fever, but am happy to report it was only a 24 hour bug).

By about 3 hours into the flight, it became apparent to me just who are these people that fly Business. Geriatrics. The whole cabin became full of flat out grey nomads (trave- in-style-grey-nomads but nonetheless) snoring. Or if they happened to wake up, they would do a couple of laps of the cabin to stave off deep vein thrombosis.

Leg room anyone?

Luckily, I had had my fill of food (and even champagne) and didn’t take full advantage of the service offered on business. There was no service, or even any sign of the stewardesses once dinner was over. I did eventually ding the buzzer for a cup of tea (turns out I DO belong in business – such a nanna!)  but felt really rude doing this! I might need to fly business again just overcome this.

At the end of the flight, it was so nice to hop straight off the plane, be one of the first in line for customs and out through the gates within the first 10 people – a positive of travelling with geriatrics: I have speed and agility on my side.