I’m going to let you in on a little secret, one which flies in the face of the core of being a management consultant.
Flying really isn’t my thing.
Yes, I do it every week but I don’t enjoy it, especially when you’re talking international flights of 7+ hours. Yet, I still deal with it – it’s one of those necessary evil kind of things. If I had to drive everywhere I needed to go, not a whole lot would ever get done, so I travel and get through it the best that I can.
A big part of how I get through the travel is having a routine. Mine was I get on the plane in this tiny seat and fall asleep until I arrive at my destination. Lots of other people seemed to have to deal with a similar commute and something about knowing that made my nook of a seat just a bit more bearable.
A couple of funny things happened though. First, I was having a conversation with one of the partners I worked with who happened to be an Irishmen. Somehow the topic of travel outside the U.S. came up and I ended up sharing that not only had I not been anywhere that required a passport, but I didn’t even have one. It never seemed worth the time to get it since I had no plans of leaving U.S. soil. When he explained how I could potentially miss a great career opportunity or conference abroad because of not having a passport, it was clear I had to get one.
Not more than 3 months later I was on a project where I was going to Paris, France every month. The second trip back from France is when it happened, the moment when my traveling life would change forever. After I hand my boarding pass for usual nook of a seat to the flight attendant, she reaches under the counter for something…another boarding pass, and tells me I’ve been upgraded to business class. It didn’t seem like that big of a deal at the time since I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but that was about to change in a hurry.
The term business class doesn’t do this thing justice – people should call it “luxury class” or “business elite” as +Delta uses on its official menu shown above. Anything you could want or need is available to you there and it’s so absurd you might actually forget you’re on a plane. Let me break it down some of the amenities for you:
- 3-course meal
- fully reclining seat
- full sized pillow
- real blanket
- excessive amounts of legroom
- wines, spirits, mimosas, etc. to your heart’s desired
- noise cancelling headphones