“Have a very, very happy birthday,” the woman in the United Airlines uniform said to me as she handed me the boarding card for my first experience of business class. It had been the airline staff member who checked me in who first commented on my impending celebration, and who triggered the idea to mention that later on and see if an upgrade was in order. Apparently so.
In fact, it’s not been quite so pristine as it always looks when walking through trying to find the seat I’ve been allocated further back in the aircraft. The casing around my screen was slightly cracked, and the footrest is at just the wrong height for me to lie right back. But neither of those really detracts from being handed a glass of champagne before take-off, a constantly flowing supply of pinot blanc, or a seat that reclines without crushing at least one other passenger.
I was rather pleasantly surprised to discover that the in-flight movie selection included ‘The Station Agent’. It’s a charming little film which wiled away a few hours for Kari and I on New Year’s Eve at the Belcourt Theatre. Like its focal characters, the film is unassuming and takes a while to open up, but as an homage to hard-sought friendship with its share of well earned laughs, it’s one I was more than glad to see again. Even if this screen was less inches wide than the other was feet.
The business class headphones really do a good job with the KLF’s Chill Out. Six hours to Chicago, the coffee has yet to go cold.