I’d never flown facing backward before last night, and had a little trepidation before take-off as I wondered how it felt. But I’d very happily do it again. The views of early-evening Chicago as we took off, circled around the city and then headed east over the lake were stunning. Somehow the fairly dull grid system that rules the city came to life and the occasional diagonal created wonderful effects.
We were travelling 24 hours later than planned—and taking a different route—because of delays on the previous day’s flights between Nashville and Washington DC. Spending an extra night in Nashville paid off as we were upgraded to business class (flights from the US to London are so backed up that the upgrade was the easiest way for them to find us seats) and got full use of the lounges during a lengthy layover and significantly more comfort during the transatlantic flight.
And so I found myself in one of the newly redesigned business cabins where half the seats face backwards. And got used to it far too easily.