Of the hundreds of hours we've spent in the air, we only flew First-Class when upgraded for short flights in Central America. Oh, and when I left a job in Damman, Saudi Arabia, I had to leave the country by air. My next job was in Bahrain and I flew there in Business Class! That is around a 40-minute flight. I smoked cigarettes in those days and the vice was allowed when flying. However, this particular flight was so short the pilot never switched off the no-smoking indicators!
I'm writing this only two days before the start of additional tourist flights totalling nine or so hours. The first segment is Colombo to Singapore. We are taking Jay's sisters for a two-week exploration of both Singapore and Bangkok. We had the chance to do online check-ins on Sri Lankan Air UL 803. To our surprise, the seats they assigned will be in Business Class!
Being unaccustomed to the perks when sitting in the front of an airplane, I had to write to a friend who worked as a flight attendant for years. Here's my message:
Hey Ed, you know we fly a lot but usually in the cheapest, tiniest seats near a lavatory.
We just checked in 48-hours before Sri Lankan Airlines 308 to Singapore. It's an Airbus 330-300 with a usual 2-4-2 configuration. We all got bumped to the 1-2-1 Business Class with the seating pods.
As folks who only ever see the front of the plane when boarding and deplaning, we need advice. How do we maximize our 4-hour experience up there in the front? In other words, what special things can we do or get? Looking for hints.
