We don’t usually fly in business class, even for very long flights. It was coach all the way and back for the endless flight to Sydney from LA a few years ago. But this time we used airline miles to kick it up a notch since we expected much more of an arduous and certainly longer trip this time.
Yes, it’s a treat, with the fluffy pillow, the edible food, free drinks and large screen entertainment on demand, plus the seats that maneuver into endless formations like a high-end hospital bed or a devilish pilates station (including the almost supine zzzzz position, according to the button). And you could certainly get very accustomed to the pleasantness of it all.
But, even under these conditions, what do you do for 12 hours encased in a flying pipe? Well, most of our fellow biz class passengers spent 12 hours staring at movies and TV shows in the darkness of closed window shades. And I can tell you that there really weren’t enough good movies on demand to fill up that kind of time. A few slept off and on; very few read something. Oddly hardly anyone had a conversation either. You’d think people would want to exchange a word or two with the dozens of other people they’ve been sleeping with.
We find that the time goes pretty quickly for us if we fill it up with a half-dozen 2 hour chunks: do some reading, watch the one or two movies that merit attention, eat when prompted to, talk a bit, sleep – or at least rest as if asleep – for a while, and do a few crossword puzzles together. It’s only 12 hours and the time does, ahem, fly by when you do it right.
