Now that I have flown so damn much I’m an Air Canada “elite” customer even when I buy cheapass tickets, I get to sit in the first class lounge.
FREE BOOZE.
Thus, I offer this haiku:
Free booze everywhere
Leather chairs and Web access
Coach class is for chumps.
British Airway business and first class lounges at LHR are sweet*! Ditto for the Business and First Class lounges which Singapore Airlines has at Changi.
*One example: clothes pressed whilst you shower and shave after your international arrival.
Oh, that sounds excellent. Forget booze; showers and clean clothes rock.
They don’t wash your clothes, just press them. And they have the booze. And the ice cream stocked in the freezer. And the quiet rooms with the massage chairs. Pressed clothes, fresh shower and shave, quiet rooms and massage chairs are worth their weight in gold after crossing an Ocean or the Himalayas or escaping Saudi airspace.
Sing in brother. I need only one more flight to qualify for next year, again. I have more upgrade coupons than I could ever use.
I fly mostly between Narita and Pearson, occasionally stopping in Vancouver. Surprisingly, Narita has the scantest selection of food. They also have two levels of lounge, the nicer of which I only get to use when I fly Business Class. Still, free booze, snacks and comfy chairs is nothing sneeze at in the Lesser Lounge, though.
Oh sure, when I’m squatting on the cold hard carpet, waving my tattered plastic Blue beer cup, plaintively asking passers-by into the Air Canada lounge if they can spare a bit of Heineken or Stella, now I know who it is who’s stepping over me with an airy jaunt and a thirsty eye…
come the revolution, pal, we’ll be storming that “elite” lounge! Heineken will flow in the gutters! peanuts and pretzels for all, to each according to their needs!
Cathay Pacific’s at their home base in Hong Kong is outstanding. I don’t recall if the booze is free, but the bowls of noodle soup, fresh-made 24/7, are outstanding. The free showers with attendants who are truly attentive are a real help when your flight is leaving at midnight (seems most of them do, there) and you need to freshen up to get into your comfy flying clothes. IIRC they’ll even send someone to wake you out of your comfy chair when it’s time to board.
Singapore’s at Seoul-Incheon is on that level, but without the hot food and showers.
:dubious: :eek: