Flying Business Class (or) Chair Goes Up! Chair Goes Down!

Travel blogs are great, especially when you’re about to travel yourself, there’s nothing nicer than getting some tips from someone whose just been where you’re going – someone who hasn’t got a vested interest in selling you things I mean. So I thought I’d write a few posts about our recent trip to Europe. 

Now the kids have grown up and it’s just the two of us travelling, the things we choose to do are different. Obviously there’s a bit more money to go around – that’s nice, and more of the trip is structured around art (me) and eating (both of us), and in Luke’s case, cycling.

But the first, new thing about this trip was that we flew Business Class with Qatar from Adelaide to Rome. Now, we’re not your normal Business Class travellers, we’re more your tortured Economy Class traveller, but on this trip we splashed out for a couple of reasons. The main one being that I’d just finished radiotherapy for breast cancer and was feeling a little fragile. It’s an extraordinarily long flight from Adelaide to practically anywhere else, and I felt I needed a little coddling. The other reason was that Qatar was offering very good prices on their flights as they were just starting to fly direct from Adelaide to Europe.

You know the downside of travelling in luxury of course… you never want to return to the back of the plane. It is so nice at the front. I had to restrain myself from playing ‘chair goes up, chair goes down’ in a Homer Simpson kind of way, I managed not to only because I was given a lovely French Champagne to sip prior to take off (maybe that’s why they do it, to stop the newbies from fiddling with the chair controls).

We were travelling on the new A330 which was really comfortable. It’s very open as they’ve got rid of the overhead storage in the centre, which makes the cabin feel very spacious, and of course the seats are huge and lay flat into a bed (and someone will come and make up your bed for you with sheets and a quilt. And nice pyjamas (I saved the pyjamas and gave them to the kids when we got back home – lucky them!). And Georgio Armani toiletries. And fabulous food on proper plates with a tablecloth and real cutlery. Nice. I probably gave away my peasanty nature by being excited about everything, and watching back to back Downton Abbey while I ate. And Luke tried every wine on the menu which I suspect might also be a give away that this was an adventure for us, and we were going to enjoy every minute of it.

It was a glorious start to the holiday. Instead of dreading the long haul, it became an absolute pleasure. And for some reason I’m not as scared of the plane crashing when I sit up the front. Weird but true. I was definitely born for a posh life.

Doha airport was pretty impressive too (if you’re into that sort of thing, and we are). There was some fabulous contemporary art there, including a Bill Viola video which was mesmerising. The stop over was long enough for us to shower and wander, and have a bite to eat, before completing the shorter leg to Rome.