Five-star
Written on Tuesday, April 4 in the morning on my last flight:
My sister Liz shops at Mountain Equipment Co-op and from her I’ve learned that there are various “levels” of fleece. The top of the line (windproof, super-warm, indestructible) is what she calls the five-star fleece. I recently invested in one of these little numbers and I love it. Actually I am wearing it right now as it is a little chilly up here at 40,000 feet above the earth as we approach Vancouver from Toronto.
Liz is correct when she says SmallTime is a five-star baby! Most of you know I wear my politics on my sleeve and it would be hard to argue with anyone disputing that I lean left…and if you look at my shoe collection, you’d say I was perhaps a “champagne” socialist. That said, my socialist values do run deep – I just have a special place in my heart for capitalist accessories!
SmallTime, like BigTime is 100% five-star. This trip SmallTime has been treated to all of the comfortable luxuries of travel. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to travel by my own slightly 2.5 star self again. You see, after 5 years in recruitment I finally made it to Elite status with Air Canada. Yes I know - this may not be the opportune year to make it since I’ll likely not travel much at all this year. So I figured I might as well milk it for all its worth. I’ve visited every VIP lounge I’ve been able to on this trip, and yes, I’m sitting in that magical place ahead of the little curtain that separates Business Class passengers from the masses. To ease my conscious, however, when only some of us were able to access the VIP lounge in Lima, I did manage to sneak out a whole lot of food and Inca Cola to my colleagues who did not have Elite status. I call this redistributive travel justice.
Soooo, here are some of my observations about how the other half (or likely, the other 1% in the higher echelon lives) – in the VIP lounges the tendency is still more male than female, and likewise up here in Business Class. I could continue my gendered analysis but I think you get the point. In Business Class, they feed you – ALL THE TIME – which I think results in some pretty doughy looking males. The seats are much larger and of course more comfortable – which is great if you have a doughy bottom. There is a lot of free stuff…which seems akin to Hollywood stars receiving thousand dollar goodie bags just for showing up at the Academy Awards! Those who don’t need free stuff, seem to be offered a lot of it.
And, moreover, when you receive your meal in Business Class, they give you real knives. Now, I haven’t seen a real knife on an airplane since 9/11, and I’m sure I didn’t get one during our internal economy flights through S.America. So the only thing I can infer is that given the cushy seats, plentiful food, and free stuff, there is very little likelihood that the doughy males up front will revolt any time soon (even though we are sitting much closer to the cockpit than anyone else).
And thus my friends is a lesson from the Business Class section of Air Canada. Can you imagine what would happen if one of us up front passed our real knife back to the masses in the “hospitality” section – remember they haven’t been fed since we left Toronto 4.5 hours ago…
I think I may roll one of the chocolate chip cookies I just received under the magic curtain and hope it keeps them appeased back there :)
My sister Liz shops at Mountain Equipment Co-op and from her I’ve learned that there are various “levels” of fleece. The top of the line (windproof, super-warm, indestructible) is what she calls the five-star fleece. I recently invested in one of these little numbers and I love it. Actually I am wearing it right now as it is a little chilly up here at 40,000 feet above the earth as we approach Vancouver from Toronto.
Liz is correct when she says SmallTime is a five-star baby! Most of you know I wear my politics on my sleeve and it would be hard to argue with anyone disputing that I lean left…and if you look at my shoe collection, you’d say I was perhaps a “champagne” socialist. That said, my socialist values do run deep – I just have a special place in my heart for capitalist accessories!
SmallTime, like BigTime is 100% five-star. This trip SmallTime has been treated to all of the comfortable luxuries of travel. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to travel by my own slightly 2.5 star self again. You see, after 5 years in recruitment I finally made it to Elite status with Air Canada. Yes I know - this may not be the opportune year to make it since I’ll likely not travel much at all this year. So I figured I might as well milk it for all its worth. I’ve visited every VIP lounge I’ve been able to on this trip, and yes, I’m sitting in that magical place ahead of the little curtain that separates Business Class passengers from the masses. To ease my conscious, however, when only some of us were able to access the VIP lounge in Lima, I did manage to sneak out a whole lot of food and Inca Cola to my colleagues who did not have Elite status. I call this redistributive travel justice.
Soooo, here are some of my observations about how the other half (or likely, the other 1% in the higher echelon lives) – in the VIP lounges the tendency is still more male than female, and likewise up here in Business Class. I could continue my gendered analysis but I think you get the point. In Business Class, they feed you – ALL THE TIME – which I think results in some pretty doughy looking males. The seats are much larger and of course more comfortable – which is great if you have a doughy bottom. There is a lot of free stuff…which seems akin to Hollywood stars receiving thousand dollar goodie bags just for showing up at the Academy Awards! Those who don’t need free stuff, seem to be offered a lot of it.
And, moreover, when you receive your meal in Business Class, they give you real knives. Now, I haven’t seen a real knife on an airplane since 9/11, and I’m sure I didn’t get one during our internal economy flights through S.America. So the only thing I can infer is that given the cushy seats, plentiful food, and free stuff, there is very little likelihood that the doughy males up front will revolt any time soon (even though we are sitting much closer to the cockpit than anyone else).
And thus my friends is a lesson from the Business Class section of Air Canada. Can you imagine what would happen if one of us up front passed our real knife back to the masses in the “hospitality” section – remember they haven’t been fed since we left Toronto 4.5 hours ago…
I think I may roll one of the chocolate chip cookies I just received under the magic curtain and hope it keeps them appeased back there :)
posted by Paola at
8:26 p.m.
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