Long haul flights

Ever since airlines upgraded their business class cabins on long haul flights with seats that turn into completely flat beds, I've thought that business class had something significant to offer travellers beyond economy class. Even with flat beds though, I'd find it hard to get to sleep on a flight, except that I got a good tip from a colleague many years ago.

"Right GB, I'm going to go to sleep now, so I'll see you when we get back to London," says my colleague sitting next to me on a flight back from Singapore in the early 1990's.

"I don't know how you can sleep on planes," I reply, resigning myself to my usual fate of watching the drab in-flight entertainment.

"Actually it's simple," says my colleague with a glint in his eye, "I take drugs :-). Would you like some?"

Suddenly the conversation has become rather interesting! He hands me a small bottle and I look at the label.

"Drugs?" I say sounding a bit disappointed, "These are just sleeping pills aren't they?"

"Yes of course," laughs my colleague, "sleeping drugs! But I get my doctor to prescribe me some good ones. On long haul flights, they're just what I need to get a decent night's kip :-)."

Ever since then, I've also started using sleeping pills on long flights. So with the combination of flats beds plus my favourite drugs, these days I find that I really can arrive in a city after a long haul flight feeling reasonably refreshed.

The British Airways layout, which involves half the business class passengers facing the front and the other half facing the back of the plane, seems to work particularly well. I think it may even have been British Airways who introduced the first truly flat beds into a business class cabin. The problem is that I've become such a fan of the BA flat bed arrangement that a few years ago, I found myself paying for BA's business class when I needed long-haul flights to go on holiday to Australia with boyfriend number 1. And having done it once, paying for business class seats on long-haul flights has become a bit of a habit. Although I can afford to do this at the moment, I'm also aware that I may not always be so lucky. If I have to go back to economy class at some point, it'll be quite a shock.

However, not everyone I know approves of me flying business class when I'm paying for it:

"GB, can you pick up something for me the next time you're in New York?" asks boyfriend number 3 the last time I saw him.

"You should have asked me a couple of months ago," I reply, "because I was there in October."

"Well next time you're there then, I guess," says boyfriend number 3. "Or if you're feeling kind," he continues with a smirk in his voice, "perhaps you could find time just to hop over there and back for me?"

"If you need it urgently, why don't you get it sent? That would be much cheaper than my £2.5k air fare!"

"HOW MUCH?" asks boyfriend number 3 sounding shocked, "It doesn't cost anything like £2.5k to fly to New York and back."

"Errrr, I think you'll find it does, in business class at any rate!"

"Bloody hell! That's so extravagant GB!! Think what you could do with all that money. Right, the next time you go to travelling, I think you should go economy class and donate the rest of the money that you'd have spent on a business class fare to charity somehow."

The interesting thing is that boyfriend number 2 likes his comforts and has the opposite attitude. Having visited Argentina last year, we're now planning another holiday together for January. We'll both be travelling from the cities where we live and meeting up in South America again, so naturally I'm going to fly BA business class and boyfriend number 2 knows it.

"GB?" says boyfriend number 2 recently during one of our regular phone conversations, "have you got any air miles you could use to upgrade me to business class on my outbound and inbound flights?"

"That might work, I'm not sure," I reply. "I guess I could look into that for you."

"Well you're travelling business class from London, aren't you?"

"Errr yes, of course. But I was at least five years older than you before I started paying for business class flights for myself!"

"Awwww," moans boyfriend number 2, "do I have to wait that long?"

"Well, any flights that we ever travel together, we'll always be in the same cabin. I'll never travel business class and and put you in economy."

"Well OK. But, you know, business class is so much nicer ..."

So I'm now feeling a bit guilty. At present boyfriend number 2's tickets are provisionally booked in economy class. I don't think my air miles are any help. Does anyone think I should pay a few extra £k to upgrade boyfriend number 2 into business class?