Monday 6 October 2008

Flying high

I heard today via a sort of grapevine that a certain very highly placed cleric was invited to a ceremony in the West country a week or so ago, and, at considerable expense, bought himself a club class ticket on a small airline for the journey. He was disconcerted, however, to find that the club class seats were in the same section of the cabin as the economy class seats—in fact, they were the same seats—the only advantage being called first for the journey and getting a cuppa in flight. This was all witnessed (let us never say enjoyed) by other (not quite so highly placed) clergy who happened to be travelling economy-class on the same flight. I am told there was a great deal of irritated ring-twirling going on.

4 comments:

gemoftheocean said...

Schadenfreude!!! It's what's for dinner!

[Kind of a dumb bishop if you ask me for not checking the diffs. before he bought! I try avoid flying anything where the man who packs your bag flies the plane, and you can see out the front window yourself.

"would you two mind changing seats" does not engender confidence in the flight to me.

the hound said...

I once travelled on a midweek flight from a regional Irish airport to a regional Welsh airport. The only other passanger was a young Chinese gentleman who could not or would not communicate in any way with the cabin crew, or anyone else. It was like having a private jet. In the end the air hostess, ( or what ever they are called now), came and sat next to me and we had tea and biscuits and a great chat. We ended up doing the crossword together,(simplex). They have discontinued that route now, I think.

Ttony said...

Air Southwest?

gemoftheocean said...

BTW, I did sit next to a bishop in 1st class once when I was 11 or so. IIRC one of the auxilliary bishops of Boston. [I'd got bumped up, as coach was a bit overcrowded that day.) He was very nice to me and we chatted a bit. He gave me his own holy medal. It was an "Our Lady of the Airways" (a Logan Airport medal) = I still carry it on flights when I remember to tuck it in my wallet.