My first boss paid $25k per year for an AA pass that would let him fly anywhere American went, any time, First Class. It might have been because we had a fair number of Frequent Fliers in our company. I had to buy my own tickets (company later reimbursed) & managed to rack up 2.5M miles on AA.
Once I was on a flight AA from London Heathrow to LA and they paged me in the aircraft, saying “we have a seat in First, will you accept it?” “Why, yes I will” I said. The guy I was traveling with had to stay in Business (ok by me).
I asked “is it basically the same?”
The attendant said, “ yes, except for the smoked salmon and caviar with iced vodka, the filet, the cognac and the neck, shoulder and scalp massage … and the larger seat, and lamb’s wool seat covers, and the slippers, it’s the same.”
A bit like Monty Python’s “what did the Romans ever do for us?”
And occasionally a call would come, in advance, saying “your flight might be delayed, can I run through the options we have for you, and have you select your preferred alternative flight and on which other airline you would like us to book your seat?”
I’m not making this up.
Mike