Loving Lufthansa

With the armrests pushed back, I could rest completely on this lovely row of seats.

After I discovered I had an entire row of seats (four, count 'em!) to myself and after I'd been brought a warm towel to wash my hands before being served an appetizer and a cocktail before dinner, I asked the flight attendant if I'd somehow gotten into first class by mistake. She laughed but I was serious.


I used frequent flyer miles for this free trip from Boston to Florence, Italy,* but I felt as though I'd paid thousands for the luxurious treatment I received.

Really, it may not sound like much, but when you're constrained for hours in a tin can flying through the air, little things like a bottle of water in every seatback and real headphones that do not hurt your ears mean a lot.

Those headphones, the hot towel, the free drinks and the solicitous service I received will have me flying Lufthansa from now on.

*Since I can't afford first class but I can afford a hotel room, I decided to make this trip in stages. I used frequent flyer miles on Southwest Airlines to fly from Tucson to Boston where I spent the night in the glamorous Wyndham Chelsea.

This meant that a typical fourteen to eighteen-hour-flight from Tucson, including layovers, was only nine hours from Boston. This approach did make the trip easier in some respects, but I'm still suffering from jet lag. There just doesn't seem to be any way of getting around needing to sleep for thirteen hours after landing.