Those who fly frequently will often tell you that the romance of international travel quickly wears off. Crowded airports, delays, cancellations and cramped seating can all take their toll. But there can be a feeling of excitement to know that within a few hours you will be hundreds or even thousands of miles away in another country with all the potential for adventure that might bring. And then of course there is always the hope, unlikely but just possible, of an upgrade! One year I got three upgrades to Business Class, an experience which can give you an exaggerated feeling of satisfaction that somehow you've beaten the system and have got a bigger seat with more leg room and a superior menu, without having paid for it. I remember once Flying on Singapore Airlines where we had been upgraded to Business Class and the Cabin Steward said to me: ''What would you like to drink Mr Hosier?" Amazed, I exclaimed to my wife:"She knows my name!" To which my wife replied: "I expect she read it off the list." That kind of brought it down to earth - metaphorically anyway.
But the best upgrade we've ever had was on a flight to Cape Town in early 2010 where we were going to work with Jubilee Church for some months. It had been a particularly cold and snowy Christmas/New Year period and we were flying in January on a icy cold evening although there was no snow on the ground that day. We arrived at Heathrow and joined the supposed Fast Drop queue. I say 'supposed' because almost everyone now books in online and so when you come to the baggage queue the line is so long that it's really the slow drop baggage queue.We crawled slowly to the front and were then told that our plane wasn't ready and that we needed to come back in half an hour. Off we went for a coffee and duly returned. Once more we reached the front of the queue but were told again to come back a bit later. On our third arrival at the front of the queue, with the time for departure getting ever nearer, and being told again to come back later I protested at the number of times we were having to join the queue. We were then requested to stand with a group of rather puzzled looking passengers off to one side. Eventually an official greeted this growing group and announced, and he really did say this - that our plane was broken. Various possibilities were going through my mind; perhaps a wing was hanging off or a wheel had fallen off. Any scenario was scary, but then the official assured us that they were getting us a replacement plane and so our journey would not be delayed. The combined groan meant that no-one believed that piece of fake news for a moment!
A couple of hours after the departure time we boarded the replacement plane. Then the pilot addressed us with the information that because the weather was so cold we needed to have the plane de-iced before we flew, but Heathrow didn't have enough de-icing machines and so our flight would be delayed again. Another hour passes and the pilot is speaking again to tell us that Heathrow Airport is now closed due to a terrorist threat on a nearby plane! Sure enough, looking out of the window we can see passengers disembarking from a plane close to ours apparently because one of the passengers claimed to have a gun. He was drunk! So about an hour later Heathrow re-opens and once again we're down the list waiting to be de-iced. We'd already been on the plane several hours before we eventually took off for a 12 hour flight.
But we were happy.
As we got on plane the steward told us to turn left; oh those magic words, meaning we had been upgraded to Business Class. So in the hours of waiting for take-off we enjoyed big seats, nice snacks and even champagne if we wanted it while we tried to speak sympathetically about those crammed into Economy! And then it was a comfortable six foot long flat bed to sleep on for the journey to Cape Town. We arrived in the afternoon rather than the early morning, but we didn't care.
Oh the joy of turning left