Note: this thread subject is mislabeled. I meant to have it read: "First flight in first class, not "Best" flight...".
Inspired by the interesting stories in the thread about first flights, how about first flights in first class?
A couple of people indicated that when they were upgraded (one investment banker was upgraded by his/her traveling companion, and one person was bumped into F on full flight), it was an indelible experience.
Well, the same is true with me: I was 16 years old returning to Boston from a summer in France, when I got to CDG all of about 30 minutes before departure to find one only TWA ticket agent still open at the check-in counters. Well, after scolding me for arriving so late, she preceded to hand me a FC boarding pass, and instructed me to hurry on my way! I had no problem making the plane. It was a 707 with about 3-4 rows in first class, plus a little lounge area which could hold maybe two people along the left side just inside the door. I remember being amazed at the total flight experienced. The stewardesses were so nice and didn’t seem to care at all about my young age, so I had more than my fill of champagne and liquor, caviar, and everything else. I was in heaven (or close thereto) and hooked for life on FC.
Well, now that I knew about this sort of thing, I then put myself to the test. About a week later, our family (all 7 of us) was going to LA for a couple of weeks before school started. This was right when advance seat assignments were starting to appear (must have been 1975)...and so I reserved multiple window seats, maybe 4 of them in a row for the 7 of us.
When we got to the airport, the BOS-LAX flight (an AA DC-10) was overbooked, and of course our pre-assigned seats were gone, and they were going to have to splinter the whole family throughout the DC-10. Instead they upgraded us all, so that they could keep up together!
One of the advantages of the DC-10's at the time was that the seats could swivel together, so that 4 of us could dine together.
To make a long story short, we did the very same thing on the way home!
Thus began my very successful practice of intentionally arriving late for overbooked flights. This strategy worked well until FF upgrades arrived on the scene, and so the F cabins are/were as fully booked as coach; they also subsequently instituted policies where they would release seats 10-20 minutes before flight time, when reduced these opportunities.
[This message has been edited by nologic (edited 09-02-2001).]