My first overseas flight (and trip) was amazing. I had flown a lot in Canada as a child and teen, but didn't fly overseas until I was in my mid-20s in 1991, in the summer between the end of my articling year (apprenticeship year) as a lawyer and the start of the Bar Admission Course. My dad, a globe-trotting consulting engineer, offered to take me to Russia on a business trip, if I was willing to share a hotel room with him in St Petersburg. (I had to think about it - he snored REALLY loudly).

He used points for my flight and arranged for me to fly from Toronto back to Vancouver, where he lived, for a short holiday. Then we flew business class on British Airways to London and then onward to St Petersburg, where we spent about two and a half weeks. So, I got my first taste of flying business class and an exotic trip, too. I spent about half our time in Russia staying in a 5* hotel and the remainder living in the apartment of one of our translators for the trip, while my dad traveled to some more remote locations in Russia for his project. On the way home, he dropped me off in London and I hung out with some friends in London and Paris before flying back to Vancouver (in business class again) and then from Vancouver back to Toronto (in Y).