Adventures of First Class Flying

I decided that our trip home from the Boston/New Hampshire trip over conference weekend deserved its own post. Let's just start out by saying that it was an incredibly long day - We got to wake up at 4:55 a.m. eastern time (2:55 a.m. our time) and arrived at the SLC airport around 7:00 p.m. (mountain time)

Our flight from Boston to Atlanta was pretty uneventful. While we were waiting for our connection to Denver we were informed over the intercom that the airline had overbooked the flight and that they would appreciate it if any people with flexible travel plans could volunteer to be changed to a different flight.

Derrick decided to talk to one of the airline people and volunteer to give up our seats if they could get us a direct flight to SLC. This would be ideal for us because in Denver we would have had a 2 hour layover, had to switch planes (so go to baggage claim, recheck everything in, and go through security again; all with a 3 month old). Doesn't that all sound exciting?

The airline found us a flight that left about 4 hours later but arrived in SLC just 30 minutes later than we otherwise would have. Sitting in the airport for hours with an infant is much nicer than in the cramped space of a plane. While we were waiting to get our new tickets Derrick and I were joking about how cool it'd be if we somehow ended up in first class for the flight. We were shocked to find out that that was the case! The airline gave us a great deal for switching and helping them out of a tight spot. Just for switching and delaying our arrival by 30 minutes, we received first class seats, a flight without anymore layovers (avoiding the craziness in Denver), and two $400 travel vouchers to use at some other time!

While hanging out at the Atlanta airport we got to listen to General Conference talks from Saturday using Derrick's iPod (he'd downloaded them the night before).

(Zach likes to shoot is pacifier onto the floor, especially at dirty places like the airport. We get to hold it in or expect to wash it a lot.)

We also got to get creative to find ways to entertain ourselves and Zach:

(Not quite sure what was going on here :) )

And now for the joys of first class flying (a first for all 3 of us)

- You get to board first and you are given drinks as often as you wish throughout the flight.

- More roomy. We had wider seats with only 2 people per section.


- While everyone else was being served their choice of peanuts, pretzels, or cookies, we were served this:


- A few more random things: The glasses were glass rather than plastic, our own personal TVs popped out of our armrests, the headphones were complimentary, and we even received hot towels to "freshen up" before eating. I didn't know people really did the hot towel thing.

Even with all the comforts of our flight, flying with an infant is hard work. Especially flying with an infant who's been traveling all day and completely exhausted. During the times we could walk about I had to walk the aisles with Zach who'd also pooped through almost every extra piece of clothing we'd brought for him. It was pretty funny to watch him on the floor after we'd gotten to my grandparents house. He just laid there and kicked like crazy for at least 10 minutes. I guess he was tired of being cooped up all day too.

Congratulations to any of you (if any) who made it to the end of this extremely long post. Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa Jones for picking us up from the airport and letting us use your house as a place to meet up with the Davises!