Twice

Just as I had more or less given up on airline status, and with my Star Alliance Gold with Turkish Airlines about to expire later this year, I was upgraded not only once, but twice in the same day. Moments after I published my previous post from the lounge in Frankfurt, Johanna and I were given complimentary upgrades all the way to business class for our nine-hour flight to Chicago.

Considering that we bought these basic economy tickets for 4,500 SEK roundtrip and had only bid a couple of hundred euros to upgrade to Premium Economy, the value was obviously exceptional, briefly making me reconsider the wisdom of jumping off that infamous hamster wheel.

Anyway, walking up the stairs to the upper deck of the Queen of the Skies, for only the third time in my life, we were treated to nuts and Larson Le Black Reserve champagne as this majestic aircraft prepared for its Atlantic crossing. Flying above the North Sea, the main service began with Grüner Veltliner “Hund” from Niederösterreich and tuna tataki, followed by halibut and prawn in shellfish sauce, before ending with cheese and port, as tradition has it.

After turning my seat into a bed, I fell asleep somewhere south of Iceland, only to wake up above Greenland as my internal body clock once again expressed its strong dislike for daytime naps. Ordering a cup of black coffee, I decided to turn my inability to sleep into some last-minute conference preparations, and with a couple of hours left until Chicago, I could not be more excited for the adventure ahead.