[Story Time] How I ended up in business class on my very first flight?
July 13, 2006: France had lost the World Cup final a few days earlier and I’m at CDG airport. We left Tours early in the morning by car. I’m 18 and it’s the first time I’ve set foot in an airport and the first time I’m going to fly to Cambodia. At the time, my furthest trip was the south of England, so imagine how excited I was at the idea of traveling 10,000 kilometers!
This trip is the culmination of 2 years of work. I’m a French scout and the 16-18 age group’s goal is to set up a solidarity project. It’s not mandatory, but most take the opportunity to organize a project that allows them to travel abroad. With my 3 companions, we’re going to a school in Phnom Penh and an orphanage in Battambang to run activities and prevention workshops.
Upon arriving at the airport, we learn that there’s a typhoon over Asia and that the plane will only leave when the weather clears up. We’re treated to a voucher lunch at the restaurant Hippopotamus which had been privatized for the occasion for the passengers on our flight. I’ve since had lunch there several times while waiting for a flight, and every time I remember that moment with nostalgia.
I don’t remember the exact delays, but it’s with a good 5-hour delay that we board the plane. Everything is new to me and I don’t miss a single thing, from the safety demonstrations to the meal choice (“fish or chicken?”). I remember being amazed to see Chinese children engrossed in reading a magazine during takeoff. It took me a good dozen flights afterward to achieve such detachment in the face of the magical feeling of being in a flying machine.
As expected, we land in Taipei (Taiwan) where we’re supposed to catch another plane to Phnom Penh. We had no idea what would happen next due to the flight delay. We get our answer quickly: an employee is waiting for us with a sign with my name on it (I was the one who booked the plane tickets). We must be about a dozen affected passengers including a few French people.
We’re taken care of and go sleep overnight before catching another flight the next morning. Since we don’t have visas for Taiwan, our passports are confiscated. No worries, we don’t plan to stay.
We take a bus that brings us to the hotel. My eyes widen as I discover it’s a4-star hotel. Before that, my two or three hotel night experiences were limited to Formule 1 hotels off the highway, so this is a whole new world opening up to me.
I fondly remember exploring the hotel, finding a billiard room, and discovering our rooms and their comfortable beds.
We’re in 2006 and the internet isn’t very developed yet. I had a laptop with me (that mom had given me the previous year for starting my IT degree) but I don’t even remember having the reflex to check if there was Wi-Fi at the hotel. However, we did get a few minutes of international calling, which allowed us to call one parent who we tasked with letting the others know everything was fine.
We stepped out of the hotel a bit and I remember being struck for the first time by that humidity so characteristic of Southeast Asia. I was also struck by not seeing the sun, without really knowing if it was due to pollution or the post-typhoon weather. It left me with a bad impression of Taipei that is probably undeserved (Taipei is known to be a good spot for digital nomads).
Since we didn’t have our passports and weren’t supposed to leave the hotel, we didn’t dare go further than the end of the street. That fear was probably unfounded, and it was with a bit of jealousy that we learned a few hours later that some French people who were with us had taken a taxi to go visit a temple. It must be said that even though we had been maturing our Cambodia project for 2 years, the possibility of ending up in another country had never crossed our minds, and I’m not even sure we would have thought to ask the hotel for change to pay for a taxi (we had US dollars with us, the currency commonly used in Cambodia).
It’s dinner time with, unsurprisingly… rice! We were such kids, amazed that a poor employee had the task of refilling our water glasses as soon as they were empty.
Despite the excitement, the early wake-up and jet lag take their toll: it’s time for bed. It’s a bit rough since we don’t have our suitcases. Since then, I’ve made it a habit to pack a clean pair of underwear in my carry-on for long-haul flights.
The next morning, we go back to the airport, our passports are returned, and we receive our new plane tickets. To my astonishment, I notice they say business class. I imagine economy was full and they gave us the remaining seats.
At boarding, our French fellow travelers ask where we were. They then explain, too late, that our tickets business class allowed us to wait for our flight comfortably in a loungeIt wasn’t until 15 years later that I’d find out what it was 😀
We take our seats at the front of the plane and watch all the other passengers walk by, who must have thought European scouting was very different from theirs. 15 years later and with 3 round-the-world trips under my belt, my very first plane trip remains the only one I’ve taken in business class 😀
So it was over a delicious breakfast and a glass of Baileys Irish Cream (yes, even at breakfast) that we made the journey to Cambodia, where we were about to live 3 weeks that shape a life.
Upon arrival, only one of our 5 suitcases was waiting for us, but that’s another story…
