I write a decent amount about flying here— I travel for a lot of shows— today I’m flying to Chicago for FanExpo which is possibly my favorite show of the year. In those travel logs you’ll often hear about the times I couldn’t take another second on the particular flight and the idea of a sudden mountain impact was preferable to one more minute of a screaming millennial, a fall down drunk and soon to be vomiting upper class society lady and rude and sometimes downright hostile flight attendants. Flying just ain’t what it used to be.
Until I upgraded to First Class.
It was as if I was a blind man and suddenly I could see.
Before I discovered the Private Lounges waiting at the gate wasn’t much fun either. People carrying on all their worldly possessions would flock to the boarding line creating a mass of confusion as to whether or not you were in line with your group. Now I had my own line. Flight attendants were now happy, no, DELIGHTED to see me as I boarded the plane, hurriedly getting me a beverage as I took my seat in 1A. The cup of coffee I asked for mid flight was served hot in a GLASS MUG with a little design in the cream floating at the top. The food I was served came on an actual plate and had silverware. First Class is somehow sedately quiet. I don’t need to mention that the seats and the legroom are infinitely better than what’s offered in the rest of the plane.
My favorite part? Well there are a lot of them if I’m being honest but probably #1 is being the first one on and the first one off the plane. I hate waiting more than anything in the world that doesn’t involve a dental drill.
I didn’t upgrade to First Class because I’m made of money, I upgraded because I’m not made of patience and spending countless hours in a miserable environment is not how I choose to spend my life.
I know what a lot of you are thinking; “It’s a waste of money.” and I answer to you emphatically;
No. No it’s not.
You know what is a waste of money? Carrying a credit card balance and paying a high interest rate. Look into finding a card with an introductory balance transfer and get that balance paid off PRONTO. Don’t let yourself get in over your head.
What else is a waste of money? How about buying coffee at StarBucks or even Dunkin Donuts for that matter— $3 a day for a Medium Coffee = $900 even if you “only” do it five times a week. When I had an actual job we were making Dunkin runs all the time, so sometimes THREE coffees in a day! Do as I did and buy a high end coffee grinder and coffee maker— there is nothing better than FRESH ground coffee and cost wise it’s like 20c a cup!
Plan out errands so you are keeping your gas tank fuller, eat out less and try some great recipes at home, choose something streaming instead of going to the movies, look at all the things you subscribe to and decide what can get cut— I have a good friend who pays $200 a month for his cable/satellite bill and he says he never watches TV!!
Phone plan $800 a year? Switch over to MINT MOBILE— I pay $15 a month for top notch service on my iPhone. I pay the whole year up front to keep the cost down and I save about $200 a year by doing so. Here’s the plan I use, you can click on the link and have plenty of time to decide before you join.
Speaking of iPhones, I am always 2-3 generations behind the latest phone— I won’t pay a nickel over $200 for a phone, and its not hard to do. I’ve followed this method of smart phone usage for 15 years without fail. Ditch the land line, do you keep it just for telemarketers?
My point being that you can SAVE money in a lot of places and now you’ll have disposable cash to actually do something that makes your life better, unless you enjoy being jammed back there with vomiting upper class ladies (that story someday soon).