Front of the Bus

One of the benefits of all the travel I've done over the past few years has been obtaining Premier Executive status on United Airlines and its Star Alliance partners. For every 10,000 miles I fly on United, I get electronic certficates allowing me to upgrade to first class on domestic flights of up to 2,000 miles. First class makes air travel (at least the portion you spend actually on the plane) actually bearable, what with the extra leg room and the unlimited booze. United tends to assign its most personable flight attendants to the forward cabin. The best thing, in my opinion, is that first class represents the last vestige of free food on domestic flights. United even manages to serve a three-course hot meal on a flight of two hours.

I'm flying to Las Vegas tomorrow and I managed to upgrade my flight from Manchester to Chicago-O'Hare, and then onwards to Denver. My final leg is on a one-cabin aircraft, so no upgrade is available, but as Meat Loaf once said, two out of three ain't bad.