I have a confession to make.

I am no longer a virgin. I have now flown in First Class. And I did it at coach prices. How’s that for cool? I’ll tell how it happened, but first a brief aside about how great it is to be married to just the right person. It’s relevant to the story, so bear with me.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away – well, actually it was about six years ago and Chuck and I were dating. We planned our first weekend getaway to Yosemite, a place neither of us had ever been before. It was around Thanksgiving. We had arranged to stay just outside the park, as all of the hotels in the park were full. So we dropped our stuff off at the motel, and drove in to Yosemite Village. We hiked in the rain, took lots of photos, and had a wonderful lunch at the Ahwahnee, looking out at Half Dome. Then the snow started falling – a lot of it. So much snow, in fact, that they closed the roads into and out of Yosemite to any vehicles without chains. We rushed over to the one place that had chains, stood in line for over an hour, only to hear that they were out of chains until the next day. Uh-oh! They said there were only a few rooms left at the less expensive places, and a few rooms at the Ahwahnee. Chuck and I looked at each other, and without saying a word, we both headed straight for the Ahwahnee. We bought toothbrushes and toothpaste in the gift shop and had a wonderful, magical night. I think that was when I knew for sure that Chuck was the guy for me. We have the same joie de vivre.

Fast forward to the present, today, in fact. We started our well-earned vacation after working almost right up to the moment Super Shuttle arrived to take us to the airport. We were on our way to Hawaii, flying American Airlines – coach, of course, as First Class was too excessively expensive for us, good little socialists that we like to think that we are.

We got to LAX plenty early, and had some time to kill. After trolling the terminal’s shops and restaurants we ended up at a nice bar where we toasted the official beginning of our vacation by having a glass of wine, We met a nice older English couple (I should be careful when I say that – they may have been only a few years older than us!!). Anyway, after that we meandered down to our gate, and noticed that they had a lot of standby passengers, as well as one upgrade standby. We looked at each other, and pretty much at the same time said, “What the heck!” and went up to the counter to ask what it would take to upgrade to First Class. $800 per ticket, as it happened, which seemed a bit rich for our blood. So we went back and watched our fellow passengers gather to board. Chuck turned to me and said, “You know, we do pretty well.” To which I replied, “You are a really bad influence! Let’s see if they have any seats!” And we went back to the counter and said we were game to pay the $800 per ticket and upgrade. Sadly, they had no seats left, except for two that were being held for a couple that had yet to show. The very nice counter lady told us to hang and see if the errant passengers showed. We obligingly stepped back, and told her whatever was okay with us – we had seats one way or the other. It takes while to load a full 757, so about twenty minutes passed and pretty much everybody had boarded when the counter lady said, “Well, everybody showed, I’m afraid.” We were disappointed, but resigned to our fate in coach. Then she said, “Hang on a second.” We paused near the counter while the last of the coach folks boarded. Then she gave us our boarding passes and said, “You owe American Airlines big time! Enjoy your dinners!” We figured she meant they were giving us free dinners for making us wait so long to board until we looked at our boarding passes – First Class!! And no upgrade fees required!!

Once we got to our seats, I admit that I kept expecting them to come up and go, “Get out of those seats, you fakers!” right up until they closed the doors. But all they did was come by and offer us drinks and warm washcloths for our hands. I had to call my BFF Cheryl and tell her the news. Chuck looked at me like I was a real rube, and told me to keep my voice down, otherwise people would know it was my first time (he used to fly First Class pretty regularly in a previous frequent flyer life). I didn’t squeal, but it was a near thing, let me tell you.

I’m writing this entry in my First Class seat having enjoyed a very nice meal with – get this! – real silverware and as much Chardonnay as I can handle to accompany it. Chuck is snoozing after having indulged in a glass of Courvoisier after his barbeque beef rib dinner. The seats have all the leg space you could want, and they gave us very nice headphones (my Shure noise-canceling ones are better, but still, they were nice headphones, and free – everything here is free!). If I have a gripe, it’s that this is an older plane and so we don’t have individual screens. There are only two TV screens for all of First Class. So I’ve had to make do with my video iPod and Apocalypto, which I bought on iTunes before leaving (and I have to say, it’s a rip-roaring action film, say what you will about Mel Gibson and his cockamamie religious beliefs).

So two thumbs up to American Airlines, our new favorite airline. We think they gave us the seats because we were so darned easygoing about the whole business, and so obviously willing to fork over $1600.00 in cold, hard cash to upgrade. Whatever the reason, I am, as Chuck told me when we first boarded, forever spoiled. I’ll never look at the A group on Southwest the same way again.