Off to a not-yet-flying start

We're off to England. Soon, anyway. It's 10:10 PM, 5 minutes after our flight was supposed to leave. It's delayed until 11:30 or so. At least they told us in advance so we didn't leave for the airport until 9.

We're flying business class, so hopefully we'll be able to sleep some. The business class thing is why we're on this late flight to begin with. I guess people don't like taking this flight (I wonder why), so there were cheap (in miles anyway- $7000+ to buy one as of this morning, even with a dozen or so seats available) seats available compared to the earlier flights. The TSA people said the security checkpoint was usually closed by the time we got there, but that British Airways had asked them to stay. We were the only people there.

When you fly international business class, they put you in a lounge to wait for departure. It's not the regular club you can pay money to join; it's a particular thing for waiting passengers. It's certainly much nicer than the gate area. Free munchies and drinks. Decent chairs. A nice, polite receptionist to tell you when to go to the gate. In the case of this flight, dinner too.

That's because this is a designated sleeping flight. I'm sure there's an airliney name for it, but the idea is that you eat before the flight so you can sleep instead of dealing with all the in-flight niceties. It's not a bad idea, really. If you're in coach I guess you're on your own, though I'm not sure. Here, there's a kind of niceish cafeteria setup with decent food, as good as you'd get on a plane anyway.

As you come in, you're either sent to the right, for business class, as opposed to the left, which is First Class. I'm not even allowed to look over there, though maybe I can cause a diversion to distract the receptionist.

So presuming we eventually get on the plane, I'll be able to report what that really means. They'll probably give us little blankets and pillows and maybe a drink. They probably give Ambien to the First Class passengers.