Business Class turns out to be nicer than Economy

A big travel day:

Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, by bus
then 4 flights…
...Tel Aviv/Ben Gurion -> Paris/CDG
...Paris/CDG -> Munich
...Munich -> Cologne/Bonn
...Cologne/Bonn -> Keflavík
finally…
Keflavík to Reykjavík by bus

At Ben Gurion, you get your luggage examined and you get questioned before you even get your boarding pass. The questions make you nervous! Every other airport I’ve been to, the questions are so throw-away, pro-forma. Here, you get a line of questioning, and they will react to what you say and chase down details.

Business class flights for the first half of the journey. In my ~250,000 miles of air travel, I’ve flown business class before. But I’ve never been in a business class airport lounge. It is so relaxing. I ended up having wine at 11AM, and by the time I got to Munich’s international airport, I was full and a little tipsy, feeling relaxed.

With a long layover to the economy class half of the trip, I wandered the airport, drawn to the big fabric-covered central “platz”. This architecture makes so much sense at an airport. The terminal buildings on all sides communicate with a huge open square that is protected from the elements with a giant, aesthetically-pleasing fabric structure. Outside air and light move through the space. The edges of the platz contain restaurants, shops and biergartens. The center acts as a pedestrian thoroughfare and meeting place. The shape and structure of the place is such that there is a dusk-like light, even in the middle of the day, and the platz echoes with the footsteps of a thousand people. The effect is pleasant, but mildly disorienting and ghostly, making a spacey traveler spacier.

In the 2nd half of the air travel day, I registered a sharp contrast: economy class on Germanwings. On GW, you have to pay for, and separately register, each piece of luggage. And, you can’t check them through - you have to do the whole thing over again for your connecting flights. I’ve long since learned to carry food onto low cost airline planes, but was surprised to learn that on the 4 hour flight to Reykjavík, the only water available cost 3EU. Ouch.

No matter. Fortified by my earlier Business Class pampering, I spilled out onto the Keflavík airport tarmac with the other travelers in good spirits, though it was 1AM. Rain spritzed us on the long bus ride to Reykjavík, and I looked forward to what I was anticipating as the best leg of my journey.