LH Franz This trip was with my grown daughter, Betsy, who lives in the Washington DC area. We were visiting in August, so no need for warm outer clothing.
I was flying out of Newark Liberty International, she out of Dulles International. Newark’s is a decent international airport, but doesn’t have as many international connections as Dulles. With fewer scheduling options, I would make my reservations first, and Betsy would make plans around my schedule.
At that time, I had accumulated a whole mess of United Airlines frequent flyer miles, ready to use.
Nonstop flights are always preferred, but they are more expensive. And there is an added expense for me when I travel. Based on past experience, I will not fly in the cheapest, “basic economy” seat if I can possibly avoid it.
The last time I was on a long haul flight was in 2017 between Newark and London to visit family, I flew in the most inexpensive basic economy seats. I hadn’t flown for a very long time before then and was surprised and disgusted at how basic economy had been reconfigured so that the dimensions and arrangement of the seats are inhuman, more suited to, say, Capuchin monkeys than human adults. On the flight to London, sitting there cramped and uncomfortable, unable to move, having to go through pretzel like contortions to get in and out of the seat to go to the restroom, I swore off basic economy. Since even the most inexpensive seats were already costing me a good chunk of change, if I was going to spend all that money for a plane ticket, I figured I may as well spring some more for a comfortable seat. In those days, “premium economy” was a step up from basic economy, albeit a step down from business class. (Business class is affordable to people whose employers are footing the bill, which is to say, people who aren’t paying their own airfare. They get comfortable seats and don’t have to spend any of their own money. A pretty good deal.) On my return flight from London, I paid an extra fee to upgrade to premium economy. It was well worth it. There was enough room to take out my laptop and watch DVDs of I, Claudius a BBC production for television done in the 1970s. It’s a fantastic 12-part series about Ancient Rome’s imperial family from Emperors Augustus to Claudius, and took me all the way from Heathrow to Newark with four episodes to spare.
Since then, airlines have realized people are willing to pay extra money for premium seats and have steadily raised the fees. By 2019, these seats were much more expensive.
With memories of that London trip, I looked for premium economy seats for my round trip between Newark and Paris. Frequent flyer miles offset much of the added cost of those seats. Sorted by price, the top of the search results showed a flight to Paris with a stop in Frankfurt, and a return flight with a stop in Montreal. Using some cash and and a few tens of thousands of frequent flyer miles, I got my premium economy seat. Daughter then booked her flight from Dulles International, scheduling it so that we would land within an hour of each other in Paris and meet up at Charles de Gaulle Airport
As for lodging, we settled on some parameters regarding cost, facilities, and amenities. Each of us would pay half the bill. Since she spent a summer in Paris during college and knows the city better than I do, we decided she should handle that end of the arrangements.
