Day 1 involved a bus ride to Chicago, a 4 hour wait in the United Polaris Lounge, and my first time flying Business Class. All around an exciting day! I enjoyed a small salad at the buffet in the Polaris Lounge and watched the Bengals beat the Dolphins (well I watched most of the game before I had to board my flight).

After boarding the flight I discovered that I had a pretty annoying seat neighbor and the “pods” weren’t as private as I had hoped. My seatmate spent about 30 minutes on the phone with someone talking very loudly about how she had watched Top Gun Maverick on her flight to Chicago and how it was the best movie ever and she’d probably watch it on this flight as well. When she finally got off her phone she complained about her tv working and about how the plane smelled like gasoline, when our flight attendant told her her tv would reset when the plane takes off she snidely said “well hers is working” and when he said that the gasoline smell was normal because we were still at the gate she said “is it just because this plane is so old?” Just goes to show that you can put someone in first class but you can’t make them classy!

Other than that the flight was pretty pleasant, nice to see how the other half lives! We got some nice Away brand toiletry kits that we were able to take home with some very nice products including socks, lotions, eye masks, and ear plugs. I watched Where the Crawdads Sing, Hocus Pocus, and some of Top Gun Maverick on the flight, and I enjoyed Seared Beef Short Rib for dinner and Lemon Ricotta Pancakes for breakfast. I even managed to get about 2 and a half hours on the flight (which is pretty good if you know me and my travel anxiety which usually won’t let me sleep on planes- you never know when they’re going to need someone to fly the plane and you’re the only one who would volunteer :).)