It was 36 hours before my flight home from Vienna and I was on the Austrian Airlines website choosing my seats. A box popped up offering me an upgrade to business class for €599. I paused.

Of course I couldn’t spend $830 to upgrade on the 10 hour flight home. That would be ridiculous. I continued on to the economy seat map and managed to get an aisle seat in the already pretty full cabin. Memories of how uncomfortable I’d been on the flight over filled my head. Flights of fancy about how much work I could get done with 10 hours to spread out and plug my electronics in…

Then I saw that Do & Co catered business class and there was a real chef on board to prepare meals. Do & Co had been recommended highly by everyone I talked to in Vienna as having some of the best food (not necessarily most authentic). There hadn’t been time to go there, and if I had, it probably would have been expensive…

I rationalized that I would have gladly spent the $500 if I’d been able to bid on an upgrade, this would be $300 more. I would have spent part of that on a fancy meal at the Do & Co restaurant. I decided to go ahead and check in. Then I’d check my reservation 24 hours before departure, and if was still available and I could upgrade after checking in, perhaps I would do it.

It was. I booked it.

I’d expected the slight guilt about being so extravagant, I had not been prepared for the waves of relief that swept over me. I was no longer dreading the flight home. I was actually looking forward to it.

I wound up enjoying every hour of the flight. I didn’t need it to last any longer than it did, but I at least wasn’t desperate for it to end. (Incidentally, not being able to try the bidding for upgrades because I’d booked a code share was really frustrating. Business class on the Monday morning flight in March was more than half empty, so I probably would have won my bid from VIE-IAD for ~$450.)

But it was still worth it! I did get alot of work done and I arrived feeling fairly fresh and still extremely excited about my mini vacation. Which was fortunate since it took almost two hours to get my suitcase because there were problems with the cargo door on the plane. AND there was 6 inches of unexpected snow on my car which took awhile to clean off.

What have you splurged on to make the end of your trip much better?

——–

Related Posts:

• My First Flight in Austrian Airlines Business Class VIE-IAD
• What It’s Like to Fly American Airlines Business Class on the 787
• 5 Things You Should Know When Choosing Seats in American Airlines’ Dreamliner Business Class
• Chennai Airport Lounge & Thai Airways Business Class Chennai-Chiang Mai
• Etihad Business Class Abu Dhabi to Chennai