How to Fly Business Class for Free - Part 2
From One Night in Bangkok to a Liquid Danish Breakfast
Last week, I told the story of how my first flight in Business Class took me from Oslo to Hong Kong.
Wherever you work, use your knowledge, skills, and abilities to make bold suggestions.
Be persistent. Follow up and work together with others to develop your ideas into sensible solutions and then contribute whatever you can to see them through.
Just before I left on that very first long-haul flight up front in the seats where you can’t see the wings, I had a call from the SAS Crew Management office in Stockholm
Would you mind stopping off in Bangkok on your way home?
I know. Silly question, right?
Would a relatively recently divorced, i.e. newly single man in his early 30s say no to an opportunity like that?
In Hong Kong, the task I was given was straightforward. Determine if a hotel that was “safe enough” for crew members to stay in on the executive floors, would still be safe enough if they stayed on floors without an exclusive lounge with free booze and butler service.
It wasn’t quite Mission Impossible, but the task in Bangkok, if I chose to accept it, was a tad touchier.
The five-star hotel crews stayed in had been their home in the Thai capital for over a decade. In addition to well-appointed rooms, upgraded rooms for the pilots, and discounts in the numerous hotel bars and restaurants, crew members also had personal agreements with massage therapists and tailors. No crew member returned to Scandinavia without new suits or silk dresses. Some took orders from family, friends, and neighbours back home and ran slick side gigs in the clothing import industry. They likely forgot to declare their imports and extra income but that wasn’t my concern.
SAS didn’t fly from Hong Kong to Bangkok. I was placed up front in a Cathay Pacific 747. As we rose steeply off Kai Tak’s runway and banked hard right over Hong Kong harbour, the in-flight entertainment magazine informed me that they were the first airline in the world to offer live broadcasts of BBC World Service radio.
BBC World Service had been like a lifeline to me when I was in sink-or-swim mode early on in my four-decade-long gap year. The reception on my flight was as jumpy and scratchy as it had been on the small transistor radio and it was equally soothing too.
Upon arrival, a limousine with a white-gloved driver wearing an admiral’s hat met me at the airport and whisked me into the city. At the hotel, a gaggle of managers welcomed me in the lobby and handed me my room key before a butler whisked me off to my suite. (I would later learn that the larger the suite, the less chance there was the hotel would receive a stamp of approval… this suite was BIG, but I didn’t take the hint.)
The General Manager, the Sales Manager, the Security Manager and the Chief Engineer were all lovely, service-minded people. They also tried to hide anything that might show an auditor how vulnerable the hotel was to fire or other hazards.
I wasn’t an engineer or a security professional with a background in law enforcement but I was street smart (or perhaps corridor smart). My career started in the basement of a hotel that didn’t want to hire me.
I knew how hotels concealed what’s important to a person doing a safety and security inspection.
Long story short, a strategically placed single match or discarded cigarette butt could have turned the hotel into a towering inferno.
There were other signals too.
Once the formalities of my visit concluded, I had a full day to explore the city. The concierge desk had a huge catalogue of activities they could book for guests. More than half the catalogue was filled with advertising in very great detail, often accompanied by explicit photos, the sexual services the concierge team would happily order for you.
I was still a novice in the world of global travel. My cultural bias was extreme so I had been surprised and slightly shocked when the Security Manager admitted that they had a challenge containing prostitution and how that vice often led to crimes and disturbances that his team had to deal with.
I sought out the Security Manager and asked if he wasn’t aware of the concierge’s catalogue.
“You don’t understand! We have a problem with outside prostitutes. People bring them from off the street or from bars and our concierge staff doesn’t make a profit!”
I made a mental note to redo that paragraph in my audit report. Then I went back to the concierge and booked a tuk-tuk tour. It was great although I was certain I would have lung cancer from inhaling all the leaded gasoline fumes as we zigged and zagged through the traffic.
When the hotel failed the audit and the crews were moved to a different hotel, I became fairly unpopular. There were late-night phone calls threatening that I would be blacklisted by every airline in the world. One crying husband even said I had jeopardized the family’s lifestyle by disrupting their illegal import supply chain.
The funny thing is though, for every person who throws a tantrum because they’re not allowed to break the rules, there are many many more who silently applaud when sensible rules are enforced.
While travelling on audits for the airline, I wasn’t allowed to tell the crew who I was.
Except once.
A return flight from Thessaloniki, Greece had a scheduled departure at 6:00 am. I was told to go to the hotel breakfast room at 3:30 am and introduce myself to the crew because to save money, I’d be on their shuttle to the airport.
Once our flight was in the air, Business Class breakfast was served. The flight attendants passed me by and handed out trays to the other passengers.
As the trolley was being wheeled past my row, the purser gruffly said to a flight attendant: “No breakfast for him!”
I decided not to protest, but I could see other passengers notice that service at my seat was lacking.
A few minutes after everyone else had received breakfast the Danish purser handed me two mini bottles of Gammel Dansk and said:
“With a job like yours and all the crap you have to take from some of our colleagues, you deserve this. Have a proper Danish breakfast as a token of my thanks!”
There were times when the crew management office tried to “pass” hotels that weren’t up to snuff. Most people, except those whose lifestyle depended on their shady side hustles, accepted that I was as objective as I could be.
Integrity is important.
Stay safe, Always Care
Thanks for reading our newsletter!
If you’re in hospitality, read our book, Spin the Bottle Service. A local server told us it should be required reading for everyone who works in a restaurant or hotel.
If you’re an owner or manager of a business that takes pride in customer service, let’s chat about how Ditch the Script workshops can make jobs more meaningful and guest experiences more memorable by unleashing the power of the biggest business differentiator you have available - your people!
For more articles like this, click the 87 Stories tab, where we share lessons learned at the University of Life.
Thanks for being part of the Always Care Community!
As always, an interesting read.