First Class

I know I am still behind some on the rest of my trip, but I saw these pictures and decided to going ahead and do this post first. I got to the Napoli airport at about 4am and go into line at AirFrance. I dropped off my bags and went upstairs to security, it was 4:35am at this time and security wasn’t open yet. It opened a few minutes later and I quickly made it through. I was past security at about 4:50am and the gate for my flight wasn’t posted until 5am. So I had a few minutes to wait. Once the gate was posted I headed over there and got ready to get on board. It was a series of lines to get on the plane. I waited in line to scan my boarding pass, then got into another line to wait for the bus to take us to the plane. We took a bus ride out to the plane for boarding. Once at the plane I walked up the stairs to get on the plane. It was a little shocked since I chad first class tickets and all I saw were rows of 3 seats. Evidently my first leg was “business class” which is still a row of 3, but with leather seats and they provide you with a bottle of water once you board. Maybe they don’t sell the middle seats because I don’t remember middle seats when I made my seat selection.

Luckily no one was sitting in my row, so I had plenty of space and got an extra bottle of water (since they were waiting in the middle seat).
Meal on the first flight: cheese sandwiches, some apricot thing (maybe), prosciutto, fruit, baguette (butter and jam).
I saw some really pretty mountains (maybe the Alps?)
Flying over Paris
Crepe and croissant

Once I landed in Paris I went and found a Starbucks (to add to my cup collection). Then I went and found the first class lounge. That is a perk of flying first class internationally. There were several choices of snacks- chips, croissants, crepes, fruits, and a few other things. There are coolers with different Cokes, waters, sprite. They also had a bottle of champagne out if you wanted to make a mimosa. I found a spot to eat (again) and work on my blog.

There was also a shower, sauna, and “sleep” area back this way. If you need to take a shower they offered everything that you would need which is cool. I was running out of time and headed back to the gate to wait for my plane.

Once back at my gate it was a little confusing. There was an announcement made in French (did me no good), but I saw some people getting some forms. I decided to go explore and see what was going on. I found out that we had to fill out a form stating that we would provide a negative covid test to board this flight as per U.S. requirements. Once you filled out the form you had to get back in line to show you negative covid test and turn in your form. Once you did that you could scan you boarding pass and wait in line to start boarding. There was a man trying to argue with the airport employee about not needing a negative covid test, but of course the employee told him that is a U.S. requirement and has nothing to do with France. Once I finally made it on board (after waiting in a series of lines). I was able to find my seat and get comfy.

These seats have a foot rest, a side area as you can see that holds a lot of stuff. There is an area to plug in you devices. The seat moves up (helpful for me) and then also fully reclines to a flat bed.
There was a remote that you could use to adjust the tv or watch the flight.
There was this nice cubby where you could put stuff and some headphones. The did provide covers for the headphones, so you ears weren’t touching the same headphones a stranger may have used.
I was offered a glass of champagne while we waited for everyone else to board.
I was provided with a kit that included hand sanitizer, sanitizer wipe, and a new face mask
Start of lunch! I had water, Coke Zero, walnuts with cranberries, salad, a cheese plate (goat’s cheese, cantal PDO cheese, Camembert), vegetables, smoke salmon with lemon cream, baguette. Desserts: blackberry currant macaron, opera cake, mini tarts Tropezienne
Main meal with Roast Poultry with einkorn risotto, zucchini with green cardamom. It all sounded super fancy on the menu a little too much for me, but it was all really good. I was not able to eat everything.
I was given a travel bag with socks, tooth brush, toothpaste, ear plugs, pen, shoe horn, location, and a sleep mask
The TV was really large and could be moved, so it was facing me better in the seat. As you can see I am all stretched out and ready for a nap. I was able to sleep for about 3 hours which was nice.
This was my pre landing snack – red berry pan a cotta (top left), soft chocolate cake, and sun dried tomato and feta cheese cake, quinoa salad with citrus fruit.
There was a camera feature on the plane, so I could see the approach into JFK.

So landed at JFK got off of the plane quickly and headed towards customs. I only had to wait in line for a few minutes it went by really quick. They just asked if I was brining any meat or fruit into the country and I got to move on to collect my bags. I collected my bags and headed to the next area to drop my bags off again. This is where things got crazy. There was a sign for baggage drop, but there was no one working at baggage drop! I found an airport employee who was not happy about giving me directions and learned that I was in terminal 1, but needed to get to terminal 2 or 4. I found a monitor and confirmed that terminal 2 was were I needed to go. So I have my 2 carry ons and my 2 suitcase. I go up an elevator, over an over pass, down the elevator get on a train to terminal 2. Then down another elevator and follow the signs for terminal 2. The signs send you outside into a parking across 2 streets and up another elevator. I finally got to the delta gate and was able to drop off my bags again. Easily made it through security and still had like 3 hours until my flight. Probably from the time we landed and the time I made it back through security it was less than 90 minutes.

Back to the lounge and go another snack (not sure why) and relaxed a little. Sadly this lounge is not nearly as nice as the one in Paris. I did later find a work station and a nice office chair to do some work while I waited for my flight.
My last flight also provided more food this time: cookies, cheese, crackers, chips, gummy bears, beef jerky, and a kind bar. I saved some of my snacks to eat another day.

The nice thing about flying now is getting through the airport had been pretty quick. From the time I landed in Orlando it was less than 30 minutes and I was off of the plane and had my bags. By the time I left the airport it had been 24 hours of traveling and wearing a mask. I was so glad to be out of the airport and done with my mask!

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