Flying first class has always been a “big thing” to a lot of people. And no wonder – at best it gives you the sense of traveling in the lap of luxury, with lie-flat seats, and higher end food and drink. And even at worst – U.S. domestic – it’s still at least a bigger seat (although that article about “the real truth about flying first class“…yeah, that was kind of “special,” huh?).
There have been plenty of stories over the years about people who’ve gotten first class seats (remember when Mr. Bean got one? LOL!), and especially who got one at the expense of someone else. We’ve covered some of them:
- The husband who booked his wife in economy while he and his buddy sat in first class
- Lawsuit: American Airlines kicked Black man off flight so dog could fly first class
- The airlines accused to cancelling economy tickets so they could sell more first class tickets
That said, sometimes someone who has access to a first-class seat does this the “right” way, and you just have to smile. Sure, there was the guy who shared the spoils with his friend in economy. But I just read about another story that was just, well, sweet.
A sweet story
Tracy and Pete Caliendo took their family of seven down to Florida during their kids’ winter break. Tracy and the kids had a great time but Pete, a finance professional, couldn’t spend much time enjoying himself because he wasn’t able to get the week off from work. So although he made the trip to the Sunshine State with Tracy and their 2 boys and 3 girls, he didn’t get to see a whole lot of sunshine because he was stuck in the hotel room a lot of the time, working.
But all wasn’t 100% lost. To make it up to Pete at least a little bit, on their way back home to New York City, Tracy surprised him by upgrading his plane ticket to a solo seat in first class. As she ushered their kids (Hunter, 17, Harlow, 6, Piper & Presley, both 6, and Dylan, 5) toward the back of the American Airlines cabin so they could sit in their economy seats, she filmed Pete greeting and high-fiving the family as they passed by his first class seat.
“If you need bread and water, just stay back there.”he joked as they passed.
Here’s what Tracy posted of the moment, on TikTok:
@almosttripletsnyc1 We both make sacrifices #marriage #marriedlife #parenthood #5kids
The video’s gotten about 3.5 million views since it was posted in late February. The narration on it said, “My hubby worked while we had an amazing vacation, so I surprised him with a ticket away from the kids to get his relaxation time,” Tracy captioned it with, “We both make sacrifices.”
It’s admittedly just a little thing, but it was nice to have the tables turned and see a video of a family member doing the right thing (or what I felt was the right thing) and giving someone a first-class seat instead of yet another story of someone keeping the better seats for themselves and leaving someone else in economy or worse.
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