La Première Isn't For Me, But It Is For Someone
I flew it recently, and I have some thoughts. Also: I interviewed SAS CEO Anko van der Werff while I was in Europe to learn about his turnaround efforts.
Dear readers,
In October, I moderated two panels about AI at the World Aviation Festival in Amsterdam and judged a battle of airline mobile apps. The contenders were Lufthansa, Qatar, Air India, and Emirates — and I'm not sure the organizers will invite me back because when our emcee asked me to summarize what I had learned while judging the event, I blurted out "not as good as United," instead of complimenting any of the contestants.1 But, hey, my brand is honesty.
And since I believe in candor, I need to confess: neither the conference nor the interview with SAS CEO Anko van der Werff I conducted while there (more on that below) was the real reason I never seriously considered canceling my appearance, which paid the tiniest honorarium. Many months before, I had booked a ticket (using 203,000 Flying Blue miles plus some cash2) to fly La Première, Air France's legendary first class, from Paris to Los Angeles.
How was it? Well, it was weird, and not at all what I had expected.