When I booked my flight to Europe a couple of months ago, the only award tickets available were in first class. Fair enough, I thougt, it’s a free ticket, and I’ve never flown in the front of the plane.

Now that I’ve seen what’s on offer, I have to say you’d be crazy to pay for first class, at least on united. the service was fair at best, and no different from transcontinental business class. Food was the same as well - not bad, but nothing special. I have to believe that First on a European or Asian carrier would have been notably different. One amenity that I did appreciate to the fullest was the lie-flat bed - I slept 7 hours or so and woke up in frankfurt feeling not half bad.

A couple of *very* close train connections and now I’m on the TGV, almost to strasbourg!