Yet another Upgrade Schmooze

"Upgrade Schmoozing" had never even occurred to me until a few years ago, but I am here to testify that, in the right conditions, and with the right "edge", it can work.

About seven years ago, I was traveling to a convention in California, booked for Coach. My carry-on was a three-drawer metal toolbox containing over 200 hand-painted toy soldiers, extremely fragile, and I very politely asked the gate attendants if I could board early to get the floor space in the first class garment bag closet.

They asked to see why the contents of my carry-on were so important, and I opened the case, revealing a top layer devoted to one-inch tall "Star Wars" figures.

Both of the attendants were the right age to be impressed, and were delighted by the sight of these little icons of their youth, and rather than simply letting me board early (which was all I had hoped for), they put me in the nearly-empty business class. I gave one of them a hand-painted Darth Vader and the other a hand-painted Han Solo. Each figure was about $2.00, with about four-hours of my time to paint them. A big difference between the cost of my coach tickets and those for business class!

Don

 

 

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