Headline!

 Prince Harry flew commercial eschewing BA (British Air)  Specifically, American Airlines from LAX to LHR (Heathrow)  He's visiting to see the unveiling, with his older brother Wills, of a statue honoring their mother Princess Diana on the grounds of Kensington Palace.  Harry was on AA #134, 

AA#134 is a Boeing Triple 777-300  It carries 300 pax.  On Harry's flight (he was seated in 1st as you can imagine)  of the 8 seats, 5 were empty and blocked off, "A sure sign of a big wig on board," said a grizzled Flight Attendant  who'd seen'em all.

I knew that parking your butt in a recliner and slugging down champagne till you burble if you dare to get up is expensive and, always has been, so is here's a one passenger fare for a RT from LAX to LHR  -on AA .                                                                                  $13,277  

I can understand why Harry would prefer AA to BA - We flew BA once and that will be it forever.

Here's what BA  presented to me as a Bloody Mary:  a glass (plastic) with some ice, a tiny bottle of Skye Vodka and a pull-the-tab- yourself can of tomato juice.  Probably nothing even remotely spicy on the entire plane.

Even though their hats (some kind of WW2 bonnet) were cute, they  were snotty bitches and we had not been demanding in any way.

We were flying jumped-up Coach class - a new promotion in class.

A CONTRAST

AA, ah, dear, AA  They were starting a new route from DFW (Dallas) to Paris (CDG) and Mgmnt was looking for volunteers to take what I now realize was a shake-down flight for the Flight Attendants.  Didn't know then, wouldn't care now.   Hold your breathe (along with us but but we got 1st!)

Michelle picked us up, and we had  a wonderful 3 or 4 days, before Richie had to go back to work

Sometime later we got the bill.  $80 dollars each for RTs from Los Angeles to Paris and back in 1st!