Honeymoon in Business Class: The Best Sleep I’ve Ever Had On a Plane

After getting engaged to the love of my life and picking out each and every detail of the wedding (just kidding, Allison picked everything), it was time to decide our honeymoon destination. My wife was quite the traveler in her day and felt it very important that I experience all that this world has to offer — thanks, wifey! It was also very important to both of us that we start (and end) our honeymoon in business class.

Picking our Honeymoon Destination

Every request I made for a destination was politely shut down with an “I’ve been there before.” I knew she had her mind made up. Though she had been before, the only place she wanted to take me to was Thailand. She wanted to take me to the place where she fell head over heels in love with travel. Meanwhile, the only thing I could think of was the movie “Brokedown Palace.” I was like “Yup, we’re not going to make it out of the airport, because someone is going to plant drugs in my suitcase and I’m going to be stuck in some Southeast Asia hell-hole of a prison.” No joke, this was a legitimate fear of mine.

Needless to say, the wife got her way and Thailand and Bali were the official honeymoon destinations. How’s that saying go? Happy wife, happy life? Yeah, I tend to live by that motto and you totally should too.

Now as many of you know, Southeast Asia is far, like really far! In a little TBT to our first long flight to Italy, we flew Miami to Rome nonstop. When we got off the plane, I thought I was hit by a train. I had never truly felt jet-lag, but it changed me into a monster. I was cranky, delirious and mean.

Why is this relevant, you ask? Because flying to Asia is like flying Miami to Italy back-to-back. Therefore, in order to make sure I arrived to Asia in one piece, it was absolutely necessary that we flew business class.

Wanna know how to fly business class for cheap or free? Check out wifey’s amazing tips and tricks here.

Here’s some free advice: not all business class products are created equally.

To ensure you’re using your miles/points or hard earned cash for the good stuff, check Google flights. Not all airlines have fully updated their business class to include lie-flat seats, but Google flights will show you if your flight has fully lie-flat or angle flat. Now some of you might be thinking, “why can’t you sleep sitting up?” I tried. I can’t. It’s impossible!

Honeymoon in Business Class: Scandinavian Airlines

Now onto the SAS “Scandinavian Airlines” amazing business class. SAS is a part of the Star Alliance which means that it’s a partner of United and dozens of other worldwide carriers. For 70,000 miles, you can book a partner airline through the United Mileage Plus program, which is a transfer partner for Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Now I wouldn’t recommend the route we took to get to Asia, but my strict demands of having only lie-flat business class seats forced us to fly Miami to Chicago, Chicago to Stockholm, Stockholm to Bangkok, and finally Bangkok to Bali. Like I said, getting to Southeast Asia is not easy and is very far. This trip involved almost 27 hours of flight time. Luckily, all 27 hours were in business class.

First Impressions

They say you never forget your first time. Well that couldn’t be more true, especially when it comes to SAS business. After a quick flight from Miami to Chicago on a disgusting old plane, and a gorging feast through SAS’s small and slightly unimpressive business class lounge at O’Hare, we were finally ready to board our flight. As soon as I walked onto the plane, I was more than happy to see the newly minted SAS business class section.

The Experience

When I sat down in the seat, I was a like kid in a candy store. I was just in awe of all the space, storage and leg room on an airplane. I was in love. The seat itself was extremely comfortable. Waiting on your seat is a down blanket, soft pillow, and fully-stocked amenity kit complete with lotions, an eye mask, tooth brush and socks.

We also took a look at the in-flight entertainment, which included games, music and more than 4 dozen movies.

The Food and Drinks

As soon as we sat down, a smiling flight attendant offered us either water or champagne. We obviously chose the champagne as we got settled in our seats. About 30 minutes later, once we took off and reached a safe cruising altitude of 10,000 feet, the meal service began. The ladies literally come around with a cart of premium wines and liquor, and you can have endless amounts of whatever you want. It’s amazing…and dangerous.

We were then given our menus to get the party started, along with a choice of fresh bread. I chose a pretzel roll, and it was honestly the best part of our entire meal.

For apps, I opted for the smoked duck and while wifey ordered the beet-cured salmon. For the main course, wifey got the chicken and mushroom stew, while I got the beef filet. The food was seriously not a highlight of the in-flight experience, but we didn’t care because we were already tipsy off of our (many) glasses of Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve. The wine selection is really fantastic.

Tip: as tempting as it can be to indulge in the open bar, try to stay hydrated to avoid ugly mid-flight hangovers.

The Seat/Lie-Flat Bed

After those multiple rounds of champagne, a movie, a sleeping pill and a meal, I was ready to catch some zzz’s. I pushed the button on my console for my seat to recline into a bed. Ahhh, I was in heaven. I was absolutely shocked at how comfortable the bed was — you can adjust the firmness with the touch of a button. I stand pretty tall at 6’2 and I was able to extend my legs comfortably in a fully lie-flat position. I also toss and turn in my sleep and found that despite the seat being narrow, I did not feel as though my knees were hitting the edges of the seat.

When I awoke, there was only an hour left of the flight and we were making our final descent into Stockholm. Not only was I refreshed and full of energy, I was genuinely excited for a second International flight from Stockholm to Bangkok. What, excited for an 11-hour flight? Once you try business class you’ll get it, I promise.

Stop dreaming, start booking.

Josh