Why I'm the best wife ever*

*Of course, I mean this in the humblest way possible....

I have to interrupt our trip reports with a quick story about why I'm the best wife ever. Seriously. Ask my husband.

We are coming back to Texas on Aug 1, and staying through Aug 20. Then, Tommy will head back here to Shanghai, and I'll go on with the kids to Minneapolis and then to Canada (thanks to the kind invitation from Nana and Grandpa.) Tommy was totally brokenhearted about spending 18 days away from us for all of, oh, 5 minutes -- and then he realized that he would get to fly the long flight by himself and enjoy a few weeks of bachelorhood in Shanghai.

Anyway, I needed to make arrangements for our flights from Austin to Minneapolis. There aren't any direct flights, but we figured out I could get on the same flight Tommy was taking from Austin to Chicago. That would let us hang out at O'Hare together for a while, and then take our respective flights.

The flights were pretty cheap. And, while the number of Advantage miles we have is pretty paltry, we do have Platinum status and had just enough to cover the three tickets. Or, so we thought. There weren't enough seats at the lowest mile level in coach on the flight package we wanted -- but, there were three seats available in First Class, and we had enough miles to cover that. Tommy was already booked in coach.

We had a decision to make:

Option A: Use all of our miles on 3 first-class tickets in order to have the shortest layover in Chicago.
Option B: Buy 3 coach tickets outright.
Option C: Use a smaller amount of miles to get 3 coach tickets, but have a longer layover in Chicago.

We talked to several helpful Advantage agents, and then ultimately ended up with a totally unforeseen Option D. We bought two tickets outright for me and John (seeing as how Betsy is still free for a few more months, and really, how hard could it be to hold a squirmy, opinionated 21-month old still for two flights ...) and then spent miles AND money so that Tommy could upgrade to First Class all the way from Austin to Shanghai.

Yep, that's right -- Tommy will be enjoying the sweet life in First Class while he flies ALONE, and I will be chilling back in steerage, holding Betsy in my lap for a few hours. I got to listen the delightful exchange between Tommy and the Advantage agent, where she asked him exactly which row he would like, whether he would like aisle or window, whether he preferred the bulkhead or the exit row, the left side or the right side of the aisle, and how he liked his martinis. (Just kidding about that last part, but the way she was fawning all over him, I wouldn't have been surprised to hear it.)

Needless to say, the kids and I will not be enjoying such perks on our flight in September. We are currently booked in the very last row of coach, next to the toilets. Neat.

So, please feel free to call or write my dear husband to let him know what a wonderful and understanding wife he has. And that it would be in his best interest to start figuring out a way to make it up to me.

Love you, sweetheart. ;-)