The best $90 I have ever spent.

In the last several years, I have worked hard to be smarter with my money. So I was surprised that an impulse buy I made yesterday turned out to be such an unregrettable decision.

Staring at the American Airlines quick check-in kiosk at the Jacksonville Airport, I had to make a choice. I could simply check in and take my very respectable window seat near the front of the coach section. Or, I could accept the airline's offer of a first class seat for only an additional $90. My memory veered back to the flight to Jacksonville, where I had found myself hungry at lunchtime, smelling the aroma of the first class lunch offering, but with only trail mix available to me. Not only that--I was feeling sleepy, as if a cold was coming on, and was laboring under the grief brought on by the fact that my laptop's hard drive had just been diagnosed with a serious, possibly terminal, illness. I desperately craved a comfortable flight experience.

It will not surprise you that I chose the first class upgrade. I don't think I have ever paid for a first class seat before, having only enjoyed that experience once when the airline offered it gratuitously for reasons I no longer remember. But there is something truly decadent and wonderful about being served with a drink of water even before takeoff, nibbling on warmed nuts, receiving your choice of wine for free and then enjoying a well-rounded dinner of pasta, salad and . . . mmm . . . very good cheesecake (not to mention the hot towel), just before taking a nap. (Note: first class isn't perfect: that section also has a jerk who hacks and coughs the whole way home without ever covering his mouth).

I doubt I will have the chance to fly first class again anytime soon--at least not in a price range I am willing to endure. But every now and then, it's nice to luxuriate in being pampered.