I Barely Made My $8,000 Business Class Flight To Beijing - Here's What I Would Have Missed

I arrived at Newark at noon, in plenty of time for a 3pm flight to Beijing, where I was going to speak at a forum put on by Chinese Internet company Tencent.

I was excited, and not just for China.

The flight was going to be great.

Tencent had generously shelled out for business class tickets.

That meant there was going to be a lay-flat bed, movies, and lots of food.

Problem was, my United flight wasn't a 3pm flight. It was a noon flight. And I missed it.

Oh, #&%*@!

I'd confused my departure time with my arrival time.

Fortunately, United has a partnership with Air China, which did have a 3:50pm flight to Beijing that day - out of JFK.

So the wonderful woman at the ticket counter booked me onto that flight and I raced to get a cab.

In the cab, I looked down at my new itinerary. It showed how much Tencent had paid for the whole trip.

It was over $8,000!

Want to see the flying experience that kind of money gets you?