Airport aristocracy

I'm at the airport on my way to Paris. A short trip planned rather hastily.
The lines at the United counters are unbelievable, even the line for first class passengers a bit further from where I am waiting.
I see a man, beard trimmed and very well dressed, walking right past the line directly to the counters. Everybody in line react and one guy yells at him "There is a line!". The man turns around and with a superb air of disdain answers "I am flying first class". This, presumably is enough to justify in his eyes that he does not wait in lines.
"We're ALL flying first class" is the answer he gets. Suddenly he is brought back to Earth. He looks around, his bravado gone and with the air of someone waking up. His eyes are saying "All these people??"
I can see that he can't quite understand what is happening to him. That he has, for the first time no doubt, to do what other people do all the time "waiting his turn in a line".