  We present a model of inflation where the inflaton is accommodated as a
phantom field which exhibits an initial transient pole behavior and then decays
into a quintessence field which is responsible for a radiation era. We must
stress that the present unified model only deals with a single field and that
the transition between two eras is achieved in a smooth way, so the model does
not suffer from the eternal inflation issue. We explore the conditions for the
crossing of the phantom divide line within the inflationary era along with the
structural stability of several critical points. We study the behavior of the
phantom field within the slow climb approximation along with the necessary
conditions to have sufficient inflation. We also examine the model at the level
of classical perturbations within the Newtonian gauge and determine the
behavior of the gravitational potential, contrast density and perturbed field
near the inflation stage and the subsequent radiation era.
