As pax not crew:

I met Alan Shearer (Current Newcastle Captain, former England Captain) on a flight back from Barbados and he was a complete gentleman.

Met Billy Connolly at LHR and he was as funny in person as he is on the TV.

Shared a plane with Tony Blair to Bermuda and he was quiet throughout the flight. It seemed really strange seeing your Prime Minister sitting in Club World, not first!! You'd never see an American President doing that!!!

Actually Damien,
Im surprised he was in Club. He usually travels in Traveller when hes paying for himself. I just flew him self and Cherie over (and subsequently back...he even recognised me the second time) to Barbados sitting down the back, although they did get an exit row! I have also taken him to bermuda down the back a number of months back!!!
But I believe its simply a choice they have made to try and be "one" with their subjects!!! LOL!

Jim Davidson - invited me to his hotel..... (no I didn't!)
Gypsy Gings - gave us an impromptu gig
Mohammed Ali - punch drunk but lovely
Queen Nora (of Jordan) - friendly and a dream pax
Boris Becker - well behaved, nice quiet pax
Duran Duran (plus wives, children and hangers-on) - your worst nightmare
Princess Anne - wanted no fuss whatsoever

On one flight he and I were in adjacent seats. PAs fluttered around, but not around me. My ignorance of his importance was, I suppose, evident, so he and I were introduced. I confessed that I had not known who he was. As it turned out, he had not known who I was. Still am, actually. Those hurdles overcome, we had a pleasant trip. I think his Mum was in the row behind.

I 'ad that Yehudi Menuhin in the back of the plane once.

I'll bet that was only because there's no broom cupboard on an aeroplane though.

Best:

We had Lionel Richie checking-in at our desks a year or so back. As he walked up to the desk and said 'hello?'...the check in agent could'nt resist the reply 'is it me you're looking for?'. Total cliche line I know but he broke out in a big smile, asked her to get off her check-in desk and gave her a big hug. He must have heard it a thousand times but still appreciated it, such a lovely guy, totally down to earth.

Colin Powel the US Senator, very polite and all round nice guy.

Ruud Vannistelrooy (dodgy spelling!) footballer - I used to check him in every week to AMS, used to make me all dithering and unnecessary at check-in (cos I thought he was quite fit!:E ), when I asked him why he always came to my desk he said with a smile and a wink it was cos I was always looked so happy and welcoming when i saw him and always made him feel special...well that was it...me red as a beetroot, totally tongue tied with brain meltdown:\ ..i think he knew why but must have loved the attention cos after that, week after week he still always came to my desk rather than those of my female colleagues!

Worst:

Jeremy Kyle sat in our Lounge being very loud, vile, obnoxious with a total 'Don't you know who I am attitude'

Actually, hun, Virgin used to operate the Boeing 767-300. They leased one of the aircraft from Martinair of Holland and kept it for the best part of four years between early 1996 and late 1999.

As for "celebs", on my last flight I had Frankie Dittorri (sp?) both ways to and from HKG. He seems to like chatting with females but not males. Fine by me.

I'm also carried Nigel Mansell (Very nice man), Mel Smith (of Smith & Jones - also a very nice, but quiet, man), Gerri Hall + Jade Jaggar (both pleasant but deadly quiet), Will Mellor (didn't speak to him - didn't care!), That "I predict a riot" group (nice guys - like their Johnny Walker!), Victoria Beckham (absolutely delightful), Jane Fonda (nice) and a group of 9 members of the Omanese Royal Family (they are absolutely lovely people - flew them in July of last year and then again in December and they remembered my name and greeted me with handshakes and one hug.... How lovely!).

That's all I can remember just now.

Iam not crew but flew as pax on Orient Airlines from Moscow to Vladivostok in
1995 on an IL62.
This particular airlines had 3 classes.... Business, Standard and Economy. I was in Business on my own and the group Boney M filled Standard Class.
All went swimmingly until Vladivostok where a set of local dignitaires,press and flower girls in national dress bearing traditional gifts of bread and salt were waiting to welcome Boney M at the bottom of the steps.
Up got Boney M en masse heading for the steps only to be halted by a lady from the cabin crew who insisted that Business Class gets off before Standard Class and there was no way she was making an exception. So off I went down the steps and all these people headed for me cameras flashing etc.... only to have to stop and do it all again when the real Boney M appeared!!!
To cap it all the minibus sent to pick them up was sat there with a flat tyre and they had to get on one of the cattle transporters that the rest of us had to use to get to the terminal.

Celebrities Onboard
 

Had Deborah Hutton onboard in J class. Partner and I both working in J. Partner was/is a big fan and was 'too shy' to work her side of the cabin. I made mention of this to her and she asked for his address. 3 days later, an 8" x10" signed picture arrived signed saying: 'dear ....., Keep smiling, love Deborah xx'. True Story. :ok:

A question to check in and flight crew...

How do you know these people are celebrities? - Especially when they travel using their real names?

Are there "VIP" or similar marks by certain pax names on the passenger lists and computers?

Or do you simply go off Airline FF cards, the class they are travelling in or by simply recognising them?


My celebrities seem to all be current or ex footballers on the MAN-LHR shuttle - most seem alright and they travel regularly enough for the crew to recognise them, it seems.

What a great thread. Not suprised it's been picked up by a national newspaper.

How can you tell the celebs? Well, the famous ones you should recognise, the less famous ones will tell you!

I'm form the flight deck, so my expereince of dealing with them is limited. But one thing I found when flying for Virgin Atalntic was that it seemd to be the airline of choice for a lot of minor celebs, not because of it's image but because not having a first class, the 'celebs' could sit in the posh bit of the aircraft and not have to pay first class prices. I don't remeber one LA trip without some celeb causing a fuss.

When they are real celebrities they arrive on board last, and escorted, or with a company agent. In some cases I've even had someone arrive not from the gate but on the tarmac with a police escort. I also had in a few occasions the person with his/her group book the whole First Class for privacy.
In other cases I've realised I had someone famous on board because I checked the PIL. Sometimes they don't look at all in real life like in movies or pictures...

Thanks for the clarification Eddy :) However my statement was correct in the context of the article quoted, and was also made in the present tense, not the past :ok:

Oooh I've had a few celebs on board over the years ...

Peter Jackson (Lord Of The Rings director. Had him on almost weekly for a while whilst he was promoting the films. Very lovely, somewhat shy, remembered my name and always indulged in conversation)
Most of the Lord Of The Rings Cast (Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Sean Astin, Liv Tyler ... all really lovely and one of them was very flirty! Fellow CC member at my former airline spent the night with one of the lads)
Princess Anne (absolutely lovely, very polite, smiley and unassuming)
Robbie Williams (very cheeky, EXTREMELY flirty and wouldn't take "no" for an answer when it came to inviting me to his concert/after-party/hotel. I went to the show, met him again but declined the rest of the "offer", esp as my fiancé at the time was with me! LOL)
Gwyneth Paltrow (very quiet, kept to herself, just pulled her hat down over her eyes and slept the entire time)
Rod Stewart's and Rachel Hunter's kids with Aunt (or nanny, not sure which) ... very lovely kids, awesome manners and head to toe in Louis Vuitton and designer gear
Nicky Watson (polite enough, swears like a trooper, insanely tall and yes her "assets" really are enormous)

+ lots of footballers (worked a charter for the Brazillian soccer team and entourage ... that was an experience!), rugby players and minor television personalities.

Ex flatmate has Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods and Tom Cruise on the same flight and said they were all amazing.

I had Colin Farrell on a flight. He slept in just his pants in upper class!!! He had a thing with the in flight beuty therapist down route in Miami!!!! I have also had Leonardo Di Caprio who was a little bit odd to say the least!!! There has been so many!!!!!

Best: Peter Andre and Jordan. Nice, down to earth, Peter chatted to us.

Worst: Charlie Brooks, Eastenders. Didn't say thankyou, didn't say anything come to think of it!

krinkly but....
 

The Karmic Celeb Charts

Best=

1) Sir Trevor McDonald (ITN Newscaster) – (3 Flights) The epitomy of a ‘Sir’ – fun, engaging, one of life’s true ‘patricians’.
2) Nelson Mandela – An enigma in a seat. (No comment about Winnie – who he was then married to…and co traveller on UK visit many moons ago). CC said he wanted to use his own SA chilli sauce with everything. Came upstairs for a long chin-wag.
3) Bryan Adams – said he was straight but fancied me. He asked if he could stroke my hair and I let him. Stroked something in me….er..em…(especially as I’d never heard of him before). Fun & genuine!

Worst= (Allegedly….in case I get sued…..)

1) Cilla – She’d got sat in rows 5&6/J/K in the old ‘classic’ BA F/C setup. Wanted FD to come down and explain why she was sat next to the ‘**** house’. (5&6 were beside the loos….but..not exactly ‘in them’…hehe). Told CSO(CSD) to just ‘do whatever’. Got a running commentary throughout the flight of all the shenanigans from her and family. So much so, that we ‘refused’ a FD visit request, much to the CSO’s (crews) glee.
2) Princess M – (The one who liked Famous Grouse & Cigs) - 4 in entourage upgraded at check-in from Y to J. Then on boarding to F. Gave CC such a run-around that I came down to have a chat and found her to be one cucumber sandwich short of a BuckinghamPalace tea party.
3) Joan Collins – (allegedly) – from crew comments in the days post the u/d ‘lounge’ when, for a short while the classic BA 747-136 had F/C in both A-zone and the u/d. Anyone ‘who was ‘anybody’ (ahem…) was sat in A zone F/C. The rest were sat upstairs…sorta thing…. Seemingly JC, on boarding, asked CC if there was ‘anyone she needed to know about’ sat downstairs. To which, a list was read off. JC seemingly shrieked when ‘Vidal Sassoon’ was mentioned and asked CC to tell him that she was sat upstairs and he was welcome to come and visit anytime, to which he allegedly replied…’tell the b*1tch to fe*k aw*f’. Message was diplomatically returned.

K

Dan Winterland

Yeah mate ... we can tell by your spelling ;)

:p :p :p :ok:

What do you mean "WE", you got a mouse in your pocket?

What a fantastic post!!

Flying charter, celebs tend to be a bit thin on the ground, but over the last few months I've heard that we carried Fern Britton (absolute joy and as she seems on TV) and Jo O'Meara of S-Club fame (also an absolute gem of a PAP).

When I first started flying for Go (the great LCC swallowed up by easyJet :{ ) one of my friends had taken Kylie out to IBZ and said that she just sat down and kept herself to herself.

Personally,

BEST:

Ian Kelsey (that bloke from Causalty and Emmerdale) and John Parrot (snooker player) and some other low-key celebs formed the bulk of our PAX on a STN-FAO flight as they were off to do a celeb golf match. With them, their mates and the organisers taking up 20 of our 25 rows, and all of them enjoying a good drink and standing in aisles once we'd finished up services, they could have been the PAX from hell.

Instead they were unbelievably lovely: courteous, polite, kept the noise down. As the flight went on Ian Kelsey and John Parrot stood out for me as they started calling the three of us crew by our names (in a nice, chatty way) and were quite happy to chat to us down the back. Had never really fancied Mr Kelsey before, but he's bloody tall and built like a brick poo house - and he smelled DIVINE!!!

WORST:

Kay Adams (Loose Women) - still like her on TV and all, but her and husband were sat in exit row and when I attempted to brief them and the other PAX in the row about the door their heads remained in their papers. When they didn't acknowledge me trying to brief them I stopped mid sentence and waited til they realised I was waiting for them. Also, didn't look up or say please/thank you when we went down with drinks. Still, I give her benefit of the doubt as she could have had an off day and know from my mum that she's always been "normal" and chatty when dropping her daughter off at same school as my siblings went.

Nick Nairn ("Celebrity" chef) total W****r, and his wife was just as rude. Asked them if they could fasten lapstrap round the little one as I did cabin secure for T/O to which his response was that "I'll do it when we're closer to taking off" in a none-too friendly tone. Naturally my response was along the lines of "no, you'll do it now."

Well I've just come of a flight from PFO and I had celebrity chef Ross Burden (From Ready, Steady, Cook).....Absolute minger in real life!!! And so obnoxious!!! Didn't even notice it was him...was boarding at the door and he came on with really flakey skin...when i say flakey....I mean his flakes were blowing in my face!!!! :ugh:

He then decided to come into the back galley and chat :mad: all flight....then he patted me on the back and put his arm round me!! not pleasant!!! Tried to come on to a colleague but she was soooo not having it!!! Hope I don't have him on a flight again!!

Best celebrity would have to be Andrea the weather woman from GMTV!!! She is sooooo lovely.....not very famous but still a lovely person...never wanted much...said her P's and Q's..pleasure to have on board.

Worst- Vanessa Felts- I work for a charter airline and charters don't do newspapers!!! Had the biggest go at me for not having newspapers...asked if she could have the flight deck's instead!
Broke the seat she was sitting in... instead of sitting on the chair, she'd fall into it...had her feet up on the person's seat in front of her... Had a go because we don't sell apple juice....kept poking me!!!
Her daughter had crutches and kept poking me with that too... It got to the point to where I said to her..."madam if you do that to me again...I will break your crutches in half!"

AND!! I had her again on the way home a week later... with her two daughters.... She came up to me and we had a little chat... then she said that her and her dughters were on the beach and she was soo suprised that no one came up to them!!! I was just thinking it's beause you're all mingers!!!!!!

Anyway just thought I'd get that off my chest!!!!

Ciao!!!
xxxx

xana....
 

As a bloke.....I found him quite fun & 'flirty'....that's all really.

k

I have never had a worst, but I have had 3 that were absolutely lovely.

The first was Noel Edmonds who made a point of making sure his family paid attention to the safety demo. At the end of the flight he even made sure that his family crossed the seatbelts, removed all the gash from the seat pockets and redressed the seat pockets so they were in the same state as when his family had borded.

The other one was Gloria Hunniford who gave me a lovely smile and a cheery "hello" as she borded. She was chatty with the crew during the flight and was more than happy to wait behind after the rest of the pax got off so we could have our photo taken with her. She is lovely on tv and absolutely lovely in real life.

I also had one of my football crushes on once, the guys name is Chris Coleman who used to play for Crystal Palace (Yes, I am their only fan) and then transferred to Fulham FC - poor guy had a nasty car crash and couldn't play again. He then became Fulham's manager. As I saw him walking through the door I instantly recognised him and said to him "Oh my God, Mr Coleman, I used to watch you play for Crystal Palace" to which he replied "Then you are showing your age then mate" in a jokey way. On the flight back we experienced quite severe turbulence during the service, so I ended up sat on the floor by him with my trolley, chatting till the bumping about stopped. Never before have I been so glad to encounter turbulence :E

From what I can tell from reading these types of threads, Cilla Black & Joan Collins seem to come off as right bitches!:E

Ozzy

I carried Mel Gibson in 4A SYD/LAX many years ago.

He slept most of the way only waking up to smoke another Winston cigarette.(cripes shows how long ago it was !)

Didn't eat or drink the whole flight of 12hrs+ except for 1 can of Fosters beer and glasses of H20.

Dream passenger , pleasant , affable and polite and only too happy to sign autographs for the crew along with
his boarding pass and first class menu which he gave to me (subsequently lost in a house move- dang )

Just got in from Singapore. Carried Ben Shepperd in business class. I was working down the back but according to the crew looking after him he just wanted to be left alone. Probably knackered poor guy all the jetting about for breakfast television his been doing.

But I tell you what the guy is seriously FIT!

agent x mentioned "Jeremy Kyle"

For my own edification, who the hell is Jeremy Kyle?

Perhaps the worst chat show host in the world, ever.

He presents one of those dreary confrontational type chat shows on UK TV. You know the type of thing; "My mother's lesbian lover ate my hamster." The :mad: some people watch never ceases to amaze me.

My two cents worth
 

I've had the pleasure of meeting a few celebs/personalities over the past several years when I was flying...

Great Ones that come to mind are:

Kylie Minogue - chatted during the flight, gave Crew autographs and signed photos, only request was a big bottle of water, really sweet and grateful and down to earth gal. Yes, she is soooo petite and tiny little hands. Shook my hand when she disembarked. She was a real treat!

Cate Blanchett - very polite and chatty, no fuss and unassuming. She had a gorgeous Prada handbag that became a topic of our conversation!

Mimi Macpherson - very funny and a great sense of humour (I am sure the J Class red wine helped and all the cheese and biccies I scrounged for her!). It was worth it, she was a real scream.

Matchbox 20 (the band) - really cool guys and very friendly to all the crew on board.

Dead Or Alive (the band) - all sat in the last row of seats in Economy. Few of us had a micro rendition of their hit song at the time, "You Spin Me Round"! That was a hoot of a flight.

Belinda Green (former Miss World) - she was on her way to tape a segment on 'Good Morning Australia'. No makeup, casual dress and a really beautiful person to talk to and looks fantastic. Very down to earth and asked all about my flying career...that was sweet.

Gai Waterhouse (racehorse trainer) - now this lady was hilarious. Such good spirits, immaculately dressed and ever so friendly. They had just won the Qantas Cup and she was travelling on Ansett...the whole J Class cabin wanted to see the trophy!

George Denikian (sp?) TV Presenter - a FF at the time. Knew Crew on first name basis, really friendly and chatty on every flight.

Other really nice ones who certainly rate a mention in my opinion, have to be: Jo Bailey (TV Presenter), Sandra Sully (TV Presenter)...she is just beautiful, an absolute sweet person.
Lisa Forrest (former Olympic swimmer)...always saw her in Economy and very unassuming who never asked for anything.

The not so good ones that I experienced:

Iain Hewittson (TV Chef), Ernie Dingo (TV Presenter) - both had that 'talk to the hand' kinda attitude :eek: ....oh and Hewittson didn't like the a/c food (surprise, surprise!) LOL

Anyway...that's my two cents worth. At the end of the day...they are just people like others have said. Great subject! :ok:

DASH x

Thanks for clearing that up - he's somebody who's a nobody then? I always like the answer to the question "Do you know who I am?" which goes along the lines of "Doris, could you help this gentleman please. He seems to have forgotten who he is."

Funny bunch aren't they celebs?

JIM DAVIDSON (Has been comic) - W***er

DANNI MINOUGUE (Aussie singer) - I love you! Lovely person, tiny, fantastic skin.

JULIE WALTERS (Actress) - Lovely, nicer than all the other customers in club.

MANCHESTER UNITED (Team of 2000) - Alex Fergerson joking about my demo, after they just got beat 4 - 0.

ALANIS MORRISETTE (Depressing singer) - Small, frail, Asleep.

IAN WRIGHT (Footballer) - Top guy

HALE & PACE (Comic double act) - Funny as you like!

ALAN SHEARER (Footballer) - Nice chap

STEVE CRAM (Runner) - Nice chap

LORD SNOWDON (English Gent) - Old

LAWRENCE LOWWELYN BOWEN (Arty house doer upper) - Odd

RONNIE BARKER (Comic) - So funny, lovely guy

BONEY M (80s pop band) - Left one of them behind despite them telling us "who they were"

I'm sure there are more but they can't have made much of an impression can they?

My better half has carried a few good ones.....

SVEN GORAN ERICSSON (Current England Manager) - Hypnotically lovely apparently, makes you feel like the only girl in the world that matters.

LEMMY FROM MOTORHEAD (Ageing rocker) - Nice guy, haggered by years excess, cool as you like.

MEATLOAF - (Large rocker/singer) - Nicest guy you will ever meet and funny with it!

EVA HERTZIGOVA (Wonderbra model/supermodel) - Drinks Stella from the can! Top girl!

PHIL VICKERY (TV Chef) - Charming and gorgeous.

There you go....

My top of the shop as you can tell is DANNI MINNOGUE. She is so nice and so SMALL, but so gorgeous!

Celebs
 

Good
Arcbishop Tutu - Brilliant, down to earth
Graca Machel - What a lady!
Francios Pienaar - Down to earth chatted to all and sundry.
Sarah Ferguson - a hoot, sent all the F/C crew a signed portrait
Brian McKnight Cool dude allowed crew to be photographed with him
Natalie Cole - Stunning manners
Kenneth Clarke - Well mannered
George Hamilton - Well manmered and chatty
Aussie cricket team 2004 (touring SA) - pleasure to have on board, gave autographs to anyone who asked, not one grump.


Bad
Noami Campbell - sat with a "nose-bag" covering her nose, scared of germs?
Winnie Mandela - B***ch de-luxe, upgraded herself and security detail and challenged crew to do something about it. At that time nothing could be done.(Politically challenging times)
Minor celebs (home grown) of the "do you know who I am" type

John Hurt: down to earth, friendly, nice bloke.
Gordon Brown: Arrogant tosser.
Chris Rea: Nice chap.
Paris hilton: The most hideous woman I have ever met.
Chris Moyles: Really nice, came into the galley and chatted for ages, posed for pics.
David Seamen: Really nice man.
Gerri Halliwell: So up herself.
Sir Bobby Charlton: Lovely man.
Jason Donovan: Nice bloke, needed rehab at the time.
Cilla Black: Arrogant.
Jordan: Really nice girl.
Mark from Take that: Down to earth and friendly.
Jerry Hall: Obnoxious.

All the above are my own observations and do not in any way represent the true characters of those named, or that they may have been acting completely out of character whilst under the influence of fame or something else..............

6

Thread
 

What a fantatstic thread - any chance of it being made into a book and it being sold for charity? It would make a fortune.

Being a Mil FJ Nav, some consider me to be the pax. But I can carry bags like the rest of 'em! Can we have one which highlights crabby cabincrew?

Great stuff.

I'm Flight Deck with easyJet and we get loads of celebs as you would expect!! Actually, the few we have had have been very nice; the list includes Suzi Quattro, Bob Geldoff and Gabby Roslin who was travelling from Faro to LTN and brought her little daughter Libby-Jack up the front to meet us before we started up. Stelios, who has become a celeb in his own right used to be up the FD all the time before 9/11 and was charming and interesting and used to jump out of his seat to chat to the pax for the entire flight.

brittaniaboy get over it. If GO were do great as you had suggested, how come they are not around today????????????


Maybe not so great after all?????

well in the last year, i have had Zara Philips, cilla black, kevin bacon, victoria beckham, peter kay, ann charleston, steve mcfadden, lucy benjamin, will young, lulu, graham norton, chantelle & preston, sharon ozbourne, pam ann!, bev collard, helen worth, martin kemp, micheal grecco, pat butcher, terry wogan, supernanny, gloria hunniford, trisha goddard, gary lucy, charlie dimmock, kerry mcfaden, faye ripley and more on easyjet from gatwick