Celebrities
 

I was wondering what celebrities you have encountered on flights. I had Jimmy Hill sat next to me once on a flight from LGW to ABZ (he was very fidgety as well!!) and I have seen John Culshaw, Paul Whitehouse and Chris Eubank at LGW and LHR.

Also, do these people have to join the rest of us in the queues for security or do some extreme celebs like the Beckhams get whizzed through privately. I assume the latter is the case and if so, where do you draw the line at who can get through privately and who cannot!!

Sat next to Gary Neville a couple of weeks ago (across the aisle.)

He was quiet (mind you it was an early flight!), but I noticed pleasant and polite to the crew.

One passenger spoke to him as he boarded and GN clearly didn't want to know, although he wasn't at all rude. Fair enough, he was making a private trip and just wanted a bit of piece and quiet.

We had Lord Douglas Hurd on our flight from Nice to LHR in '99. He paced around the depature lounge constantly, which I took to be a defensive measure to stop people coming up and talking to him. When boarding was called, he just lined up with everyone else.
Saw Alan Whicker at Heathrow a few years ago standing in the taxi queue at some ungodly hour of the morning. I guess he'd just got off a Transatlantic red eye, as we had.

Have been in the same cabin as Arsène Wenger on more than one occasion (SXB being his home city) He's a perfect gent, will talk about anything with anyone.

Sat next to Michael Portillo a few years ago, also a very pleasant chap.

When ten of us flew Virgin to Delhi on our way for a couple of weeks paragliding in the Himalaya in October '05, in the LHR departure lounge one of our party turned to the rest and said, "Bless me" (well, okay, only one of those words is one he actually used ;) ), "that's Chris Bonington over there."

I wasn't one of our group who then spoke to Sir Chris but several of the party did and he was a very amiable chap, by all accounts.

Jamie Redknapp on an easy flight to Sardinia with very pretty wife Louise. How different from pompous Beckhams they are. Sat right behind me, and then we went to our Hotel, and they boarded Roman whoevers (chelsea owners) yacht, how the other half live. He was fun tho, very down to earth.

Had Gordon Brown on my BA Connect flight Edinburgh - London City a few months back (before he was PM). Was already on the plane when we lesser mortals were asked to board.

He sat in 1A with a couple of empty seats beside him. Didn't say much and had a sizeable friend sitting in 1D who made sure he blocked the aisle so GB could get off first when we got to LCY. (if I remember correctly when I checked in online for that flight the whole of the front row was unbookable, rather than just shown as "occupied").

Other celebs: saw Gary Lineker going through security at Edinburgh ago after the Open golf a couple of years ago. And saw Bruce Forsyth and Mick Hucknell (separately) in the BA lounge at Heathrow.

And a darts player at LCY once. But I think I'm starting to scrape the barrel now (apologies to all darts fans... ;))

13Alpha

c2lass, if you want the low down on this subject, pop into the Cabin Crew forum. You don't have to ask the question, just search back through the archive and there are a couple of threads that tell it like it happened. ;)

Thanks for all your interesting comments.

Paxboy, I did a search on celebrities before I posted this and didn't find a direct link, however after I started the thread, I got the similar threads at the bottom of the page and there was a thread in the Cabin Crew about Celebs, although it was dated 2002/2003.

Does anyone know the answer re celebs going through security?

Ruud van Nistlerooy and Raymond van Barneveld on the same 'plane, if you happen to be Dutch it doesnt get much better than that! Both highly polite and civilised, not seeking to bring attention to themselves, but tolerating the inevitable autograph hunters...

I once sat an aisle away from Colin Montgomery on a BA - LGW . MCO flight , when he was on his way to play in a US PGA event. In spite of the bad press he gets , he was a decent chap and occasionally talked to his fellow passengers - it certainly changed my opinion of him

Shuttle MAN-LHR. All board early for a change. Then on comes Tony Blair, Cherie and loads of acolytes clutching red boxes. They've got the whole of the second cabin to themselves. Oft to LHR we go. On time for a change.... But...on arrival we go to a stand away from the terminal. Motorcade for TB. Bus for us plebs. Oh well. (Wonder whether they are alowed their red boxes in addition to their one piece of cabin baggage....)

BA F LHR to HKG. A while back when they still had 2 by 2 seating and those nice aluminium ashtray covers - so satisfying to fiddle with... On gets Jackie Stewart. Sits across the aisle for me. Overheard the nice Chinese lady sat next to him say "and what do you do...?". Patient response, followed by stuffing the duvet into a ball under his feet (a nice technique to get legs level before the advent of beds, copied immediately by me) and oft he goes to sleep.

Nowadays celebs prefer Netjets.....so would I if I could afford it!

On a LTN to Ibiza flight a few months back I was a few seats away from the ex radio 1 DJ Gary Davis. After we'd landed the whole plane (well it sounded like it) sang "Ooh Gary Davis on your ray-de-oh!" to him! I think he was the only one not enjoying it.....

Celebs use the same security as everyone else, although most of the more wealthy celebs will be in classes that entitle them to use the priority channels anyway.

All depends on who they are and how much press interest there is in them though as to whether they queue with everyone else or get escorted to the front though.

:\

Richard Quest (just after his move to CNN) on a flight to Almaty (excellent company, v. clued up guy), sat next to Daliah Lavi on a flight to FRA in the early 70s (and didn't have a clue who she was until I sneaked a look at her passport and even then I wasn't much the wiser), flew from MUC to MIA on Lauda next to Fritz Egner (German DJ and TV host). Always figured him to a be a nerd, but we had a most enjoyable 8 hours or so.
Blackeyed Peas FRA-LAX in F last year. Had a chat about what they reckoned was their best work which I then downloaded inflight from the iTunes store via the WLAN that's been sadly discontinued.
Dave Dobbyn AKL-SYD.
Mike Gatting at BKK - didn't mention Shane Warne, though...

Well the celebs who dont want the hassle of everyone else looking at them going via security hire a private jet of course, most of the places we have taken the beckhams go via the back door screening is somewhat lax at places although i wont say where in the UK!

Recently sat next to Kate Moss on a flight from Malaga to Heathrow - didn't see too much as she was wearing a blanket for most of the flight:}

Also got a little confused one night after a long day of travelling, almost walked into Garry Linekar in the T1 BA lounge - got him confused with my brother - must have been the grey hairs

Seen various people in the lounges, such as Helen Mirren, Edward Fox & a few others. Have to buy the missus a copy of Hello magazine so she knows who these folks are (she's Kazakh); but then again when she points out the Kazakh celebs I have no clue either

Poka

Oiler

billy connolly
 

the wifes boss (also a girl) was flying to the US from London with Virgin and was sitting next to Billy Connolly. Apparently whilst she slept her blanket fell off her a couple of times and BC tucked her back in. She was informed by another passenger as they left the plane.

As a regular for several years to Milan, not surprisingly saw a few. Amongst them Patrick Lichfield was a regular on the Friday night flight back for a while - a really nice guy to chat too, sad when he passed away. Jodie Kidd, pleasant, Paul Weller - oh dear, wont say anymore. Kylie Minogue. Sven and Nancy. Sepp Blatter (got his own personal car when deplaned rather than the bus like the rest of us).

Minor celebrities:

US Senator John Kerry on a USAir shuttle flight from BOS to DCA.

Robert Reich in first class on an AA flight from BOS to DFW.

Robert Crandall in first class on many AA flights from BOS to DFW, back when he was CEO.