Flightster

Famous Flyers

• by Bobby Laurie
• on September 17th, 2010
• 5 Comments

When you work New York to Los Angeles or vice versa it’s not uncommon have some famous passengers on board. Just when you think that airlines already have rules for everything, you’d be surprised to hear that most airlines even have more specific policies and procedures in place for deal with “VIPs.”

For flight attendants, at my airline, we’re not permitted to ask the famous flyer for a photograph or autograph. It’s considered to be “unprofessional” and might identify an incognito celebrity. However, though that policy is in place, it’s pretty hard to find someone who actually follows it. In fact, after my airline made that statement they used the pictures of the celebrities that our employees posted on Facebook for their own Facebook page photo collection.

Most of time you can gauge the celebrity and tell whether or not they’re open to conversation or just want to remain quiet and secluded in their seat. Other times, however, they are the ones who want to get the party started.

On a flight from Los Angeles to New York I had a star studded first class. Every seat in row one was occupied by a celebrity that everyone has heard of and the magazines write about on a daily basis. I was in shock when I saw the passenger manifest. I was so excited to meet them. Well, they were just as upbeat as I was. One of them asked me to get the others autograph for them, while the other had me pass their phone number along to another one. It was definitely a fun and interesting flight.

One of the celebrities mentioned to me three quarters of the way through our journey that she wanted something “sweet” to snack on. I ran down the list of options but none of them sounded appealing to her. I went back into the galley and saw a box full of cupcakes and remembered that a passenger had bought them for us (I‘ll explain this practice in a later post), and we had one extra left. I came out of the galley with the box and offered the passenger the cupcake. She wanted it, I know she did. You could see it in her eyes. She looked at it for a good five seconds before saying, “No, I really shouldn’t.” I said, “That usually means you really want to. Go ahead and have it. Its an extra one.” She again declined. The celebrity seated next to her said “come on! Eat the cupcake! You know you want it! It’s chocolate too!” followed by the celebrity across the aisle proclaiming (very off the cuff and jokingly), “I haven’t had chocolate in 5 years.. I almost forget what it tastes like. And in case you’re wondering yes, I do eat food. I don’t starve myself.” Then, the other celebrity joined in and joked “there’s carbs in that! I haven’t had one of those in 5 years myself.”

I started laughing, here were four very famous flyers talking about whether or not one of them should eat a cupcake. It was quite comical. Then, finally, I decided to play a game titled. “Which Celebrity will eat the Carbohydrate?”

As they all battled back and forth passing it off to one another, and I stood there laughing, one of them finally said, “We ALL will! We’ll all take a bite.” They did. I passed the cupcake around first class, and all of them took one bite of it. When the cupcake reached the last person in the row she yelled “quick! Get rid of it before we ask for more!”

Not all celebrities are a noticeable as they were though. There are times when you meet a celebrity on board without expecting it. I was working in the main cabin on a flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles. We were going through the aisle with our beverage service and as I reached row 21, I pulled a napkin from the cart, placed it on the passengers tray table, looked at him and said, “Can I get you something to drink?” Just as I said that, I recognized the passenger as Peter Krause. For those who don’t know, he’s best known for his role in “Six Feet Under” and also starred in one of my all time favorite TV shows, “Sports Night.” He replied with his drink order, and as I started to put it together for him and I looked back at him and just nonchalantly said, “Just so you know, I’m a fan of yours and I was devastated when they cancelled ‘Sports Night,’ it was one of my favorite shows.” He smiled, said thanks and we chatted for a few minutes about the show and the script he was currently reading and believe it or not he ended the conversation by saying, “It was nice meeting you” which took me by surprise since I was the one excited to meet him.

I’ve met my fair share of celebrities and newsmakers and flown numerous VIPs but I’ve never taken a picture with them. For some reason that’s the one part of my company’s policy that I can’t seem to break (not to mention it can sometimes be awkward asking the celebrity for a photo in front of other passengers). I do, however, have a collection of signed Safety Information Cards from all of the celebrities I’ve flown over the years. For me, a signed safety card is a fun and classy way to remember my experience meeting them and doesn’t “out” them to the rest of the cabin. It can be done discreetly.

I will say that every celebrity I’ve met has been down to earth and genuinely friendly. Which, only makes me like them even more.

Bobby Laurie

Bobby Laurie, author of the book Planely Speaking and television travel correspondent, currently works as a Flight Attendant at a low-cost airline and as a freelance journalist. After graduating from the Pennsylvania College of Technology with a degree in Mass Media Communication, Bobby combined his passion for both journalism and travel by writing about the travel industry through his insider knowledge and personal experiences. You can read Bobby's blog about being a flight attendant and the airline industry by visiting UpUpAndAGay.com.