To be fed up of rich people/celebs and private jets

[LivesinLondon2000]

Just read this morning that Harry & Meghan arrived in the UK on the Queen’s private jet. Why can’t they travel on a normal scheduled flight? It’s not like they’d have been wedged into economy class with a toddler on their laps like the rest of us anyway!

I’m just fed up of reading about the rich & famous gallivanting around the planet in their jets (the Beckhams are another example) when the rest of us are made to feel guilty about climate change and our carbon footprint by taking any flights at all - even when it’s one short haul EasyJet/Ryanair return flight a year and we’re packed into economy like sardines. Why one rule for them and another for us?

Years ago I went to a European country with one if the cheap airlines Ryanair?
When we got to airport our plane was one of those little ones that only carries about 30 people. There was actually only six of us on flight and the steward kept coming around and asking if we wanted any drinks and addressed us by name.
It was fab! I would fly by private jet which much be even better if anyone would like to pay for me?

And when you arrive at airports like Farnborough you don’t go through passport control, they come onto plane.

You also are met on the tarmac by your cars to whisk you off.

Yes, I guess it just happens on a bigger scale over there and almost religiously. She has been doing it throughout her career - early collaborations with Soho House, getting tight with the the owners and his friends, introduced to Canadian 'aristos' then to British ones etc.
It is like a MLM but you pitch yourself as a commodity. Not everybody would sign up to it. The problem is that it is an addictive mindset that is hard to sake off. Once you reach your original goal, rather than feeling satisfied, you cannot help but aim ever upwards towards the higher levels of the spectacle. Hence, the unnecessary Netflix collaborations, hagiographies, aggressive PR.

These so called "influencers" are the ones that get me. They get thousands of followers who hang on to their every word and so many see it now as an easy way to make money with the celeb status too.

Flying/airport checkin and security is hell on earth, if I could afford to fly on private jets, I’d do it and so would all of you moaning about it 🙄
Also, pretty sure HM doesn’t actually own an aircraft. If she did, there would be no need for The Queen’s Flight (part of 32 Squadron RAF).

FFS what is it with some of you? Bet they can’t wait for the jubilee to end so they can escape this island again. So many bitter people.

Calm down. Although I'm sure 'is Nibs and 'er Ladyship feel deeply gratified by your searing insight into their intimate thoughts

This is why I'm in favour of some kind of carbon allowance ... Private jet usage would become untenable pretty quickly

I'm not convinced TBH, mainly because so many who fly private are in ideal positions to insist their journeys are for "exceptional reasons" and shouldn't count in any allowance

If you had the money and were flying somewhere, you’d totally go for this kind of option. The processes for security and immigration are totally minimised. There’s much less hanging around. There’s more space on the bloody plane.

It would just be better than the kind of cheapest option (usually from a shit airport) experience that constitutes any travel I do by air. And that’s infrequent at most.

It’s the hypocrisy and the moralising at other people aspects that are irritating when very wealthy people do this shit. Of course they’re going to fly by private jet out of some small airport set up for this stuff, rather than doing the Ryanair from Luton to somewhere not quite as convenient as you’d hope. That’s how it is.

It’s just annoying when they’re busy lecturing other people about the environment or social responsibility or whatever topic they’ve appointed themselves moraliser in chief on.

@TarasHarp55
Depends on the influencer I think. I quite like the ones who are upfront about their ads and partnerships -e.g. M&S have asked me to pick the 5 items of clothing I like best and style them. And all the body positivity ones - e.g. Tova Leigh etc. Those seem quite positive to me.

But the ones I don’t like are ones who encourage unrealistic or unsustainable lifestyles. Or the relentless ‘my life is so perfect’ ones. I know it’s just a snapshot of the best bits but a little humility wouldn’t go astray occasionally! There was a family I read about recently whose aim was to take their 4 kids to every country in the world. They had loads of followers praising them & wanting to emulate them. Nothing about the environmental impact of all the flights they were taking and encouraging others to take - though I assume they weren’t all by private jet at least!!

@SoggyPaper

I agree with you completely

@SoggyPaper
I think one of the things that makes me sad about many of the opinions on this thread is the number of people who say ‘Well they’re rich, that’s what rich people do. Mind your own business and forget about it’.

Just the acceptance that having money makes everything ok. And actually the problem is mine for being bothered about it in the first place. It’s all very ‘accept you’re the peasant and doff your cap to the master whilst he does what he likes - as is his right’. I’m assuming none of these posters are in any way left wing 😂

So e.g. it’s fine - as long as you’re rich - to do something like take a private jet which, let’s face it, is disproportionately bad for the environment, than the relatively minor inconvenience of using the private lounge, fast track security and first class cabin available on most long haul flights.

Personally I do think there should be laws governing private jets. It shouldn’t just be about whether you’re wealthy enough - it should be based on necessity. And I’m prepared to accept that, in some limited cases, world leaders etc - that they might be necessary.

They could have flown first class on a regular scheduled flight.

I couldn’t care less what ‘celebs’ do! However should they choose to travel by private jet then they lose the right to preach to us normal folk about climate change… prime example being Harry & Megan who are just hypocrites and deserve to be called out.

@LivesinLondon2000 I just don’t think that focusing on the absolute extremes is that helpful.

The problems of climate change are not going to be solved by insisting very rich people fly first class instead of in private jets. Really, it’s almost a distraction from the real things that societies need to be looking at.

Tbh, I think focusing on the extreme ends of the spectrum is very often a tactic that allows very vocally left wing people to avoid properly analysing their own lives and situations.

And governments of whatever persuasion like it when everyone is pointing their fingers at some other group they hold more responsible. Because it means they can brush the enormous structural problems in energy, transport, and anything else you can think of that make climate change so difficult to tackle under the carpet. Nothing to see here in relation to decades of underinvestment in more sustainable alternatives, nope. But look: some rich arseholes are using private jets!

Yanbu the rich/elite are a true cancer on the planet.

Far too many people think it is acceptable that a literal handful of people have been able to amass inconceivable wealth to the detrimental of everyone else. While many more are too scared to rock the boat because they have been duped into believing that they too could one day be rich if they just work hard enough.

The sooner capitalism collapses the better imo. Fuck the elite.

Harry and Meghan barely ever mention climate change and take private jets less than most royals, yet it's always them being slagged off, and not Charles or William who take private jets far more frequently (Charles taking multiple private jet flights in the course of just a few days to attend climate change conferences) and lecture about climate change all the time.

According to the Independent the Royals spent £13 million of taxpayer money on private jets. No one ever complains about that but they complain about Harry and Meghan using friends' planes that are paid for privately.

Proof?

Travelyst springs to mind

This ^^

Many years ago when Prince William was serving at RAF Valley, Prince Harry was travelling back from visiting him and his bodyguard asked the railway staff if there was somewhere they could wait at Bangor Station in private. They ended up in a disused train crew messroom.

Yup, and so tone deaf to everything and everyone else. Ignorance at its best.

@JemimaPuddlegoose Plus, does it make a carbon footprint lower if it is your friends plane - and how do you know they use a friends plane?

Flying/airport checkin and security is hell on earth, if I could afford to fly on private jets, I’d do it and so would all of you moaning about it
@BorgQueen I certainly would not. My principles and environmental ideals are not easily bought, thank you very much.

I can't bear them but totally support this. As people said, the press killed his mother. I think there is a difference between this and popping over to London to pick up a new dog outfit from Harrods and I actually do have a friend who did this. Incidently, I have been on one q few years ago when working for a Saudi company and needed to get back fast. I much prefer business class with suites, a jet is small and whilst lavish, not anything like a qsuite.

And that doesn't make me a hypocrite because I don't care about the environment one jot