Bernie Sanders Caught Flying First Class

by Gary Leff

When Bernie Sanders was running for the Democratic nomination in 2016 he charted a Boeing 767 to meet the Pope. Dinner included herb crusted lamb and fine cheeses along with lobster sliders midflight. While the democratic socialist does fly coach, even North Korea’s Air Koryo has a business class.

Senator Sanders, who honeymooned in the Soviet Union, looked sheepish flying first class on an American Airlines Embraer ERJ-175 regional jet.

What caption would you give this?

(HT: Live and Let’s Fly)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. This same photo was posted in 2018 as well. Also, I’d feel uncomfortable too if a creepy person was taking a selfie of me.

  4. Of course he was uncomfortable. Flying commercial?!? That’s for the peasants. Our great leaders must only fly private, as he has been doing this year.

  5. what the [expletive removed – gl] kind of content is this lmao

    please throw in a disclosure that says paid for by bloomberg campaign

  6. “looked sheepish” *having some douchenozzle take an over-the-shoulder selfie with him.” ftfy. get out of here amplifying this snide and vapid GOTCHA! garbage.

  9. Without Super-delegates, Bernie would have beaten Hillary in 2016 for the Democratic nomination.

    Bernie won the Iowa primary on the popular vote, but somehow the Democratic party gave the victory to Pete B. Expect more negative press to come out every day, as the Democratic party (which is the same as the Mainstream Media), try to take him out.

    Bernie really is a red, so I do not support him. But lets face it, a Democratic politician (or Republican, it is bi-partisan) flying first class is not exactly a revelation. WTH. As Speaker of the House, Pelosi demanded that Bush II make a military jet available to her 24/7, and Bush II complied.

  15. I must have missed the memo where democratic socialists are required to eat beans and rice while they travel on Greyhound, instead of using their post-tax money for whatever the hell they want.

  17. Not sure why his class selection would matter. He’s still worth a good bit of money, way more than me, and I like to fly first class too. I don’t think he has any platform items that indicate first class should not be allowed.

    Let me know when he is buying his first class or private planes with money intended for a children’s charity or is using tax payer money to make numerous golf trips to his own courses, or anything that actually shows even the barest association with actual corruption.

  22. He wants to try first class before he eliminates it because in the new socialist america everyone will fly coach. The big US3 will only fly between the east and west coast once a day with A380 all economy class 800+ seats

  24. “Caught”? “Creepy picture taken of politician in 2018” would have been more accurate. Slow news day, eh?

  25. Is it that surprising the a senator from Vermont would likely be on a lot of AA regional jet flights to/from DCA, likely almost every week? In that case he would probably get up to gold status every year, at least, and thus, on many flights, especially to a relatively status-lite destination like BTV, probably get upgraded quite a bit because of status. This would happen automatically, without him asking for anything or doing anything.

    And on the Pelosi bit- the Speaker of the House is 2nd in the line of succession of the President, and as such gets higher security than most Cabinet members or members of Congress. This means the Speaker (no matter who it is) generally flies on small Air Force jets.

    https://www.factcheck.org/2008/12/nancy-pelosis-personal-jet/

  26. I find it hilarious that people jump all over these posts for being “too political”. The reality is I occasionally scratch my head and wonder which political party the group of bloggers likely represents and I could give relatively strong evidence for both.

    It’s a travel blog people, reporting travel-related news (even if silly or politically charged) comes with the territory. It’s not hard to skip an article that doesn’t sound like it’s going to float your boat.

    Better yet, go ahead and Cancel people. I don’t mind the pool of people taking advantage of the information shared shrinking. Thanks in advance
    🙂

  27. @Jojo

    Nope, in the new glorious socialist amerika, air travel will be banned (for the masses, but of course the ruling elite will still need to fly in private luxury jets, you know, to do the work of the people)

    What would the left be without hypocrisy? If you truly believe that CO2 emissions will cause Armageddon, then stop flying, stop driving, stop heating your home, etc. Otherwise you’re just a hypocrite using junk science scare stories to share children in order to advance your political ideology.

  29. Um not a Bernie fan, but who the hell cares? Like you get upgraded on an ERJ you bare supposed to demand to be downgraded?

  30. 1. I am not even sure that is him
    2. That picture is from 2018
    3. He probably got upgraded
    4. He can afford it

  31. How many flights do you think he takes? Lets say 1 flights a week, 52 weeks equals 52 flights. Lets cut that by half. Thats 26 trips a year minimun. Your telling me he can’t get an upgrade? Your site is about travel and upgrades, this is disappointing coming from you.

    Im thinking it was slow news.. thats why you wanted some traffic.

  32. This is trash, I am again disappointed in myself for having clicked on it. I suppose someone followed him into the lav as well to watch him tAAke a dump?

  33. The only thing this photo tells me is that there should be stiff penalties for taking unauthorized photos of other passengers on board airplanes. Just like you shouldn’t be allowed to listen to your music or movie without a headphone, you shouldn’t be allowed to take photos. Everyone should have some right to privacy; and that even applies to people you don’t like.

  35. WR2, yet another MAGA troll. You sound like the type for whom Fox is just a bit too mainstream, and would prefer the Alt Right sites.

    You clearly aren’t part of the top 1%, the only population Trump is actually taking care of. Trump Worship Disorder much?

  36. I for one am shocked that someone who is flying every day to a campaign event has enough status to receive a free upgrade. Absolutely shocked.

  38. Well, you call him a socialist.
    Then, when he flies First Class you criticize him again?
    Make-up your mind America.

  40. @DCJoe. At the time, there were multiple articles in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) about Pelosi having parties on the military jet in trips from Washington DC to SFO. I believe there were articles in mainstream media too, but I read them in the WSJ. It was not actually a big secret. I do not need a left leaning fact check site to tell me about the news in the papers in the Bush II administration.

  41. UA-NYC (AKA Manhattan Waterbug) appears to spew his nonsense. Since his father was a Waterbug, I guess he can claim a mixed heritage.

    The Manhattan Waterbug believes that people should be judged according to the color of their skin not the content of their character. That is a purely racist construct. From now on, I think he should be called the Racist Manhattan Waterbug. Disgusting.

    Now of course, the Racist Manhattan Waterbug could stop running around attacking people and comment about travel matters, then I would stop mocking him for being a racist creep.

  42. “What caption would you give this?”

    Hey Siri, please review “View From The Wing” from my RSS feedreader.

  43. @FamTaYul: “Well, you call him a socialist.”

    Actually, Bernie Sanders is quick to point out that he is one (and has been quick to do so for years), so I’m not sure what your point is.

  45. OJS calling me racist is quite ironic, given that he claims Patrick Mahomes is a “white quarterback”. Pot meet kettle.

    Of course, not all Republicans are racist – but if you’re racist, you’re probably a Republican. The party base at this point, well documented, is aging non college educated white males.

    OJS you fit right in!

  47. @Other Just Saying

    Factcheck.org is run by Annenberg Public Policy Center at University of Pennsylvania. Majority of its funding is from The Annenberg Foundation. Walter Annenberg was lifelong Republican. Factcheck.org is non-partisan and always has been so! Its funding is transparent, unlike your sources! The Wall Street Journal is far from non-partisan, and you should know that! Pompous asses like you should know better than trying to spread right-wing propaganda here. We are not Fox News viewers!

  48. Congrats, you pointed out a man riding in a regional flight first class seat. Oh the humanity. Those are like a $20 upgrade on a standard economy class ticket. Try to pick out something more substantive.

  49. Well, I responded to JohnB, Pelosi worshiper. When he reads Factcheck. Due low reading comprehension, he cannot even see the liberal bias. However, since I cited the fact check site from JohnB’s post, it gets sent for Gary’s review. He usually deep sixes my comments with a link, although I only used the line from JohnB.

    @Johnb. By the way, since you worship Pelosi at the first woman speaker, you should read her landmark book “Know Your Power”. By the by, as a Pelosi worshiper, you should consider donating to “The Paul and Nancy Pelosi Charitable Foundation”. I am sure it will be put to non-partisan use, like another fact check site. Afterwards, probably you should read Hillary’s landmark book “The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience.” She was the first major party woman candidate. By the way, you can also donate to the Clinton foundation. The Clinton foundation are doing great works for poor all around the world especially in Haiti.

    I talk to a lot of sanctimonious people like JohnB. In a condescending fashion, they quote political pieces verbatim from New York Times like scripture. If you question them, they run to google, which surprise sends them to left wing fact check sites like Factcheck (I cannot put org in because the post will be deep-sixed by Gary). Then they pummel you with the fact check site.

    Yea, I know the reasoning of these condescending people is pathetic, but that is what they do.

Comments are closed.