Tag Archives for royals.
Earlier I noted that ex-Royal Prince Harry flew to London for his grandfather’s funeral and made the trip without his wife Meghan Markle.
All of the royal drama aside – his walking away from his title, giving an interview to Oprah where he called his family racists – I thought there could be a bigger scandal in his first trip back to the U.K. in a year.
The U.K.’s Prince Philip, who passed away last week at age 99, thought travel in economy class was ‘ghastly’. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, though, have flown British Airways coach before, however.
Prince Harry, himself no longer a royal, flew Los Angeles – London Heathrow on Saturday. He reportedly arrived in London at 1:15 p.m. on Sunday. While it’s reported he flew British Airways, the 1:15 p.m. arriving from Los Angeles is actually an American Airlines flight (AA134).
The late husband to Queen Elizabeth II once said, “If you travel as much as we do, you appreciate the improvements in aircraft design of less noise and more comfort, provided you don’t travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly.”
On Saturday I wrote about Prince William and Kate Middleton taking a coach FlyBe trip. The royals are no stranger to flying commercial, and as I noted even flying economy. At times it’s been because there weren’t any first class seats available, and other times because the best seats from a security standpoint are at the back of the aircraft.
This time, however, blog commenter Pete points out that the aircraft they flew turns out to be a substitute Embraer ERJ-145 brought in just for them.
Though Prince Harry and Megan Markle came under fire recently for flying private they’re also known to fly commercial, and even flew coach for a New Year’s getaway. Sitting in the very back of an aircraft may be the best position where there are security concerns.
Prince Harry is also known to fly British Airways intra-European business class which is like flying coach. His grandfather Prince Philip, however, once remarked that air travel can be quite nice “provided you don’t travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly.”
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 »
