Going through airport security, on the other hand, sucks. When you fly on a private jet you just walk up and toss your bag to the pilot. If you're a billionaire, you likely don't even do that. No tickets, no security theater, no waiting to board, etc.

And you get to set your own schedule. Even business class, you can't do that. Even the most popular routes rarely have more than a flight once every 2 hours. So you might waste 1 hour 58 at the airport waiting for the next one.

When you’re a very fancy person, you have a separate area of the airport and a different way on board. You can still fly commercial and not have the usual airport experience.

Not surprised. Though we've seen senators going through security so I'm not sure what the lower threshold for 'fancy' is. Still can't escape the schedule or having to fly with commoners of course.

Fun anecdote: friend of mine's dad is a ~billionaire, and not only does he still fly commercial, he flies coach. And has family come pick him up from the airport. Epic tightwad. Never spends money unnecessarily. To his credit, he also works at the local soup kitchen once every week like clockwork. How he does that while maintaining a 90 hour a week schedule, I have no idea.

Senators probably don’t cross the threshold. You gotta have a lot of money and a lot of status with the airlines. Also likely not all airports will have/do this.

I also have a billionaire friend who only flies coach. Personally I think he’s a moron for doing so, but respect that he’s so cheap. You generally keep your wealth by being cheap, but realistically business versus coach won’t fundamentally change anything. It’s more the principal.

> like everyone else

We're talking about the richest guy on the planet. Of course he's not like everyone else.