[AndrewinHK]

I have been on 2 flights with Christine Lagarde, firstly from Hong Kong to JFK and secondly from HK to Osaka for the G20 summit in 2019, both with CX. I am a huge fan of hers, she truly is an elegant and charming person, I was very happy she recognized me the second time and we chatted, and have had the privilege of being at many events with her in subsequent years, where she always quips that she hasn’t flown Cathay for a while.

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DavidSmith2

[JonathanCohen09]

What an interesting thread!

Over the years I have been fortunate to bump into and sometimes sit beside a variety of celebrities’ and politicians.

I sat beside Alan Alda of MASH fame for those that remember on a Concorde flight (to be clear, the only reason that I was on Concorde is because BA had a promotion where if you flew from LGW, MAN or GLSA in Club world to JFK, you were upgraded to Concorde for the return, that shows how long ago it was!) from JFK to LHR, he was a very pleasant travel companion.

I met Sophia Loren in the first class lounge in Zurich where I was on my way to London and she was on her way to Rome, she was absolutely charming and travelling with only one companion.

I sat beside Dame Julie Andrews in F on a flight from LAX to LHR and she too was a delightful travel companion and we had a great chat.

Finally and probably my favourite, I sat beside the great Leslie Neilson in F travelling from LAX to JFK and we had the most hysterical conversation for the 5 hours of the flight, he was incredibly humble and unassuming.

Oh yes, and the Spice Girls turned up on a BMi flright from AMS to LHR and caused total chaos as they had so much hand luggage

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justloveflying

[TonyR]

Lots of them over the years and my celebrity spotting skills are low so probably missed many more but the three that stand out are:

Mick Jagger across the aisle on Concorde to NY
Paul Weller on Virgin to NY
Jenny Agutter on Virgin to LA

Mick Jagger was the only one not to be treated as just another passenger by the rest of the passengers and it was interesting to see the immigration officers at JFK come alive as they competed to get him at their booth.

Not on a plane but the highlight of them all was staying in the Capitol Tokyu hotel in Tokyo at the same time as Whitney Houston and meeting her. Such a beautiful woman in every sense and tragic how her career ended. Quite a few music artists use to stay there and while many of them were easy to spot, I usually had no clue who they were!

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justloveflying

[Shane]

Several years ago my wife and I were in the old F lounge at Gatwick en-route to Marrakesh, and noticed staff fawning on a late middle-aged couple. He did look like he might be famous, with shoulder length grey very curly hair and a full length leather coat, but I had no idea who he was. So I googled ‘grey-haired ageing rocker’ and up popped a photo of Brian May of Queen, who was in the lounge with (as I went on to discover) his wife, Anita Dobson.

On the plane, and joined by our children, I was recounting to my son that we had spotted this fairly famous person in the lounge, when he said ‘but have you seen who’s across the aisle from us?’ I looked over, and it was Daniel Craig; clearly, as we worked out later, en-route to filming Spectre in Morocco.

A couple of times, flying out to Malaga, we saw Cilla Black at our boarding gate; the second time when we were leaving from a bus gate, my son helped her with her bags, and was rewarded with a “ooh what a lovely strapping lad – thank you”

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justloveflying

[NNoah16]

P-Diddy – I’m sure this is an old name..
Diana Ross, Both on Concorde

Boris Johnson – BA First
Kate Moss – BA First

I am not good with faces so unless someone points people out, I am oblivious :-/

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justloveflying

[trident3]

Faye Dunaway on DL, Rich Hall on LX,
Oliver Reed getting thrown off a BA Viscount at Guernsey

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justloveflying

[JJames3]

During a 6 month stint in Copenhagen in the early 90’s I crossed paths with Elton John and Marie Fredriksson (Female lead in the band Roxette) in the D’Angleterre Hotel.
In the early 2000’s on regular ‘shuttles’ between MAN and LHR with either BA or BMI, I sat next tovarious football ‘stars’ including Sir Bobby Charlton and Kenny Dalgleish.
In LHR I was once ushered to oneside by the armed escort for the (in)famous Ian Paisley. Bumped into Sara Cox very early in her Radio 1 career in LHR baggage reclaim (she’s tiny).
Various train trips Manchester to Euston in the last 10 years, regularly saw one of the ‘Neville’ brothers, I can never remember which one 🙂
On a BA LHR to LAX trip in 2016 I was in 2A and Ewan Mcgregor was behind me in 3A, he slept practically the whole trip.
Concorde LHR to JFK year before she was taken out of service, in the gate lounge supping lovely large flutes of fizz with one of the Dimbleby brothers, lit his partners cigarette in the ‘smoke’ room.
Beat Brian May to the last table for breakfast in the BA Concorde lounge in T5 a few years back. Sorry Brian.

[GivingupBA]

I also forgot – Shimon Peres in a university in Hong Kong. He was surrounded by several of the largest burliest grimmest-looking guards (in plain clothes) I have ever seen, dead serious and constantly watching all around him. They had bulging inner jacket pockets, obviously “packing heat” as they say in the movies. Shimon himself was very mild-looking and relaxed.

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jjlasne

[TonyR]

One of my most surreal encounters was walking along a crowded sidewalk in New York and suddenly finding Mikhail Gorbachev walking towards me alone with no obvious security and then him stepping into the gutter as he got near to pass me. It was one of those double-take “did that really just happen” moments

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justloveflying

[jjlasne]

I cannot think of anyone besides seeing Boris Becker at the Nassau airport but in a Southwest Airlines flight to/from Los Angeles, I once sat next to a fellow in an orange prison jumpsuit who just got out of jail. He could have been a celebrity; I mean Jeffrey Epstein had a long list of perps… And LA is the famous celeb capital.

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justloveflying

[RoyC]

After a stay in the old East Berlin with friends we met Richard Quest (CNN News) in the departure lounge and had a long chat because he was researching the rise of Far Right parties in Europe. Interestingly he flew economy because he thought Lufthansa business was not good value. We need more celebrities like him !!

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justloveflying, AndrewinHK

[nevereconomy]

Diana Ross, Sir Roger Moore (several times), Elton John (1980 ish in HK),Joanna Lumley,Julia Sawalha, Ron Jeremy _ of course I did not recognize him but someone else on the
flight did ! Not sure they can be considered celebrities, but many of the QVC people when I flew from PHL very frequently.

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justloveflying

[Jmur]

A couple in the last 6 months – Mike Rutherford of Genesis & Mike and the Mechanics fame in Club flying from LAX to LHR and Davina McCall in Club Europe to CPN. Both very low key and I suspect not recognised by most other passangers.

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justloveflying

[KennyK14]

I’ve sat next to a number of “celebs”:

Colin Montgomerie – friendly and chatty
Richie Benaud – friendly and VERY chatty
Fergie
Was kicked out of first class (I was originally on an upgrade) to make way for the Queen of Jordan

Good story: I was in the Concorde Lounge (another upgrade!), having a drink, when the chap next to me asked the barman for help with connecting to Wifi. Barman had no clue, so I helped out. Turns out this was Pierce Brosnan. He asked me what I did, and I told him that I’m in IT. I was about to head for my gate, when PB asked me where I was headed (LAX). He said to hang around, and we would be escorted to the plane. A BA ground agent, came along for Mr. Brosnan, and he told her that I was “with him”. Boarding the plane, he was greeted by Rebel Wilson and Josh Hartnett. I was introduced to them as “the guy who can fix all your IT problems”!!

Favourite story: flying to Australia in J. Was sat next to Denis Compton, legendary England cricketer, and also played for my favourite team (Arsenal). We were chatting, with me in full fan boy mode. After a couple of hours, he said that was going to take a kip; I advised him against it, and to stay awake to Singapore, especially as Sky Sports were going to be putting him to work soon after landing in Adelaide (via Melbourne) at the Adelaide Oval. He was being flown out by Sky, as he had scored a century in each innings in the Adelaide Test match in 1947. He assented to continue to be bored by me all the way to Singapore, we went to the lounge in Singapore, and then had a great sleep all the way to Melbourne. There were showers in Melbourne to refresh ourselves, and we parted at the airport in Adelaide. As it happens, I was hoping to watch some the of the Test in Adelaide, and DC had very kindly arranged to meet me again. He introduce me to all the Sky commentary team, and a few current players in the evenings. There was no happier cricket/Arsenal supporter than me!

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[Susanne]

On a flight back from Milan, we had a delay and they didn’t tell us why. Turns out it was due to the fact that French chef Raymond Blanc had lost his wallet on his way to the plane. I only knew that because he was sitting opposite me (in Economy!!!) and they eventually found his wallet 🙂

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justloveflying

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