yes...he went in "J" 1A.

Biggles.

Of course Joe Who is using his pass. The PC Party sure's hell can't afford J tickets http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif What a loser hehehe

(Proud Alliance member)

Sorry to hear that http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif

------------------
I miss Canadian Airlines

seat 1A seems to be the favorite seat of all ex-pm's.Ive seen both John Turner and Pierre Trudeau in the same seat.And, yes they get free lifetime passes for them and their spouses at least;not sure about children.

Joe Clark was a row behind me on a CP flight YOW-YVR in 1999, so I guess he wasn't using his AC pass then.

andrew

He was likely using his House of Commons budget.

------------------
I miss Canadian Airlines

Guess ex-PMs didn't get a lifetime pass on CP, though Andrew didn't mention in which cabin he was flying...

Did I need to? I can't speak for Joe Clark, but _I_ certainly didn't fly in the back on CP! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

[except once LAX-YVR, when I arrived at LAX in time for the flight, but too late to snag an upgrade]

andrew

I was not going to post after the first two sighting but just in one week I had three sightings of well known people:

On 11NOV Brian Ferry (Roxy Music) was in the transborder MLL heading to BOS.

Also on 11NOV while seated on my UAX flight to IAD (Gate T in YYZ) I'm pretty sure I saw Svend Robinson come off a DHT at Gate T.

And on 19NOV I was traveling to MAA (over the Pacific) with UA. I was on UA's 06h25 departure from YYZ to ORD and former Ontario Premier, Bob Rae was seated infront of me. I began to think, it must be almost 20 years ago he was elected premier.

Cheers

On my flight YYC-YYZ a few months ago hockey coach Wayne Fleming was onboard.

Fleming was couch for a team in Sweden for a few years in the early 90s and thats how I did recognize him.

I see CBC/CTV newsies all the time in the MLL or on domestic flights.

when you see those guys in the lounge they are usually elbowing you out of the way at the bar.

I practically came to blows with Michael McWhatshisface, the guy who broke the Somalia story, over a taxi at YTZ a couple years ago, on this occassion cabs were in short supply, I reached a cab from the driver's side, following 'protocol', opened the back door then went around the back to put my bags in the trunk, Mr. CBC appears a second before from the passenger side and starts loading his bags into the trunk, the Taxi driver (understandably, I guess) wasn't willing to take sides. After a few choice words I gave up.

Flew YVR-LAX some weeks back, in J ; in seats in front of me was Chad Krueger, he of Nickelback fame, and his uber-babe

1990.

andrew

The Hon. Ralph Klein at Frank Sisson's Silver Dollar Casino two weeks ago.

And I think Mr. Harper is slurping an Orange Julius in the YYC MLL. I'm going to go check it out right now...(he brought food in to the lounge!!) [ walks to 'check on flight' ] (Yup, sitting all the way in the back). (How cheeky do I want to be to take his photo without him knowing..)

UPDATE: Yes, I did. Although it was of him working (shrug).

And, I would consider the biggest celebrity of them all is in the MLL working diligently: The Big Rock rep replacing the keg of Traditional. ;)

Heh, I saw Mike Keenan at the MLL in YYZ T2 a few years back. He had his hair slicked back, loafers with no socks, and a gold ankle bracelet. Here's to hoping he was off to LAS...

Also bumped into Jeff Goldblum at LAX in May. Literally. I bent down to get my bag off the belt and hit him with my arm on the way up....whoops!

didn't know this thread existed until it got bumped today!

Avril Lavigne outside of arrivals level YYZ T2 early on this year. She was standing with some of her cohorts and an AC agent with a walkie talkie waiting for someone to pick them up.

Mike Harris in the T1New MLL @ 9:15am on Tuesday, August 3 sitting by the windows on the other side of the wall-barrier by the elevators.

Oscar Peterson's other three band members on a YOW-YYZ flight back in June sat with/near me in J.

In the past month: Macaulay Culkin in the YUL MLL and John Crosby in the YYZ MLL,

The late Izzy Asper....flew economy YWG-YVR...i couldn't believe he wasn't in J...(I guess that's how he became rich) but of course, he selected the National Post as his paper of choice to read aboard...

Paul Martin and entourage during leadership race on Zip YWG-YVR....so he had to sit in economy like everyone else on the plane...American guy next to me on the plane was amazed that the next prime minister (at that time) was sitting amongst the masses...

Marc Crawford, Vancouver Canucks coach SFO-YYZ in J when he was unemployed and doing broadcasting...

Given his condition, J class seat on the new 345s might have been more appropriate. :D

I think it's bad luck to make fun of the departed !!! :p

And he has a good sense of humour too !!! GO STANGS ! Western is my alma mater (undergrad and MD)....

A number of years ago, David Duchnovy of X Files fame, we were in 1AC, he 1 F, on a CP 737 LAX-YVR. Flying alone. My g/f of the day was riveted by him.

I go to a lot of conferences, press launches and so on and get all kids of Tshirts, mice, pens and so forth. We like to say "it's not the swag, it's the story." For example one friend of mine has a thumb drive (mini USB hard drive for your key chain ) and whenever it comes out of his pocket he says "Bill Gates gave me this".

Well when I flew to Spain on Air Canada business class, I got the little toiletries kit (the blue zippered bag with the white mesh compartment,) and it's very nice. In fact I use it for all my little bits and pieces of wires and cables for my laptop to this day. My mother was impressed by it and the next time she flew transatlantic business class, she got one too and uses it for her laptop bits and pieces. But those around her, who flew up front more often, already probably had more of these than they could use, and left them behind when they got off. So she grabbed one from the seat across the aisle. She had been really restrained all flight and not bothered him at all, but now for the rest of her days when she gets out her digital camera with its cable and charger she can say...

oh this? This is Joe Clark's toiletries kit.

Brian Mulroney, MLL, earlier this year (2004).
Dan Ackroyd, J-class, flight from Delhi, late Dec this year.

Not Canadian but I sat beside Dennis Hopper on a recent flight to LA.

We had some great conversation:

500: "Any chance you would mind switching your aisle seat for a window?"

Mr. Hopper: "No, not really"

Then he proceeded to sleep for the next 5 hours.....

AC's YOW - YYZ RapidAir flights are always full of MP's (I've seen most of Chretien's old cabinet on past flights) and the newshounds that shadow them. I think I've already posted about a Wendy Mesley encounter in another thread previously. Seen pretty much all of CTV's & CBC's camera-facing crew.

From a hockey perspective, I've seen Kelly Hrudy on a YYC flight, Guy Carbonneau & Bob Gainey on a DFW-YUL flight, and various other NHL players over the years.

YYZ - LAX is great for Hollywood celebrities. Milton Berle (with young wife / nurse in tow), Will Farrell and the one I remember most was Alanis Morrisette because of course she was connecting thru to YOW. This was just days after she hit the big time with her face on the cover of Rolling Stone, and all I could think to myself is "where are her handlers?"

Anyway, she wasn't actually being noticed by anybody and I think that kind of bothered her, so she was raising her voice on the payphone in the old YOW RapidAir waiting area a bit much (talking about a friend's wedding she was coming home to). But otherwise she was fairly pleasant and unassuming. I ended up sitting next to her in the middle rows of a 767 but as per my personal "Celebrity Privacy Policy" I didn't bother her and she happily read some kind of fashion magazine during the short flight home.

Just after the great terminal reshuffle at YYZ Mrs. Bytepusher and myself waited too long in the transborder MLL not realizing how long the walk/run now was to the most distant gate, we were not alone, looked over at one point and Tom Green was running along with us. We were the last 3 to board the flight before the doors closed. Mildly interesting beacuse he had no handlers, not even from AC and clearly expected and got the same treatment as other pax.

Possibly on the return flight of the same trip when we got to LGA the previous flight had still not boarded and our flight was either cancelled or substantially delayed so I put us on the standby list for the earlier flight and did manage to get on. The photographer/music video director Floria Sigismondi who had recently been on the cover of the EnRoute magazine sat across the aisle from us (she had the coolest pair of boots). Almost the entirety of the remaining pax were a bunch of teenagers and a few adult chaperones who were flying LGA-YYZ-TLV for some sort of exchange trip. She had some scripts she was reading and the teenager next to her used that as an opening to try to chat her up. It was absolutely a riot to watch this geeky kid who was 3/4 sterotypical jewish nebbish and 1/4 wannabe rapper with the baggy pants etc. try to make time with this infinately cool woman twice his age. To her credit she was polite as she shut him down.

On a recent flight from L.A. Rob Blake was across the aisle in J. However, the best part was he boarded with Marty McSorley and was talking about how he was just using up a tonne of his Aeroplan miles!

Jody Vance, Valerie Pringle, and Peter MacKay, in the past six months or so.

I wouldn't call either of them celebrities. :D

I am absolutely terrible at recognizing famous people in person, however I do remember one celebrity-filled AC experience. I was 5 years old , returning home with Mom and Dad from our first family trip to see the relatives in YOW. The plane was carrying the ENTIRE BC Lions football team, on their way back from a victory over the Roughriders. I waited in line for the bathroom with Swervin Mervyn Fernandez and did a puppet show for him with my aligator hand puppet. They were nice guys, and about 100 times bigger than me.

Victor Garber (Alias, Titanic) on the way back to LAX from YYZ in the T2 MLL after a Canadian awards show. Was complaining of a sore throat on his cell phone :)

On AC flights the only "public" figures I remember are Don Boudria in J a few years ago, and Brian Burke and Dave Nonis LHR-YVR in J. The 2 were in Europe checking up on then current players -- Naslund in particular-- and doing some scouting work. Dave Nonis slept the whole way except to eat while Brian Burke kept pounding back an assortment of drinks. Boudria was about 3 rows ahead of me; Brian Burke was across the aisle in my row.

OT from here on!!

I did see Alec Baldwin at YUL at the baggage reclaim area. Joschka Fischer, German Foreign Minister, was staying at the Four Seasons George V in Paris while I was vacationing there, as was a member of the Saudi Royal family (I think King Fahd or Crown Prince Abdullah). That explained the HEAVY security in and around the hotel. There were some German characters who did not look very friendly at all -- like members of the East German Stasi!!

I chatted with Jamie Oliver, the Naked Chef, at Borough Market in London one Saturday morning shopping for vegetables.

Michael Jackson was checking out of the Waldorf Towers in New York as I was arriving and it was chaotic. I decided to go grab a coffee and return later on. He was certainly a most original character.

At a Reception held by Chretien at the London Four Seasons Hotel (I somehow got an invite) there were too many Lords, Sirs, Dames, Dukes, Earls, etc in attendance to know who they all were. I recall most of them were just simply smashed on liquor.

H.E. Adrienne Clarkson was the Keynote Speaker at my Convocation at McGill which was quite a treat.

Finally, David Charvet was once taking some summer courses at Simon Fraser University while I was taking summer semester courses to speed up my graduation. He was very friendly and down to earth.

The Dalai Lama on an AC flight from YYZ to CDG in May. He was travelling with two other monks and several men in business suits. He had just completed his visit to Canada.

He was very approachable. I saw him sign several autographs, including someone's passport, which struck me as very odd.

He was in J, as were we, thanks to UG certs. One thing I did notice was that AC had assigned a flight attendant to our cabin who was able to converse with him and the members of his party in Tibetan, or at least that's what I assume they were speaking.

870-871 are pretty good for seeing assorted Québécois or French entertainment types flying between YUL and CDG.

In the past few years I've seen :

1998 : saw folksinger Gilles Vigneault ("Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver"); he was sitting in a middle seat of a row of 4 in Y; smiles for everyone;

1999: saw French film director Bertarnd Tavernier on 870 heading home after the release of one of his movies in YUL acompanied by the late Daniel Toscan du Plantier (head of UniFrance, the French cinema export promotion board);

June 2000 on 871 : Anne-Marie Losique (daughter of Serge Losique who used to be the head honcho of the Montreal Film Festival); she is the producer-host of an "Entertainment Tonight" style show called "Box Office" and more recently something called "Sex Shop"; once rumoured to be... close personal friend of Ben Affleck whenever he came to YUL; we were riding upstairs in a 744 (last time I flew that a/c BTW);

February 2001 on 871: Gérard Depardieu (very prolific French actor, probably best known in NA for "Green Card", an early 90s dog); the concierges boarded him last and he sat behind me in 5D on the A333, deplaned first at YUL; slept almost the whole way; very polite with the cabin crew;

April 2004 :actor Yves Jacques of "Decline of the American Empire" and Oscar-winner "Invasions Barbares"; very nice guy who quickly gave up his seat to an older couple in the PTV we rode to the terminal upon arrival at YUL; he was connecting on to YOW to play the part of the Quebec Premier in a CBC-RC production about to start shooting the next day; he was running short for his cnx so when I saw YUL concierge Nathalie, I discreetly told her she "might want to help out this gentleman for the good of the company's reputation..."; from what Nathalie told me later, he made his flight !

The Paris flights are also good for spotting politicians of one kind or another and diplomats, all travelling with green passports:

-Brian Mulroney (14NOV 2004 on 871); chatted with him in the CDG T1 lounge for awhile; he should sign up to FT as he has an incredible travel schedule;
-Bill Graham, Defence Minister, on 881 (the day after the commissioning ceremony for HMCS -Chicoutimi in Scotland from where he was returning, via Paris; he had to go back a few days days later in much sadder circumstances :( );
-Benoit Bouchard, former Mulroney Cabinet member, one-time ambassador to France and now a member of the CTSB;
-Jacques Roy, Canada's ambassador to France after Benoit Bouchard and before Raymond Chrétien;
-Clément Duhaime, Quebec's Delegate General in Paris;
-various federal MPs and Quebec MNAs;
-the Mayor of Quebec City Jean-Paul Lallier and too many of his staff....too often....

March 2000 : I crossed paths with Claudia Schiffer at LHR T1 when arriving on a BD flight from CDG; couldn't speak, just watched her walk by as I stared like an absolute idiot... :D

That reminds me of a vivid slightly OT memory I have of about 3 years ago. A few weeks after 9/11, I experienced two vastly different flights. This was understandably a tenuous time for airline travel when everyone was checking out their fellow passegner(s) for suspicious onboard activity.

One of my flights was YOW-YYH (seemingly no longer flown by AC) which may well have been called the "geriatric express" due to the median age of the pax. CTV's Craig Oliver was on the flight with me in J, as he was on his way to cover some intl gov't conference who's name escapes me right now.

All I could think on that flight was that if anyone tried to take it over, it would be all up to me to save the day becuase almost everyone else boarded and de-planed via wheelchair :)

A few weeks later, I found myself sitting in the middle of a planeful of Hamilton Tigercats on our way from YYZ to YYC (or maybe YWG, I forget now).

All I could think to myself was anyone thinking of taking over that flight was immediately switching over to plan B :D

Back on Sept 9, 2001 I was going YYC - YYZ - LGA. On the YYC - YYZ leg there was Glen Sather and Eric Lindros on the flight leaving the Olympic Team tryouts in Calgary. They connected onto the same flight to LGA. Sather and Lindros were talking Harleys the whole time. They had a spat while waiting for their luggage in LGA. Lindros told Sather he was staying in a hotel and Sather told him it was all arranged for him to stay with Messier. They took that discussion off to the side.

Just prior to boarding the LGA flight in YYZ, I heard the GA page "passenger Mirren" and looked over to the desk to see Helen Mirren getting an upgrade. After a few minutes some guy walked over to her and asked her if she was some other English actress (I don't remember the name now) and she politely told him he was mistaken. She came over and stood behind me and followed me down the ramp to the plane. I turned around and spoke briefly with her. She was friendly and gracious.

I think she and Lindros sat together and talked hockey and harleys the rest of the flight.... :D

Jose Feliciano - small act of kindness resuts in upgade
 

Today (Jan 18 2004) LGA - YYZ.

LGA Concierge boarded him and YYZ concierge escorted him off.

When I arrived at LGA the concierge was a little upset as he had asked for soda water and she was unable to find any in the departure area. She was helping me get on an earlier flight and on hearing of the problem I offered to go back thru security to the bar to buy him some. She was so grateful that she upgraded me ... for me it was reward just to be able to help Mr. Feliciano.

The Grewals
 

Not that I'd consider them "celebs", but they do make consistent press in our great nation...

AC156 redeye YVR YYZ. Gurmant in 1D and Nina in 1F on the 762.
They kept to themselves and as expected, didn't see any extra packages.

I wonder how Gurmant keeps his hair consistently parted and groomed like that. :p

In addition, they were sighted by Flymehome on another flight:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...1&postcount=18

Christopher Lambert a.k.a. Tarzan, the Legend of Greystoke
 

I met Christopher Lambert at LAX last year.

He was in the Maple Leaf lounge waiting for a flight to Montreal and then going off to Africa for a film.

Very nice guy. You have to have a keen eye to see him for his dark glasses, baseball cap and long coat. He has a very, very, grovely voice. I asked him for an autograph and he kindly said yes.

Cheers