Not Secret Service, Capitol Police. Different agencies.

Entourage being security? I don't think that's unreasonable. Admittedly, the OP doesn't know who it was.

I've seen Pelosi in SFO with an entourage, 3-4 SS agents when she was speaker. as a taxpayer I'd much rather her and her guards fly on some YGOV fares than blow 200k on a C-32.

Anthony Kennedy was on F on IAD-SFO with me once, he didn't seem to have any security on the plane but a handler and a handful of agents on the ground.

I once got upgraded to F to clear a row for a DOD VIP who had to sit with two staffers.

Can't complain. And once I had our Senator Sarbanes board at the last minute. He had in the middle seat in coach next to me. . He had a staffer 6 rows away. I offered to switch and he said "absolutely not I need the break"
He then handed me his briefcase and asked if I would stow it in the overhead.

My guess is Jimmy Carter.

6-person security detail is not common. In other word, the person must be a top ranked official as high as the head of state. In the U.S. alone, only the House Speaker or the above can get that many security, not even a Cabinet Secretary.

Foreign heads of state usually have their own jets.

Jimmy Carter was the only living President who has observed taking a commercial flight before and he has a medium height.

The only issue is he is old and is a DL supporter (:p)

The another alternative is Bush Sr.

No, I'd recognize Carter and Bush Sr. (or Jr. for that matter). I am convinced it was a foreign VIP, probably tied to the IMF-World Bank annual meeting that ended that day in DC. That explains the African delegation as well.

Not true - I flew SFO-PVG a few years ago with George W. He was in 1A on the 747, had an aide in 1K, head of protective detail in 2A, and I was in 2K. He had another 4-5 SS folks and I think another aide in the back someplace. Most folks on the plane were not aware of his presence and only knew about a VIP on board at all when they made a general announcement arriving at Shanghai that folks should stay seated until they had gotten their "special passengers" deplaned.

As mentioned earlier in the thread-- I was on the same commercial flight (UAL from IAD-LAX) as Bill Clinton and his entourage in Sept of 2001.

Yes! Where is Mr. Pillows? He of the Belgian milk and the two bags of pillows. United just doesn't have any regulars with that kind of mystique anymore!

and?

And I don't recall there being any particular delay or announcement due to his VIP status and large entourage. The crowd at the gate sort of parted like the red sea as he showed up, signed a couple autographs, and boarded.

Nonetheless, if you're important enough that you're worth holding up an aircraft for, you're important enough to persuade someone to pay for you to fly private. Otherwise, follow the same rules as the rest of us -- be on time, or miss your flight. Got a speech to give at the UN? Well crap, you should probably fly the night before like the rest of us do when we have a meeting we can't afford to miss.

I mean, I like to think I'm important too. But my inability to persuade anyone (including myself) to shell out twenty grand every time I want to go somewhere appears to indicate that the universe believes otherwise. C'est la vie.

As for Jimmy Carter, where the hell does Jimmy Carter have to be in a hurry? The dude is 90, and whatever he wants to do he should have already done it.

^

lol.

There are only a few senators with that attitude. Sits in E+ middle seat and doesn't want to sit next to staffer for a few hours and then handle his brief case.
Very impressed.

^^

I actually asked President Bush about that when he was on my plane. He said they had flown Texas to SFO private but that it was actually more comfortable by a lot to fly the transpac in first class commercial. He said he had done a previous trip to China all private and preferred this. Now to be fair - he and his team were on board on time and we departed on time so there was no "VIP delay". I would think the bigger issue in some cases like this would be arranging seats in an acceptable manner.