Dunno about volleyball, but knowing the salary most/all of the US mens basketball players make in their day jobs, if i was one of them..... I would toss the coach ticket in the trash and buy my own full fare F for a flight that suited my schedule

And that's why so many pro athletes end up broke...

I would instead "demand" that my corporate sponsor (IMG?) work with an airline to subsidize my airfare in F. Of course I would be happy to do an endorsement in their honor... This is why the famous never have to pay for anything.

As an athlete who has represented my country in the past, when you make your respective national team, there are certain conditions which go along with the nomination.

These vary from country to country and sport to sport but travel related rules I have commonly seen include traveling in uniform and traveling as a team. Obviously exceptions are made for extenuating circumstances.

The life of an amateur athlete is one of charity. Poverty isn't the correct word but it has some of the right connotations. You take what your national organizing committee gives you and you make the best of it (unless you are some superstar with a generous sponsor). I've never received a ticket for a flight in J or F; always Y even when flying TPAC or TATL (YVR-SYD in Y is tough).

I have used my AC upgrade instruments on tickets which I have received... AC status earned by flying for sport .

definitely. Nearly all my travel is for competition with the national team - and not being a glamour sport the amount of money/perks we receive is of the "whatever comes out of your wallet" variety. With my team only the rookies use the federation booked tickets, the rest of us learned long ago we could get it cheaper and better by booking ourselves.

For Olympics the situation might be better, and give you an allowance for equipment, but for many trips federations book you on the cheapest, nastiest airline on ridiculous routings so that it saves $50 overall e.g. rather than SYD-DXB and into Europe on EK with generous baggage allowance - its 4 flights through Asia, different carriers, and actually having your shoulders jam while walking through the bulkhead/galley section.

I pity anybody who was stuck in Economy with the wrestlers (and also the wrestlers jammed into those seats).

That might have been on the charter flight from France to London.

The cabin that the video was filmed in looked like a single-class short-haul aircraft, so that could have well been.

I don't know about the current Olympics, but for every international competition I've been to with the Coughlins, starting with Pan Pacs in Sydney in 1999, US swimmers have always departed the U.S. on United. I know swimmers have upgraded if they have upgrade instruments. Some of them do fly over 100,000 miles a year depending what international events they hit.

They flew in from Barcelona on a Delta A319. Post #3.
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo....main/5524650/

On a unrelated note I actually went to college with one of Tyler McGill's (U.S. Swimmer) younger brothers.

Back in 1972, my Mother and I were on a flight from NYC (cannot remember which airline it was) sitting in Coach, bound for Munich, when we discovered the USA Rowing Team was on board. We were all excited. I believe the Team won Silver in the Men's 8's.

I think the relationship with UA goes back a long time.

Back in 1988, I was flying out of SFO on Eastern, which at that time shared T3 with United. As I approached my gate, I noticed a commotion at a nearby United gate, with a big crowd, television cameras, etc. Turns out it was Brian Boitano, returning from his gold medal winning performance at the Calgary Winter Games.

According to their Olympic Commercials they said something like Proud to be flying Team USA to the Olympics for 30 years. You'd think I'd remember it considering how many times I have seen it.

CNN published Instagram photos that members of USA Basketball took. In one of them, it shows a few of them sleeping on a flight. They are def. sitting in wider than normal seats, but all of them look like domestic first on a single-aisle plane: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/01/te...ram/index.html

When BA flew the British Olympic team back from Beijing in 2008, multiple gold medal winners were upgraded to F, gold winners to business and the rest were in the back of the plane.

women's volley ball is extremely popular outside the usa. recently brazil-usa filled the 19,000 seat arena in brazil at 10 or 11am. usa-china was watched by millions in china. i think the better players make a handsome income in the pro leagues, and could afford to sit in the front of the plane

I don't know if they would demand F seat on commercial airlines.
While not exactly Olympics sport, many if not all of the Formula 1 drivers flew private to places like MWX for Korean GP.
I would guess it would be the same for NBA stars as well.