{"id":765533,"date":"2026-06-27T21:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T21:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/765533\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T21:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T21:46:13","slug":"conan-obrien-says-he-always-flies-commercial-for-a-surprisingly-human-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/765533\/","title":{"rendered":"Conan O\u2019Brien says he always flies commercial, for a surprisingly human reason"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a certain subset of people, being able to fly on a private jet is the ultimate achievement. It means you\u2019ve made it into the elite of the elite, the celebrity<\/a> class, and you no longer have to deal with TSA screenings, flight delays, cancellations, and all the headaches that come with the traditional airport experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Conan O\u2019Brien<\/a>, beloved comedian, television host, podcaster\u2014and multi-millionaire\u2014says flying private<\/a> really isn\u2019t all it\u2019s cracked up to be. That\u2019s why he avoids it as often as he can.<\/p>\n

Conan O\u2019Brien says he almost always flies commercial<\/p>\n

Celebrities often charter private jets because, well, they can afford it. But it also has a lot to do with their level of fame. For someone as recognizable as Conan O\u2019Brien, the attention from other passengers could easily become uncomfortable. Someone like Taylor Swift or Lebron James would simply be swarmed on a commercial flight.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien was recently interviewed on John Mayer\u2019s How\u2019s Life? podcast, and this exact topic came up when he mentioned being too self-conscious to whip out his travel guitar for practice on a crowded plane.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy rule is I\u2019ll fly on a private jet if someone else is paying for it. That\u2019s my rule,\u201d O\u2019Brien says. \u201cBut for the most part, I would rather educate my children. So I fly commercial, and you know, I\u2019m fortunate I get to fly in the part of the plane where I get some leg room.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to mention the absurd cost, calling private jets a good way \u201cto go broke.\u201d Still, if he wanted to, he could likely afford it, as his net worth<\/a> is estimated at around $200 million. O\u2019Brien also noted the environmental impact of private jets as a downside. But neither of these was the main reason he prefers to fly on standard airlines:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gonna sound crazy, but I really like to go through and chat up the people at the TSA. I don\u2019t mind taking the belt off,\u201d he says. \u201cI like being in the world with other people that are traveling.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past, O\u2019Brien has laughed off the idea he would ever own a private jet<\/p>\n

On an episode of his podcast, Conan Needs a Friend, he once talked about chartering a jet for a group of comedians doing a comedy tour. Everyone assumed that he owned it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fly commercial, I don\u2019t have a jet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

How much do private jets really cost?<\/p>\n

Chartering a private jet usually runs several thousand dollars per flight hour<\/a>. A four hour flight on a mid-sized private plane might cost about $20,000.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s significantly more expensive in most cases than buying a first class seat.<\/p>\n

Now, owning a private jet? That\u2019s a stretch even for a multi-millionaire like Conan. A mid-sized private jet can cost millions of dollars<\/a> to buy outright and comes with hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in maintenance and operating costs.<\/p>\n

The human cost of removing friction<\/p>\n

Few of us enjoy going through airport security or sitting in cramped coach seats, but O\u2019Brien\u2019s words ask us to consider the alternative.<\/p>\n

Abigail Disney once spoke of a shift she saw in her father, Roy Disney, after he began flying exclusively on private jets. She said he \u201clost his way in life\u201d due to the way he utilized his extreme wealth:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to go through an airport terminal, you don\u2019t have to interact, you don\u2019t have to be patient, you don\u2019t have to be uncomfortable. These are the things that remind us we\u2019re human,\u201d she said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Disney has also openly spoken out<\/a> about the carbon impact from private jets of the wealthy.<\/p>\n

A growing movement\u2014called \u201cfrictionmaxxing\u201d\u2014aims to have people rethink striving for a life of ease and convenience. Kathryn Jezer-Morton recently wrote in a now viral essay<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cTech companies are succeeding in making us think of life itself as inconvenient and something to be continuously escaping from. Reading is boring; talking is awkward; moving is tiring; leaving the house is daunting. Thinking is hard. Interacting with strangers is scary. Risking an unexpected reaction from someone isn\u2019t worth it. Speaking at all \u2014 overrated. These are all frictions that we can now eliminate, easily, and we do,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Doing things that are hard, or uncomfortable, or require our patience and empathy\u2014these things boost our social and emotional intelligence. They build resilience. And they give us a shared experience with others. Even if that experience isn\u2019t necessarily good, there\u2019s something valuable in the togetherness.<\/p>\n

It says a lot that even people like O\u2019Brien, who have the money to skip out on some of the less pleasant aspects of the human experience, are choosing not to.<\/p>\n

The post Conan O\u2019Brien says he always flies commercial, for a surprisingly human reason<\/a> appeared first on Upworthy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a certain subset of people, being able to fly on a private jet is the ultimate achievement.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,272303,154452,2327,49624,61],"class_list":["post-765533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-commercial-flight","tag-conan-o39brien","tag-lebron-james","tag-private-jet","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}