Now, courtesy of The First Post, here’s an interesting one:
London mayor Boris Johnson doesn’t have the best of luck with plane journeys. Yesterday he touched down in Beijing looking – and feeling – frazzled following a gruelling nine-hour journey in “cattle class”, after being denied an upgrade to business class by British Airways. City Hall aides are understood to have requested that the mayor be bumped up, but were turned down. A BA spokesman refused to comment or reveal whether the flight had been too full to accommodate the request.
The Daily Mail has the same story, apparently word-for-word. Curious that.
So, here’s the meat:
- Johnson made a big deal of not travelling Business Class, which was Livingstone’s arrangement.
- Livingstone was intending three weeks at the Games: Johnson cut this to five days.
- The London party was reduced to 13 bodies.
And now we find City Hall were lobbying BA for a freebie:
- On whose instigation?
- ” … the incident is certain to be viewed as a snub by mayoral aides who were convinced their boss would be treated like a VIP” (The Mail, this time).
- Is the suggestion that Johnson was “miffed” a piece of journalistic licence, or did he expect his name to guarantee a turn left at the end of the boarding bridge?
All-in-all, a strange story, with one more implausibility. So:
Finally:
Boris Johnson arrived in Beijing today looking tired and dishevelled after a cattleclass flight from London.
September 1, 2008 at 12:53 pm |
Given Boris Johnson was intending to hit the ground running, he should not have been so daft as to book economy class, hoping for an upgrade. he had a packed 5 day trip, with a 9 hour journey each end, he should have ensured that he got a good night’s sleep on the flight, which would have meant travelling business class. Most people would not criticise him for this.
Anyone that would deprive someone in such a senior position from having a good nights sleep prior to the starting a busy schedule has to be small minded. If Boris made this decision, then he needs to look again. No-one works well or to their full capacity if they are tired. It is a false economy, if you will excuse the unintentional pun.