Shouldn’t our idols travel in economy class?

Fascination with the lives of celebrities is a phenomenon as old as the concept of celebrity itself. However, in the digital age, where every move is scrutinised and viralised, expectations of how these icons should behave have been exacerbated. What happens when one of them decides to “come down to earth” and mingle with the rest of us on an economy class flight?

The answer seems to be a mixture of incredulity and sarcasm. Social media, that omnipresent court of public opinion, is quick to fill its feeds with memes and comments. “Have they run out of money?”, some ask, while others see in this gesture a kind of fall from grace, a descent into the common world that contradicts the luxurious image they have built up.

A few years ago, a photo of C. Tangana taking a nap on an economy class flight went viral, at Paris Fashion Week Kanye West and Bianca Censori were filmed flying business class (not that the concept changes much), last week it was the turn of Jennifer Lopez, photographed taking a flight from Naples to Paris. On Sunday it was Rafa Nadal’s moment photographed on a flight from Mallorca to Barcelona which reached 2.5 million views on X. Seeing how these posts appeal to us so much, you can understand why they prefer private flights.

Pero más allá de las risas y los juicios, hay un trasfondo más serio. Un interesante punto de lectura de la situación es el del resentimiento financiero: la alegría sádica de cuando se ve a un privilegiado rebajarse a hacer algo común. La verdad es que probablemente hemos llegado a percibir a las celebridades como habitantes de un mundo en sí mismo, una topografía de los ricos superpuesta a la de nuestro mundo y que no puede comunicarse con él, un escenario cuya cuarta pared nunca debe romperse. El precio de este privilegio es la exposición al escarnio público.

However, this phenomenon reflects our own insecurities and the way we project our ideals of success and failure onto those who live under constant scrutiny. Seeing a celebrity on a tourist flight can be an uncomfortable reminder that they are still human, susceptible to the same limitations and practical choices as anyone else. Our need to keep idols on a pedestal, separated by the barrier of privilege, reveals an inherent contradiction: we admire their humanity, but castigate them when they show it.

The problem lies in the fact that in the vortex of reposts and reels we lose sight of the idea that this scene shot by the camera is not from a set but is real life, these people are not made of pixels but of flesh and blood. Kanye, C. Tangana, Jennifer López or Rafa Nadal can also fall asleep on a plane or get lost at the entrance to an airport – and it is this normality that we find hard to forgive them. Perhaps we should ask ourselves what makes us do it: is it simply a form of entertainment or is there something deeper at stake?

Top 10 celebrities who pollute the most with their private jets.