I wrote a week ago that I was negotiating to get on the Google plane back from the Davos conference to the Bay Area. One exec said it was looking good, another said they’d try to get me on. But so far, nothing. The plane leaves in about twelve hours and no official invitatation has come.
Meanwhile, I’ve heard that Tim O’Reily, Mitch Kapor, Reid Hoffman and Mark Zuckerberg will be on that flight. Basically, every Davos attendee from the bay area except me managed to hitch a ride back with Google. The plane seats 25 people with a full bed, I’ve been told, and is now completely full.
Oh well, I’m sure my coach ticket on Swiss Air via Frankfurt and New York will be just fine. And I can’t really blame Google - the entire flight I would clearly have been eavesdropping on conversations, rummaging through papers and unattended laptops, and generally making a nuisance of myself in the search for a good story. They probably would have had to make an emergency landing in Greenland just to kick me off. Then I’d be stuck in Greenland, and I’m not even sure if they have the Internet there. We’ve certainly never covered a startup from Greenland.
Update: I caught Tim, Mitch, and Reid leaving the hotel to make the flight. Boy do they look happy.
you’re not one of the cool kids… you just write about them.
Here is the plane arriving for Davos on Thursday.
http://www.airliners.net/open......;photo_nr=
I feel for Mike. I have been in Europe and barely missed an upgrade in business to sit 9 hours in coach. This is much worse. From nearly making the most famous private plane in the country, that is probably extremely comfortable, to a 2 connection coach flight that will take 20 hours. Even if Mike didnt post about it he would surely be feeling it.
with the amount of free publicity you give Facebook and google , you’d think they would give you a lifetime membership to Goog.
Lesson learnt fella , you got used . They arent your friends rather they want you when they want / how they want.
Yea, not flying Google Airlines, that’s tough! At least, if the crew is as efficient as an Adword campaign, you’re better off without it.
travelling pretty often, i have to say the long flights are not that bad, its no google, but even coach is quite tolerable.
i just bring my laptop, 2 batteries (6 hrs each), and load it up with movies and soccer games. goes by pretty fast.
thanks mike !
I fully support and love these posts.
Like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, the Google plane has mistique. Mike did not get a golden ticket. Or will he last minute … like Charlie … and then get to watch Zuckerberg swell like a giant blueberry when he disobeys the list of “looky looky, but don’t touchy” directives handed out during pre-flight instruction.
…and after all you’ve done for them.
M, all you can hope for is a smooth ride while the gplane is tied up on the runway, like my flight yesterday (with catastrophic engine failure) …still waiting for a new one to get me to SFO
Hey at least you only have to fly from Switzerland. Try flying all the way to India on coach, 2x the distance, 50x the misery, every 3-4 months, like I do. I dare you
they miss something if they cant fly with you (:
wow would have been good
yupnup.com
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wow would have been good
yupnup.com
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@ Dave 31:
Best line I’ve read in a long time!
Did Robert Scoble make it on the G-Plane?
Sridhar, by the time Mike makes up his mind, you’ll be flying him on *your* jet:-)
MA, you’re newsmedia…newsmedia people are leeches - they’re down there with annoying paparazzziziiziz
Ah ah
Funny post
Good luck next time, I’m sure you’ll end up in the Google Jet someday
Then, your mission will be so sneek out some pics
Mike,
Cmon playa!!?? You dont need Google’s plane! You’re making cash money - step it up and get your own share on a lear jet or something like that ;-).
If you’re flying coach then my name is Hugh Hefner and I bang 3 playboy bunnies every night!
Too bad maybe you could have cozied up next to M&M (Marissa Meyers).
lol mike, this was a funny read
GOOOOOGGLE across the windows lol.
I thought Arringtons post was funny and entertaining especially the part about rummaging through unattended laptops etc..
I think people here sometimes takes things too seriously. Relax..who wouldn´t wanna be on the Googleplane?
LOL, nice thread. Mark is preferred over you Michael.
Kinda feel bad about it, Techcrunchers don’t have a coverage in the plane.
Somebody call the WHAAAAMBULANCE! I travel in a pet carrier you insensitive blogging-about-blogs clod.
Micheal,
a-its against google governance policy for you and larry and sergey to travel on the same flight as it poses risk to the tech community in the event of a g-d for bid
b- the twin jet was supposed to pick you and your entourage up but was grounded in nashville in connection with the terrorist plot to crash into the miley cyrus concert
c- you wouldn’t dream of being part of that giant waste of energy on a per person ratio -
d- you missed the plane to interview scoble
please tell the truth!!
Does Perez Hilton fly on private jets with the celebrities he writes about?
Does Perez Hilton fly on private jets with the celebrities he writes about?
Google should be ashamed. They claim to be so “green” and yet they don’t believe in carpooling!?!?!?
The indignity of it all.
Mike - they’re still sore at you over breaking the YouTube buy…
@61: What 50x misery? I don’t mind flying to/from India every 3-4 weeks, leave alone 3-4 months…..
Perez Hilton rides up, in, or on every celebrity he flies with. ROLF……
So Arrington’s hitting that. This truly is an unjust world.
You should’ve used Odorono.
I would have let u on but sworn to not posting any comments that were discussed on the ride for 72 hours. After that, “game on” No such thing as “bad publicity” Actually, you should have been first choice. there’s nothing wrong with both sides of the story.
You are such a cry baby… no wonder i stopped reading this crappy blog a while back… i wonder when someone will launch a credible, worthy news resource.
Michael, you’ll be able to cut the air full of bullshit with a knife if you flew on that flight. Be glad you don’t have to sit through that =)
Just imagine, if this plane went down it would be worse than La Bamba. The Day the Bubble Died.
Who the hell is Mark suckerberg and why the hell did he get preferred over you?! i don’t like this!
Arrignton, you say the word and ….
Somebody call the whambulance…
I love all the guys that come to the blog and post telling you that they aren’t coming to the blog anymore
I thought you were going to shame others for taking the ride as some form of kickback… then I read it only to find out you’re upset because you couldn’t get on…
On one hand, it’d be pretty frickin sweet to fly on the google plane.
But on the other hand, I’m not a leading blogger who is supposed to be looking at things unbiased so my readers can trust me.
Jerry H. Yang, Michael. What? No Yahoo plane?
Shame. I’ve had to fly coach…gee, Calculator seems to have frozen…oh, like EVERY effing time. You’re coming across just a tad whiny here, dude.
Journalistic (and/or editorial) honesty has its price.
Do you want Dan to do something about it?
Mike, this sounds like the rules of succession planning for SV kept you off the plane, for your and our safety. Aren’t you, like, 8th in line to run SV? So you can’t be on the same plane as the others ahead of you in case something happened to the plane.
On the other hand, how much do you want to bet that the plane conveniently stops in Dubai or Grand Cayman or Brazil (for Carnival) on the way back to California to “refuel”?
Hey Mike, having made several transatlantic flights for as long as I can remember I have to say its not so bad as long as you don’t end up in the middle of two adults about my size. Somehow having a small war over who gets the armrest makes the flight always go that much faster!
I would never ride plane with Jerry Yang & co. unless if they give me back my domain name.
Hypocrites, buy a big plane and then start talking about solar pannels on google campus to help the environment.
Hmm, perhaps i’m just jealous…..
Great example Micheal Arrington on Google Jet.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.....leSs05.jpg
Maybe this one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Khali.jpg
Bigger than Google founder.
P.S… Get some rest… Mike.