For a certain subset of people, being able to fly on a private jet is the ultimate achievement. It means you’ve made it into the elite of the elite, the celebrity 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. But Conan O’Brien, beloved comedian, television host, podcaster—and multi-millionaire—says flying private really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. That’s why he avoids it as often as he can. Conan O’Brien says he almost always flies commercial 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’Brien, the attention from other passengers could easily become uncomfortable. Someone like Taylor Swift or Lebron James would simply be swarmed on a commercial flight. O’Brien was recently interviewed on John Mayer’s How’s 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. “My rule is I’ll fly on a private jet if someone else is paying for it. That’s my rule,” O’Brien says. “But for the most part, I would rather educate my children. So I fly commercial, and you know, I’m fortunate I get to fly in the part of the plane where I get some leg room.” He went on to mention the absurd cost, calling private jets a good way “to go broke.” Still, if he wanted to, he could likely afford it, as his net worth is estimated at around $200 million. O’Brien 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: “It’s gonna sound crazy, but I really like to go through and chat up the people at the TSA. I don’t mind taking the belt off,” he says. “I like being in the world with other people that are traveling.” In the past, O’Brien has laughed off the idea he would ever own a private jet 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. “I fly commercial, I don’t have a jet,” he said. How much do private jets really cost? Chartering a private jet usually runs several thousand dollars per flight hour. A four hour flight on a mid-sized private plane might cost about $20,000. It’s significantly more expensive in most cases than buying a first class seat. Now, owning a private jet? That’s a stretch even for a multi-millionaire like Conan. A mid-sized private jet can cost millions of dollars to buy outright and comes with hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in maintenance and operating costs. View this post on Instagram The human cost of removing friction Few of us enjoy going through airport security or sitting in cramped coach seats, but O’Brien’s words ask us to consider the alternative. 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 “lost his way in life” due to the way he utilized his extreme wealth: “You don’t have to go through an airport terminal, you don’t have to interact, you don’t have to be patient, you don’t have to be uncomfortable. These are the things that remind us we’re human,” she said. Disney has also openly spoken out about the carbon impact from private jets of the wealthy. A growing movement—called “frictionmaxxing”—aims to have people rethink striving for a life of ease and convenience. Kathryn Jezer-Morton recently wrote in a now viral essay: “Tech 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’t worth it. Speaking at all — overrated. These are all frictions that we can now eliminate, easily, and we do,” she wrote. Doing things that are hard, or uncomfortable, or require our patience and empathy—these things boost our social and emotional intelligence. They build resilience. And they give us a shared experience with others. Even if that experience isn’t necessarily good, there’s something valuable in the togetherness. It says a lot that even people like O’Brien, who have the money to skip out on some of the less pleasant aspects of the human experience, are choosing not to. The post Conan O’Brien says he always flies commercial, for a surprisingly human reason appeared first on Upworthy.