Mike Wagner is a National Treasure

Mike Wagner is a Captain for a private jet company. He flies Citations out of places like.. Teterboro, New Jersey.

With hundreds of general aviation jet operations daily, a private pilot is going to fly New York passengers in and out of Teterboro. They’ll deal with queuing aircraft, and New York airspace.

And Wagner sings about Teterboro, to the tune of the Beach Boys’ Kokomo

Clearly a Beach Boys fan, and the Beach Boys may get around, but the life of a private pilot is to wait. I remember about 20 years ago someone had flown in for a meeting at my office. Late in the afternoon their pilot called to check and see when they were planning to fly out. They’ll be ready to fly whenever they’re ready which is sort of the point of having your own plane, and I’m pretty sure that pilot didn’t fly that particular individual again.

A private pilot sits around.

My personal favorite, though, departs from the Beach Boys genre and riffs on The J. Geils Band. Not to Centerfold but Love Stinks offering the trials and tribulations of a coach passenger in Lav Stinks.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. This dude’s funny.

    Small nomenclature correction: “private pilot” is actually the first license a pilot gets, and doesn’t allow him to fly for hire.

    Admittedly, there isn’t a really good term to distinguish pilots flying for airlines vs private jets. “Charter pilot” might be acceptable, but then again, netjets is not a charter outfit either.

  2. Great article. He’s awesome, but calling out the airline that this guy works for… NOT COOL!
    I’d take that out. Flight attendants and pilots who write and make music (or whatever) on the side spend much time keeping their airlines private. It’s a respect thing. And it prevents us from getting terminated.

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