I’m the world’s most travelled man after clocking up 15 MILLION airmiles – I get incredible perks & party with A-listers
WE all wish our commute could be faster - but for Fred Finn, commuting meant travelling across the Atlantic at more than 1,300mph onboard the iconic jet Concorde.
Fred, now 84, is officially the world's most travelled man, with more than 15million airmiles under his belt.
He was such a regular on the Concorde that he was welcomed on to each flight with a complimentary bottle of chilled Dom Perignon champagne stashed underneath his seat - 9A.
“I realised that seat 9A was where they started service from the back, so I got the first drinks and first meal,” Fred tells The Sun, as he releases his new memoir, Sonic Boom, about his life in the skies.
Fred regularly flew supersonic four times a week and once even made three trips in a single 12-hour period, overall completing a record 718 flights.
He became a part of the Concorde family - attending the weddings of pilots, getting to know the jet-setting celebrities on board, and even being allowed to sit in the cockpit while in flight.
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“When we got to London, the crew would buy the open bottles for 50 pence, but couldn’t take them through customs,” he added.
“But I could - and had a briefcase I could get about ten bottles inside, before handing them back in the pub afterwards.”
With a whopping 15 million miles (and counting) of flying under his belt - equivalent to more than 62 trips to the moon - it’s little surprise that Fred also holds the official world record for world’s most travelled man.
But the numbers only tell half the story.
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The list of entertainers and celebrities Fred met while flying reads like the set list of the world’s biggest tribute concert that never happened, including Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Dolly Parton, and more.
And that’s before getting to the politicians and businessmen he was also rubbing shoulders with.
He said: “There was Cassius Clay, who was a super nice guy, and Paul McCartney, who would end up drawing faces.
“I flew across the Atlantic subsonic with Dolly Parton, and she told me really dirty jokes for several, several hours - she was hilarious.
Cabin concerts
“Bruce Springsteen too, I used to fly with him a lot. He’d get off the flight and ask the British Airways guy, ‘How many flights has Fred done now?’.”
Fred also recalls a time he had to fly back to New York and found himself one of only three passengers on board.
“One guy took his guitar out and played Country Roads - and yes, it was John Denver.”
When living in Nashville for work, Fred would often make the trip up to New York - and naturally became friends with the legendary Johnny Cash, to the point where Fred would regularly take the Hurt singer out for dinner.
He said: “We had a great relationship.
“I flew down to Nashville with his wife, June Carter, and she said ‘Can I come and sit next to you?’. She’s asking about me, and I asked after John.
“She asked if I had anything she could give him from me, and I said yeah - I had a lovely bottle of wine from Concorde and signed it.
“But then I realised I'd just given a fantastic bottle of red wine to a reformed alcoholic.”
Flight fever
Growing up in early 1950s Kent, Fred would often go down to a wartime aerodrome down on the coast where, in 1953 and aged just 13, flew for the first time in a Tiger Moth bi-plane.
His first commercial flight was on board a four-engined piston plane, taking 19 hours and four stops - a trip that Fred would later be doing in under three hours with Concorde.
After starting work aboard an Esso oil tanker, a knack for sales saw him take up a career in licensing technology to less developed countries, taking him all over the world.
It was like driving in a sports car, an Austin Healey - or a Jaguar
Fred Finn
It wasn’t long before Fred became known for his travelling, leading him to be invited onto Concorde’s first commercial flight between London and Washington on May 24, 1976, a trip he still has the baggage tag from.
“It was like driving in a sports car, an Austin Healey - or a Jaguar” he said, recalling the takeoff.
“You could feel the tarmac through the wheels, taking off much faster than a normal plane, and steeper, and when the air conditioning came on you got a whiff of aviation fuel.”
Most commercial planes fly at a height of six to seven miles, with a cruising speed of around 600mph.
But Concorde would climb to a height of eleven miles, and has a maximum speed two times higher than the speed of sound.
“I could look out the window and see very dark indigo, and see the curvature of the Earth for 700 miles,” said Fred.
“At 1,300mph - which they called supercruise - Concorde was at its best, in its own world. And it had grown eleven inches in length.
“Flights were over before they began. I could take off from New York in the morning, land in London at 6 o’clock local time, and be on a flight to Nairobi the same evening.”
Business brainstorming
For Fred, travelling on Concorde was strictly business - like taking the bus to work - and he felt a strong sense of equality on board.
“Everybody who was on Concorde had a right to be there. So there was no discrimination or class,” he said.
Fred was so well known within the aviation industry he was even made an honorary Red Arrow - complete with named uniform - and counts British Airways chairman Sean Doyle as a friend.
You’re Fred right? Richard Branson would like to have lunch with you.
Fred Finn
Meanwhile, his expertise got him noticed by a young record executive looking for help with starting their own airline by the name of Richard Branson.
“I had flown back to New Jersey, and a guy came up to me saying, ‘You’re Fred right? Richard Branson would like to have lunch with you.
“I hadn’t even been home, and I was on a flight back to London that evening. They took me to Richard’s houseboat in Pimlico, where we had lunch for about three or four hours, during which he asked me all about what he should put on his aircraft and what people would like.
“I suggested the limousine or railway fare for each flight, a masseuse - which didn’t last long because people got the wrong idea.
“Then there was upper class, which came with all those little perks, which was good enough that British Airways came on board and did a survey - but left the paperwork behind!”
Concorde made its final flight in November 2003, after a devastating crash three years before and rising costs made it commercially unviable, bringing an end to the era of supersonic travel.
Fred himself wasn’t on the last flight, instead heading into the Sky News studio to provide commentary to mark the occasion.
And though he mourns the loss of supersonic travel, he still jets off around the world multiple times a year, regularly visiting his favourite country, Kenya.
Fred also doesn’t believe in jetlag - which is lucky for a man who travels so much, joking “it was invented by flight attendants to get days off” - but recommends staying hydrated and spraying your face with water.
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He also recommends setting your watch to the time of the destination and trying to align your meals with wherever you’re headed.
Fred adds: "And drink lots of liquids - I always have three glasses of red wine on flights."
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