The thing is, the terrible optics of this didn’t even occur to them. The .001% ers just take as an “of course” that they can use the company jet so they don’t have to take a shiver scheduled flight where they’d have to mingle with the 1%ers in first class and endure even a minimal level of security theater at the airport. And OF COURSE their employer is expected to pay for that, and many, many other perks. As much money as they get in pay, the perks that they expect add even more to how much their total effective compensation is.
Edited to add: Of course if it had been official travel the government WOULD have flown him and his staff in a government plane, possibly an entire 737. But the high and mighty don’t realize that in the government, there is still something of a bright line between personal and public business, in exactly the way that there isn’t in CEO-land. Even the president has to personally pay for unofficial travel on Air Force one, albeit only the cost of a normal first class ticket on a scheduled carrier, which isn’t even a rounding error on the cost of operating AF-one…
