Getty Image / Bandar Algaloud / Saudi Royal Council / Handout/Anadolu Agency
These days, when I get on a plane I’m typically bringing my backpack and a small duffel bag. Checking baggage is expensive as hell on many airlines, and unless I’m flying JetBlue where I get free checked bags I can’t in good conscience pay a checked bag fee when I know that I’m capable of packing for a trip and fitting everything into carry-ons. I’m a cheap ass who gets paid to wire A LOT of mediocre shit on the Internet. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, well, he’s the mother fucking Saudi King and money doesn’t matter to him.
His Royal Highness is flying to Indonesia for a 9-day trip, and details of how much luggage he’s bringing have leaked. There will be, in total, 459 TONS OF shit. To put this in context, a Boeing 747-400 has a MAXIMUM TAKEOFF WEIGHT of 450 tons. So the Saudi King is bringing 9 more tons than a Boeing 747 is capable of flying with.
To answer your next question, the Saudi King will be using an airfreight service provider (PT Jasa Angkasa Semesta) to get all of his shit to Indonesia because it’s waaaaaayyyyyyy too heavy for any conventional planes.
Here are some of the items the Saudi King is bringing for his 9-day trip:
Two elevators. Not one, but two. What will he be doing with his two elevators on vacation? I don’t have a fucking clue, but he’s bringing TWO ELEVATORS on vacation just to show the rest of the world how poor we are.
An entourage of 620 people. I’m not sure I even know 620 people that I actually like, and I’d wager that the Saudi King doesn’t enjoy the company of all 620 people in his entourage, but he’s bringing them to Indonesia for 9 days.
800 delegates. Not included in the Saudi King’s entourage are the 800 delegates he’ll be bringing. That’s 1,420 people he’ll be traveling with and footing the bill for. Even if he were paying $1/night for hotel rooms, which he’s not because they’re staying in ultra-luxurious resorts, but even if he was that’d be $1,420/night. Let’s assume the average room rate is $500, with some a lot cheaper and others several thousand a night, at $500/night for 1,420 people he’s looking at $710,000 each night, or a total of $6,390,000 for his 9-day trip…and that’s a VERY CONSERVATIVE estimate. I wouldn’t be shocked if the rooms were $1,000/night at the cheapest.
He’ll also be bringing two Mercedes-Benz S600’s. These are his royal limousines, and the base price of the Mercedes-Benz S600 is $170,750 but they can get REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY expensive in a hurry with upgrades. Here’s what that car looks like if you’re not familiar:
Wealth disparity is a real son of a bitch, isn’t it?