The front page of the New York Times Sunday Styles section this weekend devoted some considerable space to the trend of private jet hitchhiking, or rather flying on someone else’s plane.

The piece was full of typically pithy Styles section bon mots- referring to a Hawker 800 XP as “the aeronautic equivalent of a mid-size sedan on the car rental lot,” or Boeing Business Jets as “jumbo McMansions in the sky,”- and was, for the most part, short on any substantial analysis of the phenomenon of flying freeloaders. The most sound piece of knowledge contained in the article was the advice that private jet passengers best show their gratitude by bringing aboard food for their hosts. Given the generally poor quality of catering at most FBOs, we couldn’t agree more.

The real significance of the piece was really the mere fact that it was placed so prominently in the lifestyle pages of the nation’s premiere broadsheet. As private jets are becoming more commonplace, articles devoted to the subject are increasingly taking up newsprint. In fact, in the last week, no less than three private jet related articles have appeared in the Times.