The source says that Pentagon officials and the Bush administration have instead offered Pelosi use of the same plane made available to former Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois: a C-20, which seats about 12 passengers and five crew members.A C-20 can make the 700-mile flight to Hastert's Aurora, Ill., district easily but would generally have to stop to refuel to complete the 2,800-mile trip from Washington D.C. to the San Francisco Bay Area, depending on the headwinds.
Speaker doesn't fly commercial for same reason the VP doesn't fly commercial. She can use the same plane that Hastert used, but she doesn't want to have to stop to refuel "for security reasons". That is a crock because the security for her refueling stop would probably be even tighter than her facial stretch. The real crux of the issue is she wants a bigger nicer fancier plane so she can have a bigger entourage and fly in luxury.
It turns out that Pelosi asked for a military plane for her trip to the Democrat Retreat, a TWO HOUR DRIVE.