Again! Secretary of State flies commercial as 757 breaks down

"At least he's racking up the frequent-flier miles."

That's the take from ABC News on reports U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had to fly home from Austria on a commercial airline flight after mechanical problems grounded his Air Force Boeing 757 Thursday.

A spokesperson from the State Department confirmed to Today in the Sky that Kerry took an Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna to Washington.

As for the mechanical issue, it's apparently the fourth time this year that Kerry's 757 has been temporarily grounded because of such problems, according to the AFP news agency. And it's at least the second time Kerry has had to return home on a commercial flight during he past three months. In August, Kerry was forced to fly United Airlines from Honolulu to Washington after his Air Force Boeing 757 suffered mechanical problems.

Kerry has long complained about the frequency of mechanical problems affecting the aging Air Force 757 that flies him on State Department business. Still, he seemed to take the August incident in stride.

"Finally, some frequent-flier miles," Kerry said when staffers informed him of his new itinerary, according to The Washington Post's account of the episode.

As for the latest incident, Kerry had to scramble for a commercial flight home from Vienna, where he and other State Department staff had been for high-level talks on Iran's nuclear program.

This time, it was an auxiliary fuel-tank leak that forced Kerry to find a regularly scheduled airline flight.

The Associated Press says Kerry made light of this snafu as well, telling staffers: "If the hardest thing that happens in a given day is that you have to fly commercial, your life is pretty good."

If Kerry really is earning frequent-flier miles, he would have earned about 4,800 for a coach-class flight from Honolulu to Washington on United and about 4,450 for a Vienna-D.C. flight on Austrian Airlines. A mileage bonus would apply if he flew on a first- or business-class ticket.

And, as any frequent-flier aficionado would know, Austrian Airlines is in the Star Alliance frequent-flier group -- the same as United. The means Kerry could have pooled his miles from his two commercial flights into same frequent-flier program.

Frequent-flier miles aside, having a mechanical snafu ground the Secretary of State's aircraft is an image that most do not expect for the U.S. delegation.

An Associated Press reporter who visited the aircraft found the cabin full of fumes. And a technician involved in trying to patch up the leak complained of feeling ill.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif chuckled when he learned of Kerry's predicament. "So it is not just our planes," Zarif said. Iran hasn't been able to refurbish its pre-1979 fleet of Boeing aircraft because of heavy U.S. sanctions.

But U.S. officials say the matter isn't a trivial one, arguing that there's far more than appearance is at stake as State Department officials try to mange world crises that include Ebola, Islamic State militants, the crisis in Ukraine and Israeli-Palestinian relations.

While it may suffer some reliability issues, Kerry's government 757 is equipped with secure phone links and classified data. By switching to the commercial Austrian Air flight, AP notes "Kerry was effectively out of the loop during the nine-hour flight from Vienna to Washington. Aides said he had to cancel or reschedule several calls with world leaders and other members of President Barack Obama's national security team."

"In the world we live in, we do high-stakes diplomacy via phone and secure phone," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki says to AP. "None of that is possible when any secretary of state is flying on a commercial plane without secure communications with hundreds of people."

"Every minute of their day is scheduled," she adds. "There is not a single flight where Secretary Kerry isn't calling in via secure phone to an interagency meeting or receiving sensitive national security information, or reading classified information or briefings."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.