Boss making half a million dollars salary complains about flight costs, refuses to fly economy

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
May 26, 2026 9:00 PM EDT

Can you complain about flight prices if you're not willing to fly economy?

Ever heard of being out of touch? The boss in this story, whose wealth clouded her vision of what's reasonable, and her employee had a lot to say about it over on the r/antiwork subreddit. Sometimes you're rich for so long that you forget what it's like to be a regular person. Your lifestyles have started to creep, and you lose touch with what regular people are paying for and experiencing. Even if you're trying to come off humble and relatable, you miss the mark by a wide margin. It can make the people around you lose respect for you, especially if they're your employees who make a lot less money than you. It's not a good look, and that's exactly what happened here. As a boss, you should always be mindful of how you speak about money. You wouldn't want to risk offending anyone or making anyone feel bad about their salary. After all, you're the one paying for it. You're kind of in charge of how much they make, and if it's less than what they want, they might start to resent you for it. It's all about reading the room. If the room is full of people who have spent their lives flying coach, then you might want to zip your lip about your complaints about business class. Most people never even experience it. It's kind of a ripoff after all. It's not that different from a coach and costs so much more. 

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  • A boss talks down to her male employee
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    In this photo, a woman explains something to her male colleague at a desk

  • My boss rants about the flights being too expensive. She refuses to fly economy and was laughing that people do...

    On half a million salary, owns a house in a really locked down market (overpriced, and most desirable location) that is high $. Had to had to hear my boss, and her obnoxious client make mockery of people who fly economy as they could "never" while laughing. -
    via HotChiTea
  • Now my boss has European plans, ranting the tickets are 'far too expensive' and it would run them up well over $20,000. I rolled my eyes, considering economy is about $1,000-$2,000 (which is pushing it).
    via HotChiTea
  • The reason it's "so expensive" is solely because she refuses to fly anything other than business or first. Her 16 year old son also travels all over the world, and it's business only.
    via HotChiTea
  • Same women who whines she doesn't "make much money" - which is BS, since I saw her tax document (415k), with a semi- retired husband. Pulling $4,000-$7,000 a day due to her profession.
    via HotChiTea
  • Same lady who whips me to do x, and z and doesn't care to raise my wage, and says "can't do that" what a joke. F this job, and f ד ד F wealthy too. corporate.
    via HotChiTea

  • But that's what happened here, and one employee didn't take too kindly to that kind of flaunting. It's flaunting even if you think you're being humble about it. You don't get to make the people who work for you feel bad about their station in life. That's a recipe for disaster. Keep reading to see what happened here, and then let us know in the comments what you think about this workplace dilemma. Maybe you have your own stories to add to the conversation.

  • Commenters gave their support and sympathy.

    Thongasm420 It's these people who can't make a pdf and then get mad when they ask other people to do it for them
    via Thongasm420
  • Cheezburger Image 10633756160
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    This model represents an entitled boss explaining something to her employee

  • RubixRube There is something just so painfully entitled about the C-Suite and travel. I do travel once or twice per month for business. (I am a Department Director) I am always booked in economy,
    via RubixRube
  • occasionally I have to share a hotel room. Recently as we are going through "difficult times" my per diem was cut from $50 to $20 (with the caveat that i could submit personal expenses if my per diem exceeded that for "business reasons". A business reason does NOT
    via RubixRube
  • include being in a high cost area where $20 Canadian doesn't even get you a muffin and coffee) But I digress, while I am having a slumber party with a Coworker I have met once and trying to figure out the optimal way to feed myself
    via RubixRube
  • on $20 daily, the VPs are flying first class, set up in suites and do not worry about per diem as they have corporate cards. It boggles my mind that if the VPS could fly business. class, or perhaps get a
    via RubixRube
  • standard room, Janet from Marketing and I's first introduction may not be trying to find out where the closest grocery store is so we can split a prepared salad.
    via RubixRube
  • arlsol She sounds like she s ks. But she's just the laces on the boot that the real wealthy want you to blame. Real wealthy don't fly commercial.
    via arlsol
  • OneWorld87 Lifestyle Creep - they could. retire with a few years But instead Blast Money Out of the window
    via OneWorld87
  • dth1717 Yup, she'll spend 20k on a 5 hour flight but you ask for a .25¢ an hour raise????
    via dth1717
  • cernyn_ My boss is like this. It drives me actually mad. She's so checked out from actual reality and the fact that this company operates on her every whim blows my mind. Looses money like crazy but doesn't have budget to give employees a raise or cost of
    via cernyn_
  • living increase. Let alone what we need to do our jobs. We had an event and she kept shushing all of us for whispering or typing on our laptops. While she did the same things and ordered a pair of $700 pants.
    via cernyn_
  • cipher315 The hilarious thing is because she never learned to manage money, she has managed to get into a situation were she is actually close to living pay check to pay check and will probably struggle to retire at 65.
    via cipher315
  • Basically this women doesn't understand that there are levels of rich, and believe it or not they are at the very bottom of rich. In fact they are probably not even in the top 1%. (That's a household that makes over
    via cipher315
  • 650k a year) but she has somehow convinced herself that she is, for want of a better term, middle class rich. The really sad part is if she could keep her spending to like $600 a day she could probably already have been retired.
    via cipher315
  • If it makes you feel better know that her financial peers and betters all mock her behind her back. They all know what she makes and what she spends. and they can math out what I mathed out.
    via cipher315
  • default-0985 I feel so bad for some of you guys, your bosses sound like complete I. I never had a boss I loved or anything, but they at least have the common courtesy to not talk about money like that in front of others.
    via default-0985

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boss antiwork workplace-stories toxic-workplace job coworkers working workplace bad bosses toxic-work-environment
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