Boss Expected This Employee To Give Up Her 1st Class Seat For Her, Says She Has A “Lack Of Respect For Protocol” When She Doesn’t
Interview
Recently, a person on Reddit shared an incident that happened during a flight back home with her boss from a conference.
In a post that amassed 8.2k upvotes, the Redditor Scootindog explained that she’s a frequent traveler on the airline and often uses her credit card. If you too fly quite often, you know that it means one thing – a free upgrade to first class.
And while this does no harm to anyone, it soon turned out that the author’s boss got seriously offended by the fact she didn’t get to sit in the upgraded seat.
An employee offended her boss on a flight back from a conference by not giving up her upgraded seat
Image credits: Adrienn (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Tom Mascardo (not the actual photo)
Image credits: u/scootindog
Image credits: Daniel Frese (not the actual photo)
The author shared more information about the incident
Upgrades are one of the perks frequent flyers get for their loyalty to the company
Image credits: VOO QQQ (not the actual photo)
According to John Lopinto, the co-founder of ExpertFlyer.com, airlines have an obligation to their best customers, namely the frequent flyer and more specifically the Elite flyer, to offer flight upgrades and other incentives.
“Maintaining, and even growing, the base of frequent flyers of an airline depends almost entirely on the ‘value’ of their frequent flyer programs, especially for Elite members. The value of most programs is often judged by the number of seats an airline allocates for either free or mileage upgrades in the very same Premium cabins they are obligated to sell,” Lopinto explains.
If you want to find out more about airline industry secrets and things you may benefit from as a flyer, be sure to check our previous feature.
“The boss should be happy that she has a smart person working for her,” a career expert says
Image credits: Junior REIS (not the actual photo)
Bored Panda reached out to Christine Mitterbauer, a licensed and ICF-approved career coach and serial entrepreneur, to find an expert’s opinion about this incident.
“I agree with the employee that she earned the upgrade to business class herself, and therefore she is entitled to the seat,” Mitterbauer told us and added that “For her boss to accuse her of lack of respect is very petty.”
“The boss could potentially learn from the employee to get a similar airmiles setup, but most importantly, she should just be happy that she has a smart person working for her who is making the most of what she’s given,” Mitterbauer commented. She concluded by saying that in the end, “such a mindset is an asset to the company.”
And this is how people reacted to the whole story
The boss is a tw*t. A real leader would have been happy for the person in 1st. A real leader would either fly coach with all of his team, or bump everyone to first, or if he was the one being bumped to first, giving the 1st class to the lowest paid employee, the pregnant employee or would have organized a raffle for the seat. A rela leader lifts people up! Tw*ts expect to be treated like royalty just because of their title. Pff. I fart in the general direction of that idiot boss!
Utterly NTA, though it does remind me of when my boss booked flights for a business trip to Turkey. We were going on the same day, but we were returning a week apart. He booked his flight first, in economy. He then booked mine, and by then there were no economy seats left, so he had to book business class (both ways). I had a very pleasant trip! :D
The advice to contact HR to clarify the policy on travel rewards is the correct one. It sounds like the boss needs to review that policy. Also, if OP feels that there is a conflict of interest with the Hr rep because of their friendship with the boss, then he should go to the rep’s boss, and mention the conflict of interest.
The boss is a tw*t. A real leader would have been happy for the person in 1st. A real leader would either fly coach with all of his team, or bump everyone to first, or if he was the one being bumped to first, giving the 1st class to the lowest paid employee, the pregnant employee or would have organized a raffle for the seat. A rela leader lifts people up! Tw*ts expect to be treated like royalty just because of their title. Pff. I fart in the general direction of that idiot boss!
Utterly NTA, though it does remind me of when my boss booked flights for a business trip to Turkey. We were going on the same day, but we were returning a week apart. He booked his flight first, in economy. He then booked mine, and by then there were no economy seats left, so he had to book business class (both ways). I had a very pleasant trip! :D
The advice to contact HR to clarify the policy on travel rewards is the correct one. It sounds like the boss needs to review that policy. Also, if OP feels that there is a conflict of interest with the Hr rep because of their friendship with the boss, then he should go to the rep’s boss, and mention the conflict of interest.
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