CEO faces backlash for bragging about ₹27 lakh first-class flight to Dubai
An entrepreneur is facing criticism for flaunting a ₹27.5 lakh first-class flight, which many have called tone-deaf.
Jake Bass, who claims to be a CEO and founder, has drawn massive backlash online after sharing a first-class Emirates flight with his father and turning it into a self-congratulatory, motivational post with the help of AI.
“Just flew my dad with me to Dubai. First class. Emirates. $50,000 flight. (A world away from the $1,200 I used to pay in economy.) 470 passengers. Only 2 in First Class—us,” Bass wrote on X.
“I sat there thinking—what made our journey so different from the 468 behind us? Then I saw the pilot adjust our course by just 1° to avoid turbulence.”
He continued, “Barely noticeable… But hours later, we were far off the original path. That’s when it clicked: Just a slight change in direction … changes everything.”
The 20-something Australian shared photos of the luxurious experience, including his father relaxing in a private pod, enjoying fine dining and sipping drinks. The tone of the post, coupled with its moral lesson, quickly stirred anger.
Bass later told the New York Post that he deliberately used ChatGPT to craft his post for maximum engagement. “I say what I believe, and I get ChatGPT to work in a controversial way,” he said. “It’s the algorithm that makes me sound like a douche.”
Take a look at the post:
Despite the backlash, he stood by the message. “To be completely honest, I don’t think what I said was wrong at all. I shared a perspective — one that challenges people to reflect on their own choices, and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable,” he said. “That’s really what this is about: most people don’t want to be reminded that they’ve settled.”
The post quickly went viral, with hundreds flooding the comments to call him out. “Funny, because without my glasses, I read your name as Jack A–. I’ll leave it at that,” one person commented. Another wrote, “Nobody buying your course lil bro.”
“You sound insufferable,” read another comment. One user hit back at the pricing itself: “The difference between you and the 468 behind you is that they didn’t waste $50,000 on something as temporary as a seat on a plane.” Some even claimed the photos and flight cost were exaggerated or misleading.
In response to the outrage, Bass offered to fly one follower anywhere in the world—provided they followed him on both X and Instagram, where he has around 2,000 and 8,000 followers, respectively.
On Instagram Stories, he said it was proof he was “doing something right.”
Rejecting the label of “entitled,” Bass claimed he’d earned his current life. “This life was earned,” he wrote on Instagram. “People who know me, know I locked myself away for five years, worked hard, and stayed off social media.”
He also revealed the post was carefully constructed with AI to “trigger emotion, create division, and spark mass engagement.” He even replied to ChatGPT in a follow-up post: “Our plan worked perfectly.”
A few days later, he tried the same formula again with a new post from the Emirates First Class lounge, saying he had another epiphany while watching people board economy.
That too was met with criticism. “Your post comes off as super smug schmuck, implying that those who can’t afford to fly first class are just victims of their own poor life choices. Bad form,” someone replied.
