Barbara Corcoran chooses to fly coach on airplanes, even though the self-made multimillionaire and “Shark Tank” investor can afford first-class tickets.
In an episode of The Jamie Kern Lima Show that aired last week, Corcoran explained why she flies coach. Her rationale started with the incredulous question, “Do you know what a first-class ticket costs?”
“The way I figure it, a coach ticket is about 25% of a first-class ticket,” Corcoran said.
As of Tuesday, a first-class ticket on Delta Air Lines from New York to Chicago in January cost at least $125 more and in many cases double the price of economy.
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Corcoran pays attention to the difference when she flies and views flying coach as a way to give free trips to her family. As a frequent flier, she accumulates airline miles that she can then redeem for free flights.
“I get the free miles, I can give them away,” Corcoran said. “I have everybody in my family flying on my free miles. What’s more important, that everybody gets vacations or that I’m comfortable in first class?”
Barbara Corcoran. Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Corcoran acknowledged in the interview that she could afford to do both — give everyone vacations and fly first class. The self-made millionaire made her fortune by selling her real estate company The Corcoran Group in 2001 for $66 million; she now makes about $4.5 million a year from her investments.
Even though she can afford it, she’s not going to fly first class.
Instead, Corcoran says she’ll “be in coach feeling really smug” because she knows her trip will yield “three plane tickets that could take somebody somewhere.”
Corcoran similarly thinks of her family when it comes to her various properties. She revealed in the interview that she has a scheduling system so that the people she knows and loves can stay at her homes while she’s not in them. They stay at her ski chalet, her beach house, and her home in New York.
“There’s not a single bed in any of my homes that’s ever empty,” Corcoran said.
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