Model Winnie Harlow Faces Backlash After Complaining About Flying In Coach

People are upset with Winnie Harlow after the model complained about getting bumped from business class to coach on a recent flight.

The complaint, as the 25-year-old model wrote, came after four sleepless nights during one of the busiest times of the year for any model fashion month. 

“I haven’t slept in 4 days, and my flight got cancelled,” Harlow wrote on Instagram Wednesday with a photo showing her sleeping against a friend in the cozy coach seats. “The amazing airport escort got my team and I put on the fastest flight out but we had to give up our business class seats in order to land in time for a huge shoot at 6am.”

“I realize this may not seem like a big deal to some, but when a plane is your bedroom and a flight the only time to get sleep during a hectic fashion month, it’s tiresome,” Harlow added in her post. 

Despite the change, Harlow said she was “grateful” for the experience and added that “god works in mysterious ways and everything happens for a reason.” 

“It’s not everyday glamour, you have to do what you have to do to be successful in life to reach your goals the grind never stops!,” she wrote.  

Fans were quick to roast the model for her complaint, and the Daily Mail wrote that Harlow was bemoaning flying economy "(while putting her shoes on a seat and donning a Prada tracksuit).”

That drew another Instagram response from Harlow, naming the Daily Mail:

Hmm ‘bemoaning’.. not Winnie Harlow is grateful for being able to get on a flight period because of the amazing work of of the people in the airport? ... This whole ‘woah is me’ take is sickening. Me not flying in business is a statement, not a moan. If the class mattered I could’ve waited for the next availability. If I can post pictures in business class and be proud, I can also take pictures in coach and be proud. Proud that making it to work is more important to me than how I got there. That is the message. Like I said, ‘the grind never stops.’ Put that in your headline. 

Many of Harlow’s celebrity friends chimed in with support.

“I’ve been there before. I feel you,” singer Austin Mahone wrote. Supermodel Beverly Johnson told Harlow: “You are the hardest working Supermodel. I enjoy your posts Winnie.” 

Rapper G-Eazy simply commented “Facts!” 

Others, including some without a verified checkmark by their name, disparaged Harlow’s complaints. 

“People ride in those seats everyday so this really isn’t a big deal but ok,” one Instagrammer quipped, drawing over 2,000 likes. 

“People are dying in the world and all you have to complain about is having to sleep in economy seats. Jesus,” wrote another. “People work a 12 hour shift saving lives sleep for 5 hours and get up to do it all over again. You pose in front of a camera and sleep on a plane ‍‍‍‍ I don’t get what the issue is.”

Harlow isn’t the first famous person getting called out  recently for issues related to air travel. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle recently incurred the wrath of the public for reportedly taking four private flights in 11 days for two separate vacations, apparently defying their talk as environmental champions.