[7] When in tenth grade, Janni at age 16 dropped out of school and started working as a messenger girl at the travelling agency Spies Rejser [da].
[12][13] Simon Spies died less than a year later on 16 April 1984,[14][15] and bequeathed the majority of his estate to his wife, making her one of Europe's richest women.
[18] She has later been accused of having destroyed her inheritance by bringing her brother, a former toolmaker, Leif Brodersen on the board together with a friend of his, the former trade union economist Steffen Møller.
As the Airbus A300 were very difficult to sell, the passengers became fewer due to the Gulf War the entire Spies company ended up in severe financial difficulties.
According to the General Manager at the time, Knud Heinesen, had this never happened if Janni had listened to him instead, and merged or cooperated with Copenhagen-based Sterling Airways instead.