A man has garnered criticism online after revealing how he upgraded himself to business class for a long-haul flight but left his wife sitting back in economy.
Air travel can prove a frustrating experience, particularly if you find yourself sitting next to a stranger. In a survey of 2,000 Americans who fly more than twice a year, conducted by Genfare, a company that provides solution-based fare collection systems, crying children (27 percent), people with bad body odor (26 percent) and talkative passengers (23 percent) were all ranked among the most annoying experiences to encounter on a flight.
Usually, traveling with a friend, family member or close loved one insulates an individual from these kinds of trigger points. However, for one woman, that protection and companionship will be absent after her husband upgraded his ticket to business class, leaving her to face the trials and tribulations of flying solo in economy.
Even worse still, he openly mocked her about it. Writing in a post upvoted over 11,000 times on Reddit‘s “Am I The A**hole?” subreddit, the highly amused husband detailed how they were heading to Japan for a month’s vacation when he pulled the stunt.
“When we booked the tickets, we initially thought that we were going to be sitting next to each other,” he explained. “But I had the option to upgrade my seat to business with [air] miles and I did.”
After revealing his plans, his wife was “not too happy” about the situation because she wanted them to sit together during the 12-hour journey.
Her husband appeared unrepentant though, explaining that the journey is overnight and they would be sleeping so he “didn’t think it mattered.” Yet when he communicated this to his partner, she got upset and said he “chose business class over her” and branded him “rude.”
He claimed he then began to mock her by saying she was “just jealous” and has since refused her request that he switch his seat back to economy. “I’m not going to miss my opportunity to sit in business class,” he said. “In my eyes, it’s just a 12-hour flight and it doesn’t matter if I sit next to my wife or not.”
But while he may not have thought much of it, many on social media disagreed.”You literally ditched your wife and then mocked her,” Mimosabestgirl wrote. “You are absolutely the a**hole here and she is completely right to be upset.”
Khanover7 called it “a douche move” and wondered how he would feel if his wife did the same to him. “You obviously value your comfort over your wife which doesn’t bode well for marriage longevity,” they added.
Ecstatic_Long_3558 said it was the worst kind of “egocentric behavior” and said she would “think long and hard” about her marriage if she was the man’s wife.
Vilnius_Nastavnik felt it was alarming that the husband was so “oblivious to his own selfishness that he had to be told by the damn internet to shape up” and imagined his wife would “probably be thinking about it for the entire flight.”
Visual Celery, meanwhile , warned the husband that it is “gonna take a lot to fix this.” “Buying her the upgraded ticket was certainly the right thing to do, but at this point, damage has been done, and upgrading her ticket won’t fix it,” they said. “This lapse in judgment has shown her what kind of person he is.”
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment.
He isn’t the first husband to earn the ire of social media, of course.
One married man was recently branded “selfish” over plans to create a “man cave” in the family home. Another landed in hot water after his wife detailed how he refuses to buy her a birthday present every year as it is just after Christmas and he “can’t afford it.”
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