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“I was in tears”: Man gets offered free first-class upgrade on 14–hour flight. Then he leaves his partner. Should she break up with him?

There’s more to the story.

Photo of Charlotte Colombo

Charlotte Colombo

Photo collage image of a common airplane cabin with a broke heart symbol overlaid on it.

After a disastrous flight with her boyfriend and his family, a woman has taken to Reddit to vent her frustrations. The complaint was posted to the popular r/AITA subreddit. The Redditor admitted that the whole debacle had caused her to rethink her relationship entirely.

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She began by explaining that she was on a long-haul flight with her boyfriend and his brothers. She said they were using staff travel benefits courtesy of her partner’s mother.

“We check in for our flight home and are told the only staff travel option is economy, which is fine by me and his brothers,” she explained. However, things soured when the airline employee informed her partner and his brothers that they had been upgraded to business class. “My partner asked if I could be upgraded too, but there wasn’t space,” she added.

Grieving

OP said that she was grieving a friend’s child and was stressed with calling in sick to work, which made her extra sensitive. “I told my partner I was anxious and didn’t want to sit alone. He felt bad but didn’t offer to stay with me,” she said. “Being the only one not upgraded also sucked. Even though his brothers didn’t mind flying economy, neither offered to swap so I could stay with him.”

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By the time the plane was boarding, the Redditor said she was “in tears.” She said she told her partner she didn’t want to sit alone. He refused to relent. The woman noted how she had 14 hours “to stew over the fact that my partner didn’t even consider staying with [her].”

She added that she “was comfortable and grateful for the staff travel, but still upset [she] was alone.”

“I didn’t want to speak to him when we landed, but I told him it was a big deal to me,” she wrote. “I knew I was being irrational and admitted it, but was genuinely upset. Even if he’d offered to stay, I would’ve insisted he take the upgrade, but he didn’t.”

The partner shared that he was unhappy too, as he said her reaction “ruined his flight.” This left the Redditor with a dilemma: Did she have any right to be upset?

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One Reddit comment changed everything

Later, the Reddit user added a crucial piece of context. She said, “It wasn’t a close friend’s child, but a colleague who I was friendly with. It is very sad, but I wouldn’t say I’m grieving over it, just felt very sad and shocked for their family. I never met the child. Don’t know if this makes a difference.”

It was this comment that caused the majority of the commenters to turn against her. “Your original post certainly makes it seems that you were in emotional distress over the death of this child, but now your entire complaint seems to boil down to ‘they got upgraded and I didn’t,’” one wrote.

“I’m gonna hold your hand when I say this,” another added. “Grow up. It’s a flight. You’re not going to never see your partner again. Just admit you’re butthurt about not getting upgraded and throwing a manipulative hissy fit using a dead child that you don’t know to try and justify your immature behavior. Take a deep breath and absolutely get over yourself. This is such gross behavior.”

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“You have tried presenting this in a way that makes people sympathetic to you,” a third accused. “The fact you have to call into work as your flight gets in after your start time has nothing to do with your partner not sitting with you other than you being stressed out which is your own fault for not managing your time off better. You tried to indicate you were grieving over the death of a friends child but then admit you didn’t actually know the child and its not a friend but a co worker you are friendly with so this comes off as using the death of a child to get people on your side.”

The Redditor has since deleted the original post.

H/T People

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