A 30-year-old woman has gone viral for saying she took a business class upgrade for herself after breaking up with her boyfriend on a trip and leaving him and his son in economy class.
Writing anonymously on Reddit, the woman says she dated her boyfriend (whom she calls “Matt” in the post) “for about a year,” and developed a relationship with his son, “Alex,” who is under 2 years old.
“I looked after Alex every now and then while Matt was at work (we don’t live together, but they stay at my place now and then),” she writes.
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A couple argues in an airport terminal.
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At the beginning of May, the couple decided to go on a ten-day trip, and “due to some family drama” they took Alex with them. After booking a more than eight-hour flight for the three of them, the woman says the trip didn’t go according to plan.
“During the flight and vacation, I spent most of my time looking after Alex while Matt enjoyed life. Some things came to my attention (he was still seeing his ex) which resulted in a breakup at the end of our stay,” she writes.
After the break and on the way back, the three of them were sitting in economy class when, she writes, “a flight attendant approached us and asked my ex if he wanted to switch to business class.” Since she bought the tickets in the first place, the woman quickly intervened.
“Before he could say anything, I mentioned that I bought the tickets and paid for them with my own account, so I should get a higher class,” the woman writes, adding that “the flight attendant at first tried to argue because she assumed Alex was mine child, but I told her it wasn’t so.”
So, after wandering around for a while, the woman ended up getting an upgrade so she could “relax after spending all this time worrying about Alex.”
However, after the flight, she was exposed to criticism – both from her ex-boyfriend and fellow passengers on the plane.
“After the flight, Matt, several other passengers who assumed I was the mom, as well as some family members and friends called me a p—– for not giving Matt an upgrade,” she says.
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Dad and child together on the plane.
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Fellow Reddit users chimed in in the comments section, with many suggesting the woman sent her ex-boyfriend a “detailed bill” of the expenses he and his son incurred during the trip.
Others said the airline employee who initially offered the ex-boyfriend an upgrade was also wrong.
“I would complain to the airline about the sexism shown by the flight attendant. As you said, there is a list and [original poster] booked tickets, that would be her upgrade name,” wrote one commenter.
He offered another: “I experienced that misogynistic behavior all the time in first grade. The men were petted and I was an afterthought.”
For the most part, though, many commenters offered a similar take on the debacle, with one summing it up: “I bet it was probably nice to put some space between you and your new ex on such a long flight. What was he going to do, get an upgrade and leaving his child with the woman he just broke up with? There’s no world in which that makes any sense.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education