Oh, boy. Someone’s got some ‘splainin’ to do to his wife.
Another Downgrade Story?
Erm, kind of. We’ll get to the meat of it in a minute.
We’ve covered a couple of interesting downgrade stories during the past couple of weeks.
The first involved ten Delta One (business class) customers being sent to coach because Delta down-gauged their aircraft at the last minute.
More recently, we discussed how a Delta gate agent insisted a business class passenger (who paid about $7500 for his roundtrip ticket) move to coach — because his video screen was allegedly broken. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.)
The down-gauging was kind of a “Stuff-Happens-But-Still-Stinks” sort of thing. More than a few people think some shenanigans were involved in the second instance, though.
But one guy (I won’t even call him a man. He doesn’t deserve it.) apparently lied to his wife, made her and their young son fly coach — while he enjoyed the good life in business class.
Not in My Cabin, Honey!
In a now-deleted post originally on parent forum “mumsnet,” a woman said her husband invited her and their two-year-old toddler to join him for an upcoming business trip (via Grace Hoffman at Mirror).
Dad/husband gets to spend downtime with his son and wife in between work engagements. Wife and son get to enjoy hanging out at the hotel and maybe see some sights. Everyone wins! (My family did this sometimes when my dad traveled for work– and we loved it.)
“I only agreed to go if my son and I flew premium economy as it’s a long way,” she wrote . At least one of the flights takes about 14 hours. Yikes. “I’ll be on my own with toddler whilst my husband is in business class (work paid for his ticket). My husband said fine no problem, had lots of points to use. Booked the flights. Told me had booked premium.”
So, that’s cool that she understands his company paid for his ticket. One would assume he’d do what the rest of us husbands/partners do: offer to let her sit in business class. Premium class is generally pretty good — at least as decent as domestic first class in the United States (hopefully).
I don’t think that happened. Why?
Well, the missus writes, “Six weeks later I discover he’d lied and basically booked the cheapest economy tickets available (no seat reservation option/upgrade option).” (Bold mine.)
The mother laments she and her son were assigned an aisle and middle seat.
“I’m worried that if my son has the middle seat and if he sleeps ill {sic} have to wake him up to let person {sic} in window seat go past,” she wrote.
In my experience, the best part about the window seat for a kiddo is that you can (temporarily) entertain them with what’s outside. But the wall is a place where they can lean their head and fall asleep.
Bringing the tyke upfront for quality time with Dad might not’ve been an option. At least in our experience, you need to purchase seat for any kid traveling internationally — regardless of age. So, sharing a business class seat with a “paid” passenger from another cabin might not’ve been allowed.
“I’ve gone nuts at my husband because I think he’s a selfish pri*k that was too tight to book a seat reservation when making the booking,” she said.
What Do You Think Happened?
So, there are a couple of ways to look at this.
Playing devil’s advocate: maybe this is the husband’s first rodeo booking award tickets. (He should talk to the point.me folks!) Husbands get absent-minded. I admit it. My wife will tell me something six times and it’ll stick on the seventh. (Assuming one of my guy friends hasn’t told me the same thing somewhere in between.) Or maybe he thought he had a bigger cache of points than he really did.
But, still, you have to own up to that. We’ve all mistakes. Let your wife decide that to do.
There’s part of me that wonders if he did this intentionally and hoped his wife would cancel — after he invited her.
But if your husband lies about business trips to which he invites you, imagine what might happen when you don’t travel with him.
What do you think happened?
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She sounds whiny and ungrateful for her free trip. If she doesn’t like it, she can pay to upgrade.
Wow!!! A 14-hour trip with a 2-year-old in the cheapest seat possible hardly qualifies as FREE.
Then if she doesn’t want to fly for 14 hours, don’t go. Very simple.
Issue could have easily been avoided as soon as the words “only if we are in premium economy” were spoken by the wife. Then he could have gone on his business trip alone and possibly enjoyed himself. Instead he was most likely given the cold shoulder and endless grief by his ungrateful wife, when all he wanted to do was do something nice and spend time with his family while traveling.
See my response to Flyer716
Doesn’t change the fact that the flight is 14 hours and she knew this up front. She chose to torture herself with a 2 year old for a 14 hour flight.
“I only agreed to go if my son and I flew premium economy as it’s a long way,” she wrote . At least one of the flights takes about 14 hours. Yikes. “I’ll be on my own with toddler whilst my husband is in business class (work paid for his ticket). My husband said fine no problem, had lots of points to use. Booked the flights. Told me had booked premium.”
“I only agreed to go if my son and I flew premium economy as it’s a long way,” she wrote . At least one of the flights takes about 14 hours. Yikes. “I’ll be on my own with toddler whilst my husband is in business class (work paid for his ticket). My husband said fine no problem, had lots of points to use. Booked the flights. Told me had booked premium.”
This story sounds odd. Granted I’m not a booking expert, but what US airline flying internationally will let you book an award ticket where you cannot choose a seat?
She should have called the airline with his FF number and upgraded on is points or $$$!!
@dee – ding ding ding We have a winner. 😉
Luckily for the husband it sounds like his spouse is just along for the ride in their marriage and does not get involved or know what is going on. So she received the surprise when she boarded and was unable to do as you suggested.
OMG! I cannot believe the insensitive comments here. That long of a flight in Main cabin with 2 year old isn’t fun for anyone. Surprised to hear others here state that the wife was ungrateful and whining about the situation. He should have put his wife in business and he sit with the toddler, that would have been really impressive. After all, it’s called parenting by TWO parents and not just the mother’s responsibility. Depending on how forward thinking the husband’s employer might have been, I would have suggested he ask his company if he could book the 3 tickets in Premium class as it would save the company money (potentially) as well preserve marriage harmony. I also wonder how many readers have truly experienced 14+ hours on a single leg. I have, in all classes, and can tell you it isn’t fun at all in main cabin for that long of a flight.
Except for a couple comments, the rest were sickeing. These men are either single, in bad marraiges (Their fault) or divorced. The insensitivity is unreal!!!
@Gini – I thought Dee’s was hilarious!
They absolutely were sickening! Like “ he should switch seats with his wife” and “she should use his FF account or money to upgrade”! Disgusting. Let’s see, he works and I am going to assume she is a (ughhh)homemaker. So he is traveling for business on company dime, so presumably he is refreshed and able to go to work upon arrival. He made a kind gesture to take his wife and kid on a trip with him and it blew up in his face. Sadly for him he does not have a partner, but a leech. Oh well, at least he find out while they are most likely still early in their marriage.
DW a good novel writer or a DW/DW+family who knows little about flying.
DH could have thought about switching seats on day of.
DH could be lying.
Conclusion, family have communications problem. A divorce is coming soon.
Well if only you read the full of hole story from the original tabloid, and from the OP.
Too bad we don’t get to see DH defend himself on this.
Key Statements from DW:
-Flying long haul on Friday
-Told me had booked premium.
-I tried ringing airline but premium economy was fully booked one way and the other way there’s was space but at a cost of 2k so I said no
Holes from DW:
-booked the cheapest economy tickets available (no seat reservation option/upgrade option)
-at no point has there been an option to select seats/pay to select seats except at time of booking
-except at time of booking
-3 days before DS and I have been allocated seats middle & aisle.
-3 days before + allocated seats
– I’ve rung the airline but they said the seats cant be changed.