Woman defended for taking seat upgrade and leaving ex-boyfriend with his son following breakup

Flight attendant and passengers were under the assumption her ex’s child was hers

Woman defended for taking seat upgrade and leaving ex-boyfriend with his son following breakup (Getty Images)

Arguments can always arise when groups or couples don’t get seat upgrades together on planes, but one recent such dispute has highlighted issues over who should and shouldn’t get the chance to enjoy a nicer flight.

In a recent Reddit post shared to the popular “Am I The A**hole?” subreddit one woman detailed a situation in which she accepted a seat upgrade, leaving her ex-boyfriend to sit by himself with his two-year-old son.

The woman explained that she had been dating a man she named Matt for around one year and his child, who she gave the name Alex, was from a previous relationship.

The couple had decided to go on a vacation and ended up needing to take Alex with them. “The flights were over eight hours long and I have booked the tickets for all of us. During the flight and the [vacation] I have spent nearly all my time looking after Alex while Matt had the time of his life. Some things came to my attention (he was still seeing his ex) which resulted in us breaking up at the end of our stay,” her Reddit post read.

While flying back home a flight attendant approached Matt asking him if he would like to be upgraded to business class. The woman then chimed in to explain that she purchased the plane tickets using her own account, so the upgrade should go to her. “The flight attendant was trying to argue at first as she assumed Alex was my child, but I told her that’s not the case and ended up having an upgrade so I can relax after spending all this time looking after Alex,” she continued.

However, after the flight fellow passengers made the same assumption as the flight attendant that she was Alex’s mother and should’ve given the seat upgrade to Matt instead of taking it for herself.

After posting, many people took to the comments section to defend the woman’s decision to take the seat upgrade, and some even pointed out the flight attendant’s “sexist” behavior for deciding a father deserved time away from the child instead of the mother.

AITA for leaving my ex to sit and take care of his child and taking a business class upgrade to myself?
byu/CurrentCheesecake123 inAmItheAsshole

“That sucks, paying for a flight, in a breakup, taking care of a child on YOUR vacation,” one comment began. “You by no means are the a**hole, hell, the audacity of the ex is unbelievable. It just pisses me off so much that I can’t even begin to imagine your frustration. Honestly, I would say move on, but you seem to already be doing that so i got nothin else to say.”

Another commenter pointed out: “I would also add that the flight attendant, and anyone else who thought it was fine for the dad to get an upgrade away from their kid but not the ‘mom’, was extremely sexist! If they thought Alex was both your kid then why offer the upgrade to the dad, but say they didn’t want you as the ‘mom’ being moved away? Unless they thought your ex wasn’t the dad?”

“I also don’t understand why so many people think Matt deserved the upgrade when he didn’t pay for the tickets,” a third commenter agreed. “Also, even if Alex was both their child as some of the other passengers assumed why would it not be OK for a mother to leave their child with the father and take the upgrade. I’m glad OP took the upgrade for herself, she deserves a vacation from her trip!”