Husband sparks debate for boarding plane and leaving wife behind after she went to buy Starbucks

‘I told her to go purchase a new ticket for the next flight and I would see her when she arrives,’ husband says

An impatient husband prompted widespread debate after he decided to board a plane while his wife waited in line for Starbucks.

In the popular Reddit forum “Am I the A**hole”, a 47-year-old man explained how he and his wife, 43, were visiting their daughter at college on the East Coast from the Pacific Northwest.

“Let me start by saying that travelling with my wife is not a great experience. I am very type A, I like to have everything organised and make sure that we get where we need to be early, especially when travelling,” he began. “My wife is the opposite, very ‘go with the flow’ and ‘we will get there when we get there’. I do my best to meet in the middle, but not when travelling by plane.”

For context, the man recounted an experience he had with his wife last year, when they visited their daughter and had a flight at 10 in the morning. Since they live 30 minutes away from the airport - and he wanted to be at the airport an hour and a half before the plane took off - he got up at 6am.

He wrote: “I, of course, got up at six to make sure everything was ready and accounted for. My wife does not like to get up early.”

“It took me attempting to wake her up five times before she eventually got up at 7:40, then wanted to make coffee, shower, and eat a bowl of cereal… Let’s just say that we didn’t leave the house until nine,” he continued. “It ended up being busier at the airport than normal (likely due to many colleges having parents weekend) and it took so long to get through security that we missed our flight.”

As for their most recent trip, it consisted of two flights - one from their town to a nearby one, and another to their final destination.

“We got there on time, with a bit of time to spare, and my wife was annoyed. Kept going on about how now we just have to sit and wait for 45 minutes for them to start boarding,” the man proclaimed, after admitting he still had to nag his wife to get up and out of the house.

When they landed for their layover, the pair only had about 35 minutes until their next plane began boarding. “We had to take multiple rails to get from where we landed to our terminal. We got to our terminal and had about 15 minutes until our plane was set to board,” the Redditor said. “My wife tells me that she wants to get coffee. There was a little market next to our terminal that sold hot food and coffee. I asked if she wanted me to go grab it for her. ‘No I want Starbucks,’ she said.”

Despite the Starbucks being “a rail away and a little bit of a walk,” his wife still went to grab coffee from the popular chain. But after 15 minutes, the man began to panic as boarding groups were being called.

“In a panic, I called my wife again, three times. Finally on the last call, she answered and said she was on her way. It was a long line and she had to wait a bit,” he admitted. “I waited by the gate but the attendant said they would need to shut the gate in two minutes. I waited and waited, but she didn’t show up. The attendant asked if I wanted to board, otherwise she was closing the gate.”

“I tried to plead with her to wait a couple of minutes but she insisted that she couldn’t. So, I boarded the plane,” the husband continued. “A few minutes later, my wife calls me saying the the attendant won’t let her on, they had already removed the boarding ramp at that point.”

Although his wife begged for him to ask the flight attendant to let him off the aircraft, the Reddit user refused to get off because he didn’t want to miss more time with their daughter, like they did last year. “I said I told you we didn’t have time but you decided to go anyways. I told her to go purchase a new ticket for the next flight and I would see her when she arrives,” he recalled.

When his wife arrived, she didn’t seem upset at all. However, as soon as they got home, she stopped talking to him and didn’t say a word to him for over a week. In a later update, he noted that his wife isn’t usually one to cause issues; the only time issues arise is when they travel together.

Many Reddit users took to the comment section to share their opinions on the incident. A majority of commenters sided with the husband, and admitted they thought his wife was being “selfish” in the situation.

“She is causing you tremendous stress and she doesn’t care at all. That is telling. So what if you have to wait a few minutes at the gate,” one person wrote, while another agreed: “That’s the least she can do to not cause you to very reasonably stress out. She owes you a big apology for all the lack of consideration and for the petulant follow up.”

“Your wife is very selfish. Imagine missing time with your child because you thought coffee was more important?” another individual added.

One Redditor noted: “She is disrespectful of other people’s time, she believes that everyone should and can wait for her and she needs to make no effort to meet time deadlines or to change because in her mind she is right.”

“NTA [not the a**hole]. Enjoy the silence while it lasts,” another proclaimed.

The Independent has reached out to the husband for comment.