Woman Gets Her Own Flight Home After Her Friends Oversleeps And Misses Theirs, But Then They Expect Her To Help Cover Their Flights And Trains Home
by Ryan McCarthy
We’ve all heard that traveling as a friend group can make or break a friendship. Just because you get along with people, doesn’t mean you want to travel the world with them.
So when this person’s group missed their flight, she got her own flight home to make sure she got to work the next day.
But even after agreeing to split the cost for the group’s flights, they wanted her to help pay for their train ticket home!
Was she wrong to refuse to pay for their transport?
Decide for yourself!
AITA for not splitting my friend’s train tickets home after getting different flights due to missing our original flights home?
Context – all 26F. We have just been on holiday and missed our flight home due to oversleeping. We woke up and I was panicking as I had work the next day so was looking at flights.
I had originally found a cheaper option which would mean us getting a cheap coach to another airport.
Meaning that we get the cheaper flight to a different city in our country, and that my partner would pick us up and drop us home.
Despite OP’s urgent need to get home, her friends could not handle flying coach…
They didn’t want to get the coach even though it would’ve worked out cheaper for all of us.
So I had to make a decision and found one seat on a direct flight home which would get me in earlier.
This was okayed by two of them but one of my other friends said it was selfish.
I booked the flight and then helped them find an alternative flight for the three of them. Splitting any of the costs wasn’t discussed or agreed at this point.
But that didn’t stop one of OP’s friends from trying to get OP to pay for part of her ticket!
I left for the airport and then got a message from one of them asking if I would be cool to split the costs of all the flights together.
At first I wasn’t sure but had a think about it and decided it was fair as they got more expensive flights.
My flight was delayed by 9 hours and they ultimately got home before me.
They had to fly to a different city and get train tickets home for a 3 hour train.
Even though OP was generous enough to agree help pay for the flights, they still weren’t happy with her contribution!
The next day I sent over the calculations of what I would have to send each of them but they weren’t happy as I hadn’t included their train tickets.
But they would’ve had to buy transport home regardless of if we made our original flight (albeit the new train tickets they bought were more expensive).
This wasn’t a cost agreed and now there is back and forth about what I should pay as they spent more on getting home.
But OP said not only was she not responsible for their train, but she had actually helped them out with many of the transports costs when they were leaving!
I didn’t choose the earlier flight due to cost, just to get home for my responsibilities as I had work the next day whilst they had an extra day off.
Now I feel villainised for doing so, although they were okay with it at the time of me booking my flight.
I feel like I’ve been more than fair in splitting the flights but the train was a surprise cost put on me.
Before the holiday I hosted them the night before and my partner gave us a lift to the airport which saved us about £50-£60 in airport transfers and he also paid for the drop off cost.
That still didn’t stop OP from wondering if she was being unreasonable…
I struggle to set boundaries sometimes and feel a bit bullied into this.
I feel like they have fallen out with me over this, which seems pointless as we have had a lovely holiday.
Has anyone got any advice with this? I want to say no but I am struggling with advocating for myself here.
AITA for disagreeing with this?
My question is, why was OP even responsible for their flights back, let alone their transport back from the airport? By that logic, shouldn’t OP ask them to split the cost of her flight as well?
Reddit agreed wholeheartedly, and told her she was already more than generous for splitting the cost of the flights.
And this user said unless OP was explicitly the reason for missing the flights, then everyone was responsible for their own way back.
This user said that they can either take what OP was offering, or take nothing at all.
Finally, this user said everyone made their own decisions on how to make it home, and they needed to deal with the financial consequences of those decisions.
You want to play that game?
Here’s the bill for my flight. Let’s split it four ways!
If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.
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