A young man has told of how he spontaneously travelled to Japan without his girlfriend after she missed her flight due to a simple passport mistake.
The US couple were travelling interstate to catch their connecting flight to Japan where they planned to spend a week ringing in the New Year.
But halfway through their domestic flight, it suddenly dawned on the girlfriend, 23, that she had forgotten her passport at home.
Rather than stay with her, the 25-year-old decided to go on the holiday without her.
‘Since we were far away from our home she couldn’t just go home quickly to grab her passport,’ the man explained in a Reddit thread.
‘We were both obviously upset but I checked in anyway and told her that I’ll still go without her.
‘She got upset and asked me why I’d abandon her over a simple mistake and I told her that I wasn’t going to miss out on a trip just because she planned poorly.’
The dilemma began after the man reminded his girlfriend to pack her passport the day before their trip, and she assured him that she would.
A young man has told of how he spontaneously travelled to Japan without his girlfriend after she missed her flight due to a simple passport mistake (stock image)
On the day of their flight, the couple began their journey, flying from a domestic airport to the international airport.
‘We both just showed our state IDs for domestic and flew through just fine,’ he explained, adding that the couple had booked their tickets for the two flights separately.
‘When we were checking in for the second flight at international, they asked to see her passport. She said she didn’t have it and told me she realised midway during the first flight that she forgot to pack it.’
As the pair were far from home, he suggested that she could stay with a friend until he returned from their trip.
‘I told her that since we had a mutual friend who lived in the city we were currently in, she could ask him if she could stay with him and explore for a week, and then I’d catch her when flying back and we’d go home,’ he said.
‘She agreed but was still upset because she wanted to spend New Years’ with me.’
However, things took a turn when he called his girlfriend on New Year’s Eve.
‘I FaceTimed her and we talked for a bit. Our friend joined the call and said he was shocked that I’d abandon her like that and that he was disappointed in me. My girlfriend agreed with him,’ the boyfriend said.
‘Am I really a bad boyfriend for still going on this trip? Like, if I chose to not go anyway it wouldn’t even be benefiting her at all really, it would only be hurting me.
‘Am I the a****** for going on a trip without my girlfriend since she forgot her passport?’
Thousands weighed in on the man’s situation, with the majority agreeing they would have gone on holiday without their partner if they had forgotten their passport.
The US couple were travelling interstate to catch their connecting flight to Japan where they planned to spend a week ringing in the New Year (stock image)
‘This is what I would call a relationship-defining event. If someone is so careless as to leave their passport behind on a multi-leg international trip, short of mental incompetency, then it’s their fault and their responsibility and they need to bear the consequences. If they turned around and got mad at me for taking the trip as planned, I’d be seriously rethinking the relationship,’ one said.
‘It’s super unfortunate she forgot her passport, but that’s on her, not you. You reminded her to pack it, and she didn’t. Why should you miss out on a trip you planned and paid for because of her mistake? It’s not like you left her stranded in a random place, you made sure she had a safe and comfortable backup plan with a mutual friend,’ another explained.
‘I would have gone on the trip too. This is 100 per cent her fault,’ one added.
However, not everyone agreed with his decision.
‘When it comes to your girlfriend, obviously the mistake was hers. However, you did decide to go on an awesome trip and leave her so I don’t blame her for being upset about that. I will tell you why. Your solution when you left your girlfriend was that she should just go show up at a friend house unannounced and stay for a week. A week! Who does that to someone, even a good friend? I can’t say I blame the friend for letting you hear it. This behaviour is so unbelievable to me
Meanwhile, many said the woman could have found an alternative way to get to Japan without missing the trip entirely.
Many suggested she could have had her passport couriered to her via FedEx same-day express delivery.
‘Is there no one at home that you have entrusted to have a key in case of emergency? Because FedEx same-day express is still a thing, and she could have made arrangements for a flight the next day. A couple of hundred dollars to salvage a few thousand dollars of a vacation would be worth it to me,’ one said.
Meanwhile, travel workers said they see people miss their flights all the time because they forget their passports as it’s a common mistake travellers make.
‘I used to be a travel agent. You’d be shocked and amazed,’ one said.
Others couldn’t understand how the woman managed to get on her domestic flight with no issues, to which one explained: ‘They booked the domestic and international legs separately. That means that for all intents and purposes they are two completely separate itineraries, even if it’s with the same airline. They aren’t linked at all, and there would be no international requirements checks until they tried checking in to the second flight, which is what happened.’
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