Woman ditches her best friend to sleep in a hotel, 'she was trapped in the airport overnight.' AITA?
"AITA for staying in a hotel while my friend was trapped overnight inside the airport?"
My best friend and I (20F) recently went on a trip to the UK. I actually have a UK passport since my dad is British, but my friend had to get a UK visa. We were supposed to take two flights, one that would arrive in France, and a connecting flight that would fly to the UK.
However, the second flight ended up being cancelled. The next available flight wasn’t until 2 pm the next day, so we would have to wait around 17 hours. The passengers were allowed to stay in nearby hotels for free. However, this didn’t apply to people like my friend, who wasn’t legally allowed to leave the airport because she didn’t have a visa for Europe.
Instead, she had to stay within a specific area of the airport that had these bright ceiling lights that would stay on 24/7. There was construction nearby, so there was this extremely loud drilling noise every so often. All the available seats were taken by other passengers, so my friend had to sleep on the floor. Plus, earlier that day, water got spilled on our phone chargers, and her phone was only on 40%.
I had the option to stay with her, but I chose to go to the hotel instead. She was furious with me, accusing me of being a fake friend. She told me she was scared of being alone in a creepy unknown place and wanted me there to comfort her, and I assured her that I’ll be back by the morning.
She said I was acting selfish for not even spending one night with her, but I hadn’t gotten any sleep in over 24 hours, and I didn’t see why both of us had to suffer. AITA?
Here's what top commenters had to say about this one:
Mysterious_Yak517 said:
YTA, 100%. I’m not sure why you would think you’re not. You left your friend - a young woman - alone in an airport in a foreign place, with a dying phone and no charger and on top of that there was loud ass construction nearby. You are selfish, it’s one night.
She told you she didn’t feel safe, if anything happened and her phone died there would have been no way for her to contact anyone. At least you would have had eachother but she had to stay at a bright airport while you slept comfortably because you "didn’t see why you both had to suffer." I hope she has better friends because wtf are you. I’m mad for her, ngl.
ShutUpMorrisseyffs said:
Mate, you left your friend in hell. Just think about how GOOD of a friend she would consider you if you had stayed. You would be able to look back and say 'gawwwd, remember that time we had to spend all night in that awful airport?' Like once I stayed up all night with my mates in Barcelona airport bc we missed the last train into town. We just drank beer and talked and flirted with the bar dude all night. You coulda had that!
KitKattyDaddy said:
YTA. You left your friend all by herself in a country she didn't know where literally anything could have happened to her, just so you could get a good nights sleep? Meanwhile, she had to stay in an airport, get no sleep at all, and be stressed the entire night. Nobody here is going to think you did the right thing.
You're a bad friend. If I were her, I would have cancelled my ticket and any other reservations I had the moment you walked out of the airport. I wouldn't have stayed on the vacation with you the rest of the time. You're selfish and only care about you!
ZeroZetaZams said:
YTA for sure. While I understand wanting to be comfortable yourself, your friend was in a foreign country by herself and surrounded by strangers and with her phone actively dying. You ditched her because you considered your own comfortableness to be more important than not only her safety but her friendship and company. I'd be pissed as well, ngl.
Female_Joker said:
YTA for sure. this was incredibly selfish…leaving your friend alone at the airport in a foreign country, ecspecially being a woman, is terrible and just incredibly unsafe honestly. I feel bad for her she had to travel with such a terrible friend…
slkric said:
This is like that saying, "A friend will bail you out of jail but a True Friend would be sitting next to you in the cell saying "that was fun, huh." You are neither of those people.