I’m going to let you in on a little secret – don’t tell anyone, but until this year, I had never seen the movie Home Alone.
I know, I know…the person who loves ALL THINGS CHRISTMAS never saw what is probably one of the quintessential Christmas movies from the late 20th century.
I have no idea how it happened – heaven knows I’ve seen all the others (OK, except Die Hard. Because it’s not a Christmas movie!). But I was scheduled to sing in a big Christmas show earlier this month (our community choir had been invited to sing with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. For Central FL, that’s a big deal) and one of the songs we were performing was Somewhere in My Memory, which, of course, is from the film. So I decided I HAD to see Home Alone. So my husband and I had “movie night” about 2 weeks before the show, and mission accomplished.
Anyway, I liked the movie. But for some reason, I was thinking I had read about a similar story relatively recently. So I started doing some Googling and yep, a teenage girl had essentially been “Home Alone-ed” over the summer.
Here’s what happened
The bottom line was that one traveler has been crowned Public Enemy No. 1 after their 18-year-old niece missed a flight — despite the small, inconvenient detail that the girl’s actual mother was also present.
So, back in late July, the unlucky relative took to Reddit to explain how they somehow ended up holding the bag for the full-blown family travel fiasco. They posted the story on the AITA subreddit. The initials “AITA” represent the term “Am I the A-hole?” The community is defined as: “A catharsis for the frustrated moral philosopher in all of us, and a place to finally find out if you were wrong in an argument that’s been bothering you. Tell us about any non-violent conflict you have experienced; give us both sides of the story, and find out if you’re right, or you’re the a-hole.” It’s kind of like a “jury of your peers” sort of thing, and you may eventually be determined to be YTA (You’re The A-Hole) or NTA (Not The A-Hole).
Anyway, the group had been out of town for a wedding, the original poster (OP) explained in the thread titled AITAH for not making sure my niece got on the plane home?, and the next morning everyone scattered to catch flights home.
Several family members were booked on the same return flights, but with standby seats — meaning they had to hang around until the bitter end of boarding like airline Hunger Games contestants.
“Several of us had the same flights back,” the OP wrote. “We had standby seats though, so we had to wait [until] the end to board.”
The missed flight
Their journey included a layover, and the first flight went smoothly. The second one? Not so much.
Everyone boarded — except Rachel, the OP’s 18-year-old niece. And in a scene straight out of Home Alone: Airport Edition, absolutely no one noticed.
“We didn’t find out until we all got off the flight that she didn’t get on,” the OP said, adding that Rachel had been texting frantically asking what she was supposed to do.
Cue panic… from several time zones away.
Rachel’s parents scrambled to figure out a plan, but the next available flight wasn’t until the following day. And because airline rules are fun like that, Rachel was apparently “too young” to check into a hotel alone (some hotels allow 18-year-olds to check into a hotel, but not all).
“So she’s stuck alone in the airport terminal until the next flight,” the OP wrote.
The blame game
And who, pray tell, is to blame for this catastrophe?
Why, the OP, of course.
“My sister (Rachel’s mom) and dad think it’s my fault,” they said, because the OP happened to be the last person called to board. In their view, the OP should have heroically offered up their seat so Rachel — who is legally an adult — could go first.
Never mind that Rachel’s mother and her two other children (who were minors under age 18) were already comfortably seated on the plane by then.
“I didn’t even notice her there,” the OP admitted, explaining they were hungover from the wedding and had their eyes closed, just listening for their name to be called. If you’ve ever had a hangover, you may agree that’s fair.
To make matters worse, there was apparently a moment of tragic thumbs-up-based miscommunication.
When the OP entered the plane and walked past their sister’s row, the sister asked, “All good?” The OP gave a thumbs up — because apparently that gesture now legally confirms the boarding status of all nearby relatives???
“I thought she was just asking if I was feeling okay,” the OP said. “Not asking if Rachel also got on.”
Adding another layer to the nonsense, the OP noted that everyone else boarded first because they all had work the next day. The OP didn’t — which somehow translated into “default babysitter of an adult niece.”
“I kind of wonder why I ended up being the one responsible for her,” the OP concluded, “just because I was the last one there.”
Honestly? Same.
The internet agrees
There were about 1.6k replies to this post and the overwhelming response was that OP was NTA — and that the mother was.
- Wait, wait, wait….her MOM and brother were on the flight and said YOU should have been the one to make sure she made it on the plane???? No, no, no…you are not the AH…her mom is!!!! — blkyngirl0001
- Her parents were on the plane? And they didn’t make sure she was? And they are looking for somewhere to point an accusing finger??? NTA — Artistic-Tough-7764
- Kevin’s parents should know better. NTA — Ok-Stable7501 (this one made me giggle)
- At first I thought you should look out for your niece but then when I realized the parents were on the plane – they should have looked out for her!! One of them could have stayed behind as well as you. NTA — musicislife04
- NTA, you aren’t her parent, not your responsibility. Would it have been nice? Yes. Was it her parents responsibility? Yes. — I_IdentifyAsAstartes
Why were they flying standby?
There were also plenty of replies surrounding why everyone was flying on standby. It wasn’t as if they didn’t know months ahead of time about the wedding — why didn’t they have confirmed seats? (Although others suggested that if at least some of the adults were airline workers, flying standby was just a way of life, since it was free. OP clarified later that they bought the tickets through their cousin (who works for the airline and gets unlimited cheap standby tickets).)
Others asked why the 18-year-old was so upset and why they were asking, “What should I do?” when they were 18. OK, personally, I could see an 18-year-old freaking out if they haven’t traveled very much.
The aftermath of the story
There wasn’t a whole lot of aftermath that I could tell. Rachel’s parents were apparently so upset at OP that they put a temporary block on them. They never gave an update after that. I would assume Rachel eventually got on the next flight, but other than that? No idea.
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