The old expression about easing into the tough part of a marriage is that "the honeymoon is over," but couples rarely go to pieces immediately after getting back from a sunny vacation.
Unless, that is, you make the sort of embarrassing blunder an anonymous husband owned up to in a column for The Telegraph this week.
A man writing in to Sophie Christie's "Moral Money" column shared details of an ongoing fight with his wife over travel arrangements, specifically the flight back home from their honeymoon in Vietnam.
"On the return leg of my recent honeymoon to Vietnam," he wrote, "I was offered an upgrade to first class. My wife, however, who travels less for work than I do, was not."
The husband tried to get a pair of upgrades, so his wife could sit with him in the deluxe section, but was told the flight was too crowded to accommodate them both.
After mulling over their choices for "10 minutes" or so, the husband decided to take the upgrade and sit alone in first class.
While the man's wife seemed not to mind his choice - at first - he complains that she has been bringing it up again and again since they returned from vacation.
The troubled husband called the dispute "silly" before asking if buying an expensive gift to "placate" his wife could solve his problem.
On social media, just about everyone agrees that the husband made a serious mistake by ditching his wife in coach, even if she didn't clearly tell him not to.
"My husband was offered an upgrade on our honeymoon without me. He didn't take it, so we're still married," one woman wrote.
"My husband would have given me the choice of the first class upgrade or turned it down if I didn't take it," said another.
"Husband of the year!" joked another. "You dumped her on your honeymoon on a eight hour trip to enjoy first class. Boy you are really in love!"
Many reminded that husband that he just promised his wife to stick by her "in good times and in bad," which includes a long flight in cramped economy seats. And most vows don't include a clause about first class seats being an exception.
But another anonymous columnist offered a different take, in another Telegraph column responding to the controversy.
"As someone who has experienced this exact scenario, I was surprised by the outrage," the unnamed woman wrote.
She described her husband being presented with just the same choice as the anonymous man on her honeymoon several years ago.
"It was an easy decision," she said. "Absolutely one of us had to take the upgrade, how often in life would we get this opportunity?"
"I happen to be the kind of person who tends to put other people's wants and needs before my own. So it was a no-brainer for me to offer my husband the upgrade."
The writer added that she has been happily married for six years, so the first class episode obviously didn't trouble her relationship very much.
