Springfield woman finds a mystery airline ticket under her name. She realizes she has less than 2 days to figure it out: ‘I didn’t want to ruin it’

A woman from Springfield, Missouri has talked us through her mounting confusion when she discovered some mystery airline tickets booked for her.

Emily, one half of “travel couple” Emily and Ryan, says she received an unexpected email telling her to confirm details of an upcoming flight. The only problem was that she didn’t have any upcoming flights booked. Or so she thought!

Emily immediately became suspicious that her partner Ryan was trying to surprise her, but “he’s so bad at surprises, he has to say something.” But the days ticked by and there was no mention of any trip.

If there’s a surprise trip planned, why hasn’t anything been arranged?

She said, “The last two days I have been dropping some major hints”, but he didn’t react to any of them. As the day of the booked flight drew near it seemed nothing had been arranged: Emily was due to go to work as usual, it didn’t appear that a dog sitter had been booked, and no packing had been done.

Emily began dropping bigger hints, “I was like, do you need me to put things in the spare bathroom…?” But if Ryan was bluffing, he was showing poker professional-level skills.

And so Emily lost hope: “Made it home, he told me good night like two hours ago and I haven’t heard from him since. If he is actually in bed, then that means we are not actually going on a trip tomorrow,” and later sadly whispering, “He is actually asleep. No trip.”

Emily’s story underlines that sometimes it’s best not to get your hopes up that your partner is secretly planning something. Well, that’s what I would be saying if Ryan hadn’t been giving an Oscar-worthy performance all along! The trip was on!

In a video update, Ryan woke up Emily at 5 am: “Hey, do you know what I’m about to say? What do you think it is? … Cause we’re going to Mexico! Pretty soon!” Ryan did wonder if Emily would be mad at having to pack so quickly, but she simply said “time to panic” and began filling her suitcases.

“I’m not at all excited about the chaotic conditions in which we left our bedroom, but that’s Post-Vacation Emily’s problem. We made it to Mexico!”

If you’re planning a nice surprise for your significant other, maybe don’t go to quite the lengths Ryan did in this video, though the delight on Emily’s surprised face indicates that it was all worth it. If you are planning something similar for your partner, vacation guide Odyssey has some great tips.

They underline that “you must ensure their schedule is actually clear. Requesting time off on their behalf is risky and often impossible without their knowledge, so a common strategy is to coordinate with their employer or best friend to ensure they are available for the dates you have in mind.”

They also advise against packing for your partner and instead trick them into packing their own bag: “Tell them you are going for a day trip or a casual outing that requires a certain dress code. This forces them to pack the essentials without alerting them to the reality of the distance you are traveling.”

But remember, even if this is a last minute surprise, packing is vital, as this unfortunate woman who somehow left home without any of her luggage quickly realized. Also, if you have children it goes without saying you need to arrange childcare. That may seem like a no-brainer, but in 2023 a mom went on a 10 day vacation and left her toddler alone in the house.

If you can successfully pull off this level of surprise, then congratulations, you have proven to be an S-tier romantic partner!