AITA for refusing to pay my friend for a flight he had to take after he missed the initial flight due to dropping me off at a train station first?
My friend and I both live and work in London. We were invited to attend a conference in Edinburgh where our companies were going to pay for our travel there and back. I chose to go by train - it takes longer but it's more relaxing - he chose to go by plane.
Everything went fine at the conference, we stayed at the same hotel so when we were about to go home I asked if I could share his taxi so that they could drop me at the train station and then take him to the airport to catch his flight. He agreed to this.
It turned out that getting in and out of Edinburgh to get to the train station took a lot more time than either of us expected. He ended up missing his flight and had to pay £165 for a replacement flight, which his work have refused to cover.
He has now come to me saying that he would like me to pay £82.50 to cover half of the replacement flight. His argument is that he only missed the flight because the taxi had to go to the train station and, had I not asked to share that taxi he'd have avoided the city centre traffic and caught his flight.
I'm saying it's not my fault or my problem because he agreed to drop me at the station and I paid half of that taxi fare. He could have said no and I'd have still caught my train and he'd have made his flight.
So, Am I the arsehole for refusing to pay him this money or is he being an arsehole in expecting me to pay for this?