A pastor is facing up to one year in prison, after assaulting his wife because she received an upgrade to first class, while he didn’t. As it turns out, there was a pattern of abuse, but this upgrade incident is what made the wife finally come forward, and (hopefully) no longer tolerate his behavior…
Alaska first class upgrade causes marital issues
This incident happened on July 2, 2024, on Alaska Airlines flight AS275 from Seattle (SEA) to Anchorage (ANC). A 75-year-old evangelical pastor named Roger Allan Holmberg Sr. was traveling with his 59-year-old wife. They had only been married for around 18 months, as Holmberg lost his previous wife shortly before that.
What precipitated this incident is that Holmberg’s wife received an upgrade to first class, while Holmberg didn’t. It’s not clear if she had elite status and he didn’t, if she just had higher elite status or a higher priority, or what.
Here’s what happened on this flight, according to the criminal complaint:
- Shortly after the 3.5 hour flight departed, Holmberg came up to his wife in first class and said “how the hell did you get the upgrade?”
- She responded by saying “I’m a gold point member,” and “don’t speak to me like that”
- Then during a second interaction, Holmberg walked up to his wife in first class, handed her his phone, told her to read what was on the screen, and then “gave her the finger”
- During a third confrontation, he “pushed in front of” his wife’s seat mate and “attempted to swing his arm towards the victim,” and while the seat mate “leaned forward to block the attempted strike, Holmberg still appeared to strike the top of the victim’s head with his hand”
At this point, an off-duty police officer seated a row in front of Holmberg’s wife noticed the disturbance, and told Holmberg that if he continued with his behavior, he would be put in handcuffs. At that point the disruptions stopped.
When the flight landed, it was met by an FBI special agent, plus an Anchorage Airport police officer. Holmberg was arrested on one count of simple assault. If convicted at trial, he faces up to a year in prison. Furthermore, Holmberg has now been banned from taking future flights with Alaska Airlines.
Unfortunately there was a larger pattern of abuse
Sadly this isn’t some cute story about how one should handle first class upgrades in a relationship when one person gets the upgrade and the other doesn’t. Quite to the contrary, this incident exposed a much larger problem.
Once talking to authorities at Anchorage Airport, Holmberg’s wife admitted that her husband had a history of abusing her. She talked about how he broke her finger last September, and she confirmed that he “struck her in the head with the back of his knuckles” aboard the plane, adding that he “knew [she] had epilepsy and that contact to [her] head could cause a seizure.”
She had reportedly thought of reporting abuse in the past, but never did. However, this incident finally made her want to report it.
Holmberg admitted that he and his wife had marital issues, and had been seeing a counselor, in an attempt to improve the relationship. However, he claimed that the problems were entirely her fault (yeah, he definitely sounds like a reasonable guy). Holmberg claims that his wife was disrespectful to him and often had anger issues.
Related to this specific upgrade incident, Holmberg said he was upset about his wife’s upgrade to first class, “because he wanted his wife to travel with him and sit next to him.” He also said that he didn’t actually strike her, but rather he “tapped his wife on the head in passing to get her attention.”
Bottom line
While couples take varying approaches to splitting first class upgrades, one thing is for sure — abusing your spouse over an upgrade isn’t okay. That’s exactly what one 75-year-old pastor did on a recent Alaska Airlines flight, to his newlywed wife no less.
If the guy behaves like this in public, I can only imagine how he behaves behind closed doors. It’s sad, but it seems that this public incident is what the wife needed to finally bring charges against him and hold him accountable.
What do you make of this upgrade incident?
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