Kind Plane Passenger Pays $65 Oversized Baggage Fee For Mother Travelling With 3 Children

Oct 26, 2020 by apost team

Earlier this month, a mother of three was about to board a plane from Ibiza to Stansted with her children. Unfortunately, the airport staff decided that their luggage was too large to be carried on board and told the stressed-out mother she had to pay a $65 fee for the oversized baggage. While most onlookers simply stood there doing nothing to help, one man who prefers to remain anonymous decided to help the frustrated mother.  

We’ve all been in a situation where we’ve seen someone short on cash at the grocery store or somewhere else, and they’ve either had to remove items from their purchase, or we’ve seen someone step in and give them a bit extra so they could get what they needed. Recently, the Daily Mail reported a story about a mother of three at the Ibiza Airport in Spain who needed such help with an unexpected baggage fee. With onlookers watching, and one person recording the distressed mother, only one Ryanair passenger stepped in to help.

Before a Ryanair flight from Ibiza to Stansted was scheduled to depart, the airport staff decided that a bag belonging to a mother of three was too large to be carried on board. Torn between watching her kids, the stress of flying, plus facing a $65 fee because the staff deemed the luggage too big to be carried aboard the plane, overwhelmed the poor mom. The Ibiza airport staff weren’t all that helpful, stressing out the mother of three even more. In the video, a young man can be seen in the background, checking his phone before noticing what’s going on with the mother and the children. As one of the older of the three children tries to get their siblings settled down, telling them that their mother is upset, the young man who was previously checking his phone took action.

apost.com

The stranger, and fellow passenger, approached the desk and told the mother that it was alright and that he would pay for it. The stressed mother stopped raking her hands through her hair, looked at him gratefully, and buried her face in her hands in relief. In response, the young stranger who paid for her bag attempted to calm her as she started to cry.

The young man then paid for the fee at the desk while at the same time asking if Ryanair had recently changed their baggage allowance sizing. The video clip posted online ends with the young man waiting for the payment to complete.

The person taking the video then uploaded it to Twitter and praised the young man for paying the baggage charges for the distressed mother traveling with three kids. The poster also noted that the flight from Ibiza to Stansted was half empty. They also stated that since it was half empty, they weren’t sure what a difference a few more centimeters would make.

After the video posted to Twitter, hundreds of thousands of people watched it and left vast praise for the young man who helped the mother with her luggage fee. The person who filmed the video thought they were simply filming a mother with children who got caught with a bag over the ticket's allowance. They stated they didn’t understand what was going on until the young man offered to pay the fee.

This story has more than one lesson for readers and those who were at the airport. With the plane more than half empty, the bag's size wouldn’t have made much difference. It’s typically when the plane is full and space is limited when a baggage fee would make sense. More airlines should consider all circumstances. Second, the first impression of those with the person who took the video and the mother of three seemed to be that the mother was caught with an oversized bag. They watched rather than see if there was anything they could do. Third, the video and story show that assessing the situation, rather than making assumptions, and helping where they can is something anybody can do.

What would you have done in this situation? Would you have considered helping the frustrated mother? Let us know in the comments and be sure to pass this article along to others!