12 Airport Acts of Kindness That Teach Us Compassion and Happiness Always Find You Mid-Flight

My husband and I were in business class and a kid in economy wouldn’t buckle up. After about 40 minutes the flight got canceled and I was furious. I remember saying something nasty to my husband about the parents not being able to control their own kid. He didn’t answer me. Then a minute later he said, “I was going to tell you after the trip, but the doctor called Tuesday. They’re saying maybe 8 months.”

People were getting their bags and trying to figure out what to do and I just sat there. A flight attendant came over because we were basically the last ones still in our seats. She asked if something was wrong and for some reason I told her. I don’t even know why, I’d known her for maybe an hour. She sat down across the aisle from me and held my hand for a while. Before we left she wrote her email on a napkin and told me to use it if I ever needed somebody who didn’t know us. My husband passed away 5 months later. I emailed her that night and I’m still so, so angry at that kid. Even the flight attendant’s kindness (and true compassion) still can’t help me get over my anger.

I was flying home after another job interview that went nowhere. I’d been unemployed for a while at that point and was pretty much done talking about it. The guy next to me offered me his extra pretzels and somehow that turned into us talking about work. I told him what I did and that I’d been applying everywhere with no luck.

He goes, “Wait, I think we’re hiring someone like you.” Pulled out his phone, found the job and texted somebody he worked with while we were still sitting there. I figured nothing would come of it. A few days later I got an email asking for an interview. I ended up getting the job about a month after that. All because I said yes to some guy’s pretzels on a plane.

First time I flew alone I was 8 and going to stay with my grandma after my parents split. I was scared of basically everything about it, especially boarding. There was a flight attendant named Consuela at the gate and I guess she noticed because she gave me some boarding passes to hold and told me I was helping her. Then she wrote “Junior Crew” on this little laminated card and gave it to me. I took that job VERY seriously.

She kept coming by my seat during the flight too. At one point we hit turbulence and I started crying and trying to hide it, and she sat with me for a few minutes. Also kept giving me pretzels for some reason. I’m 34 and I still have the little card. No clue where Consuela is obviously, but I remember her name.

My connecting flight got canceled at like 1am in a city I’d never been to. No hotel voucher, no idea where I was supposed to go, and I had maybe $300 in my account with rent due in a few days. I ended up sitting on the floor by an empty gate trying to find the cheapest hotel I could.

This gate agent named Marcus was already off work but stopped when he saw me. He sat down right there on the floor and started calling hotels from his own phone. I think we were there almost an hour. He finally found one that would give stranded passengers a free room, but their shuttle had stopped for the night, so he drove me there himself. I kept thanking him and he basically brushed it off. Said somebody had helped him when he got stranded years ago and this was just him returning it.

I was flying with my mom and halfway through this two-hour flight she got really confused and became convinced we were being taken away. She was saying it loud enough that people started turning around. I was trying to calm her down and nothing I said was working, which honestly just made me panic too.

Then this woman across the aisle started talking to her about the ocean outside the window. She asked if she’d ever been on a boat, where she grew up, just little random things. My mom started answering her, so she kept going. They talked for probably half an hour before Mom finally settled down. Afterward the woman told me she’d been a nurse for 20 years. I thanked her about five times before we got off that plane.

I was on a flight home for my dad’s service and I must’ve looked pretty rough because the woman next to me asked if I was okay before we even took off. I said my dad had passed and then somehow ended up telling her everything. I apologized at one point because I realized I’d been talking forever.

She said not to apologize. Her dad ws gone too and she told me, “People say it gets easier. I don’t know if it does. It just becomes different.” That was pretty much it. We sat there quietly after that and she held my hand for a while. She hugged me when we got off the plane and gave me her number. I never called her. I actually lost the number not long after, which I still feel a little bad about.

My toddler completely lost it in the middle of a flight. Like full screaming, nothing working, me sweating and saying sorry to everyone around us every five seconds. There was an older guy across the aisle who hadn’t said anything the whole time and I was convinced he was probably the most annoyed person there.

Then he pulled a deck of cards out of his bag and started doing this little trick where a card disappeared and came back from behind my son’s ear. My kid went completely quiet and just stared at him. The guy did it over and over for probably ten minutes. Later he told me he used to do the same trick with his own kids on planes when they were little. Meanwhile my son had basically screamed in his ear before that and he never said a word about it.

I was flying out for a job interview I really needed and was sitting at the gate going through my notes over and over. My hands were shaking enough that this woman sitting nearby noticed and asked what I was studying for. I told her I had an interview and she goes, “Okay, let me hear your answers then.”

So for the next 20 minutes or so this random woman asked me interview questions and stopped me whenever an answer wasn’t great. Apparently she was a hiring manager herself. She told me I was talking too fast, rambling on one answer and completely underselling myself on another. Then our group got called and that was it. I got the job 2 weeks later. Never even asked her name, which still bothers me a little.

I missed my connection by 4 minutes. Like I could still see people through the window when I got there, but they wouldn’t open the door again. I was sweaty from running through the airport and just stood there for a minute because I didn’t even know where to go to get rebooked.

A gate agent a few gates down saw me and asked what happened. It wasn’t even her flight. She was eating something out of a little plastic container and I remember feeling bad because I was obviously interrupting her break. She made a couple calls, typed around on the computer for a while and somehow found me a seat with another airline leaving about two hours later. I asked what I owed and she said nothing. I thanked her, probably too many times, and she went back to her lunch. That was it.

I was flying home after spending a few months abroad and things had gone pretty badly. I was sitting at the gate trying really hard not to cry in public when this girl a few seats away held out one of her earbuds to me. Didn’t say anything, just handed it over.

So I took it. We sat there listening to whatever she had playing for maybe 20 minutes. I don’t even remember us properly introducing ourselves. When boarding started I gave the earbud back, she smiled at me and we went to different lines. Never saw her again. I saved the song on my phone though. Still have it.

First time I flew with my baby I was a complete mess. I had her in one arm, the diaper bag kept sliding off my shoulder and I could not get the stupid car seat strap to cooperate. She started crying while people were waiting behind me to sit down, which obviously made me fumble with it even more.

A flight attendant came over and went, “Want me to take her?” I handed her my baby so fast lol. She stood a few feet away bouncing her while I fought with the seat for another minute or two. By the time I was done, the baby had stopped crying. She handed her back and said she had three kids, so she’d been there. I remember saying, “Then you know why I look like this.” She laughed and went back to whatever she was doing.

I was flying to see my dad after barely speaking to him for almost ten years. He was pretty sick by then and I think we both knew this might be the last visit. I got to the gate and then just sat there. They called boarding twice and I still didn’t move.

This older woman sitting nearby finally asked if I was scared of flying or scared of where I was going. I don’t know what came over me but I told her about my dad. She listened and then said if there was stuff I needed to tell him, I should probably just tell him. Nothing fancy, basically just don’t go home wishing you’d said it. I got on right before they closed boarding. My dad passed 4 months later. I’m really glad I got on that plane.