We’ve all seen stories in the news about how inconvenient and inhospitable some airlines can be these days. Though we pay hundreds of dollars to take a flight, airlines now charge their customers to bring a suitcase on their flight.
Since 2008 airlines have made $7.1 billion off of their customers by charging separate fees to check a bag, according to NBC News.
Airlines say that they lowered the cost of their flights as a result, but studies show that the separate payment for luggage is a huge money maker for them and that customers are charged more in the end, despite the lower flight costs.
Deliah Cassidy, a law student at Arizona State University in Phoenix who also works as a sports journalist, was hit up by her airport for $50 to check her bag since they deemed it to be too large to carry on the plane.
Not only was the airline hitting her with an unexpected cost but they refused to accept her cash to pay for the cost.
Unfortunately, Cassidy’s credit card company kept declining the charge because she had been in Europe and the credit card company wasn’t aware that she had returned. The airline told her that she would just have to miss her flight and head back over to the ticket counter and pay over there.
But thankfully there are people out there willing to go out of their way to help people out in situations where corporations don’t accommodate their customers.
A complete stranger showed up out of nowhere and offered to pay for her bag.
“I’m astonished and tell him it’s fine not to worry and he hands the lady his card as the American Airlines employees stand in silence shocked by this man’s generosity,” Cassidy explained on Twitter. “They swipe the card and he tells me to have a great flight and hop on board.”
Cassidy, 22, offered the man money but he refused to take it. He just said to pay it forward.
“I’m crying as I write this and as I board the flight. This man was an angel,” Cassidy writes. “I stop him as he’s sitting in first class and I try to give him my money but he just shook me off and told me to pay it forward. My heart is so happy. There are good people in this world. Be that person for someone because I know after this I sure will be.”
She ended up taking a selfie with him but had no idea who he was.
It was Cardinals tight end Jermaine Gresham.
“I gave him this huge hug,” she told AZ Central. “I was crying into Jermaine Gresham. I didn’t know it was him.”
She had no idea it was Gresham until her Twitter followers told her after she posted the picture.
Instead of praising Gresham’s efforts and Cassidy for sharing such an uplifting story, many people criticized Cassidy for not reading the fine print on her ticket.
And instead of apologizing for the fact that they wouldn’t take her cash and only gave Cassidy the option of missing her flight in order to pay their fare, American Airlines just responded to Cassidy’s viral tweet by telling her to look at her flight info.
“That’s an amazing act of kindness. Bag charges may apply on Basic Economy fares. Please DM your flight info for a look,” they wrote.
You can see Cassidy’s original thread below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
https://twitter.com/Delilah_Cassidy/status/1001910491730460674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.azcentral.com%2Fstory%2Ftravel%2Fairlines%2F2018%2F05%2F30%2Farizona-cardinals-jermaine-gresham-pays-american-airlines-passengers-bag-fee%2F658453002%2F
