Stories of Kindness from Around the World

You've Been Upgraded


--by beastly, posted Sep 4, 2009

My life currently requires a fair bit of travel but I was definitely surprised by my latest flight as when I walked in I realized that my ticket was in 1st class!  This is seldom the case and so I thought it must have been a courtesy upgrade due to frequent travel.

I was traveling with my colleague and remembering a story I had read a few months ago, I quickly decided that I was going to offer the seat to someone else.  I mentioned this to my colleague and his response was to do the same!  So together, he and I made our way through the plane, Smile Cards in hand, looking for an unsuspecting person to tag.  Towards the back, we found a couple unsuspecting young folks and offered an upgrade.  They jumped at the chance :) 

Once we sat down in our new seat, the woman on the other side of the aisle looked at me and asked 'why would you give up comfy seats to strangers so you can sit back here?'  I responded, 'So I could see a couple people smile, and they're not strangers, they're family!'  She liked that answer :)

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Readers Comments

iferlamb wrote: wow!! How very unselfish of you both. What a lovely gesture!! Hopefully they will pay it forward! Awesome idea!!!
smiles...
Bluebell wrote: You were both fantastic. I am sure the story of how a "family member" came out of nowwhere and offered us a first class ticket it going to be told again and again to family and friends. May the Universe Bless you with Uncountable Blessings. Love and Light and Thousand Smiles, Bluebell
Sydney wrote: HOW GREAT! You guys are both so awesome!!
On the odd occasion that I have been lucky enough to be upgraded - it puts the biggest smile on my face!! It makes me so happy for ages and I talk / email about it as soon as I land!
It's one thing when the airline gives you an otherwise empty seat - but to know that someone is actually giving up their first class seat for me would compeletly rock my world!
You guys will have so made those people's days (probably their whole month)and you've started some wonderful ripples of kindness!
Sanyogita wrote: Hey U did a fantastic job.
D most beautiful thing is to see a person SMILING :):)
& even more beautiful is knowing that you are the reason benind it....

Be the Reason for Others to SMILE :):)
stacylea23 wrote: Makes me wonder how far your story of generosity has reached from their telling. Amazing! Such a great gift! Thanks for sharing!
maiface wrote: Wow.



Win. Def. A win
BumMiggity wrote: Steppin' up the generosity! Thanks for sharing.
BonJosh wrote: Nice job, hey:


Maybe while they all agrue and scream silly things at each other in washington, we could all be busy changing the us from down here on the ground, maybe change has to come from the bottom.
sethi wrote: Kindness in action thank you.
Annette Brevetti wrote: My son just told us the story of what happened on his flight back to new york from an atlanta business trip. Your story about giving up your 1st class seats is exactly the story he told us - could it be you? That was a wonderful thing to do for someone.

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