We always hear horror stories about passengers with young children (I love that one airline is kind enough to let passengers know where babies are sitting on the plane so they can choose their seats accordingly). We hear even more horror stories about passengers who get bumped from flights.
Not long ago, one Bryan Minerly took to TikTok with the story about a Southwest passenger named Paul, who had 2 unhappy toddlers in tow. This alone might make some passengers cringe. And yet the entire plane practically fell in love with Paul and his kids, to the point where, when the three of them got bumped from their flight, people volunteered to be bumped in their place.
Minerly was also on that Southwest flight, which he said was experiencing some delays.
“They had us board about half an hour late, and that happens. That’s to be expected. Little delays happen” Minerly said in the video that got over 3 million views in its first day. “But what we did not expect is that once we got on the plane, they’d keep us at the gate for two hours.”
During that wait, the plane inadvertently wound up being introduced to a passenger named Paul, who was by himself on the flight with two really little kids who were, as Minerly said, “not handling the delay well.”
As the toddlers cried, Paul apologetically explained to everyone that he was originally supposed to be traveling with his wife, their newborn baby, and these two older kids. The plan was that the newborn would sleep and the two of them would tag team the toddlers. Unfortunately, their original flight was oversold and the family wound up being split up, with his wife taking the baby and him being the only one with the two toddlers.
Minerly explained that he and the rest of the plane’s passengers were annoyed that Paul and his family had been bumped from their original flight.
“The entire plane was on Paul’s team,” said Minerly. According to him, everyone was offering to help Paul with the kids.
Then…plot twist! While still waiting to take off, Paul and the kids were asked to leave the plane due to weight issues. The rest of the plane was pretty much outraged. Minerly said that three men even volunteered to leave in Paul’s place. But it didn’t work – Paul was still asked to leave the plane.
Of course, that only made the whole plane even more angry. “How dare they do this to Paul?!?!” But then the flight attendants explained the happy ending about Paul and his family.
“The whole plane’s like, ‘Victory!'” Minerly said.
The plane eventually did take off, by the way. They arrived about 3 hours later than they were supposed to. But they made it. 😉
Y’all, I’m admittedly not the greatest storyteller in the world. But I’ll tell ya – Bryan Minerly’s pretty good. Watch the story from his point of view:
@pennyinabottle #storytime about an entire #southwest #flight fell in #love with a man named #Paul . #loveyou #foryou #fyp #truestory #true #humor #travel #kindness #flying #trouble #shrug
Feature Photo: Piqsels
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