After an airline showed her “gentleness and warmth at every turn” while traveling with four kids, a mom wrote a thank-you note to show how much it meant to her.
On Dec. 20, Adrian Wood traveled on an American Airlines flight from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Miami with her four kids, who are 3, 7, 9 and 11. In a Facebook post for her blog Tales of an Educated Debutante, she wrote about how the airline went “above and beyond” for her family.
She wrote that her traveling experience started when a “smiling agent waiting on the curb” helped her with all of the family’s bags. When she got her “motley crew” inside, another agent guided her to a line for priority customers.
“My older children were enchanted with this preferred treatment and so was I,” she wrote. “Nothing seemed to be a problem. Today, I needed nothing to be a problem.”
Wood told The Huffington Post that her experience with American Airlines meant a lot to her particularly because her youngest child has special needs.
“Amos is the delight of our family, but at 3 still does not speak, and we have been in the throes of seeking a diagnosis for him,” she said. “It has been a tough year truthfully.”
A friend of Wood’s told her that airlines typically offer help for customers with special needs, but Wood had never thought to bring it up.
“Amos looks like an average adorable 3-year-old and so, we don’t stand out,” she said.
This time, Wood spoke up and explained that her son has special needs. She said that her explanation was “not met with one raised eyebrow or disapproving glance.” The family was able to board early, and once they got to their seats a flight attendant captured the moment by taking photos of them, “a kind gesture recognized by a mother that is too often absent in the snapshot.”
After her flight, Wood shared what she thought of her traveling experience with American Airlines. A representative told her they would pass on her compliments to the agents who helped her while she traveled.
Wood told HuffPost that she wrote her post and shared it publicly because the airline made her family “feel awfully special” and to remind others to “find good things” in life.
“We are trying to live by the philosophy that our cup is half full, not half empty,” she said. “It’s so easy to get annoyed and cross this time of year, but it’s more fun to count kindness.”
H/T Babble
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