(WSVN) - An Illinois soldier waited two days in the airport, hoping to board a last-minute flight home on Memorial Day weekend. Just when he had given up hope of getting the chance to see his family, he was gifted a ticket — by a complete stranger.
According to Fox 2, 19-year-old Keaton Tilson, an Army mechanic stationed in Fort Hood, Texas, had yet to visit home since Christmas, but was granted permission last Thursday to head home to Granite City, Ill.
Tilson went to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, bought a stand-by ticket, and waited for two days, hoping to get any last-minute seat on a flight. A gate agent reportedly told Tilson that it became more and more unlikely that he would snag a seat on a flight.
“It looked good at first,” said Tilson’s mother, Jennifer, in an interview. “There were open seats. Then something happened, and he kept missing flights and missing flights.”
A short time after Tilson called his mother to break the bad news, Josh Rainey, a total stranger, approached airline workers, asking if he could give the soldier his seat on a flight that was about to board. But the gate agent told him he could not switch tickets just before boarding.
After calling his wife for advice, Rainey went back to the gate agent and bought the 19-year-old a $375 ticket instead.
“We agreed both that it was the right thing to do to go back and buy the ticket,” Rainey told Fox 2.
Before taking his seat on the flight, Tilson hugged and thanked the generous stranger.
“That was worth every penny,” Rainey said.
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