A kind-hearted elderly man has welcomed a young father and his four-day-old baby into his home after the airline banned them from boarding a flight home because the baby was not yet fit to fly.
After Rubin Swift was awarded custody of her newborn daughter, she flew from Ohio to Phoenix, USA to pick her up and bring her home.
But when the new dad tried to board a Frontier Airlines flight with his four-day-old baby, Lu Andria, he was told he couldn’t board the plane with them because the baby wasn’t yet one week old.
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Although Swift had taken necessary precautions, such as keeping her daughter’s birth certificate and a letter of authorization from the Phoenix hospital to fly, the couple was in dire straits and without the funds to make other travel arrangements.
The airline was unable to offer an immediate refund to the cash-strapped father so he could book a hotel and rental car until Lu Andria was a week old.
“I asked for my money back,” Swift told reporters. “They said it would take seven days to refund my money.”
The stranded family was left with only one option: seek help, and Swift recalled the kind volunteers who helped care for Lou Andria in a neonatal intensive care unit in Phoenix.
Lu Andria and her father spent the next few days with her until she was old enough to board a flight home. Credit: KPHO-TV
He called a woman named Joy Ringhofer and was surprised by her offer to hold him and his daughter until he could book a new flight.
“I didn’t expect her to say, ‘I’m going to pick you up and take you home,'” he said.
“So I thought she was just going to drive me to Cleveland, but she actually took me to her house, gave me milk and made sure my baby was OK.
“We’re different colors, but she opened the door for us and it was never a problem,” the Black man added of Ringhofer, whom he now calls his daughter’s grandmother.
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“The color of my skin didn’t matter. She loved my baby. She held my baby. My baby was with her all night. Who would do that?
“I felt very strongly that I had to do this for him,” Ringhofer said. “I know he would be a kind and safe man in my home, and he was the perfect gentleman.”
After enjoying Ringhofer’s hospitality, father and daughter were ultimately able to return to Ohio on March 20, Frontier Airlines confirmed.
“In order to comply with Frontier Airlines’ infant age policy, these passengers were rebooked on Frontier Airlines’ flight division on March 20,” the airline said in a statement to AZFamily.com.
“We have also waived any change fees associated with this change to ensure passengers can travel in accordance with our policies.”