A woman is being praised for lending a generous helping hand to a dad in need when an airline agent denied his toddler daughter a free seat on the plane as he was checking in. 
 
 When the man walked up to the counter at an airport in Omaha, Nebraska, last week with his daughter in his arms, the agent asked how old she was. When he replied, “She just turned two,” the agent asked to see her ticket. 
 
 The man was confused. He thought his daughter would be able to fly for free. But he soon found out she was over the age limit by just two months. 
 
 “He was hit with emotion. He mentioned he couldn’t afford to rebook this flight or get her the ticket with such short notice,” a fellow flier, Kevin Leslie, explained in a post that has since gone viral with more than 45,500 shares on the Facebook page of blogging site “Love What Matters.” “He stepped aside and tried to make a few calls. Hugging his daughter and grabbing his head, you could tell he was heartbroken.” 
 
 That’s when an “angel in disguise” stepped in to save the day. 
 
 She had overheard the man’s dilemma, and told the agent she wanted to help. 
 
 “I wanna buy her ticket,” the woman said, pointing to the little girl. 
 
 “You know how much this ticket costs, right?” the surprised agent replied. 
 
 “$700 something?” 
 
 “$749.” 
 
 This happened right in front of me this morning and This woman needs to be commended. The gentlemen standing behind her... Posted by Kevin Leslie on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 
 
 Without hesitation, the woman pulled out her credit card and paid for the ticket. 
 
 The man was overwhelmed with joy and hugged the woman, repeatedly asking for her name so he could pay her back. But the woman refused, and said, “Don’t worry about it,” before walking away. 
 
 Both Leslie and the young father had no idea who the woman was — until Leslie posted about the woman’s act of kindness on Facebook. Within hours, people identified her as Debbie Bolton, the co-founder and global chief sales officer at Norwex. 
 
 Facebook/Debbie Bolton 
 
 Norwex confirmed Bolton’s identity to CBS News on Friday, saying they are “very proud” of her. 
 
 “We have always appreciated the loving spirit of Debbie Bolton,” Amy Cadora, chief marketing officer at Norwex, told CBS News. “She’s kind, caring and generous. That’s why none of us was a bit surprised when we saw the recent post on social media about her generosity.” 
 
 Several employees with the company also praised the woman for her inspiring act. 
 
 “I was not surprised,” Cari Flynn, an independent sales consultant at Norwex, told CBS News. “There is not just some ‘glamazon’ or ‘egomaniac’ heading this company; there is a humble person who really cares about people!” 
 
 Flynn, who has been with the company for more than 3 years, said she met Bolton at a conference in 2015 where Bolton spoke about working with Mother Teresa when she was 19. 
 
 Amber Arnold, who has worked as team coordinator for the company for the past two years, met Bolton back in October, and said this story didn’t surprise her one bit. 
 
 “This is story depicts the kind person that Debbie Bolton is,” Arnold told CBS News. “She is incredibly kind, giving, genuine and so humble. ... She leads by example and is walking her talk, every single day. “ 
 
 Leslie said he shared the story because he believes “people like this need to be heard about.” 
 
 Bolton’s employees couldn’t agree more. 
 
 “We need more Debbie Boltons in this world,” Arnold said. 
 
 Bolton said she just “did what anyone else would do,” and didn’t expect the act of kindness to reach this many people. But since it did, she hopes her action might inspire someone else to make a positive impact in the life of another, Cadora said. ||||| A Southern California father said he and his family were booted from a Delta flight after they declined to give up a seat they had bought for their teenage son and were attempting to use for his 2-year-old sibling. 
 
 Brian and Brittany Schear, of Huntington Beach, were on a red-eye flight April 23 from Maui to Los Angeles when they got into an argument with officials after being told that they had to give the seat to another passenger. 
 
 “I bought the seat,” Brian Schear is seen telling the agents in a video of the incident, explaining that he initially purchased the seat for his 18-year-old son but sent the teen home early on another flight so that the toddler would have a seat on the plane. “It’s a red-eye. He won’t sleep unless he’s in his car seat. So, otherwise, he’d be sitting in my wife’s lap, crawling all over the place, and it’s not safe.” 
 
 The couple said they were also traveling with a 1-year-old. 
 
 [‘I tried to hold it’: A Delta passenger said he was kicked off a plane for using the restroom] 
 
 Whether it's an overbooked flight or getting stuck on a tarmac, this is what you need to know about your rights when common flight troubles come up. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) 
 
 An agent told Schear that unless he complied, he would have to leave the plane, which had yet to take off. 
 
 “Then they can remove me off the plane,” he replied. 
 
 “You and your whole family?” the agent asked. 
 
 “Yeah, that’s fine,” he said. 
 
 “So, then, it’s going to be a federal offense,” another agent quickly chimed in, “and you and your wife will be in jail and your kids will be —.” 
 
 “We’re going to be in jail and my kids are going to be what?” Schear interrupted. 
 
 “It’s a federal offense if you don’t abide by it,” she said. 
 
 “I bought that seat,” Schear said. “You’re saying you’re going to give that away to someone else when I paid for that seat. That’s not right.” 
 
 Later in the video, an agent can be heard telling Schear that according to Federal Aviation Administration regulations, his 2-year-old son could not occupy a seat during the flight and would need to sit in an adult’s lap. 
 
 Schear explained that his toddler had been strapped into a car seat in his own seat on the destination flight, but the agent brushed him off. 
 
 In actuality, the FAA states that children are safer in government-approved car seats — not on laps, saying, “Your arms aren’t capable of holding your child securely, especially during unexpected turbulence.” 
 
 “The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) strongly urges you to secure your child in a CRS or device for the duration of your flight,” the agency states. “It’s the smart and right thing to do so that everyone in your family arrives safely at your destination. The FAA is giving you the information you need to make informed decisions about your family’s travel plans.” 
 
 Even Delta urges parents to purchase seats for children younger than 2 and to use approved child-restraint systems during the flights. 
 
 The issue, it seems, is transferring airline tickets from one passenger to another. Delta Air Lines maintains on its website that “all tickets are nontransferable per the fare rules. Name changes are not permitted.” 
 
 [‘I’ll kill you!’ American arrested after brawling on flight from Tokyo.] 
 
 Eventually, Schear asked whether he could concede, move the toddler and get in the air, but an agent told him it was too late, saying his family would either have to exit the aircraft or the crew would have to deplane all of the passengers. 
 
 “So we’re getting off this plane no matter what now?” Schear asked. 
 
 “I told you guys at the beginning you had two options and now it’s come too far,” an agent replied. 
 
 “I have two infants,” he said, “and nowhere to stay. There’s no more flights. What are we supposed to do — sleep in the airport?” 
 
 “At this point, you guys are on your own,” she said. 
 
 Delta Air Lines said it was “sorry” for what the Schears went through. 
 
 “Our team has reached out and will be talking with them to better understand what happened and come to a resolution,” Delta Air Lines said in a statement to The Washington Post. 
 
 In another statement late Thursday, the airline said, “We are sorry for the unfortunate experience our customers had with Delta, and we’ve reached out to them to refund their travel and provide additional compensation. Delta’s goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to their travel issues. That did not happen in this case and we apologize.” 
 
 The incident occurred April 23 but didn’t make headlines until Wednesday, when Schear posted his video on YouTube. 
 
 Fiascoes on airplanes are hardly uncommon — but they have been receiving increased attention in recent months. 
 
 United Airlines became embroiled in a public relations crisis in April when security agents were seen brutally dragging a passenger from a plane because he would not give up his seat to a crew member. 
 
 Videos showed 69-year-old David Dao being knocked against an arm rest and dragged down the aisle and back to the terminal at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. 
 
 Days later, a passenger was booted from a Delta flight because he had to get up from his seat to make an emergency restroom run. 
 
 United came under fire again when a giant rabbit that was being transported from Britain to Chicago died after its flight. 
 
 On Tuesday, a video recorded on an All Nippon Airways flight captured a fistfight that broke out between two male passengers. 
 
 [An airline passenger went off on a Trump supporter. Her rant got her kicked off the flight.] 
 
 After the release of Schears’ video, his wife told ABC affiliate KABC that she and her husband were justified in refusing to give up the seat. But, she said, when agents threatened her with jail time, she was terrified. “As a mother, you have a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old — it doesn’t matter whether that’s true or false,” Brittany Schear said. “It put fear in me.” 
 
 The FAA says it’s a federal crime to interfere “with the duties of a crewmember.” 
 
 Brian Schears told CBS Los Angeles that he and his wife never expected the situation to escalate to the point where they would get booted from the plane. 
 
 “We never thought it was going to get to the point where they were actually getting us all off the flight,” he said. “As we were leaving the plane, there’s four or five passengers waiting for our seat.” 
 
 This story has been updated. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 An unruly couple forced their flight to turn back. Police boarded, and passengers cheered. 
 
 A man got a middle seat on a 13-hour flight. Passengers recorded his ‘fit of rage,’ then arrest. 
 
 A United pilot ranted about Trump, Clinton and divorce. Her passengers fled. 
 
 United and man dragged from flight reach ‘amicable’ settlement 
 
 Here’s what United will do differently after the infamous dragging incident 
 
 ‘How much do you hate the American people?’: Airline executives get a brutal lashing in Washington ||||| DALLAS — A Pueblo woman who wanted to visit her dying mother one last time was removed from a plane and left in tears after an online travel agency canceled her ticket just before the flight. 
 
 The travel agency blames it on a mix-up that started when the woman changed flights without telling them. The agency says it was trying to protect her from fraud. 
 
 Carrol Amrich said Friday that United Airlines offered no empathy or help for a clearly distraught traveler. 
 
 After Amrich learned that her mother, Dixie Hanson, was hospitalized in Minnesota on Jan, 16, her landlord went on Traveler HelpDesk and bought a $585 United ticket. 
 
 Hanson’s condition worsened, however — she was not expected to live through the night. The landlord, Ines Prelas, called United and paid $75 more so that Amrich could fly standby on an earlier flight, and the two rushed to the airport in Colorado Springs. She would fly through Denver to Minneapolis. 
 
 Amrich said everything seemed fine as she gave her boarding pass to a United agent, stowed her bag and took a seat on the plane. But a minute or two later, the agent came on board to tell Amrich that her ticket was no good; it had been canceled. 
 
 “I said ‘I’m trying to get home to see my mother. She’s dying,'” Amrich said. “She goes, ‘I can’t help it. You have to have a ticket, no one flies for free. Please disembark.’ I knew at that time I’d never see my mother again.” 
 
 Traveler HelpDesk had canceled the ticket. Carolyn Gallant, a customer-service supervisor, said the online travel agency voided the ticket because it didn’t know that Amrich’s landlord had changed the flight by calling United directly. 
 
 Gallant said the agency only knew that Amrich was no longer booked on the original flight, and it was trying to protect her from possible fraud. She said the mix-up would have been avoided if the customer had called the agency instead of United. 
 
 Back at the airport, Amrich and Prelas were pleading with United to let them buy a new ticket to get back on the plane — it was the last flight of the night. Amrich said the United agent told them there wasn’t time for that, and that they would re-open the next morning. 
 
 Amrich wound up driving to Minnesota. A couple hours into the trip, she got word that her mother had died. 
 
 In a statement, United Airlines referred questions about the ticketing mix-up to Traveler HelpDesk. It said Amrich couldn’t buy a new ticket at the airport gate in Colorado Springs because the plane had already left — Amrich disputes that. 
 
 United said it refunded all money spent on the ticket and fees, and it offered condolences to Amrich and her family. 
 
 Amrich’s landlord posted an account of the events online, and it was first reported by The New York Times.
– A Texas businesswoman has been unmasked as the Good Samaritan who saved a distraught father in a bind. The man was checking in for a flight earlier this month at Omaha's Eppley Airfield with his toddler when he hit a snag. CBS News reports the agent asked him the girl's age and when he replied "she just turned 2," the agent told him she could not fly without a ticket. (The cut-off is age 2, and he had bought his ticket a while back.) In a Facebook post by Love What Matters that went viral, fellow traveler Kevin Leslie described what happened next: "The man was confused because he was under the impression she could ride for free. ... He mentioned he couldn't afford to rebook this flight or get her the ticket with such short notice. He stepped aside and tried to make a few calls. Hugging his daughter ... you could tell he was heartbroken." That's when a woman stepped up, asked him what was wrong, and told the agent she wanted to purchase the ticket. The agent questioned whether the woman realized just how expensive the ticket was. "Seven hundred something?" she replied, as she handed over a credit card and paid the $749 fare. The father hugged her, offering to pay her back. "Don't worry about it," she replied. The hero has been revealed as Debbie Bolton, co-founder and global sales chief at Norwex, a company that makes chemical-free home and personal care products, reports the Omaha World-Herald. Workers there praised their boss, with one calling Bolton "a humble person who really cares about people." The chief marketing officer says Bolton's act wasn't surprising. "She’s kind, caring, and generous." (This woman was hailed as "epitomizing the true Good Samaritan.")