By now, you’ve probably heard the horror stories of passengers experiences on United Airlines flights. Additionally, many TSA employees have failed to follow policies designed to protect nursing moms as they fly with or without their newborns. Stories of embarrassed and harassed mothers have flooded the internet, proving that pumping breastmilk on airplanes is still not understood.

However, despite one mother planning ahead and pumping her breast milk prior to her flight, she still ran into trouble. This United Airlines story, however, is unlike all the others and many are calling it a “Mother’s Day Miracle.”

Family Trip To Disney World

A mother of four took a trip to Disney World with her husband and three of their children. The trip was the week before Mother’s Day, making it extra magical and special. The only thing the family wished they could have done differently was to bring their 4-month-old baby with them.

Little Brent Stayed At Home

The Braverman family left little Brent at home and Rachel Braverman made sure to pump her breast milk a few times a day over the course of the trip. Every morning, she would wake up a little earlier and go to bed a little later so that she could pump about 100 ounces worth of milk to give Brent when she returned home…

Traveling With Young Children Can Be Chaotic

While most parents traveling with young children wish their trips would go seamlessly, this is usually not the reality. Between packing everyone’s belongings and keeping everyone calm and entertained during the flight, things can get pretty chaotic.

Crowded Airport On Mother’s Day

The United Airlines flight back to New Jersey was no different for Rachel and her family as they headed back on Sunday on Mother’s Day. The airport was crowded and Rachel did her best to comfort her three young children so that everyone could have an enjoyable flight. Once she arrived home, Rachel went to her refrigerator…

She Left The Milk On The Plane

She searched frantically for her pumped breast milk to give to her son, when she realized that she left it on the plane under her seat. “I literally started crying,” Rachel said. She had taken such precaution in carefully storing the milk in a container that could maintain the appropriate temperature and she made sure to keep it upright under the seat in front of her.

Helpless At That Point

However, despite her efforts, the milk was gone. There was no way she would ever think she could get that milk back. “There was nothing I could do at that point…My friends were telling me to call United Airlines, and I was like, what are they going to be able to do? It’s long gone.” Assuming the plane was in another part of the country by now, Rachel got her children ready for bed…

Text Message From An Unknown Number

It was five hours after the Braverman family returned home to Northern New Jersey, and Rachel’s husband got a text from a United flight attendant. The message read, “Hi, my name is Jeff, I’m a flight attendant on United and I think I have something that belongs to you, please call or text me.”

A Message They Weren’t Expecting

Rachel’s husband immediately showed her the message, to which she responded, “Oh my god, we must call him.” When Rachel dialed Jeff he answered quickly, saying, “I have your breast milk, don’t worry, I’ve had it on ice all afternoon.” Rachel couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and to be honest, the last thing she had on her mind was whether or not the breast milk was on ice or not. She was too blown away that someone even found it in the first place and that he contacted her, on top of that…

Discovery On United Airlines Flight

Then she learned that Jeff wasn’t even one of the attendants on her flight. He told her that a passenger on the next flight on the plane, going from Newark to Miami, showed him the bag left under the seat. Knowing how precious pumped breastmilk is, Jeff asked the captain to turn back to the gate.

Tracking Down The Bravermans

When that wasn’t possible, Jeff put the bag on ice and then, after landing in Miami, had agents look up the passenger log from the previous flight to try and contact the person in that seat. When they couldn’t reach the Bravermans by phone, Jeff asked for the number so he could call them himself…

From Miami To Newark

He was heading back to Newark anyway that evening, and it was the least he could do on Mother’s Day. The Bravermans were blown away after even receiving the text message from Jeff and that he offered to drop off the breastmilk at their home when his flight returned to Newark.

Happy To Do The Right Thing

Rachel texted him, “As you sure?” and Jeff replied, “It’s Mother’s Day! Don’t even worry about it. I’m just happy to help.” After his flight landed at 11:30 p.m. in Newark, Jeff stopped by the Braverman’s home with a milk delivery for Brent…

Special Hand Delivery

Unfortunately, the Bravermans were sleeping by the time he arrived at the home, but Jeff dropped the milk off on their front porch. When Rachel woke up the next morning, she found the milk safe outside, surrounded by huge bags of ice.

Tracking Down Jeff

“He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever come across,” she said. That day, she asked for his last name so and United number in order to tell the airline how much she appreciated what he had done. “It was so nice and such kind human behavior,” she said. Rachel was determined to learn more about one of the kindest human beings she’d ever met…  

Family Values

Over text message, Rachel learned that Jeff Nowotny, a flight attendant for 18 years, had brothers and sisters and tons of little nieces and nephews. He told her, “I would like to think someone would do that for my family…I can relate to the hustle and bustle of traveling with children and how challenging it can be.”

Many Thanks Were In Order

He continued informing various news outlets that it meant a lot to him to be able to do something small to help someone. Additionally, Rachel couldn’t get over what Jeff had done and posted a picture of Brent to her Facebook with the caption…

Mother’s Day Miracle

“To Jeffrey Nowotny, the United flight attendant who has yet to meet me, but found my bag full of breast milk on a plane yesterday, kept it on ice all afternoon, tracked me down, and HAND DELIVERED it to my house after midnight last night… you are one of a kind! That is above and beyond customer service, that is just an act of kindness. Thank you for my Mother’s Day miracle. And thank you from this happy milky face!”

Commending Jeff

After Rachel included a tag to Jeff Nowotny’s Facebook, dozens headed over to his page to commend him for his kind gesture. Some people that know him personally wrote comments like, “Way to go Jeff. Not surprised at all.” Others, who were strangers to Jeff wrote…

Kind Words

“As a dedicated United flyer, your caring makes me feel so much better after hearing all the United horror stories that I was going to move to Delta after my annual Economy Plus seat subscription expired…Now I have second thoughts. Hopefully, United management recognizes your over and beyond hard work and rewards you.”

Restoring Faith In United Airlines

Many others said that they would like Oscar Munoz, the CEO of United Airlines to reward Jeff for his dedication to the company and his impeccable customer service. With all the negative publicity surrounding the airline in the past couple of years, Jeff has managed to restore flyers faith in the company.