After the tour of Brugge was finished, my sister Meg and I wandered in the direction of a recommended restaurant. We paused for a second to get our bearings and that’s when we saw her: a young woman who had been on our tour.

I smiled at her as she got closer and asked if she wanted to join us for lunch. She was actually headed to the same place and was delighted to join us. Especially because, she told us, it was her first time traveling alone.

There is a belief that if you do good things for others, good things will come to you. Not necessarily in a reciprocal manner, but sometimes. And such was the case this time.

As Meg and I learned about our lunch companion, over local beer and some of the most delicious meatballs we’ve ever had, we somehow came to the topic of our flight to Belgium, which had been delayed four hours.

“Don’t forget to get your money from the airline,” our new friend said.

“Money?” I asked.

“Yes. They have to pay you. But only if you file for it.”

“Really? They’ll pay us back the money we spent on the flight?”

“For a delay of more than 3 hours, they’ll pay you 250 Euros.”

“But our flight only cost us 60 Euros. Round trip,” I explained.

“It doesn’t matter,” she told us.

Meg and I stared at her. We couldn’t believe what we were hearing.

“I just want to make sure I understand,” I said. “We only paid 60 Euros for our round trip flight. Our trip here was delayed by four hours. So RyanAir is going to pay us 250 Euros?”

“For each of you, yes.”

I almost choked on my meatball. Each of us?

“So how do we file for the money?” I asked.

“Just go to the airline’s website and you should see something there. I’ll send you a link to information about it. It’s an EU policy.”

“So this works for any EU country?”

“Yes.” She thought it might also work for flights that even left the EU to go to other countries. But she wasn’t 100% sure.

That night, while I worked, Meg met up with our new French friend. The next day, we ran into her outside the famous bell tower. And then again at the chocolate place.

“If you’re ever in Paris, do let me know,” she told us the day before we left.

After Meg returned to the US, I dutifully filed for our refund. In less than a week, we had our money.

I’ve been thinking, for her next trip, maybe Meg and I should visit our French friend in Paris.

And pray for a flight delay.