They crossed paths on a flight to Egypt and soon fell in love

Had things gone as planned, they likely would have never met. But when Mafalda Feliciano's original British Airways flight from Brazil was overbooked, she was moved to a different one—setting the stage for fate to intervene.

In September 2004, she was traveling with her sister and brother-in-law for a vacation in Egypt, but their flight was rerouted through London.

After losing their original seats, Feliciano found herself alone in the middle of a row, sitting between two strangers.

Feliciano, a 37-year-old medical physicist from Brazil at the time, is naturally reserved and introverted. She had no intention of starting a conversation with the passengers beside her, instead opting for a peaceful flight across Europe.

About two hours into the flight, feeling restless after a nap, Feliciano decided to turn on the inflight entertainment. Reaching for what she thought was her remote, built into the armrest, she pressed the power button.

But it was the wrong remote. She had accidentally turned off the screen of the passenger in the window seat next to her.

“He said, ‘Excuse me, but I was watching a movie and you just stopped it,’” she recalls. Flustered, Feliciano quickly apologized. “Oh, I’m sorry, sir,” she responded.

Laughing at her overly formal apology, he responded, “I haven’t been knighted by the Queen.”

That’s when their conversation began.

The passenger in the window seat was Sameer Sah, a 38-year-old Londoner of Indian descent who worked for an international charity. A frequent British Airways flyer, he jokingly recalls, “I basically threw a tantrum at the airport and demanded a window seat.”

It was somewhat his fault that Feliciano and her family ended up seated in separate rows.

He was heading to Cairo for work, while she was off to Egypt for a holiday. The rest of the flight was spent in deep conversation.

Sah was immediately struck by Feliciano: “She was beautiful,” he says, noting she appeared much younger than her 37 years.

As for Feliciano, she wasn’t fluent in English at the time, so not all of his jokes made sense, but she knew she enjoyed his company.

As the flight began its descent into Cairo, Sah took a chance and asked Feliciano if she’d like to join him for dinner during her week in Egypt.

Feliciano hesitated. She was interested, but this wasn’t exactly how she had imagined her vacation unfolding.

She had recently gone through a divorce, and ironically, her first husband had also been someone she met on a plane, during a domestic flight in Brazil.

What were the odds of another romance beginning mid-flight, and would this one have a happy ending?

A fateful encounter

Just before Feliciano left for her vacation in Egypt, a friend had offered to do a tarot card reading for her.

Though Feliciano didn’t believe in fate or fortune-telling, she agreed to let her friend give it a try.

She remembers her friend shuffling the cards, then looking at her with a knowing expression.

“She told me, ‘The cards are saying you’re going to meet someone on this trip.’”

Feliciano laughed it off. “I’m not going to meet anyone,” she replied confidently.

And yet here she was, forming an unexpected connection mid-flight before even landing in Cairo.

Feliciano agreed to join Sah for dinner but requested that her sister and brother-in-law come along as well.

She quickly briefed her family on the situation when they met up at Cairo Airport.

“They were like, ‘You just met him on the flight, and now he’s joining us for dinner?’ They were a bit surprised,” Feliciano recalls.

But the evening turned out to be a success. “We had a wonderful time, all of us together,” Feliciano says.

The group ended up spending most evenings together. Sah worked during the day while Feliciano and her family explored the city's sights.

In the evenings, the couple would meet for dinner—first with Feliciano’s sister and brother-in-law, and later just the two of them. They also spent some time sightseeing together, including visiting the pyramids of Giza.

The connection didn’t fade after the week ended. Feliciano and her family moved on to their next stop in Istanbul, but she kept in touch with Sah every night, chatting on the phone.

Before long, he flew to Brazil to visit her, and they decided to start a long-distance relationship.

A globe-trotting love story

Feliciano says her friends were amazed by the relationship—some even joked that they should fly more often.

But the friend who had done her tarot reading simply said, 'I told you so.'

In the following years, Feliciano and Sah managed to meet every few months for two-week vacations. They reunited in places like London, Brazil, Brussels, the Netherlands, New York, and the Dominican Republic. Both love to travel, and they say exploring the world together was an unforgettable journey.

However, as their two-year anniversary of that serendipitous flight approached, the couple found themselves at a crossroads.

“We either break up or we get married,” they decided.

As enjoyable and glamorous as their travels were, being apart between trips was tough.

It was also financially draining—Sah admitted he was piling up credit card debt.

The couple made a bold decision—they would marry, and Feliciano would relocate to London.

They celebrated their wedding in Brazil, throwing a night to remember that lasted well into the early hours.

“A huge celebration, plenty of drinks,” Sah chuckles.

Making it work

After the excitement of their wedding and whirlwind romance over the years, the reality of their choice began to sink in.

Some of Feliciano’s friends warned her that moving abroad for love was a mistake—she was leaving behind a stable career in Brazil.

“My boss said, ‘I’m sure you’ll be back in a month, your job will still be here,’” recalls Feliciano.

Sah’s friends were thrilled for him, but his family situation was complicated. Having gone through a divorce with two children, his parents and siblings refused to accept Feliciano as his wife.

Two months after settling in London, Feliciano found work at a hospital, but it was a step down from her previous position in Brazil.

She has since worked her way up the career ladder and is now the Head of Brachytherapy Physics at Colchester General Hospital, located southeast of London, where she helps treat cancer patients.

The couple had to adjust to the challenges of living together full time.

“We faced a lot of challenges in the beginning,” Feliciano admits.

“It took us about a year to really settle in. We were two very different people, from two very different cultures, living under one roof,” she reflects.

Sah grew frustrated with having to take charge of all the cooking, and Feliciano wasn’t fond of his meals.

On top of everything, Feliciano was coping with the pressures of settling into a new country while taking language classes.

After a year of tension, the couple finally sat down and had an honest conversation about their relationship and what the future held.

“There was a time when we thought it was all over,” Sah shares. “But then we decided to talk it through, both of us making an effort, and turned everything around. And now, here we are, 16 years later.”

Today, the couple enjoys a happy life in the historic town of Colchester, southeast England, with their cocker spaniel, Ziggy, whom Feliciano lovingly refers to as their “beautiful boy.”

Feliciano, once skeptical of serendipity, now believes their encounter was destined.

“I truly think it was meant to happen,” she says. “Here I am, from South America, meeting someone from India, while flying across Europe, heading to Africa.”

A 2018 study by British bank HSBC revealed that 1 in 50 airplane passengers meet their soulmate on a flight.

Other couples who found love in the air have also shared their stories with Dinogo Travel in the past.

However, with travel restrictions, social distancing, and mask-wearing becoming the new normal, it seems highly unlikely that two strangers would strike up a conversation and form a connection on a plane today.

This year has been nothing short of surreal for both Sah and Feliciano. She’s been on the front lines, working in the hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic, treating cancer patients with radiotherapy while also trying to stay safe.

On the other hand, the tuberculosis charity Sah had worked with for several years shut down last year, and he has since transitioned to working as a freelance consultant.

Sah had hoped that 2020 would be the year he crossed the threshold of 100 countries, but he's currently stuck at 95.

Despite the chaos of the pandemic, they’ve remained each other’s support system, as they have throughout their entire marriage.

“First and foremost, it’s about believing in each other,” says Sah. “And then, it’s all about perseverance. Making things work is never easy. You’ve got to put in the effort to make it happen.”