He got very, very lucky.
When I moved from Israel bach to LX, I came to the airport with 9 bags of 30 Kg. I had about 292 Kg. with me. I expected to pay alot of money but thats part of moving. As I was only traveling to LX, I was on the weight concept. 40 Kg for me, 20 for my wife and 20 Kg for our 2 infants. The lady checked all in and gave me the boarding passes, the receipts said 9/292. When I expcted to hear 2000 Dollars, she said have a safe flight. Until today, I cant explain it... it was a "nes". 400 pounds overweight...