Something Special In The Air

It's a story they have probably heard thousands of times. A harried traveler asks to fly standby because its their mom's 81st birthday and they want a few extra hours.

When I picked my friend Nance up at the Minneapolis Airport, she apologized for her oversized suitcase. She is on a two -week jaunt with her husband Dan, who has business here for the next couple of days.

Earlier in the week they were in Philadelphia. Dan flew directly from Philadelphia to Minneapolis but Nance took a side trip through Chicago..so she could spend a few hours with her mom. When she made the reservations she was scheduled to arrive in Chicago late Wednesday night and then fly to Minneapolis early Thursday morning.(the goal here was to visit mom and still have an affordable ticket)

She then shared her extraordinary travel story.

Her first bit of luck was when she told the reservation agent that she would really love a few extra hours in Chicago to spend with her mom. The agent scheduled her flight out of Philadelphia so it would "force" Nance to stay over in Chicago. And, instead of making Nance leave Chicago on a 6:00 AM flight, the reservationist magically made it possible for Nance to leave in the afternoon --giving her the entire morning with mom.

The only catch was...Dan was leaving  Philadelphia early Wednesday morning and Nance's flight wasn't until the evening. That's when Dan suggested that Nance try to fly standby out of Philadelphia so she could arrive in Chicago even earlier in the day.

When Nance got to the ticket counter, she explained the situation. The reservation agent was not optimistic. The next flight was in 35 minutes, there were already four people on standby. In an act of faith, the agent took Nance's over-sized suitcase,put it on the flight with the 4 people waiting on standby and told her to run like the wind.

Nance did. When, hyperventilating, she got to the gate, the folks there were less than optimistic. As they told her, " it's a full flight." Then they called two of the standby folks. The rest of the plane boarded. There was a no-show. The fourth standby made it on the plane. That left Nance next in line for a seat.

At this point the folks at the gate asked Nance why she wanted to get on this particular flight so badly. When she told them it was her mother's 81st birthday, the folks at the gate said that if the last ticket holder didn't show up in 1 minute, they would close it down, and Nance would get on the flight.

About this time a frantic woman waving a ticket approaches the counter. Nance's heart sinks. As she mentally began preparing for a long wait in the Philadelphia airport, she overheard the counter folks telling the woman she was at the wrong gate.

They looked at Nance, smiled and printed out her ticket. Nance did have a middle seat on the flight  but she got to Chicago with plenty of time to see aunts, uncles and pick up pizza for mom's birthday.

What struck Nance about the entire episode is that everyone believed her and really had some heart in trying to make it possible for her to spend more time with her mom on her 81st birthday. What is surprising is that as ticket agents and gate agents they probably hear this story ( not always true) all the time.

So, how did they know she was telling the truth? Did they just choose to believe?  Or is it their culture  to act as if everyone is telling the truth and make them feel so taken care of?

For the record, it was Nance's mom's 81st birthday. She was absolutely telling the truth. It's wonderful when employees acts of kindness can create such a memorable birthday. It truly was "something special in the air."