Replies

My little brother has been a Captain for Southwest Airlines for many years. He is close to retirement now. He used to get a couple of “standby” tickets every quarter when he didn’t call in sick to give away to his friend’s and family. The one instruction that I had from him when using them was, “do not complain about anything EVER!” So this is about as close as I have gotten to breaking my word.

So many years ago my wife and I were using a couple of standby tickets for a roller coaster riding adventure at the amusement parks in LA. We needed to get back the next day so we could both go back to work. We showed up at LAX early in the morning and waited all day while every flight back to Seattle was full. The staff told us that the very last flight of the day was full also.

As we were getting ready to leave, we were called to the gate over the intercom and then ushered onto the plane. I am not sure what happened but somehow there were two seats had become available.

At that time my wife was almost a dead ringer for Sally Field. Ms. Field was very popular at the time; the resemblance was strong enough that staff pulled us out of line both at the Hard Rock Café outside of Universal Studios and also at the Knots Berry Farm Restaurant on that same trip. At the Hard Rock Café the chef even came into talk with us and told us about all the other celebrities he had met. When we told the staff that she wasn’t Sally Field they didn’t seem to care. I think that they like the excitement that it creates with the other tourists when they think a celebrity is in their midst. We just became part of the show.

So when she was escorted onto the plane by two flight attendants and me... all these people had their mouths hanging open. She ended up sitting between two guys who wouldn’t leave her alone at the back of the 737. After that adventure she refused to fly standby.