TravelingNomads

Flying doesn't always have to be a nightmare experience. What are some positives, free perks, special exceptions, etc. that have been made for you? I mentioned an example a few months ago where we were thanked and allowed to board early simply for volunteering to be kicked off if needed. We knew they were overbooked, but they ended up having enough no-shows and didn't need volunteers. My example is small, but it was still nice. What are some of your positive experiences?

Morph90

Only one example I can think of sadly - but a very very nice touch none the less.

Flew the inaugural new F DXB > LHR on the 787 and BA kindly gave everyone in the cabin a BA branded Burberry travel wallet. It's been spotted a few times.

Steve Weagant

The first was December 25, 1997. I was flying from ORD-SEA on United. The flight attendant did not have the correct change for another pax buying a drink. I helped her out. A few minutes later she came back with a warm chocolate chip cookie from first class.

On a transatlantic united flight from Europe to USA. We were sitting in the seats with extra legroom behind the crew rest seats. I stretched out, enjoying the extra legroom and went to sleep. Later a FA accidentally woke me up while she was adjusting the curtains to the crew rest area. She profusely apologized. I profusely apologized for having my feet in her way. And went back to sleep. Later she brought two desserts back from business class.

jinglish

Back in early January I was scheduled to take a day trip to LA from PDX on AS, but we don't deal well with snow and ice here, and I ended up having to call the night before to reschedule for the following weekend. At that point I'd already been upgraded for the outbound flight and probably had a half-decent shot for the return, but I had to pick new seats in Y and was resigned to getting sent to the back of the upgrade queue for the trip.

...until, a few minutes after hanging up with customer service, I got my new confirmation email, showing that I'd already been upgraded for both segments. That doesn't happen automatically eight days out from departure for MVPs, so apparently the CS agent took pity on me.

chgoeditor

I've most frequently encountered these kindnesses in connection with seating issues.

Earlier this week I managed to snag the last flight on a delayed WN flight, leaving me stuck in a middle seat at the back of the plane. I'm not sure if she extended this kindness to every passenger (or maybe she saw me helping several passengers fit bags into overhead bins into seemingly full bins through some artful rearranging), but she bought me a drink.

I was seated next to the worst passenger ever on a trans-Atlantic flight last year and the purser offered to let me sit in the crew jumpseat to escape my seatmate (after telling him to get out of another one). I declined but appreciated them serving me doubles -- unrequested -- to help ease the pain.

And a couple years ago I was unexpectedly downgraded on a flight that would have involved a meal had I not been downgraded. The FAs were aware of that and comped me a buy-on-board meal, which was a courtesy I hadn't requested but did appreciate.

TravelingNomads

This isn't related to staff, but rather another passenger on my last Southwest Airlines flight to Tahoe. An elderly gentleman had a couple of extra drink tickets that he didn't think he'd be using that month and passed DH and I a couple after my husband helped him with his carry-on bags. It was completely unexpected, but greatly appreciated as we had just gone through a very bad ATL traffic day, plus other drama. We could've bought them ourselves of course, but it was the kindness that cheered us up and helped us get back into vacation mode.

Grog

We had a neighbor on a BA flight years ago who stretched out over three empty economy seats. He had his shoes on, but had protected the seat with a t-shirt and proceeded to fall asleep. About ten minutes later, it struck us like an onion cloud--oh...my...gawd...his tremendous foot odor.

The FA noticed our discomfort as he walked by and then picked up on the scent himself. You could almost see his eyes tearing up, partly in pity of us but mostly due to the powerful aroma. He ran to the galley and returned quickly, dousing the man's ankles and shoes in a plume of lavender and bison grass. He also discreetly offered his apologies that more couldn't really be done, seeing how his feet were indeed covered by shoes while also not touching the seat. We nodded meekly, knowing he'd made his best effort at avoiding embarrassment to the gentleman while still making every effort to smother the odoriferous flames as best as possible. As we deplaned, he smiled as if to say "glad you guys survived it" and then handed us two bottles of champagne.


Years prior, on an oversold BMI flight, I had volunteered my seat just before boarding. They ended up not needing my seat. I was handed a BMI-branded inkpen as a thank you. It actually broke during the 45-minute flight.

Annalisa12

JAL flight attendant gave me a dry cleaning voucher as she was so embarassed that she sprayed a can of soft drink on my pants when opening it.

TravelingNomads

Is this medically possible? I've heard of foot fungus/athlete's foot and all that to a minor degree, but how could a smell from feet be that bad? Gangrene? I don't understand what condition would make this possible.

wolf72

I have never had or seen any acts of kindness by American FA's.

Redhead

When I was pregnant the flight attendant walking down the aisle with the coffee made me run for the bathrooms to puke. She noticed and asked me if I was pregnant told her yes and she asked the entire first class cabinet would be OK for not having coffee she asked each one individually so I didn't hear any answers but it was very very sweet of her she then also gave me a pack of saltines.

LtKernelPanic

Best one I've had was right before Thanksgiving in 2015. My original plan was to fly from my hometown to Chicago, spend they day sight seeing then fly out early the next morning to a friend's wedding in Cancun. Well things didn't go right. The plane went mx and they had all of us deplane and wait in the gate while a mechanic from Omaha was dispatched. After about 90 minutes the GA made an announcement that they were going to have to have a part flown in from Chicago (which would be 7 hours from then) so he was going to consider "based on AA's prior history" this flight to be canceled and would start rebooking people. Unfortunately I was half asleep when he made the announcement so I ended up second to last in a line of 50 people. Thankfully I was awake enough to call AA reservations and get the last seat on the next morning's flight (the afternoon flight to ORD was already overbooked) but since the flight hadn't been officially canceled yet it was still under airport control meaning I had to wait in line. Since I had a conformed seat I didn't care that much about waiting.

Almost three hours later* it was finally my turn at the counter and he was very surprised I had managed to get a seat on the next day's flight but printed my boarding passes, verified my passport and checked in for my flight to Chicago. Then he did a couple things that surprised me. After handing me my boarding passes he said something along the lines of "Hang on a second. You've waited in line patiently for so long how'd you like an extra day in Mexico since you lost a day of your trip already? I can change your return flight at no charge." Sadly I had to decline saying they only booked my hotel through Sunday though I found out later they thought I was leaving Monday so I could have taken him up on it! He then offered to try to get me better seats but since I was flying business to and from Cancun and had exit row on the way to and from Chicago there wasn't anything he could do. Finally as I was trying to get a hold of a neighbor to pick me up from the airport he said if I couldn't get someone to pick me up he'd give me a ride. That's what I call going above and beyond the call of duty.

*It took that long because our airport is a small AA out station with all of three flights a day and in AA's infinite wisdom they only have one person there at a time who can handle rebookings. Shockingly everyone was in a good mood and nobody got mad. A couple ladies waiting in line even went and bought him and the other agent who was doing his best to help some drinks and snacks since they couldn't get away from the counter.

Doc Savage

One GA at an outstation notorious for flight cancellations, delays, etc., goes out of their way to look out for me, and it's saved me a couple of times with preferential SDCs and proactive reschedules. What a great agent!

seat38a

While preparing the cabin for arrival, the purser on our Swiss flight came over and handed this box of chocolate to our group.

C W

I'm very interested to know what exactly this passenger did to have an FA take such pity on you as to offer the jumpseat, goodness.