It's not often that I'd report on such a workaday domestic F flight but yesterday evening the crew on my MCO-LGA were nothing short of legendary...

My first interaction was a little unusual. There's a new AC under construction at MCO and I was hoping to ask someone when it would be open. At MCO there is some seating area for employees behind the podium and departure screen and about 15mins before boarding I thought I saw the GA back there. I popped around and it wasn't until I had my head around the corner that I noticed it was the flight crew and FAs. One of the FAs popped over and in absence of quick thinking I asked about the AC opening. He said that it was probably a couple of months away, it was the third AC in Florida and they were very excited about it. He asked if I was local and said he was looking forward to having me onboard.^

The OH and I were the first passengers onboard and he was there with his colleague preparing the drinks with another warm welcome. He was up and about the cabin during one of the more chaotic FC boardings I've seen lately. The overhead lockers filled up very quickly and there were lots of non-English speaking passengers that didn't understand the rules about where bags could go and how they were stowed. To boot a handful of FC passengers had just sat where they wanted but during this mild chaos he managed to get about the whole cabin taking full, open-bar pre-departure drinks and also was assisting passengers with the stowing of the bags, "let me help, I'm a professional!". He asked us permission to move one bag thinking it belonged to us as it was directly above us, alas it was not.

Once up in the air he came around to confirm meal orders....the OH and I have different last names and he initially confused us as we had switched seats. My OH said it was no big deal because she'd have that last name soon and he asked if we were engaged, showing genuine excitement when we confirmed and insisted we toast with champagne I felt bad turning it down having never had champagne on AA outside of international or premium transcon F!

After the dinner service he asked if we wanted a coffee/tea with Disaronno, Baileys, etc. before the cookies came out and also he proactively offered a selection of after dinner cocktails using the ingredients he could rustle up from the galley. ^ When he brought my Disaronno coffee out he had all the creamers, stirrers and sugar sachets out on a tray for me to help myself from.

Cookies were offered second and third times and I shared with him my trick of dipping the chocolate chip cookies in the neat Disaronno

After we had finished with the cookies he came over to us and chatted for a good 10mins or so about our wedding plans etc. His equally excellent colleague held down the rest of the FC service whilst he chatted with us. It wasn't just us he was doting on though, I could hear him chatting with the couple behind us too in a similar way.

As I write this I realise that my prose doesn't really convey the warmth, graciousness or professionalism that he conveyed from even before I stopped onboard until the moment we touched down at LGA.

Shortly before the end of the flight I caught him in the galley and told him that I thought AA need to clone him and recognised how hard he was working and that I wished every flight was as good as this one. He seemed so genuinely touched by my remarks...

My OH had been something of an involuntary convert to AA because of my OW Emerald status and on the 30 or so FC flights we've taken in the last year she's never been all that impressed but last night she was completely bowled over.

I fully intend to write to AA because whoever he reports to needs to know how good he is. It wasn't just him either, he was mostly dealing with us but his female colleague was superb too, they were just a class double act.

So if you step aboard and are greeted by a young, dark haired, potentially bearded, Australian based out of New York named Curtis you are in for a treat of a flight. ^^