an interesting little experience from a few months ago..flying ewr-sfo..evening flight...737-800...upgraded to first via platinum status...

i'm the first passanger on...someone is already seated in first (how did that happen ?)...right next to me..we have a nice discussion...turn's out he's the captain's brother and is accompying him on this trip...(I wonder how he got upgraded)..then they are returning to ewr the next afternoon..

It was just real nice hearing the gentleman talk about how much his brother loves flying...how that's all he's ever wanted to do professionally...how he went the "civilian" route (non-military)..flying overseas..for small charter companies, etc., how committed and caring he was, how meticulas and detail oriented he was....he finally hooking up with New York Air (I think) before they were bought by CO..

anyway we're about an hour outside of SFO and the guy tells me his brother is "worried" about this flight..turns out he's just been upgraded from 737-??? to the 737-800 and this is his first flight as captain in it...he's concerned about the added weight..different landing speed and settings required....

everything turned out fine ; it was just really nice to hear about a pilot who really cares about his work and his passengers so much...

Why would the brother say that????

It would make me want to kill the captain!

Sounds like the brother needs to learn a little bit about common sense, not to mention breaching an implied confidence. How would he feel if the person he told reported the matter to CO and got his brother called in for questioning? Dumb, really dumb.