FlyerTalk Forums - A Medallion Wedding Proposal

Hi everyone! I am writing, newly engaged, to share this story because I'm certain that this crowd will really enjoy & appreciate it. Warning, it's a little long...

One rainy night in 2006, on a particularly bad travel day, I was flying LAS-ATL-ALB. The ALB flight was the last of the night, scheduled for 9:30PM but delayed about 2 hours. I happened (er... intentionally, and with ulterior motives) to strike up a conversation with the attractive girl waiting for the same flight in the chairs across from me. She was having quite the time - flying home trying to make it to her brother's graduation ceremony the next day - but her delayed incoming flight had caused her to miss the earlier ALB flight and was rebooked on this 9:30 flight. We had a great time talking at that gate in ATL's E Concourse, and when it finally came time to board, I sat myself right down in the seat next to her. When a large burly guy came onboard and asked "I think you're in my seat", I'm pretty sure I gave him a stare that said "I need this seat more than you do, buddy" while handing him my boarding pass for the exit row and asking "would you please sit in this other seat"?

So, that's the back story. Fast forward 3 years later, and lvp1531 and I are still happily together. I'm still flying every week at Platinum Medallion, and she flys enough to earn Silver. I had been pondering for a while that I wanted to propose to her, but never really had a good way to do it. I eventually pondered that it should be in Atlanta, at ATL, hopefully in the E concourse, and maybe even on a plane. I just had no realistic idea of how to make this happen. Until, that is, this summer's ATL Delta RWT/DO.

Thanks to Atldlff and Canarise having set up such a great event, I was fortunate enough to meet some of the wonderful Delta staff we had met there might actually make my crazy idea possible. A few phone calls and a ton of emails later, and the plan was in the works! Here's how it went down:

I have a meeting near RDU on Tuesday. LVP1531 used to live in RDU, so I suggested that we should go down early so that she could visit friends there for the weekend. Suspiciously, I booked our flight with an enormous 4 hour layover in ATL. I told her that we should go visit my friend at Delta, W, who would be working in the SkyClub at E.

When we landed, we headed right to E, checked in at the SkyClub, and found W. I introduced LVP1531 and he - quite perfectly and very nonchalant - said that he was just on his way to check out for himself the newly remodeled 767's with the Lie-Flat seats, and would we like to go and see these new seats!? I would love that anyway, but of course this was a setup.

We made our way down to E3, where that night's DL10 to LHR was waiting. W opened the gate and then something started to go wrong. LVP1531 and I waited outside for a few minutes, until eventually W came back out and said we'd have to go around through E1. A Red Coat agent came down to meet us, and badged us in through all the back doors and on to the empty 767-400. We went up to BusinessElite, where I suggested that she try out one of the new lie-flat seats and I'll take her picture. I kneeled next to her and got out not my camera but the ring. She was totally surprised, and said YES! :)

What happened after that is a bit of a blur, but there is fortunately photographic evidence:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brillat...7622941453224/

I still can't believe this all actually happened. The folks at Delta - S, W, and L, were more amazing than I can possibly believe. They went so far above and beyond with this totally oddball request to "use an empty airplane" - I can only imagine the strings and effort it took on their part, and can't thank them enough. Even in terms of keeping it a surprise, W was totally cool - it turned out that the "thing that almost went wrong" was that the E3 doors were locked and that people who were waiting to surprise us with flowers afterward were stuck in the E3 hallway - and we would have had to walk right by them! A quick reroute through E1 saved the day.

I've also been dying to post about this crazy plan on FlyerTalk, but was worried that LVP1531 might find out and ruin the whole thing.

A thanks again to FlyerTalk and the ATL/DO team, without having met everyone there this would have been impossible. And a huge thanks to Delta - you have all been amazing. Not to mention that some good does come from missed connections - since otherwise we would never have met. We're both racking up our MQM and we absolutely know who we'll fly for the honeymoon!

-brillb