A friend of mine was a community college professor, and chair of a faculty committee to recall the college president. So, who sits next to her on a full flight with no possiblity of seat switching? The college president.

OTOH, I'd love to sit next to that rotten guy who dumped me in the 11th grade and broke my poor widdle heart. Between telling him how fantastic my life has been since 11th grade and hearing how miserable his life has been, it could be a great flight.

Mike, I truly loathe you. I'll never get rid of that earworm.

Flying CLT-IAH a few years back, I bumped into one of our senior sales directors (Waaaay above me on the foodchain at the time...) at baggage claim. He complained about the horrible experience he had in coach coming from CLT. He was a little peeved to learn that my ride up in 2A was very pleasant.

1. We ran into our next door neighbors on the beach in front of our condo on Maui. They were staying at the condos - next door.

2. Some years ago my parents were flying home from Nice, France. They ran into Gregory Peck at the airport. He and my mother were in the same graduating class at Cal, oh maybe 40 years earlier and she said he remembered her and they chatted about the good old days. And they were on the same flight back to CA.

Two encounters:

-After being asked to change seats I ended up next to a girl and we talked the whole flight. We changed telephone numbers and names and it ends up she was married to my old boyfriend.

-after moving to Hawai many years ago I went to the bank to open up a new checking account for my husband and me. The teller who took care of me said...OMG I lived across the street from your husband when we were little kids.

I'm curious - did you continue the budding friendship?

We never ended up getting together.

While travelling in Australia, I met and socialized a few times with a fellow who lived in Perth a few times. A few months later, I was walking down a busy street in downtown Bangkok, Thailand when we noticed each other. We knew nothing of each other's travel plans and ended up hanging out with our group for a few days.

- Ran into an old colleague at LAX last year. It was nice catching up since I left the company when she was on the road and didn't have a chance at a proper goodbye.

- Bumped into my junior/senior year RA from college at MIA. Spent so much time chatting he nearly missed his flight.

- At least half a dozen "regulars" on flights I take on a consistent basis.

I've had heaps of these...
On an extended holiday in 2004-2005 I ran into the same couple once in Rarotonga, twice in New Zealand, and once in Kathmandu.

Then in 2008, my girlfriend and I met the same couple in Damascus and Manang, Nepal.

But the all time best one was when my girlfriend and I ran into a good friend from Toronto entirely by chance in Khulna, Bangladesh.

At that point we'd been in Bangladesh for a bit over a week and had seen only two other obvious foreginers.

I was sitting in a hotel lobby and to my utter astonishment, in walked my friend Susan. Though we'd been good friends in Canada, I'd been living in New Zealand and we hadn't kept in regular contact. I knew she'd been volunteering in India for a few months, but I'd assumed she'd gone back to Canada after finishing.

Instead she took a trip to Bangladesh to get an Indian tourist visa, and ended up running into us. We spent the next couple of weeks travelling together, and had a great time.

checked into Azul Hotel Mayan Riviera and ran into my wife's cousin and wife who she didn't see for at least 6 years..

We met up at hotel MacDonald for a Sunday Empire Brunch a year later..

More than I can count. Not only running into people I know in odd places, but it seems like no matter where I travel, when I meet random new people we always have a few friends in common.

I was on an DC10 flight one time and this guy in front of me reclines his seat back the entire way moments after takeoff. Since the plane was practically empty I simply moved to another seat. When we landed it turned out to be a work colleague of mine. There was some common cause as we were both headed to the same event, but I had absolutely no idea whatsoever that he was going. I was coming from London and he was coming from the states, connecting at LHR.

On another occasion a colleague ended up sitting one row behind her boss and fellow employee who had attempted a clandestine (and inappropriate boss/subordinate) weekend getaway together. Talk about busted.

Mr. Kipper regularly bumps into co-workers on trips. All are coming from different locations, returning home. Two that were memorable:

1. Mr. Kipper and one of his co-workers were returning home, and the flight from ORD was delayed. The last two passengers to board were two of his bosses. They made the flight only because it was delayed. Mr. Kipper and his co-worker were both up front, while the two bosses had to sit in steerage.
2. Mr. Kipper was returning from HNL after a 6 week trip, and was scheduled for one of the first flights back to MDT from ATL that Friday morning. When my phone rang, I was expecting my standard, "I'm about to board the plane. I love you. I'll see you in MDT." Instead, the call was, "The flight is overbooked. They're asking for volunteers to be bumped. Do you care if I take it?" He took the bump on that flight, was given a confirmed seat on another flight, and told, "You can do standby on the next flight." He got to the gate for the standby flight, only to find a few of his co-workers at that gate. They made that flight, he didn't.

FTer mnmag at the RCC an hour ago.

When I was a freshman, the dorm proctor came out
raving one day about an article he had read in the paper
in which one of the local panhandlers was featured - as
it turns out, not only did the panhandler make more than
he did ... but also than the local garbage collector, who
himself made more than the local assistant professor.