One details-minded Southwest Airlines pilot miraculously managed to keep track of exactly how many passengers he has flown over his 22-year career with the company. So after calculating that his one-millionth passenger had boarded the Southwest flight he was about to fly from Denver to Pittsburgh, Captain John Richie pulled out all the stops, showering the passenger with some pretty awesome gifts. He also made a speech describing his history as a pilot for the whole airplane before taking off. Luckily for us, someone filmed the whole thing and shared it on YouTube.
"About 22 years ago, I retired from the Unites States Air Force, and I had the privilege of flying F-16s both as a combat pilot and as a test pilot," he said into the intercom. "And for the past 22 years I've been flying with Southwest. Today is a special day. Ever since I started with Southwest, I've kept track of the passengers I've flown, and today I'm flying my one-millionth passenger." The crowd then broke out in cheers.
The pilot definitely came prepared for this big day—he had several gifts at the ready for the very lucky passenger. "And in honor of that, I have a bottle of champagne. I have an autographed copy of your boarding card, from me..." (He's like a rockstar!) "And in addition to that, I did a bit of snooping, and I found out how much you paid for your ticket. So in an envelope I have in cash the amount of money you paid for your ticket," he revealed.
At this point, everyone on the plane was presumably crossing their fingers that they were that millionth passenger. But there could only be one, and it was a woman named Miriam Krieger. The video shows the pilot leaning over to present Krieger (who was sitting at a window seat) with her booze, cash, and autographed boarding pass. Though some may say an upgrade to business class might have been a better gift, the haul was still pretty sweet. Kudos to this Southwest Airlines pilot for making airplane travel a pleasant experience in a time where viral travel stories that don't have happy endings have become a new norm.