I am on a trip to Not So Far Away. When my plane landed yesterday, our chief flight attendant gave his little talk about how we should stay seated still until the plane reached the gate, be careful opening the overhead bins in case things fall out, etc. Standard air travel babble. Then he said, "we love you all, and now I'm going to sing you a song" and proceeded to perform a passable rendition of this familiar John Denver tune:
"You fill up my senses
Like a night in the forest
Like the mountains in springtime
Like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert
Like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses
Come fill me again"
And on one hand... geez, can't a person just deplane without some uninvited wackiness?
But on the other, it was an oddly lovely, funny thing.
Yes, it was Southwest Airlines.
Ah Southwest... What you haven't heard the pilot do his Elvis impression? Or the flight attendant (after a bumpy landing) cautioning passengers that "contents of the overhead bins have most definitely shifted in flight."
ReplyDeleteSadly that sort of wackiness is fairly uncommon with them these days.
I love a wacky flight crew, so long as I'm in the right mood. And they just have to guess whether I'm in the right mood or not. :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's just plain weird! I have never flown with Southwest, and from the comments you got, it seems to be fairly common - but what's the point? Seriously? Is it to make people laugh??
ReplyDeleteHeidi
Great. We Brits dont do internal flights very often as our island is teeny tiny. However, I'm sure that the tediom of flying crates around the U.S. skies means that once in a while, you've just gotta let the surreality flow free just to relieve the ennui. Go with it, join in. They'll probably give you 1st class next time. (is there a 1st class on Southwest?)
ReplyDeleteYep Heidi, the point is to make people forget that they're chewing on their kneecaps :).
ReplyDeleteHi TR! No first class on Southwest. That's why they cultivate the "we're all in this tin box together so it might as well be fun" atmosphere. I quite like it actually.