Touch and Moved at the Airport

I travel a lot and am always touched and moved by the airport personnel that help those physically challenged make it onto and off airplanes. They have the thankless role of assisting those less ambulatory than the rest of us to make their way to their seats. But last Thursday, I wish I had gotten the name of the Southwest captain who personally wheeled a woman onto the plane.

As he was out looking things over with the gate agent, he saw a woman waiting for the airport associate who was supposed to see her onto the plane and wheel her down the ramp. Sadly, and something I’ve seen too often, no one was there to do just that.

In the role of a true take-charge leader, he said, “It looks like you’ve got me today,” with a big smile and a welcoming tone. cShe was ecstatic, replying, “Well, what did I do to deserve this kind of treatment.”

I made a point of looking at him and saying, “thank you” adding “that’s really nice of you to do.” And I meant it. Here was the person who was going to fly us, stepping out of character to do something nice.

His action came at a time when the pilots and Southwest are at odds, and where a labor action may be forthcoming. So his actions did not fall blindly on me, given the back and forth between management and labor that we’ve read and will continue to read. 

But I don’t think he did it for any reason other than to get the woman on the plane as quickly as possible and not delay the flight any more than a morning flight would be that was heading to SFO. The pilot quipped back to the well-dressed and well-spoken woman saying as much with the words, “I just want to get you where you’re going on time and have you as comfortable as possible,” without any fanfare.

That random act of kindness needs to be recognized, even if he’s the unknown pilot. It was something that I’d seen before, but not recently from Southwest personnel. It brought back memories of Virgin America, where pilots actively engaged with passengers in the boarding area and on planes, helped people with bags, and also assisted in getting the physically challenged onto the jets.

I wish I knew his name so I could recognize that unknown pilot, for what he did, as he went beyond just being nice and thoughtful. It was the right thing to do.