plane has one passenger - gets bumped to first class

[Demovictory9]

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/solo-passenger-coronavirus-trnd/index.html

(CNN) — Sheryl Pardo was preoccupied with one fact as she boarded her flight. This would be the last time she saw her mother.
A surprise awaited her as she learned she was the only passenger on the plane because of the coronavirus pandemic. She met Jessica and Dion, two flight attendants who turned her trip into something to remember in a good way.

The American Airlines flight attendants bumped her up to first class and addressed her personally over the loudspeaker. Pardo spent the flight telling them about her mom and the loving, get-things-done person she was.

"I think in moments like this the pain of losing your mom is exacerbated by being in this frightening time," Pardo told CNN. "Other people's kindness is what's going to get us to through this.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Ah, when I flew for business in the early 80s (redeye), I usually had the late flights and ...

usually I had the pick of the seats on board, being usually there were not very many passengers on board. It was a nice time, to be able to totally stretch out, sleep in comfort, get 10 packs of peanuts, a whole can of soda pop, etc. Those were the days. No more.

[HAB911]

2. boy ain't that the truth

EASTERN was my airline. Flew from Tampa to LaGuardia on Monday morning, reverse on Friday afternoon for a full year. It wasn't a cattle call back then

[SWBTATTReg]

3. I flew on them too. My airlines were TWA, Ozark Airlines, and American Airlines. I occasionally...

flew on Eastern (not very often) but if I needed a connecting flight to somewhere out east, sometimes I flew on them. A different world back then. Take care and best safe!

[SeattleVet]

4. When I was stationed in Germany one of the guys flew back to the US...

for his father's retirement dinner. He flew back that night, and he was the only passenger on a 747. It had a full crew and was being ferried back to Germany for repositioning. They moved him to the upstairs lounge area, and most of the flight attendants sat around ith him and chatted all the way back across the pond. All food and drink was on the house.

[Demovictory9]

5. that would be an experience

[SeattleVet]

6. Yeah, and it was a Lufthansa flight, with amazing service.

They used to be an outstanding example of how to treat your customers.

Not sure how they are doing now, but they had a long run of excellence.

[GetRidOfThem]

9. They are still outstanding!!!

Flew with them recently. Great crew!!!

(small caviat: I am biased, because i am German...)

[customerserviceguy]

7. One of the reasons I like American

No airline is perfect all of the time, but I get much better treatment on AA than I did on United.

[GetRidOfThem]

10. I agree...

Overall, I have had very good experiences with AA. United has improved significantly since the "bad days"...

[Hawaii Hiker]

8. I flew on a red eye from Honolulu - LAX on 12/31/99

and the plane (Northwest Airlines) had maybe 20-30 passengers on it.....This was the time of the Y2K fear, where computers were supposedly going to read 1/1/00 as Jan 1, 1900 thus causing chaos worldwide...But it ended up being much ado about nothing as I don't recall any significant issues on any front related to Y2K..

On that Northwest flight, they didn't let me go to 1st class, but they did serve complimentary champagne to passengers....After all, we were among the last to ring in 2000!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Sometime in the 1990s I was flying with my two young sons from Kansas City

to Washington DC on USAir. The plane was supposed to stop in St. Louis, but they were fogged in so that stop was cancelled. Which left only five or six passengers boarding in KC all the way to DCA.

The first class flight attendant told the gate agent she wanted all of us put up front, and there was a bit of a delay while more first class meals were brought on board. We still arrived in DC about 30 minutes early.

My two sons were quite impressed. It was a great flight, and a lovely thing for the flight attendant to do. When the coach f/a's tried to help her, she shooed them back to the rear of the plane.