If you’re anything like me, you usually get stuck between a man with the flu and a woman who snores louder than an orchestra. But these lucky people ended up sitting next to someone incredible.
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1/13. I was in South America. When I checked in at the airport, the agent made a comment that I would be travelling in very good company, but somehow that didnt register in my mind.
After going through security and passport control I arrived at the first class lounge. I noticed the staff was unusually excited, but again I didnt think much of it. I sat down on a sofa, and about 10 minutes later it happened.
A large man entered, and everyone fell silent. He sat down at about a 45 degree angle to me on another sofa. He was pulling things out of his bulky briefcase when I saw his face. I was dumbfounded, but now the weird behavior from the airline staff made sense. It was not some third-rate celebrity it was Al Gore.
After the initial excitement, I quickly started scanning the rather small lounge. There was only one pale, thin guy who looked like some type of staff assistant. Other than that, he was alone.
This was in the early 2000s, and it made me rather sad to see him all alone, taking the same flight as me when he probably should have been on Airforce One.
Pedro Miranda
2/23. I was flying from London to Atlanta for the Olympics in 1996 (just to watch). Somehow, even with a rucksack and wearing jeans and a t-shirt, I was upgraded to business class.
We took off, and I settled in with some snacks and a glass of champagne. That was when I noticed that 3 or 4 passengers around me, were, if at all possible, even scruffier than I was.
I started to chat to my neighbour about our respective trips and found out that they were a band who had just finished a tour and were on the trip back home. Eventually it got to the obvious question – what was the band called and would I know them?
What followed made this flight such a great memory for me. (continued…)
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When he told me their band name, I said I was sorry I didn’t know them. This had quite an effect! First of all the entire band got involved throwing song titles at me and were pretty stunned I didn’t know them.
They decided to show me who they were. What happened next was my own private concert. A guitar was retrieved from the overhead bins, drumsticks were found and the back of my seat became an impromptu drum kit.
It turns out the band in question was Lynyrd Skynyrd. I got a personal greatest hits concert at 40,000 feet!
Andrew Jordan
3/13. I once sat next to my doppelgnger on a plane. I went to my assigned seat, and a man was already sitting there. I politely said something like, excuse me, I think this is my seat. He checked his ticket as I checked mine, and sure enough, we were both assigned the same seat.
Then I saw his name on the ticket: Patrick Burke, which is my name too. It became apparent that the flight was not very full, so I sat in the seat next to him. I’m a music composer, and it turns out that he was an executive at a music label! It was spooky.
Patrick Alan Burke
4/13. I had been traveling a lot with work so generally got bumped up to business class.
One time I was put in in economy, next to a woman who was a doctor specializing in cancer brain surgeries.
She had recently volunteered to perform surgery for a young girl in an orphanage in mainland China, who had lost her sight in one eye, and was about to lose it in the other.
After the surgery was successful, this woman had asked what would be next for the girl.
She was told the girl would be going back to the orphanage where she would have to endure fairly unpleasant conditions.
So this woman adopted her. Really restored my faith in humanity.
Jay Bo
5/13. In April 1992, I actually got to sit across the aisle from Hillary Clinton on a tiny charter plane, flying from Pittsburgh to a campaign event in Erie, Pennsylvania. (continued…)
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It was right before the Clintons received Secret Service protection, so an Arkansas state trooper was on the plane with me, Mrs. Clinton, and two of her regular traveling staff members.
What I remember most about the trip was that we flew through a lightning storm and Mrs. Clinton managed to sleep through it.
Jennifer Miller
6/13. One day on my way to Vegas to celebrate my 25th birthday from Toronto I was seated next to this very old gentleman maybe in his 90s. His family was seated in the following rows behind us.
As soon as I sat I felt his energy and warmth. He was one of the friendliest humans I ever met. We started chatting he told me about serving in the army and about his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and what they were all doing in life. Told me about the love of his life who is no longer with us. He was filled with so much knowledge.
He took out a Sudoku book and we played a bunch of games together. I had never played it before and he was so elated to show me how to play. We followed that with crosswords and solitaire.
The whole flight was pretty quiet except for us. We joked, I laughed I cried I learnt so much in just 4 hours. He gave me his Sudoku book to keep, which I play on every time I fly.
When we finally landed he said that it was his most favourite flight he ever had and we exchanged emails. Every day without fail he would email me little riddles or jokes or stories. Nothing that needed a reply per se but it would always make my day. Some days I would be so busy and would barely read it.
And then one day they just stopped coming. I wrote to him finally to see how he was and there was no reply. It’s been a while now I don’t know how he’s doing but I hope wherever he is, he is lighting up a room.
Sarah Quari
7/13. I was sitting on an Air Canada flight out of Toronto. I had a stack of magazines to read on the flight, including a copy of WoodenBoat Magazine. This particular issue had a picture of Joel White, a well-known wooden boat builder, on the cover.
Beside me sat a middle-aged woman. Seeing the pictures of the beautiful boats, she asked who Joel White was.
I explained, and mentioned that he was the son of E.B. White, the author of Charlottes Web.
“Ah”, she said. “E.B. White. He kind of owes me everything, you know.” (continued…)
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“Really! Tell me more.” I replied (I’d always been an E.B. White fan.)
“Well…” she started, “My father was one of those people who collected first editions of books. He was a schoolteacher, but he’d always dreamed of being an author. He had a few authors who he corresponded with, and he’d send the first edition books to them for their signatures. One of those authors was E.B. White, and the two of them carried on quite a correspondence for many years.
“Anyhow, when I was fairly young my father received a nice letter from E.B. telling him that he was about to start a children’s book, and that because of how much E.B. had enjoyed the correspondence with my father, he wanted him to suggest a name for one of the characters in the new book. So, my father wrote back to E.B. and suggested that he name one of the characters after me. In the next letter, E.B. said that he would.”
“Wow!” was my immediate response, “That’s pretty darn cool! So… I have to ask, what’s your name?”
I was speechless at her answer:
“Charlotte.”
Scott Welch
8/13. I was coming back from Mexico on a flight to Los Angeles with my then boyfriend/now husband. We sat in coach pretty far back and – would you believe it – the Dalai Lama was sitting across the aisle from us!
He sat cross-legged in the center seat with no one beside him. I was taking a religious studies class at the time (around 1999) and really wanted to talk to him but didn’t want to bother him. Sometime later another student approached him and they talked the rest of the flight. Huge regrets!
Sharon Rix Crowley
9/13. I sat next to a mail order bride on her way back to home to Ukraine for the first time since she was married 5 years earlier. She was flying alone, and with a heavy heart.
For the first half of the flight I simply thought I was sitting next to a young cute college girl, but after we got our food, we had a brief chat where we introduced ourselves. It was then I asked her the usual: work or pleasure?” Thats when she went into her backstory. (continued…)
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She explained how she dreamed of life in America and going to college in the West. She came across a program that many girls in her city were a part of. It came across to her as an opportunity to meet guys from the West.
After saving up for the program she made it to what was turned out to be a convention of hundreds of girls who would be screened, interviewed and ultimately those chosen would meet a guy who selected them. She basically got processed and was sent all alone to America to be married.
Her bright future of college and opportunity in the West closed down fast when she found herself married to a guy who loved TV and microwaved meals.
While she realized she made a huge mistake, she also said she has a better life in America. She planned to catch up with her family and decide what to do next.
After our 6 hour conversation and parting hug, I felt like we had an amazing kinship. It was hard to part ways after we arrived. I really felt for her, but I also didnt know what advice to give her. I wish her well.
Joel Oleson
10/13 When I was 8, in 1966, I flew from Cleveland to New York and sat next to Cassius Clay, later to be known as Muhammad Ali. He was as sweet as could be and even walked with me through the jetway staying to make sure I met my parents in the terminal!
David Katzner
11/13. I was flying out of Los Angeles. Mine was the middle seat in the middle aisle in coach.
Just when I was about to sit a man had his coat on top of my seatI asked “Sir do you mind moving your coat?” The man turned around andDave Chappelle was looking up at me. Why he was flying coach I don’t know.
I left him alone. Some other people very rudely tried to secretly snap pictures of him.
Eric Crowell
12/13. Years ago, I was bored and hungover and pretty bitter at JFK airport, and an upgrade to first class for my afternoon flight barely made a dent in my mood.
As soon as I got to my seat, I immediately ordered a double bloody Mary. Then I heard a very familiar voice next to me say, “Yeah, the same for me.” (continued…)
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It was Ringo Starr! We sat there together for the whole flight, neither of us in a good mood, drinking vodka in various forms, not talking.
When we landed, he turned to me and thanked me for the silence. For once my misanthropy proved a benefit.
Anonymous
13/13. This was on a flight home to Japan several years ago. The little girl next to me asked me, “What sound does a cow make?”
“Moo.”
“Yeah!” She giggled and screamed. She was about 4 years old.
“And what sound does a pig make?”, she asked.
I made some pig sounds. (oink, groin, squeal, grunt)
“Yeah!” Again she giggled and screamed. Her mother asked her to quiet down.
This went on for the whole flight whenever she could think of a new animal.
She eventually asked me nonsense questions like, “What sound does an octopus make?”
I make up octopus noises, clam noises and butterfly noises as best my imagination could muster.
She pulled out a coloring book and asked if I wanted to color.
“Sure.” It was another 8 hours and I had nothing better to do.
So we colored red and blue striped zebras, polka dot elephants and pink lions.
She screamed a high pitch scream when I came up with new coloring ideas.
Eventually she fell asleep and I talked with her mother. They were permanently moving back to Japan after living a few years in the states.
Having a cute, giggly, creative girl next to me on a flight was never something I imagined would be so fun. She was hilarious and somehow not intimidated at all.
I wonder how she’s doing. That was probably 10 years ago now.
David Baldwin