When all passengers but one cut their losses after their flight was delayed by 18 hours, one man found himself on the plane alone with a disgruntled flight crew. But by bonding over their odd situation, the group had fun and the footage he took on the flight went viral.
Phil Stringer had to get home to Charlotte, North Carolina, from a conference in Oklahoma City for a Monday morning meeting at his job as chief operating officer of a real estate brokerage. When his 6:20 a.m. flight with American Airlines on Sunday, June 25, was delayed by two hours, he stationed himself at a coffee shop at the airport to continue working.
“It kept getting delayed a couple hours at a time,” Mr. Stringer told The Epoch Times. “I just ended up staying at that Starbucks, working the entire time. I never went to my gate, so I didn’t see any other passengers.”
Unable to find another flight that would get him home in time for his meeting, Mr. Stringer held on for updates. When the coffee shop closed, he moved to an empty table to continue working. Finally, after 18 hours, he was called to his gate just before midnight.
“When I get to the gate there was nobody there, except for the one gate agent,” he said. “So I looked at her and I was like, ‘Did you guys already board? Am I the last one on?’ and she was like, ‘No, you are the only one left. You’re the only passenger on this flight.’”
Watching the flight crew come in after being summoned from their hotel, Mr. Stringer saw the frustration on their faces.
“I think they were surprised that the flight didn’t get canceled,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Why are we here? There’s only one passenger!’ so they immediately just started picking on me, like, ‘No snacks or drinks for you, you have to sit at the back of the plane in the middle seat.’ ... I was like, ‘Oh yeah, let me see how many times I can hit that call light button on the plane!’” he said. “We were just teasing each other, and ended up building this really cool rapport.”
The group then made a collective choice of turning around a bad situation by having a good attitude about it. Not only did they loosen up, but their only passenger ended up getting five-star treatment.
“I got whatever food and drink I wanted,” Mr. Stringer said. “I popped up in first class, of course. We joked around, talked, played games, and even exchanged phone numbers. ... next week I’m going to be meeting up with them.”
“Everyone loves to see a light-hearted, positive story of a bad situation turning fun,” he said, after his initial shock at the story going viral. “I’m a firm believer that your attitude determines your direction, and I believe that you can change any situation in life, whether it’s a silly one, like a delayed flight, or whether it’s a more serious, negative issue, or a disappointment in your life. ... A lot of people have thanked me for that, for being patient [and] having a positive outlook.”
For Mr. Stringer, who believes that he has always had “really extreme luck” in his life, there was one group of people who were not surprised by his story: family and friends.
