Sam’s Continental flight from Massachusetts to New Jersey touched down at a remote airstrip to refuel after bad weather forced his plane to circle for over an hour. After two hours on the ground, the flight attendants made a surprise announcement…

I was flying from Massachusetts to New Jersey on Continental Airlines on this past week. There was terrible weather over New Jersey and while the plane took off on time, a half-hour in to the 47 minute flight we ended up circling over southern Connecticut. After a number of “we’ll only be holding here for a few minutes” updates, an hour had elapsed and the pilot told us that the storm that held us up was making it impossible to get to New Jersey and that they didn’t have enough fuel to get back to Massachusetts. We were diverted to a remote airstrip and were told that we’d just refuel and then get to New Jersey.

Of course, the “30 minute refuel” turned into 2 hours stuck on the tarmac at this airstrip because the storm came right through our location.

At this point we’d been on the plane for 4+ hours and despite some individual heavy sighs, most people were still pretty pleasant. We were all blown away when the flight attendant came on the PA and told all of us that they had a surprise: the crew had called in an order for pizza and had 10 pizzas delivered to the plane. They also told us not to write into Continental about this because “they’d get in trouble”.

It turns out that the pilot paid for the pizza out of his/her pocket! It was a remarkable gesture, and what I found really terrible was that the crew felt that they’d get in trouble with the airline for being so thoughtful, generous, and kind to the passengers.

So, I definitely think that this particular crew deserves a pat on the back, and provided that Continental doesn’t penalize them for their actions, then the airline deserves a pat on the back for hiring such high quality people. I’ve modified some of the info in the story to mask the identity of the flight and crew – but I feel that the story deserves to be told nonetheless.

At first, we could not believe that this story was true. We called Continental and confirmed that a flight along Sam’s route was indeed delayed for four hours. We don’t know if a flight crew ordered ten pizzas, or how the pizza would have made it past the TSA; but, if it is true, it is the single most impressive act of customer service we have yet to praise as above and beyond.

(Photo: David de Groot)

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