The airline industry has taken quite some flak since the viral video of a United Airline passenger being dragged off mercilessly from a Chicago flight. Since then, several more videos have been circulating the internet -- mostly recorded negative experiences of several airline passengers.
This time though, things have taken a better turn when a viral video featuring Southwest Airlines moved the viewers in a good way. A pilot was shown showering a passenger with champagne and all kinds of gifts after revealing that he just flew his one millionth passenger.
According to Travel Pulse, Captain John Charles Ritchie has been keeping track of the number of passengers he's flown in the 22 years he has served Southwest Airlines. In his Denver to Pittsburgh flight last Saturday, he announced the name of his one millionth passenger.
"Today is a special day," he said in the video. "Ever since I started with Southwest, I've kept track of the passengers I've flown, and today I'm flying my one millionth passenger."
As the passenger cheered on her good luck, Captain Ritchie then proceeded to give her a bottle of champagne, an autographed copy of her boarding pass, and he even reimbursed the total amount of cost the passenger spent on the flight.
This heartwarming encounter was recorded by flight attendant Jennifer Todd and has been viewed more than a million times on Facebook, according to Huffington Post. Before working for Southwest Airlines, Captain Ritchie was an Air Force pilot.
The comments on the viral video were mostly compliments from Southwest Airline passengers. One passenger even said, "Southwest is a fantastic airline. I live in Canada and travel the extra hour to Buffalo instead of Toronto for all my flights to the south. All employees are extremely accommodating and friendly, flights arrive and depart as scheduled, and I never worry about my luggage."
