themwhen Ibooka long layover atDallas/
FortWorth InternationalAirport.Thanks
forkeepingyourhub inDallas.
GailConmy,SantaRosaBeach,Fla.
A.P. RESPONDS:
Great letter, Gail. Hug that
grandson.
EXPECTATIONSMET
IsawyourFeb. 1, 2012, issueandreadyour
article onCharlesDickens appropriately
titled “ExceedingOurExpectations,” and
it occurred tomehowwell-rounded your
articlesare,notonlywiththis issuebutona
consistentbasis(Iflynearlyeveryweekend).
I am aprofessor of a small college inFort
Worth,Texas,whereweemphasizetheneed
for a great liberal-arts education. Judging
bythemultivalentnatureofyourarticles, I
believeyourmagazinereflectsourapproach
toviewingtheworldbeyondtextbooksand
classroomwalls.Iwanttocommendyouall
forlookingattravelonamuchlargerhuman
dimension than just the typical vacation
hot spots. There’smuch depth in the cul-
turesyourwriterssynthesize; theyprocess
a variety of experiences for us readers to
consider. Thank you for enlightening our
minds andespecially for treatingus to the
literaryworldofDickens.
DonaldKim,AssistantProfessorofBible/
TheCollegeatSouthwestern
SouthwesternBaptistTheologicalSeminary
FortWorth,Texas
SENIOR EDITOR ANNA FIALHO RESPONDS:
Thanks somuch for your letter to
AmericanWay
,
Donald.We’re sogladyouenjoyed thearticleon
CharlesDickens. He’soneof our favoriteauthors,
and it was our pleasure to be able to share an
article celebrating his great life and literary tal-
ent with our readers. I hopewe can continue to
impressyouwithawide rangeof story topicsas
you continue to flyonAmerican.
POETRYINTHECLOUDS
AsIsitintheairplaneonthewayhomefrom
Miami:
The turquoisewatersmiled
Intomyskin
AndIamocean.
Thegoldenstarpulsed
Intomyveins
AndIglow.
The tropicalbreezerainbowed
My lungs toclouds
Iamweightless.
Palm trees fanned thehaze
Frommyeyes
AndIamcrystal.
Thesandcradledmy feet
In thesoftnessofwarmth
Imelt.
And thisbrilliantpowder-blue
Skykissesmeon the lips
All thewayhome.
JosephA.Rondinelli,WestMiin,Pa.
A.P.RESPONDS:
Love this!Weneedmorepoetry
onour pages.
Misseditinthemagazine?
Thearticles referencedaboveareavailable
onlineatAA.com/americanway
{ A SELFLESS ACT }
I work for American Airlines’ ConciergeKey
and Executive Platinum desk and received
a call from one of our AAdvantage Platinum
members. He called on the 29th of Febru-
ary,which is typicallyoneofourbusiestdays
due to the systemwide upgradeswe reward
our elitemembers with throughout the year.
These certificates expire on the last day of
February every year. That night, this gentle-
man calls me, coming ontomy line stating
that thiswouldbe an odd request. I jokingly
said, “Let me guess, you want to upgrade.”
Hesaidyesbutnothimself; thathehad these
upgrades thatweregoing toexpire tonight.
I askedhim if therewasa reservationcode
for the persons he wanted to upgrade. He
stated he didn’t have any particular person
inmind; that he would like to anonymously
upgrade a family of four. He said, specifi-
cally, notyour typical businesspersonorelite
AAdvantagemember but someonewhohad
not necessarily ever experienced business-
class travel. He told me he didn’t need to
knowwho thesepersonswereor their travel
itineraries.Heexplained thatheunderstands
the travel industry and knows that I cannot
divulge any passenger information. Hewent
on to tell me that his father was a former
high-ranking air-travel professional and had
recentlypassedaway. I toldhim Iwassorry to
hear that. I couldn’tbelievehow
difficult this task would be, as
youwould think itwouldbevery
simple to just pick four persons
andupgrade them,but itwasn’t.
I finally found two persons
inourDFW-LHRmarket.When
I called themat theairport, they
said they wondered how they
got upgraded. They called ev-
ery single one of their family
members to seewhich one upgraded them,
only to find out that none of them did. Two
customers inour ORD-LHRmarketwere the
lucky other two. I upgraded these persons
and set their tickets up for reissue. I advised
their anonymous benefactor that that was a
verynice thing todo, andhesaid itwas in lov-
ingmemoryof his father. I toldhimhis father
would be smiling down at him for that and
would be proud. He said he was doing this
hoping that the recipientswouldbecome four
new lifetime customers of AmericanAirlines.
I thankedhim forhiskindness, andweended
our callwith thestandardpleasantries. I then
wenton tocontactour luckypassengersand
notified them of why they received the up-
grades. Both parties wanted to personally
extend their thanks to theiranonymousdonor.
After thinking about it for awhile, I decided
tocall thecustomerand lethimknow thathis
randomactof kindnessdidnotgounnoticed
or unappreciated.
DoriDempsey, SEROSalesRepresentative
MANAGING EDITOR TRAVIS KINSEY RE-
SPONDS:
Wow Dori! What a phenomenal,
phenomenal story. This very kind customer
is a true angel, and I can only imagine how
wonderfully surprised and happy these
families were to receive such a gift. Not a
surprising story,mindyou, as it’s thiskindof
act thatwe’ve always knownour customers
tobe about.
GETTY IMAGES
Four luckyLondon-boundAmericanAirlines customers
wereupgraded thanks to thekindnessof a stranger.
AA.COM/AMERICANWAY
APRIL 15, 2012
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