It’s rare that pilots make an impression on passengers, since they don’t interact much with those on the other side of the cockpit door. Heck, the absence of anything eventful or memorable usually means pilots did a good job. However, yesterday I had an American Airlines captain who was memorable on a couple of levels…
An awesome Miami-based American Airlines captain
Yesterday morning I flew from Boston (BOS) to Miami (MIA) on American Airlines, on an Airbus A321neo (it was actually one of the former Alaska Airlines jets).
Upon boarding, the (female) captain was standing at the door to greet each passenger with a big smile, which was of course nice to see, since I find that to be pretty rare nowadays.
I was in Main Cabin Extra on this flight, but as boarding finished up, I saw her standing at the front of the first class cabin, to give passengers seated there a special welcome onboard, and thank them for their business. It has been years since I’ve seen an American captain do something like that, so I thought that was a really nice touch.
She then made her welcome onboard announcement for the entire cabin, which was once again super friendly, and also kind of hilarious. “We’re Miami based and this is our last segment of the trip, so we’re gonna fly it like we stole it, and hope to get you there a few minutes early.”
But here’s the most interesting detail — she explained that her co-pilot was actually her husband. At first I wondered if I misunderstood that, but sure enough, when the flight attendants announced the name of the crew, the captain and first officer had the same last name.
Suffice it to say that this captain left an impression, not only for her friendliness, but for her first officer also being her husband. I would’ve loved to ask her some questions, but didn’t have the chance, as they darted off the plane after landing (I can’t blame them!). As they exited the plane, the captain said to the lead flight attendant “thanks for taking such great care of us, hope to fly with you again soon.” As you can tell, she was a class act all around.
That must be an interesting cockpit dynamic
I can’t help but be curious about the logistics of scheduling for this couple, and also what the dynamics in the cockpit are like.
American Airlines has over 15,000 pilots, so for most pilots, it’s standard to be paired with different colleagues on every trip, and maybe never fly with them again (especially as pilots switch aircraft and positions over the years).
Pilots can bid on their schedules, so I wonder if I just ended up on one of the few trips where they are paired together, or if they make a point of always flying together when possible. I suppose it could be that they’re both high seniority A320-family pilots (the wife as captain, and husband as first officer), and therefore they usually get the schedules that they bid on. They might sacrifice a bit of money to be able to work together.
For many pilots, one of the hardest parts of the job is constantly being away from home, and away from your spouse. So it’s a totally different game when you can instead constantly travel with your spouse.
At the same time, I can’t help but be curious about the dynamics in the cockpit when a couple is flying together. Generally working with your spouse isn’t a great idea in terms of preserving a relationship, though I imagine they have it figured out.
Every so often an airline will highlight some cool pilot pairings, like a parent flying as captain while their child is a first officer, or siblings flying together. However, I’ve never knowingly flown with a husband and wife duo, so I thought that was pretty cool.
Bottom line
I had an awesome American Airlines captain yesterday, who greeted each passenger upon boarding, gave the first class cabin a special welcome aboard, and had a generally friendly and engaging welcome aboard announcement. The coolest part, though, was that her husband was the first officer on the flight.
It’s not every day you see that, so I can’t help but share, and wonder if anyone has experienced something similar.
Has anyone flown with this American Airlines husband & wife duo before? Or are there multiple out there?
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