Son Of Airline CEO “Pulls Strings” To Sit Next To Romantic Target

This seems like a pretty blatant violation of passenger privacy rules, and a strange thing to brag about, no?

Son of former JetBlue CEO booked himself next to woman he liked

Reader Ben brought to my attention a story in the Sunday Times, entitled “Meet the queen of the ‘trad wives’ (and her eight children).”

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It’s about Hannah Neeleman, the wife of Daniel Neeleman, who is the son of serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman. The elder Neeleman founded a variety of airlines, most famously JetBlue, but also Azul, WestJet, and Breeze, among others.

Here’s the summary of the story in the article:

Hannah Neeleman, known to her nine million followers as Ballerina Farm, milks cows, gives birth without pain relief and breastfeeds at beauty pageants. Is this an empowering new model of womanhood — or a hammer blow for feminism?

I wouldn’t usually write about anything related to the family of airline executives, except she’s a public figure in and of herself, and has a massive following. So what does this have to do with airlines? Well, the story of their first date involves a flight, and is quite something:

He was 23 and she was nearly two years his junior when they were introduced by a mutual friend at a college basketball game. “I saw her and I was ready to go,” he says. “Sign me up. I was thinking, ‘Let’s get married.’ But she wouldn’t go on a date with me for six months.” 

One day she mentioned to Daniel that she was getting the five-hour flight from Salt Lake City to New York, back to Juilliard. She didn’t realise his dad owned the airline. “So Daniel was, like, ‘I’m on that same flight!’” she says. “I remember checking in and them saying, ‘You’re 5A and you’re 5B.’ I just thought, no way, that’s crazy!” Daniel smiles: “I made a call.” He had pulled strings at JetBlue. And so began their first date.

Is there any narrative where this isn’t creepy?

Reader Ben, who brought this story to my attention, writes the following:

I find this to be incredibly creepy. At the time, David Neeleman was a few years out from having served as CEO and chairman of the board at JetBlue. I don’t know what sort of connection he still had to the company in 2011 when this flight occurred, but clearly he was connected enough that his son could get a seat assignment next to a woman he had been trying to date for six months. What an incredible breach of passenger privacy!

Now that David Neeleman is leading Breeze Airways, I have to wonder how often that airline shares passenger info with other well-connected people.

I’ve gotta say, I strongly agree here. I’m trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but “someone wouldn’t go on a date with me for six months, so I pulled some strings to sit next to her on a plane” is kind of not a great narrative.

I dunno, maybe I’m just not old fashioned enough, and there are some people who think “how charming of a gentleman to show such initiative and dedication?” In fairness, it’s worth pointing out that Neeleman’s son possibly had connections at the airline through someone other than his dad, so his dad may have had nothing to do with this.

Bottom line

David Neeleman is one of the most prolific airline CEOs. Not only is he the man behind several airlines, but he’s also a unique guy, and has a big family. His daughter-in-law has just been profiled in a big Sunday Times article, and the story of how she met her husband is an interesting one.

She wouldn’t go on a date with him for six months, so he “pulled strings” to be able to sit next to her on a flight that he found out she was taking. I guess some people might think this is a “manly” way to show initiative or something, but… hmmm?

What do you make of this story of how Neeleman met his future wife?