None of the passengers will forget the early Saturday morning flight on Southwest from Phoenix to San Francisco. It was two weeks before Christmas, and the travelers who weren't dozing or reading pondered last-minute gifts or tried to decide what to serve for Christmas dinner. Courtney's thoughts centered on Christmas. Would Chris propose? His inquiries about the diamond ring pointed in that direction. Too bad that he had to work this morning and couldn't take her to the airport, but his sweet call, just before she boarded, had more than made up for it. In another hour her parents would pick her up from the airport. She couldn't wait to see them again, but she also couldn't forget to prepare for her business meeting on Monday, the actual reason for this flight. She closed her eyes and her thoughts trailed off....

"Courtney P____, please identify yourself, please push the call button," the captain's voice said over the loudspeaker. "There is a problem with your luggage." While the flight attendant led her to the front of the plane, the captain's voice came on again. "There isn't really a problem, Courtney. Your boyfriend wants to ask you a question." And there was Chris in the middle of the aisle, kneeling on one knee with ring in hand. "What a sweetheart!" she thought as she covered her face with her hands and started to cry. The next things she remembered were being safely wrapped in Chris's arms, the applause of the passengers, and the captain's cheerful song coming through the speakers. How did he get on board? Wasn't he supposed to be working?

Chris had thought long and hard about how he could surprise his girlfriend. Courtney could be snoopy, so the earlier the better. When her business trip came up, he saw his chance. That Saturday was an auspicious day for him because it was his grandmother's birthday.

To plan the surprise he first called Southwest, his favorite airline. He hoped their fun-loving staff would support his plan. After Chris and the airline's public relations representative contemplated several options, the following plan was executed: It began with telling Courtney that he had to work that morning and could not take her to the airport. Instead, his oldest and dearest friends would happily take her. What Courtney didn't know was that Chris had been waiting for the past two hours in the staff's break room. Nor did she know that the Southwest staff knew who she was from a photograph Chris had given them and kept their eyes on her. Just before she boarded Chris called her from his cell phone pretending he was at work. To block her view, one of the flight attendants struck up a conversation with Courtney while Chris slipped into a front-row seat just before the doors closed. It was about an hour into the flight when the captain made his announcement. While still in the air, they called Courtney's family, who were overjoyed and greeted the couple with flowers at the airport.