flensr

DAL - LAX, I'm hitching a ride sitting a few rows from the front.

We're ready to close the door and push on time, when the gate agent runs onboard the plane and finds a passenger. A hushed conversation, and it turns out her ID card was left at the TSA checkpoint. We have only 5 min left to push, gate agent tells the lady that he doesn't know if TSA will keep it a week until her return, and if she leaves to go get it she will probably miss this flight.

The lady gets up and gets all her stuff, and starts to exit the plane. The gate agent on the way out pokes his head into the cockpit, and has a quick discussion with the crew. Long story short, decreased headwinds mean we can push 15 min late and still arrive early. CA makes the decision to delay the push, and will let dispatch know it's for a good cause.

The lady is reassured that we'll still be at the gate when she gets back, the gate agent watches over her bags on the jetway as she runs off to get her ID, and the CA tells everyone that we're gonna push late so the lady can get her ID but we'll still be early to LAX.

The lady returns 10ish minutes later slightly out of breath but looking happy. The ENTIRE plane breaks out into applause for her and the crew that helped her get her ID and still make the flight.

We still blocked into LAX a few min early. Great job by the entire SWA team making that lady's week and every pax on the plane knows the crew and gate agent went out of their way to make it happen.

Nice.