I just returned yesterday afternoon from my trip to Orlando, Florida.  For my round trip transportation during this trip, I decided to fly with US Airways which consisted of four flights (a connection each way).  I’ve recently been flying with Jetblue because they have TVs but I saved a great deal flying US Airways and didn’t feel that televisions were worth the extra few hundred dollars this time around.

Now I’ll get to some of my Orlando trip during posts down the line but long story short between a wedding in which I was the best man, three days in Disney World and two days in Daytona Beach, I was exhausted when I woke up at 6 AM to catch a 10 AM flight out of Orlando International Airport on Sunday morning.  I was so exhausted in fact that I began to doze off while waiting for my flight in the waiting area.  Suddenly I was woken up by the sound of the final page of my boarding to my flight from Orlando to Philadelphia.

I immediately sprung up grabbed my bags and sprinted to the terminal to catch my flight.  When I walked in, I must have looked pretty out of it as the flight attendant offered me a glass of water the second I got on the plane.  I took my seat then checked my personal belongings and make sure I had everything.  I found my cell phone, keys, wallet, headphones, gum and camera.  I sat down to settle in for my flight when I realized that I had misplaced my work cell phone.  I began freaking out and asked if I could run back to check and see if my phone was in the waiting room, which mind you was a solid seven or eight gates down.

I began running as fast as I could back to the waiting area and looked everywhere for the phone.  I looked under the seats and retraced my steps.  I asked one of the  passengers sitting there if they had seen the phone.  He asked what kind of phone it was and when I said a brand new IPhone 5S, he laughed and said “Son, you know that if someone found it, that phone is long gone!”.

Just then I heard an announcement over the loudspeaker calling me out by name and stating if I didn’t return they’d have to take off without me.  I returned to my flight embarrassed by the death stares the rest of the angry flyers were giving me and worried about my phone.  What would I tell my boss? Why did I even bring my work phone on vacation with me?  Would I have to pay the company I work for $500 to replace the phone?  How could I be so irresponsible?

Knowing it was a longshot, I texted the phone from my personal phone.  I texted the phone and said “Hi I don’t know if you found this phone but if you did please call me as soon as possible, this is my work phone and I’ll offer reward”.  I powered my phone to airplane mode and figured I wouldn’t hear anything.  Right before powering off one of the flight attendants wished me luck and told me to check the phone before takeoff.  She stated that I didn’t want anyone to call apple because apple wouldn’t get me the phone back as they’d want me to buy a new one.  I followed her advice and turned on my phone and immediately received a text from someone telling me they found the phone!

I called the number and it turned out that someone who worked for US Airways found the phone and was waiting for me to find him to get the phone back.  I couldn’t believe it but I was already on the flight and the flight was about to take off.  The man, Brian Hicks, explained that he could Fed Ex the phone overnight to me at no cost to me and he wasn’t about to accept any sort of reward.  I thanked him so much and took off to Philly relieved beyond words.

When I arrived in Philly, I got another call from Mr. Hicks who did even better than his first offer.  He contacted his boss and explained that I needed the phone for work and so  they sent the phone on a flight to Laguardia airport and the phone was going to be waiting there for me the next morning.  I arrived at Laguardia early Monday morning and my phone was there, packaged nicely by Mr. Hicks in a huge box with enough paper and bubble wrap to ensure that it would be safe through the air.  The guy at the baggage claims center told me just how lucky I was because he explained that Brian didn’t have to do that and it’s almost frowned upon because it could get damaged.

What a truly great start to the week and I couldn’t be more grateful to Brian and the team at US Airways for providing excellent customer service.  Even though Brian didn’t ask for anything in return, I’m going to be sending Brian two Mets tickets for when they play the Rays in August as he mentioned he was a huge fan.  This day in age people just aren’t nice, it would have been easy for Brian to take my phone and either sell it or find a way to use it for himself.  His generous act has inspired me to pay it forward as it feels good to do nice things for people.

I thought this would be a good first piece for the review section here.  I know reviews online are often negative, I’m sure mine will be sometimes as well, but I had to share this positive review here with all of you.  So in closing I’d just like to say thank you to Brian Hicks and thank you to the fine people at US Airways, I look forward to flying with you again.