A flight delay can be a gruelling and frustrating experience for unlucky travellers forced to bear the brunt of airline setbacks. However, for Phil Stringer, a realtor from Greensboro, one such delay turned into a unique and unexpected adventure. Stringer embarked on a journey from Oklahoma to North Carolina, expecting a smooth if uneventful trip. Little did he know that a mammoth delay would transform his journey into a private jet experience most of us could only dream of…
Unfortunately, flying can be full of unexpected disappointments. From a man urinating all over business class to a disgusting sock-stuffed seat, from a woman being publicly weighed in the airport to a hostess being beaten with an in-flight phone, the past few weeks have been an unfortunate exemplar of this travel truism.
This week, however, a young realtor from Greensboro, North Carolina proved that there is still some magic to be found in the increasingly mundane experience of domestic flight: after enduring a ludicrously long delay, he was rewarded with a plane all to himself.
Stringer’s scheduled flight with American Airlines was set to depart from Oklahoma City to Charlotte on Sunday at 6:30 am. Unfortunately, severe storms wreaked havoc on the airline’s schedule, causing widespread cancellations and delays across the entire United States. As the minutes turned into hours, Stringer witnessed his departure time being pushed back further and further — a grand total of seven times — due to the inclement weather.
While many passengers understandably — you might even say ‘wisely’— chose to rebook their flights or abandon their travel plans altogether, Stringer decided to stay put, determined to reach his destination one way or another. That turned out to be the right move.
WATCH: The man who proved that patience really is a virtue…
The hours ticked by and — in a turn of events fitting for a fairytale — the plane was finally ready for takeoff as the clock struck midnight. Stringer’s reward for his unwavering patience? He was the only remaining passenger to actually board the aircraft.
Capturing the one-in-a-lifetime experience on video before sharing it on TikTok, Stringer proudly showcased the empty plane with a surprisingly buoyant flight crew at his disposal. Laughing into the camera, he expressed amicable amusement at the crew’s dedication:
“I’m the only person on the plane, and they have an entire flight crew. They pulled them from the hotel to come do this flight for just one person.”
Phil Stringer
Stringer continued to film throughout the flight, enlisting his happily underworked cabin crew as willing actors for his content, capturing a baggage handler loading his single bag onto the plane, a gate agent cheerfully announcing boarding to rows of unoccupied airport seats, and flight attendants delivering an unusually spirited safety demonstration not just to their lone passenger but also to each other, with half of the crew proudly draped across the many empty plane seats. Despite the devastatingly late hour, the crew were extremely ebullient, throwing themselves into the absurdity of the situation.
The plane eventually touched down at its original destination at 3:35 am the following day with Stringer home — and, given the lack of sleep, we assume straight to bed — by 7 am. In an interview with CNN affiliate WSOC-TV, he expressed an admirable amount of gratitude and sympathy for his crew who, he acknowledged, must all have been unknowingly pulled from their hotel rooms to accommodate the flight, entirely for his benefit:
“I felt so bad [for the crew]… they were at their hotel, they were going to go to bed. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, they literally had to come here for me.’”
Phil Stringer
And yet — despite the absence of either peanuts or pretzels on the flight — it seems that everyone involved had a great time, with many of the crew asking to stay in touch with Stringer by the time he departed. In an experience that likely brought him back down to earth pretty quickly, however, Stringer couldn’t avoid the final pitfall of the flying experience and one that is becoming worryingly common: his luggage had been lost.
After some awkward discussions with American Airlines’s customer service team and a forty-five-minute wait that must, after the day-long marathon, have felt like something of a final straw, Stringer was reunited with his bags and sent on his way. Despite an unexpectedly quotidian ending, Stringer’s experience should serve as a lesson to us all: even in a cultural climate where much about day-to-day air travel seems to be getting worse, there are always unexpected moments that can restore your faith in the experience, you just have to be patient.