I've told this story to a ton of people since it happened. Everyone (including several folks with lifetime status at other airlines) agrees that no one—not even another Peter Foley—but a Southwest employee would have got me on that flight. I don't know what Southwest does to make your employees so happy and helpful but please keep doing it.
Here’s my story:
This would only happen on Southwest Airlines. Weather messed up my travel plans. By the time I realized that Southwest had flights that could get me where I need to go it was very close to the scheduled take off of the last flight that could get me there. In fact I ran up to the ticket agent still needing to buy a ticket seven minutes before the last flight's takeoff. I was confused, out of breath, and hard to help but the agent was trying his best to understand what I needed to do. He was looking for a solution instead of taking the easy way out and saying it couldn't be done. But clearly he wasn't sure he could make happen what he needed to get me where I wanted to go.
Finally he said, "This might work, may I have your ID?" He looked at the ID and asked, "What’s your name?"
I told him, "Peter Foley". He repeated the question, I repeated the answer.
Then I saw his name tag, “Peter.” I asked, “Foley?"
"Yup", he replied, "Now we are definitely going to make this work".
He and his co-workers laughed and jumped into action. Next thing I knew he was running with my bags (I have Parkinson's and two replacement hips and don't move that fast) upstairs to the gates, directed me where to go for security, and running me and my bags to the plane's door. At the door we laughed as the gate agent snapped a picture of the two Peter Foleys with my boarding pass.
ONLY ON SOUTHWEST! THANKS PETER FOLEY!
Sincerely, Peter Foley
ONLY ON SOUTHWEST! THANKS PETER FOLEY!
Sincerely, Peter Foley