Yes mtnrd, I was surprised at kswl's pov also.

kswl, the 5 remembrances are true for everyone, and money is no guarantee of protection against the heartaches and sorrows that everyone experiences.

• I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.

• I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health.

• I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.

• All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.

• My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon

  which I stand.

One need not be suffering at that very moment to not need and enjoy the benefits of generosity.

Yes mtnrd, I was surprised at kswl's pov also.

kswl, the 5 remembrances are true for everyone, and money is no guarantee of protection against the heartaches and sorrows that everyone experiences.

• I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.

• I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health.

• I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.

• All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.

• My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon

  which I stand.

One need not be suffering at that very moment to not need and enjoy the benefits of generosity.

Yes mtnrd, I was surprised at kswl's pov also.

kswl, the 5 remembrances are true for everyone, and money is no guarantee of protection against the heartaches and sorrows that everyone experiences.

• I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.

• I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health.

• I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.

• All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.

• My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon

  which I stand.

One need not be suffering at that very moment to not need and enjoy the benefits of generosity.

Awesome! Thanks for being the messenger of good cheer, levity and common good this week. You are hired!

OMG, that actually made me cry. What fun! I wish I could think of a way to copy this somehow. The key was having the boarding passes and having everyone stuck in midair for a few hours. It is the coolest idea ever.

I hope they gave the guy who asked for socks and underwear a little something extra too. :)

Maybe that was all he needed. Socks and underwear. I admired his humility.

I know. He seemed genuinely happy with his gift.
It's funny, because now that my kids are older they are actually asking for socks and underwear for Christmas.
Of course it's $20+ wool socks and high tech ($$$) long underwear.

West Jet can be great fun to fly. I flew on the inaugural flight from my city to Las Vegas a few years ago. They had Elvis on the flight, singing, prizes, swag. It was easily the most fun I've ever had flying. (I hate flying)

I want to fly on this airline now. What a GREAT thing to do!
Did anyone watch the "bloopers" that was listed as a similar video? That was cute too.

Yes, a publicity stunt, and a pretty obnoxious one at that. Hard to believe the airline would give presents to people who are well off enough to fly in the first place, instead of to people who actually need assistance. If this is an example of corporate "giving" I think it is awful and portrays West Jet in the worst possible light.....the recipients as well.

bah humbug, kswl. I respectfully disagree. It is advertising plain and simple and I think, as such, it is a brilliant ad. I hope it makes it to the Cannes commercial festival (or whatever it's called). They are a business and, of course, they are trying to paint themselves in a good light so that people want to travel with them and they make money. I have no idea what, if any, Corporate giving WestJet does, but this is in a different category and shouldn't be judged under that umbrella.

We'll have to agree to disagree, daisy. Far from brilliant, as advertising it fails utterly as far as I am concerned. I would not fly West Jet because of the ad.

I loved it. Made me cry too! Obviously advertising but so much better than a lot of the obnoxious stuff I see other companies do. I've never heard of this airline but I will definitely remember their name now.

Oh, wow, that was so cute! That would be such a fun airline to fly.

WestJet is a Canadian company with a great reputation - respected for how they treat both their employees and guests. This 'stunt' is very much consistent with their corporate philosophy.

Also, I understand that depending on how many views the video gets on their Facebook page, WestJet Cares for Kids foundation is going to donate free flights to people traveling to/from Ronald McDonald house (who providing free accommodations for parents near our major children's hospitals).

Oh come on, isn't it OK to be nice to people?
Even those who have the $ for a flight?

If they made public all they do for the poor, homeless, battered women there would be those who would critisize them for exploiting the poor, homeless and battered women.

Nice surprise for the airline to do.

ML

There will always be dissenting opinions. On anything. Years and years ago, my mother's comment on Bob Hope entertaining the troops at Christmas was that he should be home with his family.

You can't please everyone. And opinions are like . . . well, you know. Everyone has one.

"Hard to believe the airline would give presents to people who are well off enough to fly in the first place, instead of to people who actually need assistance."

If we think that way, shouldn't we all deny ourselves and our children any gifts, because we really don't NEED anything?
Only do nice things for those in need, and stop spoiling ourselves and being selfish?

Of course not, in my opinion. We can do for others and enjoy ourselves a little bit too, can't we?

Besides, who knows what spirit of giving might be sparked in someone who receives an unexpected kindness or gift? Maybe all these recipients will be a little more generous to others in the future.

Westjet is a great company with a high percentage of their employees owning shares which the company matches. They rate highly on the Best Large Employer list.

I love flying Westjet - I feel much more cared for than on other airlines even tho on the shorthaul flights I fly with them there's not much different except the attitude of their staff which makes a huge difference.

This Christmas advertising 'stunt' was a nice thing to do IMO. Rates much higher in my opinion than Oprah's Christmas Favorite Things shows. Those gifts were mostly extravagant and OTT and always seemed to me to be braggadocio on Oprah's part.

Saw this on FB a few days ago - it's cute and all but as a United flyer (only because they are the only option to most of my repeat destinations) I can't begin to relate to an airline actually giving anything they don't have to!

I think this is delightful. If it were just a PR gimmick, it worked :-)

Very touching...I don't care if it was marketing or what...the enjoyment and surprise those people felt was just wonderful for both the employees and the customers.

Only thing I wonder is, if the guy who got the sock and underwear wishes he'd asked for a big screen TV too!
;)

I really like it. They took the time to do a very personalized gift, to hear what each individual most wanted and followed through on that for strangers. All humans should get the joy of experiencing that once in a while, even if they can afford to travel by air. Hopefully, such an act can inspire companies and individuals to do likewise.

I also love this story of Texans WR Andre Johnson. My favorite part is his quote, "It's fun for them and it's fun for me..."

Here is a link that might be useful: Andre Johnson toy giveaway

Amongst the advertising industry, WestJet is lauded for their original and creative marketing. They use lots of humor and can be controversial too. In the end, it gets people talking, sharing and buying.

They know exactly what they are doing.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Kargo Kids Program

"And opinions are like . . . well, you know. Everyone has one."
So true.

I personally don't know anyone on that flight, I couldn't tell you how much money they have in their bank accounts, how much money they make a year, what kind of bills/expenses they personally have, or even if they paid for the flight themselves or if someone else paid. I couldn't say if the people on that flight were all well off enough to fly or not, all I know is there were people on the flight and they received gifts from the airline.

This kinda made my day....absolutely brilliant! I'm not familiar with this airline but I hope they grow, prosper, and succeed beyond their wildest dreams (providing many, many jobs for those who otherwise wouldn't have them in the process). Kudos to West Jet!

I don't really care how poor or rich anyone on the flight was. Everyone deserves the joy an unexpected gift brings to both the giver and the recipient...as well as the emotions it's brought to those of us viewing it vicariously. Everyone suffers and has pain and loss in their life. If sharing some joyful expression helps ease that suffering, I'm delighted.

They had to all have been actors and everything scripted, no? If not, how in the heck could they have pulled this off in a matter of hours....getting exactly what people asked for, wrapped with names on tags, and delivered.

Even if it was scripted, it's still a good commercial....creative and heartwarming.

Joanie, I don't think it was scripted, nor do I think they are actors. No doubt they only showed the best reactions though, and it would have been heavily edited. The flight was from Vancouver to Toronto, a flight between five and five and a half hours. I suspect they could do it in that time, with enough bodies helping out.

West jet really does do this sort of thing, I've witnessed it, not typically on quite this scale though.

Wow, that really is impressive then!

Annie,

I've been meaning to follow up on this post. I'm a big fan of KSWL and I was surprised at her reaction! I thought i was the queen of Bah Humbug!

Anyway, you have written what i feel, and said it perfectly.

It may be manipulative and commercially driven, but it can also be heart-warming!

My mistake, it was between Toronto and Calgary, only four or so hours then. This Forbes article goes some way to explaining how they did it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Forbes article

"Everyone suffers and has pain and loss in their life. If sharing some joyful expression helps ease that suffering, I'm delighted."

So now everyone on that flight is presumed to have been suffering? I guess you're right, it's really not fair that couple was making do with a tv smaller than 50 inches, lol.

There is always a spoilsport. Look at the people who criticized when San Francisco came together for "bat-kid."

Doing nice things for people is nice, even if it doesn't fit in with certain people's definition of the "right kind" of generosity. People shouldn't have to meet some arbitrary standard of "deserving" to be worthy of someone doing something nice for them.

KSWL,

I read what Annie says more as "everyone has a story". Random pleasant things don't happen too often. We all deserve them, even those who are already blessed.

The TV didn't matter; i think the guy was as happy with socks as the other guy was with the TV.

I'm sorry that my POV comes across as me being a spoilsport, and I am frankly pretty surprised, too. Giving gifts is nice, but buying advertising is just business, and I truly don't understand why the company should be lauded for buying advertising. If it was really a gift and not a publicity strategy they would not have publicized it as they did. And I do think that purchasing gifts for people whose requests were not really "needs" and then bragging about it somehow violates the spirit of Christmas. But I admit to being Christian and perhaps that is why I find it offensive.

Annie,
Just keep the 5 remembrances out of your Christmas card! Much prefer your haiku!
: )

KSWL,
I can respect that!

I'm sorry that you find the gesture offensive. I found it quite touching.

I'd much rather see them spend their advertising dollars bringing joy by granting wishes to a few hundred people than putting it to a tv commercial of half naked twerking men ringing out an Xmas carol.

a tv commercial of half naked twerking men ringing out an Xmas carol.

I'm no prude, but I found that ad very crude.

Kswl,
Was it your husband that asked for the socks and underwear?

;-)

I know this is an old thread, but I thought of it when I read this post on the WestJet facebook page (I do not personally know the woman who posted it, I think she's from Edmonton, AB but it's been making the rounds up here in Canada):

"So as Canadians, most of us are probably already aware of how awesome Westjet is. But when you're in a line up of likely around 15,000 people in 34 degree temperatures with no shelter or food and Westjet pulls you out of that line...you worship them. And I worship them. We arrived at the Cabo San Lucas airport yesterday to a very very grave situation and I was panicking. Hurricane Odile hit on Sept 14th and tourists were stranded for 4 days. Most with little water and food at their resorts. The line up of people trying to fly out was miles long and I suspected over 24 hours long. Suddenly we hear "Westjet?? Canadian? Come with me." I was so thankful in that moment, I can't even tell you. Pretty sure I cried a little. Westjet took every Canadian, whether you had booked a flight with them or not, and got us home. They had snacks and water in every seat. They gave us free food. They paid for our hotel, taxi and food in Calgary. They bought Tim Hortons at the lineup and handed out donuts with smiles. I will never be able to say a big enough thank you. What an amazing company."

Wow! Talk about developing customer loyalty. The people who were on that flight will be talking about it for the rest of their lives.

The service they provided for the stranded Canadian passengers was the kind that would win my loyalty forever, too. That was true customer service.

I missed this last year, I guess! Made me a WestJet fan! Also, had tears in my eyes-I just LOVE seeing people happy!

This is the 2014 version of the WestJet "Christmas Miracle - Spirit of Giving." Even better than last year IMO.

Here is a link that might be useful: WestJet 2014 Christmas Miracle

Better. Great marketing, undoubtedly. Exploitation? Probably. Does it matter? Maybe not.

I should probably have mentioned that WestJet has been involved in this particular community for a few years.... they've helped build homes, recreational facilities, etc. and many of their staff volunteer there, and they know each other. They didn't just swoop in and do this one-time Christmas event. There's another video out there that explains the whole background and story if you like details. :)

Good point to add rilie. That goes a long way to overcoming the "exploitation" angle some might see.

Well done WestJet.