In an irregular & unscheduled 'drop of character' I'll share a little story with you.
We were based out of LA and a Tampa company want to fly myself and my wife out to do something or other with them. We are like sure, no problem, its what we are in America for and we have no doubt we will be well paid... Plus they are covering transport costs - ie the flights...
So, we are getting to the nitty gritty and it comes out that the day they want to fly us. is 9/11/2002 - Exactly the one year anniversary of 9/11...
My wifes like - Hang on, that's the one year anniversary isn't it? Hmmm, well, thing is... And they interrupt her with 'Yeah yeah, but its not like its gonna happen again is it, and we will will bump up your flights to 1st class, so you wont have to wait around so much and stuff'
Well, if they had let my wife finish talking she would have actually said '... well the thing is we are totally cool with that anyway, so we will see you then
But the punchline is, we are now flying '1st class'
So we arrive at LAX, get checked in, and with the tickets they have for us, we are told to go to a separate lounge to wait for our flight. So we do, and theres this lovely lounge with a free bar, free food, all this fancy bits and bobs and stuff, and its only us in it! The place s FUCKING EMPTY ! There are so few people choosing to fly on that day, that we have the place to ourselves...
So, it is what it is, and we sit there having a drink and then someone else, another passenger comes in...
He look vaguely familiar, but I can't really place him, but we start making small talk about this and that, simply because we are the only people in the entire place, and it would be more awkward not to talk to him, and he seems pretty cool and we all seem to pretty much relax alongside each other.
He's on the same flight, but he keeps himself to himself for the hour or so then we get off. We say goodbye and I shake his hand, and Say, 'Nice to have met you, Im Bill by the way (Which is actually my name) and he gives me a funny look, then smiles, and says 'Alex, Alex Winter, nice to have met you' and he's off on his way.
That's when it hit me who I had just flown with. "Bill S Preston, Esquire" himself!
And that's pretty much it
We didn't become lifelong friends or stay in touch or anything silly like that... But he was a nice bloke, and I Just thought Id share.