I’m flying from Baltimore to Vegas on an airline I don’t normally take…usually I would go Delta for the SkyMiles, but this airline has a non-stop, arriving two hours earlier, and I need the sleep.

In the middle of the 5½ hour trip, a flight attendant makes an announcement, naming two passengers, and asking them to walk to the front of the plane.

Confused, and not knowing one another, an older man and younger woman from separate parts of the aircraft approach the forward galley.

Flight attendant now announces these two have something in common. It’s their birthday! She leads us in singing, “Happy Birthday To You.”

And, she asks every passenger to hit the “flight attendant call button.” It illuminates three small lights in the plane’s ceiling at every row. She dims the cabin overhead lighting, then tells the two they need to make a wish and blow out the “candles” – and when they do, every passenger will hit the button again, to turn out the little light bulb.

Cabin lights dim…entire plane counts, “ONE…TWO…THREE!”…birthday duo acts as if they are blowing candles…we turn out the lights…and the entire plane laughs like crazy.

Interesting, isn’t it?

I don’t have to tell you which airline I’m on. You just KNOW it was Southwest.

If a customer would tell a story about something they experienced doing business with you…could they leave out your name, and everyone would still know you were the one they were talking about?