First class pax switch seats with all eight of them on AA flight

Eight US soldiers returning from Iraq to the US for some well-deserved R&R received  a very pleasant surprise when they boarded American Airlines flight 866 on June 29 from Atlanta to Chicago.

Every last one of them was offered a trade for their coach seats by first class passengers who preferred to see them fly home up front.

"The soldiers were very, very happy, and the whole aircraft had a different feeling," flight attendant Lorrie Gammon told The Dallas Morning News in Thursday's editions.

Just as the gate agent was about to begin boarding, a business traveller approached one of the soldiers and offered him a trade -- one first class seat for the soldier's coach seat. That started a chain reaction, and when the swapping was all done, "the other two first-class passengers wanted to give up their seats, too, but they couldn't find any more soldiers," Gammon said.

One of the other cabin crew members, Ms. Candi Spradlin, said she was impressed with what she had seen. "If nothing else, those soldiers got a great homecoming," she said.

FMI: www.aa.com, www.amrcorp.com