When Addison Stock asked the pilot’s father to go home from the airport, she knew he was going through.
“When he shows up, it’s ‘Okay, I’m taking care of it,’ Stock tells CNN Travel. “That’s how he was my life and he was the type who always shows up.”
However, she couldn’t predict how far her father would go this time.
It was early August, and stocks were back from her “perfect” honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico with her new husband, Quinn. The couple was hoping that Southwest Airlines Captain John Irvin, the father of stock, would meet his car upon his arrival in Phoenix, Arizona.
But first, the couple had to endure a flight coming home. They had forgotten to check in the day before – they were too busy enjoying the last day of their vacation – and now they found themselves behind the line for an unassigned seat, and they thought they were sitting apart.
As she waited at the gates of Cancun and fought a headache, stock looked at his phone and noticed that there was a Southwest pilot left nearby. Something strange behaviour she thought.
And she glanced in the other directions and got the surprise of her life. It was her father who walked towards her, completely in uniform and grinning.
“I didn’t expect dads at the airport, so it felt like an in vitro experience,” recalls Koto.
Stock glanced at the other pilots and now filmed the moment on his phone. Then I clicked. Her father had no intention of seeing her at the airport in Phoenix. He was planning to fly her there.
Stock’s husband Quinn was caught more quickly. He had already hugged Irvin while stock was still sitting. Eventually, she jumped up to hold her father as well.
“It was so much fun,” Stock said. “It’s a really great way to end the whole, travel and wedding season. It felt really special.”
Captain Irvin had been planning a surprise for months. The idea began when the stock asked to help her plan her honeymoon. After the flight was booked, he quietly checked to see who would pilot the legs on the way home.
The flight was secured and he told his wife Kelly and Stock’s grandparents, but swore them to his secret.
Then, when Strains and Quinn asked if they could pick them up in Phoenix, he agreed without giving anything: “I’ll pick them up from the airport. I just didn’t say the airport.”
To avoid leaks, Irvin turned off the phone location service. This is usually pinging family group chats every time they land at a new destination.
On the day of the flight, Irvin’s fellow pilot, Carl Schörtz, scouted the gates, and Irvin hid in the gift shop until it was time to walk to his daughter.
“I said, ‘I told you to come and pick you up at the airport, so I’m here,” Irvin recalls with a laugh. “She was surprised that her dad was there. It was interesting. It was an exciting time.”
After a hug and selfie, Irvin slid down to prepare the plane.
Irvin did not mention that his daughter and son-in-law were on board during his pre-light remarks. “I don’t usually try to announce that my family is on a plane,” he says. “I’m leaving it subtle.”
However, he congratulated the newlyweds in general terms during his prefoit remarks. He also explained to the crew.
“Usually, when something like that happens, most days are typical and days that come out, which is exciting for the entire crew,” says Irvin. “And when something special is happening, you pick up a little with your step.”
Later, when the flight landed in Arizona, Irvin achieved success in part two of his promises. “I was driving them from the airport and parked them and then headed home.”
For inventory, getting home by her father was the perfect end to her honeymoon.
“We know we have good hands and we’re going to take care of them,” she says. “And that just sums him up for me.”
As for Irvin, he says it was a pleasure to share another milestone right after walking his daughter down the aisle at the wedding.
“She’s very important to me,” he says. “I was able to have a lot in her life and it was special. It was beautiful to be there.”
“Everything went well, just lined up, and that was exactly what I wanted.”
Stock says her father’s gestures symbolize their relationship. She grows up and says that her father was always there for her and her brother Connor. “He’s just a good dad,” she says. “He cares and wants the moment with me.”
Stock’s husband Quinn also highly praised the surprise.
“They’re really close,” Stock said. “My father absolutely loves him and cares about him like a son.”
Stock says she is excited to start a new chapter with her husband, but the flight reminds her father to continue supporting her.
“It was just that testimony to how he was literally always existed, that was my whole life, and that it was there and I cared about and wanted it to be special,” she says. “I loved it. It was just perfect.”
